DBS Service Recommendations

About a year ago I moved house and previously had Dish at my old location. When I moved I just hooked up regular cable and terminated my account with Dish.

Now I am thinking about getting back on the DBS bandwaggon!

Question as a previous Dish customer and I correct in understanding that I cannot get any new incentives? I liked Dish but would go to Directtv if necessary. If my wife signs up for dish can she get incentives as a new customer.

Secondly I have two old dish receivers - no dish (I think they are 4000's ) but I think I am going to need 6 receivers for my new house. One must be HDTV and I would want at least one to be a PVR.

Can someone give recommendations on equipement/costs to go back to Dish or start over with Directv.

Thanks

[Scott Greczkowski]

I would have your wife sign up if you decide to go back to Dish.

As far as if you should go with Dish or DirecTV that is up to you. You will have to decide what kind of programming you want, if its Sports you want DirecTV, if its General Programming its Dish.

Both service have good things and bad things about them.

[Mark Holtz]

Besides having the bill go to the wife, I would also investigate the PVR options (50x for Dish, UltimateTV/DirecTivo for D*). Unlike the standalone Tivo units, there is no "quality" setting, as it records the datasteam directly from the DBS provider. However, the 50x and the DirecTivo/UltimateTV lack a MPEG encoder, so you can't record over-the-air signals.

If you are into professional sports or are a Yankee's fan, go with DirecTV. Otherwise, pull out a comparison chart, check off which channels you are interested in, and see what the monthly charge is.

BTW: For what it's worth, I went with a Dish 501 with two additional 301 receivers. The primary reasons was the UPN/WB superstations and the no-fee PVR.

[Nick]

How many TVs & how many individual viewers?