I hear ya. Luckily when I bought DirecTV, I got the HD dish right off the bat. Already had the HDTV ordered and now have the HD-DVR.

Amazing how nice the HD pics are, can't believe I watched football without it.

__________________

An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Yes, I'm Jonesin' for my HD Sony,NoBaloney which is collecting
dust and dormant, down in our FLA shack.

This 6 yr old Toshiba here on the Mtn, was titz, to my eyes, back
when it was new, but its tired and seriously low def, lol!

Thanks for your feedback MD. Does that mean it'll be pixelated to some extent if it's raining at all? How about snow? When it comes to 100 HD channels it probably put a dent on decision making, but still just curious.

snow rarely if ever affected my Directv in the past, the only weather that ever affected it was a SEVERE thunderstorm, and that was rare. When I was living in L.A. not even the marine layer by So. Cal, caused a problem and that's some heavy clouds/fog.

__________________
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

I agree with Gresch; we get pixelation during serious ass rain, and
occasion drop outs, (where rec. has to reload and "find" the sat.),
during deluges. Fog is no problem, (we have lots of fog up here),
and snow has never been a problem either. I would suggest our
weather on the Mtn is more severe than most see in the flatlands.

Service interrupts are not something I wring hands about. This is
all based on our low def DISH setup here, but I assume the HD thing
works as well.

As for those "100 HD" stations, you know the deal: we all have 150-200
channels now, and much of the time there is fookin nothing on, .

We have HD Comcrap in FLA, with the full tilt boogie menu, HD-DVR, and
I find I surf a lot to see the HD effect, but I still watch a half dozen stations
besides the movie stations. Like all humans, we get caught up in the
"more options is better" syndrome, but most humans make good choices having
a few options, not 200. I'm stretching here on the analogy, but you probably
get my point.

Remember, DISH and I'm sure Direct, do offer ala'carte picks if one is resistant
to taking a big buck/high end tier of offerings just to get the one or 2 HD stations
you are really after.
NEway, back to the news...

GL,mD

We're getting looted by Comcast for hd cable + dvr etc, so this will end up being cheaper no matter what. Basically all the channels I watch will be in HD if we make the switch.. Speed, TBS, CNBC, FX, Spike, USA, News plus all the existing ones offered by Comcast. Yay for competition.

DIRECTV birds are closer than DISH network ones, thus stronger signal= less dependent on weather conditions.
The real rip off is CABLEVISION in NYC, I pay $175 monthly for family package, 3 rented boxes, plus high speed internet.
Wish I could switch to DISH or Directv.

and no premium channels, HBO!!!

...My understanding was that both services have their sats
at 22,300 to 23,000 miles in orbit. They may have more or less,
or "better" or "different" sats, but I think the orbit distance is
pretty similar...

I'd love to see a link that suggests Direct is "closer" and thus,
"stronger".