grantsa4, I believe I can give you a very good perspective on some options for you, as I have had Comcast, Dish and I have been with Directv since 2011.
I used to live in a condo with no Line of Sight so, at first, Comcast was my only option. I wasn't too happy and in late 2003, the condo association got into a contract with a Dish Network vendor(I forgot their name) and Dish was installed on all buildings, at the time, only their SD service. As soon as I could, I jumped to Dish and I was ok with it at first. Back then, Dish used to offer multi-channels for all Tennis majors, for example. Dish also did a great job of adding extra channels for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Then in the summer of 2005, I got an HD TV and I tried to get Dish HD service. The vendor refused to upgrade their dishes to HD, and, having been a part of the condo board, I know we had signed a 10-year contract back in late 2003, so we were to be stuck with SD-only service for 10 years. So I switched to Comcast and I wasn't too pleased at all with it, but again, it was my only option.
As many residents started to having issues with the Dish vendor as well, the condo board was already preparing to hire an attorney to break our contract with that crappy vendor when we got the news that the vendor had been purchased by another company. And that provided us the outing to break the contract with the vendor, which we promptly did. Cut a long story short, in early 2009 the condo signed a contract directly with Dish Network to be the satellite provider for the condo and I again switched to Dish because, at that time, while Comcast was overing something like 12 HD channels, Dish already had north of 40, I don't recall the exact number. The only problem during my time with Dish from 2009-2011 was that Dish started to have too many contract disputes causing, for example, for it to drop ALL NYC metro sports networks - it never had Yes, but it ended up dropping MSG; MSG+ and SNY as well. From an equipment perspective, I was extremely happy with Dish equipment, as I had a 722K which, to this date, has been the fastest and best DVR i've ever had, and a 211k that for a one-time fee, I was able to add an external DVR and turn it into a second DVR.
In 2011 we bought a house and now Line of Sight was no longer an issue. As I was already out of the contract with Dish, I assessed my options and signed up with Directv and I've been happy since. Directv carries all NYC metro sports networks, plus it has extra channels for Uefa Champions League matches; all Tennis and Golf majors. I have 2 HD DVRs, I believe both of them HR-24 plus one HD received, I think, the H-24. Back then, using AAA discounts I was able to get the second DVR for a one time-fee of 99 dollars. Only comment I'd make is that Dish's 722K is a better DVR than the HR-24 - switching from one tuner to another one in the 722K was almost instantaneously while it takes about 10 seconds or so on the HR-24.
From a quality of the picture perspective, Directv HD picture is the best. My Comcast opinion is based on 2005-2009, and, back then, Comcast HD picture was really poor, too many breakups, freezes, even after multiple service calls with Comcast. I have friends who went from Cablevision to Directv as recently as last year and they were also impressed how much better Directv's HD picture is, compared to Cablevision. Directv SD quality isn't that good, but nowadays there are very few channels and programs that we still watch in SD.
From a lost of service during bad weather perspective, I have to say that, outside of Irene and Sandy, when I actually lost power for a few days, I may lose power for a couple of minutes during really bad weather, but it usually doesn't last that long - I can't recall a situation that it lasted over 30 minutes, if that much.
My final advice would be for you to look into your local networks and local sports networks, if they are important for you, and make sure Directv carries all of the ones you care about. As you may have seen in a few posts, LA subscribers that are college sports fans aren't too pleased with Directv, as it isn't carrying Pac-12 or the La Dodgers network. Althought the latter isn't carried by any major provider other than Time Warner, the former is carried by all but Directv. And I know some other local sports nets, like CSN Philly and the one that covers the Portland Trailblazers, aren't carried by Directv, either.
