I have had Dish for probably close to 10 years and love it. The on-screen interface   is better, (Having used Direct at other places) The guide is better The remote is better. Those are user experience that weren’t mentioned in the article. They also didn’t mention customer service.
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I install both and think that DirecTV’s interface is cleaner and easier to use than Dish’s.  I also like their universal remote better than Dish’s - BUT I will give you that Dish’s customer service is MUCH better (though I believe DirecTV has finally realized that and is make some drastic changes from what I’ve heard).  Plus DirecTV a year ago, had some major issues with their HD DVR’s - thank goodness that’s behind them - but that also gave a black eye (constant crashing - needing to the replaced etc…).

Shawn;
  As for remotes and interface, to a large degree its also a matter of what your used to, I just recently upgrade to a 625 dual tuner and the interface is some different then the older 510, and I like it much better, also it is more advanced in what the search ect, is capable of, then the old 510, I’ve had the625 for about a week now, and I’m a happy camper…

I got DISH TurboHD bronze $25 month added locals.  You get Starz, HBO free 3 months and Cinemax for 1 cent for year.  Can’t be beat, left DirectTV after 7 years when they said a DVR would be $100.  722DVR for 1 TV, just HD receiver for 2nd.  Total cost roughly $44 month for 2 Tvs both HD (only 1 DVR though).  DirecTV retention didn’t even bother to work a deal, but called me 5 times after I switched.

Plus 1 had only 2 lines run and DISH uses a multiplexor (4 LNB dish to two lines), not sure if DirectTV had theirs yet, but at one time they did not.

Had to fight to get pole mount though, they all want to put them on the roof, which I don’t want that risk and more unsightly in my opinion.

Forgot to mention picture looks stunning on new Vizio 120Hz LCD.  If you want a value TV with very good picture get one of the new XVT line Vizios.

With Dish going 1080P there is no doubt Dish has the better product.

Be careful - 1080p is not what you think it is.  It’s mostly marketing hype.  You can send 1080i and let the TV correct it / convert it to 1080p and I guarantee you will not notice the difference.

Besides - DirecTV announced it first - Dish produced it first (but only as VoD) - DirecTV suggests they’ll have it life before Dish…

In the end - to someone who REALLY KNOWS 1080i vs 1080p and for ANYONE who has a 1080p - there is no difference… unless you have a very cheap TV… :(

I’m a student of the industry, a stockholder in both companies & a longtime dealer for one with friends from the other.  Most consumers are going to be OK with either, but the NFL fanatic who wants the most football & is willing to pay extra for it will most often opt for DirecTV, which by the way generates nearly $20 more per subscriber, a whole lot of which goes into a masterful TV ad campaign. DISH is a better-run company with it’s co-founders still in charge delivering more bang for the customer’s buck if the $300 fotball package is out of the mix. Both companies looked the other way when 3rd-party scummy sales & installation practices were used to get a whole lot of new subscribers on the books & both took hits to their reputations. DISH offers more HD than the chart shows & holds their dealers to a higher standard.

I just switched to DirecTV after 4 or 6 years as a DishNetwork customer (including paying $699 for Dish’s first HD DVR three years ago) due to truly horrible customer service from Dish. Having been a Dish customer for a long time, my customer service expectations have always been low, but during the conversion to the required equipment for new HD service they managed to miss even those extremely low expectations. Incompetent installers and inept and dishonest customer service personnel are, in my experience, the norm for DishNetwork.  Last quarter results at Dish seem to confirm that. I’ve been very happy with DirecTV so far. Contrary to the numbers above, the switch also reduced my monthly bill from $120 to $75.

Phillip, Are you sure you don’t have DirecTV and Dish mixed up.  I though only DirecTV had people purchase their own TIVO/DirectTV DVRs for $699 back in the MPEG-2 days and then pay again (now they call it a lease but still seems like ownership prices).  I didn’t think DISH did this, my VIP722 cost me nothing.  The activation fee mention in the article was refunded.  The same with the install fee.  And the DVR fee is lower ($4.60 month).  The 2nd HD receiver fee $6 is a little high though.

That list is also incorrect on the DISH side as I currently get HBO, Starz, and Cinemax in HD which are shown on the DirectTV side but not DISH side.  Don’t base your decision on that list.

The biggest thing is to find a good local dealer/installer and work with one person . When ever you decide to upgrade equipment or have a problem call them instead of the 800 number . A local dealer who cares will go out of his way to make sure your happy.
And your keeping money in the local cominunity and supporting local business to boot…

Uh…yeah, so as a Broncos fan who lives in Virginia, all i have to say is 2 words….

