Face it, signal quality and program availability of HD on digital cable is going to depend upon your local provider and the signal you get in your house (how far are you from the headend, how much loss). Program availability of DirecTV/Echostar is pretty much a knowable quantity, but signal quality there will depend upon your view to the equator and how well your dish is set up. Direct comparisons seem a little difficult.
I ended ditching DirecTV for Comcast digital CATV in Virginia. For me, the +'s of CATV were:
- more HD programming content I liked
- better picture quality on standard def
- "on demand" programming
- single bill bundled w/internet service
- faster channel changing speed (no kidding, SAT is *slow* changing channels)
The only benefits of SAT were, in my mind, better DVR (TiVo) integration (but note, no HDTV box w/DVR capabilities). Cost for both was about the same.
I ended ditching DirecTV for Comcast digital CATV in Virginia. For me, the +'s of CATV were:
- more HD programming content I liked
- better picture quality on standard def
- "on demand" programming
- single bill bundled w/internet service
- faster channel changing speed (no kidding, SAT is *slow* changing channels)
The only benefits of SAT were, in my mind, better DVR (TiVo) integration (but note, no HDTV box w/DVR capabilities). Cost for both was about the same.