For our family the decision came down to Directv has the NFL ticket, Dish did not. We had Dish previously and it was fine. You probably have already checked cost vs. channel listings.

No exp with Dish. We've had DirectTV for years (since they first came out). We're happy with the price, selection, and quality.
Only downside is losing signal in really, really bad weather. (It's only happened a few times). But that would probably happen with any satellite system. You do need a clear line of sight to the satellite, so I'd verify that.

I had Dish for years (1998-2002) and went back to cable to get High speed internet. Dish was good except for outages during heavy rains and before big summer thunder storms. Rain fade is a problem all small dish systems will have due to heavy rain or thick cloud cover blocking and scattering the directional signal from the satelite so that the dish can't gather enough of the sgnal for reception. Moving up to a larger than standard 18 or 20 inch dish like 24" or 36" helps by gathering more of the signal but the bigger dish looks more unsightly.
Our Local cable company was great and was improving by leaps and bounds due to compitetion from satelite but they sold out now to Comcast less than a year ago and we have seen 2 rate incresses since. They even raised the cost of internet to 42.99/month when they told the local paper they were keeping the price at 39.99

If I could get DSL where I am I would sign up for verizon's Direct Tv and DSL bundle plan or get Dish back.

I have had Dish for two years and would switch for Direct in a second.

The equipment that Dish gives you are crap and break. The have horrible customer service and would not tell me when they were getting local HD channels. They even said they have no plans at the moment and I KNOW they do.

I got DISH because I knew buying Direct was directly contribution to the Republican party. However, Dr. Evil sold Direct so I'll switch.

I am a happy direct tv customer for about 4 years. The dish network uses lower quality rca equip. Direct tv owns and uses more satelites in space than the dish network. Even in the past few winters I havent lost signal. But the initial set up is key in not losing signal. The dish must be mounted properly and securly to prevent signal loss.

Had dish network for years, they were great and had great rates. BUT, if it got dark, the signal went out! Where I live (tornado alley), we have storms frequently. So we had outages quite often and it gets to be a problem in the middle of my favorite shows or movies. I had enough after one storm knocked out the whole system some how and they wanted to charge me to come out and fix it. I have switched to cable because of this, but they have increased their rates, so.......

Another very pleased DISH owner. Had DISH in San Antonio from 98-99 and now in Utah, since 2005. I really like DISH. Great service; great installation; the equipment works perfectly. I only lost service twice in San Antonio when we had 100-year rains...incredible rains. Here in Utah, even during snow storms, wind, etc. I've never lost the signal.

OK - we just switched from DISH to Direct. Both are fine but I have had 3 DVR's go FUBR in 2 years.

Replacing then is easy but . . . .

We had, first, PrimeStar...that was then bought out by DirecTV. We had better customer service & a free directory every month from PrimeStar...and of course DirecTV immediately started charging us for it. Customer service with DirecTV has been OK...but I have to admit we haven't had to deal with them very much since we have had no problems. We replaced the original dish many years ago when local channels became available (I don't remember how many years now--quite a few though)--still works fine.

We also have basic cable w/cable modem from Comcast since we don't have DSL or any other options for hi-speed internet in our area (rural!). It turns out it's actually cheaper for us to have basic cable w/the internet access...basic is $12.95/month BUT they give you a $15 discount on your internet access if you have basic cable...so we net $2!

We have had no experience with DISH...

My husband has to have DirecTV for NFL Sunday ticket. I have also heard of quite a few snafus with Dish with losing channels. A couple of years ago they lost Comedy Central briefly and that caused a lot of pissed off people. I also know that they were going to ditch CourtTV too and that there were petitions going on to get them to keep it.

We've been DirecTV customers for 8 years as of this month - and have been very happy with the service. We live in an area that is not prone to anything except earthquakes, so there's been no loss of service. When we've had a problem with a box, they've sent someone out. (We DO pay for the box insurance because our type of box ... plain-jane, no TiVO .. aren't easy to buy in stores any more.

We installed a dish on top of our 5th wheel travel trailer, and take one receiver with us when we're out on the road. Only hassle with that was when we went to Alaska in summer of 2000. There is no DirecTV service in Canada or Alaska, so we were out of luck.

Periodically, DirecTV surprises us with new channels. They just surprised us with a small monthly hike, too, but it wasn't unreasonable.

We could get cable a bit cheaper, particularly since we get our Internet service thru the cable company. But they burnt us out years ago with all the outages.

DonnaR/CA

We've had DirecTV for six years without problems. When we wanted to upgrade to HD last year we thought we'd lose our minds. Both DirecTV and Comcast are evidently growing so fast that they can't keep up with it internally. Here's our story:

Comcast initially had the best price. We ordered it in October '06. Twice installers came to our door. The first guy claimed he hadn't been supplied with the right box. The second guy walked around the neighborhood for half an hour and determined that there is no connection near our house. (Although our next-door neighbor has Comcast.) However, he said, Comcast would come out the following week and connect us.

I called Comcast and was told that the nearest connection was across the street from our house. They would have to get a city permit to go under the street and it was too late in the year for them to dig; we should wait until April '07. The following week we were returning home and saw a Comcast crew in our driveway. They were preparing to connect to our house, but couldn't procede without the permit. (No kidding.)

We told them "nevermind" and called DirecTV to upgrade to HD with them. I told them the dish would have to be installed on our 10/12 pitch roof. They mailed the new HD-DVR box to me and set up an installation date. They didn't call to confirm the appointment. When I called, they had no record of the appointment. Set up another date. No show. Then we had a freak early snow (November). Nobody was going up on my roof then. I mail the box back to DirecTV.

