Thanks for the feedback Don.
It appears from the the comments here and elsewhere that I've read that DirecTV is a better choice then DishNetwork for PVR use.
1) That sucks, I'm sure that this is going to "cost" them customers. This seems to be a stupid move on their part.
2) Do you have a HD TV set? If not or if you have a "regular" TV set does the HD programming look any better on a non-HD set?
Is there any advantage to HD channels if you don't have a HD set? I'm probably a year out before I update/replace my main 32" Sony TV. I'd like to see 42"-60" plasma TVs drop in price a little more befor I purchase!
3) I've heard/read this from numerious people/posts. It seems some people have drops in bad weather and others don't. I can't help wondering if a lot of this has to due with the installer and how well he "dialed" in the signal. To some degree this should be less of a problem for me since I'm going to be using a bigger dish (3' round) then most people have.
4) I wonder if this has anything to do with number 1 above???
5) This is a biggy for me. It seems DishNetwork locks down the serial port while DirecTV has it unlocked. This is part of the reason I'm considering the switch myself since Comcast has my DTC boxes locked and I have to use the less than reliable IR Blaster approach.
I should clarify my statement above. I have the IR Blaster working 99%+ of the time but I have both DTC boxes in the same rack and I have a hard time trying to use both boxes with IR Blaster technology.
Using Serial port control I should be able to have 4 boxes all controlled by the computer with no interference from the IR (electric tape over the IR sensor).
BTW, I noticed this was your first post. Thanks for helping me out and Welcome!
Carlo