Moving into my new house soon, so I'm considering the switch to Direct.

Very tough to compare the two, since so many fees etc. aren't spelled out that clearly. At one time, Dish charged something like $20/month for HD, but I can't find anything about this on their site now. Direct access fees are less, but programing seems to be more...

One concern I've got is that I'd like to have this available to 4 rooms, and it looks to me like Dish has receivers that serve 2 TVs [only one HD] at a time-- that might be better than paying for 4 separate receivers, though I'm not sure how the second tv is wired up.

Would appreciate some help...

if you need tv in 4 rooms you have 2 options with Directv, either 4 RX or purchase a couple of Wireless Video senders and hook them up. if you use the video senders, you MUST watch the same thing in the other room. if you require being able to watch 4 different channels, then you will need 4 rx.

as to dish, the way it works for the 2 room setups is that you run a coax from teh rx to teh 2nd room. think of it like hooking up a VCR, just a longer run. of course, you can also use the video sender, but in this case you CAN watch a different channel!

as far as fees go, i have 6 Rx(1 HDDVR, 3 regular DVRs and 2 regular RX), HD programming(9.99 a month), and the top package. i also have to pay for Fox and NBC since we don't have our locals availabel yet on Directv or Dish. total bill runs about 157.00 a month. sinc ei have the top package i don't pay for DVR service, if i drop down to the next lower package i have to pay 5.00 a month for DVR service(per account not per DVR). my package is a hair over 100.00 a month, then addin teh fox/nbc, the HD, and the 5 extra RX, then freaking SALES TAX and it comes out to the 157.

i have no clue what Dish's rate structure is.

Can I get direct tv receivers that use radio [uhf?] remote controls, so the receiver can be controlled from a couple of rooms away?