A poll taken by random HD-Report visitors reveals that DirecTV and Verizon FiOS finish in first and second place as the service providers with best HD quality.
DirecTV finished out on top with 32% of the votes. This is not surprising given their market penetration and dominance in HD channel offerings. Verizon FiOS, who currently only serves approximately 40 HD channels, came out with 27% of the votes. DISH Network, who trails DirecTV in number of HD channels, captured 15% of the votes.
Cable providers accounted for most of the remaining 26% of votes. Time Warner Cable had 6%, Cox Communications 5%, AT&T U-verse 3%, and Charter Communications 2%.
What do the results mean exactly? They could mean pollers simply subscribe to DirecTV and FiOS. Or it could mean the DirecTV and FiOS subscribers are just happy with the high-definition broadcasts they receive, and wanted to cast their votes.
One thing is telling though, that the cable providers scored significantly lower than the satellite and fiber providers.
In the normal scheme of things, it seems like a fair statistician would at least adjust the results by the ratio of HD subscribers each provider claims. Even then, the only fair way to compare is to watch the same content live simultaneously, and then recorded, from all providers on the same display and sound system.