I could probably help answer any questions you may have about any of the providers. Considering I've worked for 2 of the 4 companies mentioned.
I worked for Comcast for a few years, and I currently work for Astound selling large, dedicated Fiber-optic circuits to medium and large corporations and public entities in the Western region (SF, Conord, SM, Seattle, Oregon, SAC, etc.) so it's a good sized company that has a billion dollar backing to support its business and residential customers.
Having been in direct sales in the past with Comcast, I'm familiar with the games and unethical practices (IMO) that most of these companies play.
Not to get too off topic, but I remember at one point, Comcast had it's entire direct sales channel discriminate against lower income areas. They would tell it's entire sales channel throughout the US, that if someone signs up with you at an event in a specific ZIP code, street, complex, on the 'black list' or 'EZ ID list' etc. that we would have to turn them away. .
Granted, most of these people that were turned away were very honest, hard working individuals that had better credit scores than most.
So when it comes to Comcast, I absolutely love their ONDEMAND, but a company I want to send my money to? Not so much after the experiences I've had. But they run a freaking monopoly, and have purchased several of the networks that give them a ridiculous amount of power and control over the market. So even if you don't go with Comcast as a cable provider, they are still making money off of you some way.
Astound has it's imperfections, but I can say, having seen this company operate for a while, it's small enough that it still genuinely wants to do right by it's customers, and will often times go way beyond a mile to make any mistakes right. The product it offers on the TV and internet is identical (DVR, Channel lineup) to Comcast with the exception of few minor things (Comcast has more ONDEMAND content and International channels). The pricing isn't going to be as much as Comcast though. And the customer support will never be transferred to India or Mexico, at least that is what I've been told.
Dish-2nd best DVR, has a great price if you pay a year in advance. Most international channels, anyroom DVR is more affordable than Cable, However, they do not have much of an ONDEMAND selection because it's not a two way signal like cable is. They don't offer internet so you don't get a bundled discount for two products.
ATT- People either hate them or love them. If you didn't have any installation problems, you probably like them for a couple years until your bill becomes outrageously expensive and you didn't even know it because you were on Auto-pay...lol
Not to mention the long wait for customer support. Poor response time, And the contractual requirement for the service, usually.
DirecTV- best picture, Best DVR, poor customer service, most loyal customers, NFL Ticket, unfortunately no PAC-12 yet (?), Pricing is very steady if you can avoid the Premium channels.
