I have had three TV providers, the only three I know of in my area.
Notes: I love in the Pacific Northwest, Portland, OR, its rainy, its cold, and its windy, no one I know with DirecTV gets bad or no picture because of these reasons. Hell during the last Ice Storm we had people's service only went out for a minute or so. All in all its almost perfect. Dish has the most "blips"
Note 2: Comcast normally worked through storms but if they went out you saw nothing for a while.
Note 3: Installation was free for all my providers.
Note 4: You need to have a clear view of the South sky for Sat.
Fav. Provider- DirecTV
Second- Comcast
Third- Dish Network
Comcast- Growing up I had Cable like just about everyone else, it had a few name changes/buy outs now its known as Comcast, it sucked. My picture sucked on the lower "local" channels but was alright on the upper channels, there rates though were a little high. We eventually got digital cable and I always thought that the picture looked the same "digital" though the local channels still looked the worse. Then we got sexy Comcast voice, way over priced, but it only went out with everything else. Internet was awesome though.
Dish Network- I moved into a residence with Dish Network, it wasn't bad, the locals looked sooo much better, and so did all my other channels as well, I was pretty happy, though channels change much slower then I liked. As for Signal I would say out of any given month it would drop like 1-2 times for NO reason. (Not weather or line of site) also Dish Network boxes <3 Phone lines for any reason or else they get pissy.
DirecTV- I got DirecTV a few months back because I heard rumors that Dish was going to drop Comedy Central/some Viacom networks. I live on the top floor of my apartment building and the landlord was nice enough to allow a dish on the roof (He seemed pissed off at Comcast when I asked for written permission that DirecTV asked for) Well I must say I think the picture quality is the best, they also arent did not care about the phone line, and I can order movies online with a few clicks, also for music they have XM and I love XM radio. I think price wise they are fair also I like their Customer Care, even though outsourced (at night at least) they are trained fairly well. I have never had even a blip, its always working.
Overview
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Comcast-
Pros: Outages are rare, U.S. based customer care (I don't particularly care but some people do), and no charges for service calls.
Cons: They are the most expensive of the providers, and it seems like when something breaks it takes a while to fix. Rental Fees suck, a lot. Slowish channel changing on Digital Cable. I hate their music channels. Locals look like shit.
Dish Network-
Pros: A few blips here and there, the cheapest provider from my experience, all my local channels look better. Sirius Sat. Radio.
Cons: Always having disputes with vendors, shitty Customer care, charges for service dispatches, charges for not having a phone line, crappy PPV, most drop outs, slowest channel changing of any provider I have ever had.
DirecTV-
Pros: Almost no service outages, reasonable prices, good programming packages (less un-needed crap), XM Sat. Radio, nicer technology with nicer better looking equipment, well trained support (They have U.S. and International call centers), nice website, no phone line needed. Fastest channel changes.
Cons: Service dispatch charges, you have to have room for the dish.
I think thats pretty much everything... oh also I like to leave my TV on almost the entire time I am home because I like the noise, so I notice a lot about it.