I've never seen had the opportunity to experience HD beyond the stores so I can't speak to that directly. However, in regards to service, I MUCH prefer DirecTV to Dish. Had some really bad customer service issues with Dish and nary a problem since the move to DirecTV. I seem to recall a couple years ago having a long thread somewhere on the forum here about satellite providers. I wasn't the only one to experience this type of service issue with Dish!