I have had Directv for years and it is way better than cable in price, quality, customer service, channel selection and its the only place to get NFL Sunday Ticket and the NCAA Mega March Madness package. Last year I got the Directv HD-Tivo and it is amazing but pricey it has two Directv tuners built so you can record two shows at the same time or record one show while watching something else live, a HD OTA reciver so you can get the local HD stations, 30 hours of HD recording time and 300 hours of standard recording time and there is no record quality setting like my old Tivo or VCR's every thing is recording at the highest standard. Also I have had picture loss due weather only a few times during bad storms and every time the power also went out so it really didnt matter.