What is DirecTV offering 'a lot more of'? Many of the 'more HD channels' they offer, are SD upconverts. Dish is offering just about all of the actual HD channel that DirecTV is offering and some of the upconvert channels. I believe DirecTV has scaled back their end of year HD channel count too.

I'm not so sure I agree about the price points. Last I saw, DirecTV doesn't even have a 19$ or HD-only plans. For instance, I think DishFamily is a relatively good deal (not enough for me but). When my brother did his pricing out with DirecTV to upgrade to HD from his old system, he found that DirecTV was more expensive by double digits. Both Dish and DirecTV (Dish first in Feb or so) will be rate hiking, I'm not sure what will happen after that.

I switched from cable where they told me I'd have to pay 40-50$ more a month just to keep what I had because all of my HBO channels were going Digital Only. I did that for 3 months and then kicked the cable company out. I'd say the cable company is probably the most slimy provider of television there is.

I'm not saying there aren't things that Dish has done that don't tick me off, but the service being beamed to the house and the price isn't really one of those problems. Customer Service (who I never call), installers (who I didn't use) is another situation.

Please keep in mind all of my arguments are coming from a sports programming perspective. I agree, not including sports, Dish is probably the better, more family-friendly service. But for the sports fan, there is no question Dish won't do what it takes to please them.

Understood. I am a sports fan, but I am largely an in-market sports fan (Red Sox, which I get via NESN HD, Patriots, which I get via CBS HD or FOX, Celtics games via CSNNE HD, and then I'm a Detroit Redwings fan which I usually catch on Versus, though Dish has CI too..). I get NASCAR via ABC HD, if I'm in a NASCAR mood.

For people who are out of market sports fans and want to pay hundreds a year for the privilege, then sure, I agree, DirecTV is where they should go. However, I don't blame Dish Network for not wanting to commit billions to the possibility they'll get subscribers (to both the package and to their service). If anything, I blame the fact the government allows these sports leagues to continue to have an antitrust exemption that they don't deserve.

With my situation, I am really in a strange situation. Living about 30 minutes west from Harrisburg, PA, I was considered in-market for the Philadelphia Flyers. But the strange thing is, I was also out-of-market on my cable (through Comcast) because they did not provide me with the Philadelphia Comcast Sports channel. Yet...come playoffs last year when Comcast had exclusive rights (for the in-market areas) to the first two rounds instead, I was blacked out of the Flyers home games on Versus (because they thought I had Comcast Sports Network), yet I did not have CSN. Go figure.

So this season, I switched to Dish Network (much against my argument...I was a directv advocate) and got the Center Ice package. Initially for the first two weeks, I was blacked out of all Flyers games and Dish claimed it was not their decision. I eventually discovered a phone number for a contact high up in the NHL ranks and somehow they got me lifted from the blackout on Center Ice. So I now get all Flyers games

I won't hold it against you for being a Flyers fan...

My brother has had Sunday Ticket for something like 8 years. They blacked out a game on FOX when the FOX affiliate at the time was cable only (no transmitters). I called DirecTV up and they said they couldn't do anything about it. They wouldn't give me anyone to contact either. The cable company also blacks out some things, like when Judge Judy is on a local CBS affiliate and also available through a Superstation like 38 Boston.

I think blackouts are stupid in general, just like I'd rather have locals from Boston instead of from here. But the broadcasters are a bunch of whiners.

One of the big wigs for MLB is a big anti-blackout guy and is working on lifting blackouts or at the very least, update the market charts to better reflect a team's home territory.

I would love a la carte satellite.

An all HD Satellite TV a la carte package would be the best. The thought alone is making me salivate.

I'm just crossing my fingers for DirecTV to offer an all HD package and I'd like to get one of those dual-tuner extenders for Windows Media Center (whenever that comes out, probably won't be until 2010).

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SiriusXM Premier with SiriusXM Internet Radio | Lifetime Subscriber | SiriusXM Lynx

DirecTV has killed off their media center rig for now. I'm not sure what will happen in the future but money is tight. It's 'officially canceled' in the meantime.

DirecTV: DirecTV PC Tuner Officially Canceled

This was interesting to me -
Can DISH Network One-Up DIRECTV? - Chris Lanier's Blog

I think it's a pretty niche product, but it's kind of interesting anyway.

It sounds like they ditched the effort because they missed the Aug. 2008 update release for the device to make it in the WMC.

A company spokesperson noted that the decision was made after "assessing the impact of missing the August 2008 release of Windows Media Center update and considering timing of the next release."

It could be made available for Windows 7 (which seems to be a good operating system so far [certainly a great improvement over Vista], I'm currently using build 6956 and I'm enjoying the new features).

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SiriusXM Premier with SiriusXM Internet Radio | Lifetime Subscriber | SiriusXM Lynx

AT&T(Dish Network out here)is trying to do the hard sell on upgrading on their systems, be it phone, TV or Internet. If I choose to upgrade I stand to lose a lot of TV programming I get right now a lot cheaper, I would also lose all Sirius music channels.

To get what I already have by "upgrading", I would have to shell out an extra fifty bucks a month.

No thanks.....