Currently with DirecTV, but have ?'s about Dish

[harshness]

That said, from what I have seen it seems fairly easy to get D* to throw in their OTA tuner for free whereas I've never read where E* was willing to throw in their OTA tuner for free.

D* seems to reserve the free AM21s for those upgrading from the HR10-250 and occasionally for those having their HR20 replaced.

Yes, my 722 can record three shows at one time, but in all the years I've owned a DVR I have never had the need to record more than two at a time -- so IMO it's a niche feature.

I used it every Monday during the regular TV season. In that it requires an OTA feed, it might be considered non-mainstream.

Maybe D* external drive implemenation isn't perfect, but it seems a lot of people are okay with it.

Because the D* implementation seems even more iffy and the fact that it is inexorably tied to exactly one receiver, it falls way short of the functionality of the DISH model. Imagine having a DVR going bad and being able to "back up" your existing recordings and use them on the replacement receiver. These are two big items on the D* wish list.