[Iceman5000]

Just a quick update: DTV sent a HMC-Whole Home Specialist who was incredibly knowledgeable and who definitely had an engineer's mentality. He agreed that things should have been set up as you have all suggested. After setting up properly so far so good. Everything appears to be functioning as intended- and they agreed that the wiring was a tad sloppy and are returning to dress up the cabling!

Thanks for everyone's support and help. Happy New Year!

Glad it worked out for you!