Thinking directv/dish from cable lots of questions, please help

[Z71mudder]

Looks like a great forum, and I have alot of questions about a possible switch from cable to dish/directv that I hope you guys can help me answer. Ill try to separate them out and be as clear as possible.

First just let me say, Im a lifelong cable guy, never tried any type of satellite/dish setup before. Ok, I currently have digital cable and cable internet through suddenlink. The internet is fine, but the cable is just limited by channel selection and the guide/dvr setup is WAY outdated. So im looking at either keeping the cable internet and getting a dish setup for the cable, or switching to dsl with the dish setup.

First off, could the dish companies tie into my existing coaxle cables in my house w/o having to run any new wiring? The house has 4 tvs, each would have a receiver, one of which would be an hddvr, the rest just the standards.

Secondly, none of the coaxle outlets are anywhere close to a phone jack, and I read that phone access was needed for the dish setups. Would I then not even be able to use the dish setup due to that? Would I have to run phone lines to be close to the coaxle jacks to use the dish receivers?

If i went with the dsl, it is through the phone line correct? Well, my current setup at my desktop only has access to a coaxle jack and electrical outlets, the nearest phone jack is across the room, 14 feet away. So if I switched to dsl, would i have to somehow move the computer close to the phone line? Could the modem and wireless router work w/o being directly connected to a computer?

Lastly, our local channel is not included with either directv or dish network. In order to get it id either have to do an antenna or keep basic cable through the cable company. If I did the latter, i could keep my internet through them also, however, wouldnt i then need to run new coaxle jacks for the dish setups so as to not conflict with the cable outlets? If i went with the dsl through the dish company, could i then get local channels from the closest offered town and run a digital antenna to get our local channel?

I know its alot of questions, but I just want to be certain before I sign up/buy. I dont want a jerry rigged setup throughout the house and want as reliable of connections to both tv and internet as i can get. Hopefully you experts out there can help me a little bit. Thanks in advance for any help as I really appreciate it.

[BattleZone]

First off, could the dish companies tie into my existing coaxle cables in my house w/o having to run any new wiring? The house has 4 tvs, each would have a receiver, one of which would be an hddvr, the rest just the standards.

Probably. DirecTV has a relatively new setup called SWM (Single-Wire Multiswitch) that allows up to 8 tuners to be fed from a single cable feed, which gets split as necessary to get one cable to each receiver. To get it, you have to be a new customer, getting HD, not getting international programming (foreign language), and between 5-8 tuners. It looks like you'd qualify.

Dish's system would also allow you to run a dual-tuner from a single cable, but Dish requires that your existing cable is RG6, and not the thinner RG59 that was commonly used in the 70s-90s.

Secondly, none of the coaxle outlets are anywhere close to a phone jack, and I read that phone access was needed for the dish setups. Would I then not even be able to use the dish setup due to that? Would I have to run phone lines to be close to the coaxle jacks to use the dish receivers?

Neither company *requires* phone lines. Dish's prices are usually quoted based on the discounts they will give you if you have their "Duo" (dual-output, for running 2 TVs) receivers connected to the phone line. If they aren't connected, you pay $5 more per month. If you connect the phone lines, this fee is waived, which is like getting the second TV feed for free.

If i went with the dsl, it is through the phone line correct? Well, my current setup at my desktop only has access to a coaxle jack and electrical outlets, the nearest phone jack is across the room, 14 feet away. So if I switched to dsl, would i have to somehow move the computer close to the phone line? Could the modem and wireless router work w/o being directly connected to a computer?

If your computer is connected wirelessly, then you don't need to worry where the router/DSL gateway goes. It can be moved to another room entirely if you wish.

Lastly, our local channel is not included with either directv or dish network. In order to get it id either have to do an antenna or keep basic cable through the cable company. If I did the latter, i could keep my internet through them also, however, wouldnt i then need to run new coaxle jacks for the dish setups so as to not conflict with the cable outlets? If i went with the dsl through the dish company, could i then get local channels from the closest offered town and run a digital antenna to get our local channel?

Generally, you won't be able to mix cable and satellite on the same line, because is usually using frequencies on the cable that the satellite needs. You can use OTA on the same line with DirecTV's SWM system (though it isn't officially supported and technically could be broken at some point in the future). You wouldn't be able to use it with Dish unless you only had "Solo" receivers, as the "Duo" receivers need those frequencies to back-feed the TV2 signal to the second TV.

[Z71mudder]

Thanks very much for the information. Just alot to digest before making a decision. Had I known I would consider such a switch in the future, I wouldve definitely laid the house out differently when we had it built 4 years ago. Thanks again for the help.