The Outdoor Channel is on DirecTv ch. I have used both. In my opinion, Dish Network is the better of the two. Also, one more HD Channel, and I believe Dish Network will be adding more HD Channels before Direct TV will. The only drawback is if you are a sports fan.
Direct TV offers far more sports programming.
Hope this helps. Both services transmit heavily compressed standard signals. Video quality from these channels can vary from as good as laserdisc to worse. HDTV signals from Dish Network are passed through without alteration yielding uncompromised quality. DirecTV however, alters HDTV signals by stripping some of the original signal to save bandwidth and this can affect the quality in a negative fashion.