Newbie needs to know which satellite makes sense (1 Viewer)

[DonWinzen]

I am still very new to the Home Theatre arena. I currently own a Panny 51" 4:3 HDTV (I watch OTA TV predominantly, DVDs 20%). I do not have a good audio system yet but will in the next 3 - 6 months. Currently I am a Charter cable customer but will be moving and am considering moving to satellite by the end of the month. Which service, i.e. Dish or DirectTV would be the best choice? I will not be purchasing the more expensive STB for HDTV signals right away (cost is a factor) but hope to later. I also want to connect our 27" direct view TV to whichever satellite system I choose so it will have to be a dual LNB system. I need to start planning now for the end of the month move. Thanks for any help.

 

[StephenL]

I like the DirecTV receiver with TiVo.

 

[Robert_J]

Which service, i.e. Dish or DirectTV would be the best choice?

That's almost like asking what is better for Dolby Digital, optical or coax? Dish has a couple of more movie channels but DirecTV has more sports.

Currently DirecTV has the better picture quality since the local channels are on a spot beam satellite. Dish will have their new satellite activated in about a month.

With DirecTV you have more options for receivers. With Dish, the current models are 301 (basic), PVR501 (digital recording, Dolby), PVR508 (501 with a bigger hard drive) and 6000 (high def). The PVR models are slightly buggy. DirecTV has receivers from every major manufacturer. The most popular model recently has been the DirecTivo. It has way too many features to list. Much more stable than Dish's PVRs.

-Robert