With the VIP722 you can add an external hard drive up to 750MB (actually you can add more than one but can only have one connected at a time) basically giving you 129 hours of HD recording time.

Sateilliteis the only option for many folks who, like me, live in a rural area,most of them are lucky to get a dial-up connection, In fact it took many years of us asking and begging the local telec, for DSL, So the chances of us getting anything close to cable or floss is very remote. Thaerefore, Satellite is our only option.
So to completty dismiss it out of hand is not fair to the millions of rual customers who depend on either Direct or Dish for their tv, entinament needs.

Kenneth Lawson
lawsonreport.info

I’ll take neither one.
Today, you can’t use a TiVo Series 3 or TiVo HD with either of them. I dumped DirecTV for FIOS. When the TiVo HDXL comes out late next year, I might go back to DTV, but for now FIOS has them beat IMO. I noticed a marked improvement in picture quality in FIOS over DTV.

@Linko

There is a one time fee to activate the USB port on such receiver as I understand. And yes it is virtually unlimited.

Why has no one mentioned that you can also get a DISH AC (electric wall outlet) BROADBAND MODEM for VOD??

@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!