Alternatives to Comcast

[Dan Miller]

Various things Comcast is doing is driving me away. They used to be 
decent, but now they are horrible.

Whats driving me away:

Internet: Blocking port 25. Yes, I could illegally hack my modem, but 
its not worth it. There goes all my logwatches and cron job outputs.

Cable: Their compression stinks. Has anyone watched NESN lately? Even on 
just digital cable, when the seen changes, the picture is horrible. For 
the best example check out: 
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271

I am strongly looking at DirectTV for tv, but don't know a good 
alternative for internet. So my question is two-fold.

What ISP is a good alternative to Comcast?
What cable/satellite provider is better than Comcast?

Thanks
Dan