Directv

I have directv and I have been very pleased. Picture quality is great, service is good, and I don't have to deal with Cox. Slowness of the receivers can be an issue, but often you can talk them into an upgrade, and/or a reboot can help with that.

Yes, the channel layout is a pain. You can set a custom layout, though (hide unwanted) and you can also hotkey 9 channels to your remote.

On demand actually does download over the internet (it would be way too slow over satellite), so it's limited by your internet speed. I don't watch it much, but I haven't had a problem with it (although I'm on a speedy wired connection).

There is a search function that I use occasionally. It's slow, but it works.


So, yeah, I'm happy with it. I like the whole home DVR, too. Between my 3 DVRs, I can record up to 6 shows (although the end result is that I just end up recording the same show on three different boxes).