SUNDAY TICKET.

Where do i sign oh great master…I cannot resist…

Don’t bother with Dish Networks.  The guys spent more than 8 hours at my house wasting my time and couldn’t get the whole thing installed.  Then the installer lied to me when I told him I wanted the equipment removed because I wasn’t going to accept the installation since they couldn’t finish the install and couldn’t get me better than 38 signal strength.  they literally couldn’t get it working in every room in my house.  The guy was supposed to uninstall the equipment and take it with him, but when he said he was going to dinner and would be back in a little bit to get the equipment, he left and never came back.  Filthy liar…  Now I have to deal with them over the phone to try to get them to show back up and pick up the equipment.  I already cancelled the service and was told I would get a refund, but I’m sure they will pull some kind of bologna to try and get me to pay anyway, in which case I will have to file with the better business bureau like I had to to get DirecTV to stop harassing me about a receiver that I bought at Best Buy and owned which they claimed they rented to me…

Dish is better than cable, but not even close to Directv. The Customer Service at Directv is better than ANY business I have ever dealt with. Loyalty actually is rewarded at Directv with free boxes and programming. Instead of being stuck watching 2 or possibly 3 NFL games each sunday, I can watch them all. Sunday ticket will always keep Directv ahead of the pretenders in this industry. Dish wants to merge with Directv, but that’s never going to happen. The last one standing in this battle will be Directv. If this was a prize fight, they would have already stopped it and awarded the win to Directv.

Why does no one mention the giant advantage DISH has?

DISH has unlimited HD storage.  You can hook up external hard drives to the USB 2.0 port.

DirectTV don’t know what an HD ONLY package is.  There DirectTV rep told me on the phone that DISH doesn’t have HD only packages.  DISH has the right idea, all broadcasts should be HD that should be the norm, not an upcharge and if you don’t have HD TV the box will downscale to SD no problem.  Get rid entirely of SD broadcasting.  Plus their prices are so much cheaper.  OK they don’t have all day Football, but come on I get enough games Sunday plus ESPN in HD.  To get that in HD on DirecTV would have cost me $10 more a month plus $100 for a DVR after being a customer for 8 years.  I am paying over $10 less per month on DISH with all HD from a DirecTV SD package that I had before.  This gives me extra money to put towards a premium like Showtime HD and still be equal in cost to crummy SD DirectTV.

This seems to have become a PC vs Apple kind of love/hate debate. I don’t think there is a clear winner. It depends on what programing you want, ie Sunday ticket,  ect. And to a certain extend what hardware you want, they both have PVRs ect.
As with anything else the quality of service to a large extent depends on the local dealer/installer.
While I have had Dish for almost 10 yeas and have happy with the service and the whole Dish experience as a whole, I’m sure there are probably folks who can say the same thing about Direct.
So go to a dealer see the system in action, talk to folks who have them and find out what kind of experience they’ve had, and what local dealers do the best at standing behind the choosen brand in your area,

As far as HD,  There is no Question, that Dish has the most channels and is adding more as they come on line,

I currently have Verizon FIOS in the house. FIOS gives me internet, phone and TV service. I would like to keep the internet- excellent upload and download speeds. But the other two items are over priced. Almost $100 a month for two phone lines and another $100 for TV service with HBO and 3 STBs: -one std def DVR, one HD STB and one std def STB.

My question is: Can DISH or Direct share the same cable with the FIOS internet? Or do I have to run another coax inside the house for the sat?

With the Dish Vip 622 and 722 HD DVR’s you can record 3 HD Streams at the same time if you have an antenna hooked up as well. I think this is a huge option to leave out of this article. I can’t tell you how many times this comes in to play.

@Jeff and All

I am absolutely positive that your experience stemmed from a retailer’s contract work. I could be wrong, but then again you have not mentioned your general location. One call to DISH NETWORK’s customer service should have ended your ordeal abruptly if mentioned contract work as dish network hardly ever contracts their work as opposed to retailers who can do almost anything they want. I understand as I have been in your position. As I finally understood and as I finally understand, dish service from retailer vs. service from dish network can almost be considered apples and oranges. A contract worker makes a fat and flat rate per install versus an hourly paid technician who must abide by stringent install practices. It’s hard to gauge directv as 90% of their field services are contract workers and only now are building an inhouse fleet. I have >70% signal strength on a 102 foot run from a dilapidated garage across the alley (it what I wanted). I have a 622 and a 311 that feeds my Vista Media Center. My guides, my PPV, my games and the occasional commercial with the dish symbol for “Press Select to Get more information.”
The comparison guide is insanely inadequate when it comes to HD offering from dish. Wow!