Firstly I want to make sure you know what to expect first. Now if you want an HD DVR box you should wait until after the first of the year for two reasons. First is that they don't have an HD DVR out now that supports MPEG4 and second when they do have one out in January they will be renting it with no upfront costs. You will also need to tell them you want the new HD local channels which will require the new 5LNB dish which will be free with a two year agreement.
Now with that said you will be losing both InHD channels and TNT HD. With DirecTV you would gain ESPN2 HD plus access to NFL Sunday Ticket and their HD games. Now with that said the national HD channels such as ESPN, HBO, Discovery HD and such will be down-rezzed HDTV which means they won't look nearly as good as BHN HD channels do. Now the local HD channels on DirecTV will look just as good as on BHN its the national HD channels that won't look as good.
If you don't mind using an OTA antenna you could try looking at Dish Network which will have much better picture quality with all the Voom channels soon along with ESPN 2 HD as well. With Dish Network you will lose Universal HD but you would get TNT HD while DirecTV doesn't offer it. Both DirecTV and Dish Network have ESPN2 HD (note that Dish will have this channel in about a month or so).
If you haven't heard about Verizon FIOS yet goto
www.verizonfios.com and enter your phone number to check to see if its available. If you have fiber available you might want to leave that option open in the future once your area gets a franchise agreement in place because Verizon has great HD offerings with great picture quality on all SD and HD channels. They have an all digital lineup as well as tons of VOD offerings.
I hope I was able to give you a decent overview of the various offerings you have access to or will soon have. I want you to know exactly what to expect with each provider because I would hate for you to spend several hundred bucks thinking the HD quality would be the same you get today with BHN.
