New potential customer

I'll leave the wiring questions to the wiring experts.

4. What you get and don't get with the Sports Pack: http://www.carload.com/dishsports.htm

5. Adding programming is free. Dropping programming is $5 per incident. Changing programming "sideways" without changing your total bill is $5 per incident. The CSRs typically have the authority to waive the fee if you can give them a good reason; mentioning a recent Dish price increase should work.

 

Wires are not "everywhere". One or two wires (depending on the actual set-up) from the dish to the receiver. One wire from the receiver to each TV.

Talk with the installers before they do anything. But the basic install is free for new subscribers and you get what you pay for. Just like with anything else, there are good and bad installers out there. The only thing that will prevent a poor install is to keep an eye on when goes on. It is hard to give an real estimate without seeing the property. I am not an installer so I cannot tell you about pricing.

Don't let anyone tell you that you can use your existing cable. You need one or two cables directly from the dish's LNB to your receiver to get reliable service. No ifs, ands or buts. From your receiver to the other TV's in your house you can use existing cable, but only if it is not being used for anything else. Essentially, RUN ANOTHER CABLE.

Probably not. The "R" in RSN stands for REGIONAL. This means that the network only has the right to show certain programs within their area and no further. About 60-70% of college sports and nearly all pro sports are blacked out on the out of market RSNs. The only notable exception is if you live in an area where you do not automatically get an RSN that carries a team that claims your area as their territory. These areas are few and far between

Yes there is a fee to prevent people from changing their programming constantly. And to prevent the "1 day movie" or PPV syndrome where some one will subscribe to HBO on Sunday at 5pm, watch The Sopranos and Big Love" and cancel the subscription at midnight each week thus only paying a buck or two than $15 each month. The fee is chaged when you downgrade or when you "sidegrade" (changing packages to the point that the new package costs the same or less than the existing service you are on) The fee is $5.

Is there a way to get around it? Yes. I have had that fee waived 3 times over the past 7 years the fee has existed. I have had it charged once. The three times I had it waived I had not made any changes to my account in over 18 months. The time I did have it charged to be was when I canceled a pack I added only a few months earlier.

See ya
Tony

 

I hesitate to suggest that anything Tony says is wrong, so let's just say I'd like to elaborate.

For distant RSNs, my blackout estimates:
College football, 70%
College men's basketball, 40% (almost none early in the season, 80% in the final week)
College women's basketball, 5%
College baseball, 20% (only leading up to CWS)
College softball, soccer, hockey, gymnastics, swimming, track and field, volleyball, wrestling, rugby, 0%

Even these figures are calling the glass half-empty. With college football, I look at it as a way to get an extra three or four games a week, not as a way to be blacked out from a bunch of games I couldn't get anyway.

 

Webtravler,

One recommendation I would strongly advise is try and become as knowlegeable as possible on troubleshooting and installation yourself because the phone tech support is atrocious with most of the people being absolute beginners and in most cases knowing less that the customer.

I recently spoke with about 7 different people over there at Technical support and 5 of the 7 people that I spoke with were absolutely useless and infact "made up crap" that I knew was not true. Once you yourself become a little more knowlegeable (and this forum greatly helps in getting to that point) you really can tell very quickly if the person knows what they are talking about.

Having said that I should point out that if you do have a stable installation then there really should be no need to have any contact with Dish Network Support which is a good thing.