Which Satellite TV system to get?
 

Here's my scenario:

- Currently using local municipal owned cable TV and cable Internet service, switching back to DSL this week

- We have two "old style" analog TVs and will replace one of them with a new LCD-type TV very soon (probably HTDV)

- We do not watch sports of any kind

- We use the TV to watch movies and I want to give us more selection of shows available

- We do not want to record any shows as we really don't care about 99% of what's on the TV, especially network programming

- We pay $40 a month for basic analog cable and for that $, I was thinking we may want to switch to satellite

- Dish TV or DirecTV?

Been there, done that. Had all 3 systems (dish, DirecTV and cable). Ended up back with cable for the reason that neither dish nor directv offered any local HD channels over the satellite. Not sure if they offer them now or not, that was about 1 1/2 years ago. Basically you had to buy a OTA antenna to get the HDTV channels and for where my house was it was going to have to be one of those huge wire antennas that goes on top of your house (somewhere around $500 installed).

As far as quality, I had problems in Houston with Dish going out when it rained (and I mean any precipitation AT ALL...even drizzle). Directv did pretty well with the rain in San Antonio, but again fell way short on the HDTV service. Also you have to buy the HDTV receiver which was about $250 when I was looking. With cable I got a HDTV/DVR for $5 per month rental. The satellite HDTV/DVRs are somewhere close to $1000 last I checked.

If you have the HD situation resolved to your satisfaction, I would go with Dish since you aren't big into sports. The big sell on Directv is the NFL Sunday ticket, otherwise Dish has more channels in general than Directv.

DirectTV - Much bigger Co. than Dish, better run, better overall satisfaction.
I've got the HDTV unit with 3 LNBs..........incredible with a 108 inch screen.

Goes fuzzy in snow.........but not much of that in WA State.

DirectTV for me. Got all the HDTV/TiVO/Multiple LNB's options you could ask for. Only goes wonky in REALLY hard rain. That and I tried it but Comcast service and user interface was absolutely horrible.

I have Dish Network/DVR, HD programing and local channels. Seems fine to me but I hear Direct TV is better with Tivo.

Ah yes I forgot to mention that my above system is with Tivo. Really well done. Takes about a minute to save a show.....the latest gen receivers are much quicker.

Have had DirectPC, which is the television and high speed internet download. Very happy with it and the service. Dish is a tad cheaper at times but have not used it.

JoeA

And for reference, we have one dish, two receivers (one with Tivo) and pay about $55/month. Free installation and hardware and the Tivo receiver was $50 after a rebate.

Direct TV, My chice

I have Direct TV and definetly not happy with the picture quality. I had 3 techs come out and they all said I need to upgrade to the HDTV dish and reciever ($700 w/ Tivo + $15 a month) to have decent quality on my plasma TV. So I called to get the HD and asked what channels were offered in HD. They said 7, yeah thats right 7. 1 HBO, I espn, 1 nature channel, FOX (sometimes), NBC (sometimes), and a few other crap stations. Didn't seem like a good deal for the money. So now I have a very nice TV with a sh_it picture, although DVD's are amazing. One word, monster cables!

9 times out of ten it is the picture quality provided by the network and not the service provider.

I am blown away at the difference between regular network TV &
HD broadcasts. On a nice TV, regular broadcasts are pretty fuzzy.

Terry, you'll have the same issues to whomever you go.
Get HD and bring it up to what your TV can show!
You'll like the difference.