We sat waiting for April. In late January the Comcast crew showed up and laid cable under the street and up to our house. (Remember, we'd cancelled this order.) I all Comcast to say that we will let them know when (if) we want their service.

Then Life has some "stuff" for us to handle and we don't get back to this project until last month. Now DirecTV has the better price, so we re-order the HD-DVR. I remind them about the steep roof. Nobody calls to confirm appointment. I call them and the only option is to leave a message. I get a call back from someone in Pennsylvania, where the installation service is located. They will be at our house the next morning.

One guy shows up, looks at our roof and says, "I'm not going up there. I could fall and die." (This is the sole spot for reception.) I say to just forget it; we'll start again with Comcast. He notices there is a roofing team working down our street. Borrows a man and a ladder and installs the dish.

You know, I can't really see a lot of difference in the TV picture, but we do enjoy the DVR. (HOT little box, isn't it?)

How can these companies make money, operating like this?

I am using DirecTV for more than a year and I am more than happy with the service.
I received installation of a 4-room DirecTV system along with the subscription, there was no need to buy any costly equipment.
The picture & sound quality is very good. The signal is also up during rains and I have not experienced any major technical snags so far.
The most important benefit is that my bills have reduced.
DirecTV also has many packages to select from, I was looking for Indian channels, NDTV 24x7 (news channel) in particular.
DirecTV had all the channels on its list that I wanted.

pine

I have Dish - have been a Dish user for a long time. When I first started in 98 they were good. I hate them now. It's not about the channels or technology - it's their customer service that stinks.

Watch your Visa bills very carefully if you use Dish. My wife caught them billing us for a broken receiver they said I never returned (they were wrong) and it has been a nightmare to rectify. The customer service dept is horrible and I have had to get the bank involved to challenge the Visa bills. I think Dish outsources much of it's customner service and it is very hard to get someone on the line that a) speaks English clearly and b) knows what they are doing.

While I have been trying to resolve the issues that Dish created - they decided to turn off my service and would not let me get the service back on unless I paid by check or cash. I was fuming.

If Dish screws with my Visa 1 more time they are GONE and I will purchase DirectTV. I am actually hoping in the future that we get another Satv choice in the US besides these 2 companies to put pressure on them both as well as the cable companies to clean up their acts and start treating customers like customers.

We've had Direct TV for years. My MIL has Dish and she isn't very happy with it...but as she is 88 years old we hesitate to change it for her as she KNOWS how to work her remote (and it took her a LONG time to learn it). I would go with Direct TV in a heart beat if I were having to make the choice now.

We have Direct and love it. One of our children has Dish and can't stand it. Go with Direct if you can.

I have had Direct TV since 2000 or 2001...anyway for more years than I can remember.. and am very pleased with it. Former Comcast customer. I upgraded the system to HD in January 2007 and now have many many HD channels along with all of my locals. The installers had to place the dish on the roof of my 3 story house. No problems at all.

I have had both, each for many years. I recently returned to DirecTV. Boy am I glad. I should have done so two years ago, especially after what transpired after I discontinued Dish service. Here are just a few reasons DirecTV is superior.
1. DirecTV uses only one roof satellite receiver for local channels. Dish, in areas, requires two dish satellite receivers on the roof to receive local channels. I tried for years, purchasing three TV antennae, to get reliable local TV reception; to no avail. I could not get the Dish second roof top receiver because of my neighborÂs trees.
2. DirecTV includes local channels in their price. You pay extra with Dish.
3. DirecTV HD DVR will record two HD channels at once. Dish records two channels at once, but only one is HD.
4. DirecTV receiver stays on if you leave it on. If the Dish receiver is left on, the picture is replaced in the middle of the night with an annoying Dish logo on the screen. So, if you want to record a Dish recorded program to your VCR or DVD during that period, your program is replaced with the Dish logo.
5. DirecTV has at least two weeks of programming information on their system. Dish programming is limited to one week.
6. DirecTV DVR has output options for HDMI, component and two analog AV outputs that operate simultaneously. Dish has HDMI, component and one analog.
7. Dish has a policy, as I unfortunately discovered, that destroys your personal property if you mistakenly return your expensive DVD/hard drive recorder instead of their receiver. Both were out of my media tower and looked almost the same, and I just hastily grabbed the wrong one. They just destroyed it, without any notification, or giving me any opportunity to even pay for it's return. I noticed their receiver, a week after the mistake, but they had already destroyed my equipment. They have consistently, and adamantly refused to compensate me. Yet, I returned their receiver, or my credit card would have been charged. I have No recourse. I certainly would not trust such a company that treats people this way!

Clyddelder I have been with dishnetwork for many years and I have local channels with them.I only have 1 dish and it is on a pole mount on the ground.I can record 2 HD channels at the same time and watch another.Dishnetwork recievers will stay on with out shutting down and having the logo on the screen in the middle of the night.After you go into settings and turn that feature off.Not saying Direct TV is not better.Maybe they are I think they are cheaper per month atleast for the first 6 months.

We have Dish and the deal was great got a Free DVR (like tivo) records up to 200 hrs. can pause live TV etc. etc.on 2 Tv's and a box (not DVR) for 3 more Tv's in our home, had a prob. with the DVR, called they sent a new one out right away, and paid return postage for the old one.