Go DirecTV

Been using Direct TV for years and I don't agree with your assessment.
While the picture isn't that "bad", I do see a lot of false contouring and digital artifacts (resulting from the set-top converter box no doubt). Dish has been recently aligned by a DTV tech so that isn't the cause.
Also, watching sports like football makes me crave HD picture 'cause the standard picture is pretty smeared -all things considered.
My Father, however, thinks the picture is "Great!".
I just don't think so (compared to HD).

I recently switched from Time Warner to DTV and I am very happy. The picture quality is far and away superior... audio is too. I am a bit disappointed that my HD/DVR box does not have a coax digital out however.

With that said - my ears tell me that the analog output of the box is superior to the digital feed to my Linn Unidisk from my cable box.

So far I've had no issues with rain - which we have been getting lots of lately (North Carolina).

I will say their cust serv reps were horrible for the most part. When I was trying to decide if I wanted to switch I called several times with questions that I had forgotten on the previous call. What I found was that every rep told me a different story. I finally got to a manager who was very good.

Overall I dont regret dropping cable for a second.

About 6 months ago, I installed a 2nd hard drive in my DirecTV HR-10 250 receiver. It doubles (possibly more than doubles) the storage capacity, was an easy install and works 100% perfect. IMO and in my experience, this is a great web based company:

http://www.weaknees.com/hughes-hr10-250.php

After 10 years of Dish Network, I just switched to DirecTV. Wow, what a difference in the video output.

Is it possible that your previous receiver was older and inferior to the one you now have and also compared to newer improved versions carried by DISH? I find it very hard to believe that DTV's receivers are in another league compared to DISH.

I don't want to totally hijack the thread so I'll say that I have used DirectTV for 10+ years and like the picture quality over cable. And I like that their use of Tivo as not in the midst of legal wrangling as is Dish with their knockoff equipment. Now for the hijack. I also have the HR10-250 HD receiver that I just got when upgrading to HD. I've been having problems with the audio being slightly out of sync with the video. Of course its worst when viewing people faces and audio doesn't match there lips. I've tried when the manual suggested (basically rebooting) with no improvement. Anybody else having this problem?