RKassl,
I forgot…Some people do have homes they want to leave their receivers in.
(Like us. This is our home, and I sure wouldn't want to move the TIVO anywhere!)
As I've become familiar with setting this dish up, it's gotten easier all the time. In fact, the past two times, I've gotten over 80% Signal Strength, the first shot!
I do notice that there's about a 5 degree difference of Azimuth settings, between the DirecTV website, and the receiver's information. I found the receiver to be more correct, as I used to have to almost always move the dish further west than the website had said.
I'm guessing that relying upon the receiver's info is the big reason I've gotten so much better at it.
But back to the original question...It seems to me that all dishes are just fine for reception on at least DirecTV. (I'm guessing that some alteration would be needed for low-end after-market dishes to account for DISH Network's skew. But that is just a guess.)
If one is expecting the DirecTV's free dish, and one doesn't feel compelled to build one into their rig, that one is great to start with. Besides, with the entertainment center in my slide-out, I wouldn't want to have to have exposed coax that some installer would run through the ceiling and drop out next to the slide to be connected to my receiver, that way. (Having relied upon Circuit City to install my XM Radio, I'm leery of having installers try to do anything "on-the-cheap" like they did with that antenna!)
Steve