When I lived downtown, I had Comcast digital cable. Since it’s difficult to put a satellite dish on an apartment balcony, I had little choice. And it was okay, I suppose. I got plenty of channels, but picutre quality was somewhat bleh.

When I got my proverbial house in the country, I took Dish network up on their free DVR / free installation / 3 months of free service. And it was okay; the DVR lacked Tivo’s “Season Pass” feature (where you can record a show by title instead of date & time), but it had great features like the ability to skip 30 seconds in one click. And at a petty $27/mo, Dish was hard to beat.

Then I had a bad run-in with their customer service department. Actually, several bad run-ins with their customer service. The last straw caused me to look into DirecTV and Comcast once again. DirecTV won largely because of their rates, and Comcast’s customer service reputation was the final nail in their coffin for me.

My DirecTV is, in a word, awesome. Not only is their DVR a re-badged Tivo (which means I get Season Pass functionality), but the thing can process TWO CHANNELS AT THE SAME TIME! That means I can tape a record a show on HBO while recording a show on TNT. Or I can watch House live while recording Modern Marvels. Or, as the coup de grace, I can watch a pre-recorded program while recording West Wing on NBC *and* recording Airline on A&E! If you’ve never had a Tivo, this is the one big hitch that most people get hung up on; you have to watch what you’re recording, or watch a pre-recorded show while recording live TV. The DirecTV DVR fixes this, and much to my surprise, does not require the dreaded “additional room fee” to do so.

Yay technology!