JPL

I'll give you my viewpoint. First my background - I was a DirecTV customer for 5 years. I LOVED my service. I was very happy with it. Near the end, I thought they started focusing a little too much on the premium sports packs (NFL ST, e.g.) - I understand that that's their cash-cow, but it left them behind relative to other suppliers when it came to channels offered (both SD and HD). What caused me to switch (just 3 months ago) was HD. I got an HDTV in March, and I wanted HD. I called DirecTV to see if I could get them to come down on the price of their HD DVR (the HR20). They wouldn't budge. It was $300, up front, plus $20 s&h, and that's an up-front lease fee. Also, because DirecTV doesn't carry all my HD locals, and none of my digital subchannels, I would have needed an antenna (an extra $50 - $70 up front). And after all that I would have still had a 2 year commitment.

Shopping around, I came to the same conclusion you did - FiOS just looked like a great deal. As an SD-only customer, for my set-up, DirecTV was actually a couple bucks cheaper. But for HD service, FiOS took the advantage by a few dollars a month. If you're really on the fence, I would recommend doing what I did - sign up for FiOS, and suspend your DirecTV service (you can easily do that for up to 9 months). Verizon gives you 30 days before the commitment period kicks in (note - the commitment is optional, but it saves you $5/month for a year - and this 30-day trial generally doesn't include the triple play - if you get their triple play, generally - depends on your state - the commitment kicks in right away) - just don't sign up for the triple-play right away (you can opt to add it later if it's still offered in your state at that point).

When the installer comes out, just ask that he leave as much of your dish setup alone as possible. I did that, and my installer very much complied - it would take me all of 5 - 10 minutes to rehook everything back up to my dish if I so desired.

Now, as to the comparisons, here's what I see as the pros and cons of each:

DirecTV over FiOS:
- If you're a sports nut - if you like the sports packs - then DirecTV is the only place for you. FiOS is very thin on this front. Their sports package is minimal, and they have zero subscription type packs (e.g. MLB EI).

- They're DEFINITELY adding a lot of HD this fall and into next year. FiOS definitely has the capacity to carry them too, but they're very close to the vest when it comes to channel expansion.

- Functionality of their equipment - while I find the Motorola boxes that Verizon uses capable, functionally they're pretty limited. The way I put it - they do what they do very well... but they're much more pared down than the DirecTV equipment in terms of functionality. The guide s/w I also find a tad lacking - but that's about to change - Verizon is rolling out their new s/w (if you would like a link to the tutorial that they have on it, I'd be more than happy to provide it). While it apparently doesn't add much in the way of functionality, it does make it look a hell of alot nicer, and makes surfing alot faster too. And Verizon is developing that s/w (unlike the current guide s/w), so they'll have more control over future expandability.


That's really it from my perspective... Now, for the other direction:

FiOS over DirecTV:
- Picture quality - this is the number one difference, in my opinion. Directv was good... really good... FiOS is better. The SD is sharper and more realistic looking. I never had HD with DirecTV, but the HD on FiOS is just jaw-dropping. They don't compress the channels nearly to the degree that DirecTV does (this is obvious from their DVR recordings - based on how I calculate things, the FiOS recordings take up 2 - 3 times the space on a DVR than the DirecTV recordings did).

- Locals - I really missed this when I switched from cable to DirecTV 5 years ago. Yeah, I got my locals through DirecTV, which was great. But things like Weatherscan Local weren't there... and only getting the national feed on TWC bugged me too. And also Verizon is currently rolling out many local access channels (PEGs).

- No rain fade. I'll be clear about this. My dish was great. It took a wrath-of-God type storm to cause me to lose signal. But I have to tell you, we've had some nasty storms in this area over the last couple weeks - I would have easily lost my TV picture at least 4 or 5 times in that period. Late spring, early summer is always bad for me in that regard. When we had gale-force winds, and driving rain a couple weeks ago, my FiOS service never even blinked.

- Bang for your buck - this is another biggie in my opinion. One downside with verizon is that you pay more for your equipment month-to-month. For example, with DirecTV, I had 2 DVRs. Total monthly equipment cost to me: $11. $5 for the second receiver fee, and $6 for DVR service, which covers every DVR in the house. With FiOS, I'm paying $25 - I got the multiroom DVR ($20) and a standard STB for my second TV ($5). But even with that, my FiOS service was cheaper. The premier package, e.g., includes HD. In fact, if you have an SDTV, and you get the DVR for that TV, you'll STILL get the HD channels (downrezzed, of course). They only have one model DVR - and it's an HD DVR (one nit with the DVR - the harddrive is way too small for HD programming).

Add to that the triple play discount, and my bill has dropped considerably for what I'm getting. I also signed up for the movie pack, which is one hell of a deal - 45 SD movie channels - Starz, TMC, Showtime, IFC, Sundance, plus 3 of those in HD, plus the VOD offerings of those channels... all for $13/month. Even with that movie pack, I'm STILL paying less than what I was paying with DirecTV when you factor in the triple-play discount.

- VOD - Yeah, DirecTV is working on it... but it'll only be available to those with broadband access, and only those with their HR20 DVR. There are a couple of serious limitations with the Verizon VOD service, currently - no HD VOD until later this year, no free movies, no network series on VOD - but still, limited VOD is still better than no VOD.

That's pretty much the highlights. Good luck with the decision. One thing that helped me in this decision - I did an apples-to-apples comparison (much of which I included, above) and asked myself "if I had no TV provider and it was down to DirecTV or FiOS, which would I pick?" At that point it became obvious to me - FiOS would win out.