I'm ready to give my cable box the boot and invest in a sat system but have a few questions. First and foremost is whether or not to get one that is HD compatible. (I do have a HD TV - Hitachi 53SDX89B) I live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and we have only one local station broadcasting any HD signals so really a sat system would be my only real hope of receiving any HD channels. Problem I hear is that both Dish Network and Direct TV have very little HD content. So should I wait on the HD for now and just get a midrange system with DD5.1 and save several hundred dollars or, is it wise to go ahead and get the HD system now and wait for the material to come. Also, which brands should I be looking at? I've heard good things about Hughes but not much else. Any input is appreciated. I just can't stand going from a great looking DVD movie to cable. I think an rabbit ears with tin foil looks better than cable!!!

Dish network right now has Showtime and HBO as well as some CBS programming in HDTV format. I had the Panasonic Hdtv tuner, very slow but good picture off and on air. The Echostar 6000 with Hdtv module is superb!! Easy to operate and set up.

I am a subscriber of Dish Network and do not like it at all. The reception is not as great as digital cable (satelite snow). Also when the weather gets bad the reception gets lost sometimes for a several minutes. It is really annoying when it is raining out and you want to watch a movie.

Does the weather (rain/snow/wind) really effect the reception of satelite signals that badly?? Does it affect Dish worse than DirecTV?

My opinion is that weather can affect any reception, but one brand should not be moreso than another. What may affect this the most is how strong a signal you have to begin with; a marginal signal will be more suseptable to interference than a strong one, so make sure the dish is well aimed. You should be able to get a signal strength indication of well into the 90's. It may take a bit of insisting when the installers are doing their stuff.

Larry

Larry is correct. I have owned both DirectTV and DISH and neither had snow and both had very few interruptions due to weather. In fact I lose my cable more often. Snowracer2001 either has an improper installation (obsturction, loose bolts, poor aiming, etc.) or lives in an area that is on the fringes.

I am currently with DISH for a variety of reasons discussed in many other posts, but either system should work for you.

A word of caution, if you are expecting a picture that blows away a good off-air or even cable picture, think again. Due to the compression, both systems can have annoying picture qualities that are inferior to a really good off-air or digital cable picture. My problem is that cable is so inconsistent (from channel to channel and even day to day...and yes I have a quality distribution system with amplification, tilt compensation, etc.).

The main caveats for satellite is that both services offer a pretty good, pretty consistent picture on ALL channels with a lot of programming variety and, usually a much better menu system and guide.

randy