There are a few that seem to harbor a pathological hatred for E* (Dish Network = E* which is shorthand for Echostar the parent company.... I'll save you from looking it up elsewhere.... D* = DirectTV V* = Voom)
To get you up to speed, if you like E* you're an E* pom pom waver, and if you don't .... well, just imagine that you are a casual fan who just brought up the Yankees in a pub filled with Red Sox fans. You get the idea..... they REALLY hate E*. E* deserves part of the rep for some of their receivers which aren't as polished and are more bug prone than their D* counterparts. Also, D* will pay whatever it takes to keep NFL Sunday Ticket, while E* would rather go to war to keep prices down.
Meanwhile, the E* haters were silent when they added 60 (soon to be 65 Sirius music channels -- look in the 6000 channel range if you haven't noticed yet) after lording over us for years how "their" music choice was better than the Muzak E* had (which it was).
Bottom line........ good prices, fanatical about keeping price increases down to a fault (he's cut channels for a time to play hardball), buggy receivers, and an annoying lack of commitment to increasing HD Channels beyond what they have (although they did recently add TNT HD and are actively campaigning for national HD Broadcast feeds). Also a few extra movie channels that D* doesn't have (especially Showtime Beyond which I like... a lot of SciFi movies) Also, less compression on HD channels by some anecdotal reports.
D* has the advantage of the NFL Network and out of network football. They also have Tivo brand receivers that just work without any headaches (except for that slow electronic program guide scroll which would drive me to drink). Their freeview programs are actually useful, and they are seen as making some big moves soon as Rupert Murdoch recently took the company over and would love to get back at Charlie his old nemesis who bested him twice before (once in a lawsuit that netted him cheap Fox programming for years as compensation and once when he outbid Rupe for D*, but the Feds eventually shut down the takeover bid after they found out that one satellite company was inherently bad)
Take the negative with a grain of salt and read between te lines for the useful nuggets. Also, don't forget to come here for the IM chats during the Charlie Chats... they are MUCH more entertaining than the chats are straight up........
