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Had Dish for a year and a half after switching from Comshaft -- I mean, Comcast. The quality's fine, though there's about a 3-second latency every time you change the channel. DirecTV doesn't have the latency, and they say it's due to their superior satellite system. You get used to it, though.

Still playing catch-up on HD channels.

Can you believe we have never gotten any kind of cable TV service? I kind of wear it as a badge of pride--we figured we watch plenty of TV as it is and you can get so much for free on sites like IMDB

#3, my wife is the TV hog. I watch only one show with her. Then I use Netflix to watch older shows that I missed and the occasional movie here and there. I also use Netflix for kids movies. I have a bunch of kids movies (lots of Christmas ones too) on my NAS which I play with XBMC (soft-modded Xbox). If it wasn't for my wife then I would ditch digital cable service. For some shows that we miss I can use bittorent/usenet to fill in. I hate downloading stuff but even with two Tivos my wife still misses recording crap.

My dad has Dish HD and it isn't bad. Switching channels takes about a second.

The problem with Dish is that they raise the rates every two months or so. However, I changed to DirecTV and while they don't raise the rates (not yet anyway...) they rake you over the coals with contracts and stuff. In order for me to upgrade to HD DVR I have to renew my contract, pay $200 for a receiver PLUS $5/mo to lease the receiver....outrageous! They DO have the best selection for HD channels though.

....

FTA is the way to go

I've had Dish for 8 years. I think they raised my rates twice. They've also added in more channels a few times without raising the rate; of course most of those were probably worthless. Switching time between channels depends on whether the different channels are on a different satellite (I currently receive signals from three) or different transponder. I don't really notice it as I don't just surf up and down between channels. I always use the guide. "Jump" generally feels like it takes a second.

I've had dish for a couple years now and have been very happy. As far as I've seen the ViP-622/722 series DVRs are the best non-TiVo units out there. They are far superior to anything DirecTV or Comcast has to offer. I don't notice any real lag in channel changing and while they are still "catching up" to DirecTV as far as HD channels go, their prices are FAR lower. I get every HD channel Dish has and my locals for about $42/month after taxes.

I had DishNetwork ( 18-month contract ). I asked them to close/disconnect my account after 20 months of subscription through online-chat. The representative said I have to call customer service to do that. After 20 minutes wait, I talked to a gentleman and he checked and said my account had been closed. I tried to login to my account and the account no longer exist. I then pulled all of the cables off the receivers/tuners.

They continue to charge/bill me for another 3 months and send me emails/letter to *remind* me to pay them. Now they send 2 empty boxes to me and ask me to pack the equipments ( their properties, they said ) and ship them back to them.

No DishNetwork for me anymore.

dish really isnt worth it, the response time for changing channels is retarded, and the hidden fees are too much.
swtiching to comcast soon or maybe going to give directv a go

Got Dish Network 2 months ago. IMO, best price for HD service. I also have the Vip 722 like #9 and the thing is incredibly user friendly. I love the PIP feature, as well. And hard, driving rains have not affected service one bit.

Free over the air HD is the way to go if your near a decent market. I'm near two and have about 18 channels. I use tivo with it and im looking forward to watching netflix movies over my tivo box soon. Don't know anyone that has the DTV PAL DVR but looks promising esp. since there are NO monthly frees:
http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Dotjust_Watch_your_HDTV_Record_it_For_Free.shtml

I have Dish TV. I hear that they don't make money off of you until 2 years into the service. The free installation was nice but keep one thing in mind: stick to your guns and don't let the technician sweet talk you into signing a 2 year deal that you never spoke about earlier. They do stuff like that to make money. It's annoying as hell (but understandable I guess). No matter what they say or keep doing - tell the guy that he only came to your place to install the hardware - not deal with or negotiate your subscription. All that will be done with Dish TV directly and no one else.