Correction: I think the 2nd satellite dish requirement for local channels depends on your location

You only need two satellite dishes if you want to receive local HD programming through them, or if you subscribe to special channels (such as foreign TV).

Everything on the HD list on their website can be received with one satellite dish.

When they added Austin locals, they added them to the 60.5 satellite that requires an additional satellite dish.

Hopefully these new locals are all being added on the secondary satellite to save bandwidth on the primary satellites.

Yes it is worth it. The difference is noticeable. In addition, the Blu-ray disks you purchase will look even better when you (eventually) upgrade to a 1080p display.

The DISH DVRs originally required a land line or they charge a $5/month "receiver fee". However, they recently enabled the Ethernet port which does the same thing. I hooked up the Ethernet line and it's removed the additional fee and it theoretically lets me order on-demand, which I haven't tested.

Six months ago I was tired of my (Austin) Time Warner DVR and ordered a Tivo. The Tivo was nice, but I ended up returning it due to Cablecard issues with Time Warner. We could never get all of the HD channels working right and their inept customer support made it a nightmare.

I ended up with the exact same question--Austin Dish or Direct TV. With my initial goal of getting a better receiver and having heard all of the positive things about the Dish DVR, it was an easy choice.

What makes the Dish DVR so great are the tiny details. Sure it is fast and has all the features we're looking for, but there are small things I love.

Here's an example. You can go through all of your recordings and erase them in a batch mode. That's great, but here's the detail. If you are scrolling down, then press "Select" to check a program, it will check that program and then jump down to the next program. However, if you have been scrolling up, and check the box, it will automatically jump UP to the next program. It's a tiny detail, but it's tiny user interface details like this that make it so painless to use.