Thinking of switching - Couple Concerns

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Commex

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Sep 15, 2007
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I currently have Dish Network with Americas Top 250 and their HD package. This is my setup:

1 HD Projector which needs an HDDVR
1 HD Plasms which needs just an HD Reciever
2 Regular CRT SD TV's which need just regular recievers

My two major selling points when I'm getting service are: Picture Quality and Price, with channel selection coming at a distant third.

I mostly watch my HD Locals, with the TNT/ESPN for the NBA playoffs and FSN/GolTV for soccer sparingly, and the kids watch Disney channel. Thats about all the channels that are used, and the rest of SD channels are not useful, so only greater HD selection matters, but very little.

So therefore, does DirecTV have better picture quality than Dish Network? If so, since that is my biggest determinant, then I will switch. But, I hear the technology used by the companies to get the Locals is different, with Dish using some cable tuner thing and DirecTV using OTA. Isnt OTA better than what Dish uses (which I still cant figure out), and therefore my primary viewing, the locals, will be at uncompressed 1920x1080 because its OTA with DirecTV?

Also, I know Direct kicks Dish's ass in HD content, so thats a minor plus.

Also, Direct seems to have a very good deal going on in this thread http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv...ditional-240-off-new-directv-customer-15.html, which would make my total startup costs $100 (I dont want to pay more than $100 startup, which would mean they need to give me either the HDDVR free and ill pay $100 for the HD Reciever, or they can give me the HD Reciever free and ill pay $100 for the HDDVR), so it seems that DirecTV wins out in price.

Im not sure if im out of my contract with Dish, but ill find a way to get out if I want to switch to Directv. But, main point - is Direct's PQ better than Dish, as the consensus has been when ive been searching around here, or do they both do the same HD-Lite stuff.
 
PQ for me on most channels where dish and directv have the same type of programming is pretty much the same ... i could not tell much difference at all ... the advantage for me was that directv has more "hi-def" channels ... e.g. Bravo HD , FX HD etc ... while they may not be showing full-time HD programming on Directv .. the directv PQ is much better than the dish SD PQ ...

You do need to check the price carefully - in order to get the FSN/Goltv channels - you will need to subscribe to the "sports" package on top of the regular plus hd dvr or whatever it is called ... this will add an extra $10 or so to your bill each month that you would not have with dish ... but on the whole - if you get all of the credits that they talk about in that thread .. you should still end up with a better price than you have with dish ....

Only downside for me so far is the HR21's lack of OTA integration (which is supposedly being fixed in the next few weeks with an add-on) and the fact that the HR21 can only record two shows at a time - not three like the 622/722 ...
 
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