Hughes HSYS-E4532 Platinum Series Deluxe Dual LNB, Dolby Digital, DIRECTV Satellite System
I like it a lot
This is my first DirecTV system.  I used to have cable, but got tired of the cruddy &quot;digital&quot; picture with its lousy compression technology (i.e., weird digital artifacts on your screen).  I also got tired of my nationally-recognized-brand-name cable company hiking my cable bill every 12 months.  So, I took a chance.  So far so good.  As far as this hardware goes: the receiver's strenghts seem to be in its software/firmware interface (i.e., menus, ways to navigate, etc.).  Unlike a cable company, which pumps the same interface to every one of its subscribers, DirecTV relies on the hardware vendors to implement their own version of an interface.  The Hughes interface is first-rate and very user friendly.  The receiver and dish look well made, and as far as the DirecTV content they receive and decode goes...I couldn't be happier.  It's practically the same content I got on cable (in my case, similar to &quot;Expanded Basic&quot; on cable) but a much cleaner picture.  The picture quality is hard to describe in words, but it's noticeable when you see it.  If it helps, it &quot;feels&quot; like it's about 5-10% better, if that makes any sense.  Some things to keep in mind about DirecTV service as a whole: You should have a telephone jack nearby so that the receiver can plug into it and &quot;talk&quot; to DirecTV headquarters about your pay-per-view choices [if any].  This is a short, toll-free call (supposedly in the middle of the night), so there's no interference with your telephone calling or modem, at least as far as I can see.  DirecTV also offers comparable &quot;packages&quot; to those of cable (e.g., 1 or mixtures of the premium channels).  DirecTV also offers unsurpassed sports programming.