Another newbie here. I have been looking at switching from cable to dish or directv and my biggest concern is sat signal in south florida. As you may have heard it rains a bit down in our neck of the woods and I can't have my lovely bride on my case everytime it rains and messes up her soap recordings......

Any recommendations on which way to go? It looks like either one offers ESPN and HBO in HD so my needs are covered! Also, if either of the HD DVR's is easier to operate, that will save me from sleeping in the guest room - if you get my meanin!

If signal during storms is your main concern, you should stick with cable, UVerse, or FIOS.

If signal during storms is your main concern, you should stick with cable, UVerse, or FIOS. I guess if you like losing your service for days instead of minutes. ;)

I guess if you like losing your service for days instead of minutes. ;)
:D

If your Dish is properly pointed, and peaked to it's max, only the most severe weather should affect your signal enough to lose service. Mine drops out about twice a year on average... and only for short periods of time.

Choose Direct if sports are your main concern. Choose Dish if you mainly DVR things. Direct costs just a bit more (depending on which channels you want) but they do provide a few specialty channels that Dish does not have.... but same could be said about Dish.

As for HD... the war is pointless really... as soon as one gains more HD than the other, the other fires back next month with their own new offerings. No point in making your decision on HD really.... they both provide more than cable and are constantly battling to be on top.

As simple as that really.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Everyone thinks that cable never drops out, but I'm here to tell you that we have had a few occasions where the signal is lost so it's not perfect. From a sat perspective it appears that either service should be good as long as the dish is properly positioned. I read on another forum that there are different types of dishes that may work better than others. Can you ask for a specific type or model when you order sat?

Can you ask for a specific type or model when you order sat? No. But you could try. But you can modify or update as neede on your own. ( Bigger dish , Wing dish)
,But D* Slimline is all they install for HD, and its fantastic against rain fade.
E* 1000.4 is great as well if you live in an Eastern arc area, Right now mostly eastern USA.
You may also get stuck with 2 Dish 500's (Wing Dish) with E* if your in the NorthEast USA, Only if Eastern Arc isn't available. This works fairly well in bad weather ,Just not as good IMO as a D* slimline or 1000.4
But from what I understand the 1000.2 Dish for the west and Central USA customers is fairly bad picking up the 129 , But the 129 has problems , so maybe if they get a new satellite at that location, Everything would be fine as well.
My setup is a 1000.4 with a Dish 500 wing pointed at the 119. The 119 is the first to go out and sometimes the only lost satellite in some storms. In January I'll be dropping my Wing dish. Thats when I drop my all American Direct service.

I guess if you like losing your service for days instead of minutes. ;)

Good point... but... if you live in a rainy/stormy area (maybe like Florida?), or if you get stuck in a weather pattern where you get nightly severe storms, it can get very annoying on satellite.

I wouldn't change back to cable over it because it's so annoying to be without service for hours or days at a time...

Good point... but... if you live in a rainy/stormy area (maybe like Florida?), or if you get stuck in a weather pattern where you get nightly severe storms, it can get very annoying on satellite.

I wouldn't change back to cable over it because it's so annoying to be without service for hours or days at a time...

You can still watch your DVR if/when that ever happens :)

Several years ago I had Directv and it was horrible as everytime it rained or got cloudy the signal would break up. I heard it's better now and from the sounds of it I will still get some of that but hopefully not as bad. Good point on watching DVR when the signal is out.

Like others have said if you get a good install, rain fade is not a big deal. If you like a good DVR, I would recommend Dish Network, they truly are better than tivo.