So I was wondering what the difference is between the services and what it better.  I have an HD tv and looking to enjoy some HD channels.  With Satellite TV (Dish Networks or Direct TV), you need a dish (obviously) and for Digital Cable you need an HD modem I believe.  What do the services offer? What is better quality? More reliable?  Give me the lowdown please. (With as little bias as possible >.>)

If you have a choice, I'd go with satellite. The number of HD channels on Comcast cable is truly pathetic, maybe like 15 non-premium. Also, the picture quality is quite poor on many channels as well.

The only advantage that cable has is the VOD services are better and you can use analog sets for the time being.

I perfer DirecTV. I can't stand comcast & their retarted commercials.

I have directv, they have soooo many HD channels right now, and more are coming...its nuts, I love it. Also, I am a huge football fan, and my Packers are an out of market team, so it was a must for Sunday Ticket, and all the games are in HD too. Way better than cable, hands down.

Go satellite... both are better then anything the cable companies can offer. WIth cable I had frequent problems with the screen pixelating every few seconds which gets annoying and non hd channels are damn near impossible to watch because of all the artifacting.

Between the two sat companies, I prefer Dish. They have a great HD lineup and are also using better encoding then DirectTV (mpeg 4 compared to mpeg 2) so they will look a bit better on Dish, but both will still be great.

If you are a sports junky, well DirectTV is the best way to go, but the Dish isn't terrible though.

 dear god what cable company were you using?

I have cable. 15MBps download 3MBps upload speeds. Once Verison moves here though I will have Fios internet/cable/phone which is ran through fiberoptics which = best available.  

satelite in my area blows. My friend has DTV. He loses signal constantly, has a ton more HD channels but with the amount of issues and the amount he is paying compared to me its a freaking joke. 

Do Satellite channels ever get scrambled or messed up due to weather? clouds? anything? I live in FL and often have pretty violent T-storms.

 I live in Fl. The answer is YES

Get directv and find a direcTivo on e-bay or craig's list. It's the best thing for tv watching ever invented. The regular dvr's just don't cut it.

I've used Time Warner and Comcast.  Both are horrible when it comes to TV.  Their receivers are poor at best and cannot compare to the satellite companies recievers.   AT & T is in the process of installing U-verse in my neighborhood and I'm waiting for that to be up and running since it will be much much better then a cable company. 

Internet speeds are fine with the cable company and I'll keep it until something better comes along (like u-verse).   

If your friend has issues with his reception, he should really take the time to go and fine tune the signal so it's in the 90's consistently.    I would guess that his reception isn't quite up to par and is in the 70-80 range.  Generally you will pay less for satellite depending on what channels you want.    My parents also live in Florida and have Dish Network and the blackouts are not common and it's only the heaviest of downpours that cause issues with it.  Clouds don't cause problems and wind doesn't either.