Help with vacation home questions...

[aheld]

HI, you all seem knowledgable and I am NOT. I have just signed up to Direct TV and have three receivers in my house. two are connected to a phone line and the third is not. we live in CA and have a vacation home (really) in montana. i want to either leave the third reciver in MT or bring it back and forth....
QUESTIONS:

i dont really understand what it means when you "force a call".

I do not have a phone in MT, so it wouldnt be hooked up to a phone line. Can the receiver itself send asignal that it is in a different place?

I would really only be using the third receiver about five weeks out of the year...

How do i get anothother satellite dish set up at our MT house?

Sorry for all the questions...help??

 

[charper1]

i dont really understand what it means when you "force a call". I do not have a phone in MT, so it wouldnt be hooked up to a phone line. Can the receiver itself send asignal that it is in a different place?

Don't worry about phone line questions, they are not required for basic receiver usage. If you want PPV at the vacation home, just order the PPV online (assuming you will have internet access). If not you should be able to PPV more than enough times over a vaction and just reconnect the receiver at home and the PPVs will upload to billing and clear off the card for new purchases; phone lines are for billing, not to confirm the individual PPV orders. However, after so many PPVs the are not uploaded to billing, you will lock up the remote ordering method.

I would really only be using the third receiver about five weeks out of the year... How do i get anothother satellite dish set up at our MT house? Sorry for all the questions...help??

It is perfectly OK to take a receiver back and forth to a vacation spot, but illegal to register it at your home address and permanantly leave it at another address. If your locals are spot beamed, you will lose them that far away from your home market, but all the national programming will be fine.

You can buy a dish and install it yourself. http://www.solidsignal.com/cat_display.asp?CAT=Antennas DirecTV Dish

 

[aheld]

thank you...being not techie at all, but willing to try....this is a brand new house that the builders anticipated a dish being installed, so all the wiring is run in the house to a spot on the roof....how much would it be to have some one come out and install it and how would i find them? if not...is it easy to install and find the signal???

 

[charper1]

If its is a standard dish without HD = real easy

If its is a PhaseIII dish for HD = fairly easy

If its a AT9 5 LNB for MPEG/HD = somewhat hard.

If you need no cabling run or fished into walls; then look in the paper or phone book for help and maybe $50 - $75, but let them give you a quote first.

 

[aheld]

then it should be "really easy"...b/c no HD. TO order ppv w/out the phone, do I call on my cell and order it? the $50-75 isn't including the dish, right?

thanks!

 

[charper1]

Can call an 800# or do it online. Cash for the installer in addition to the dish costs.

 

[johnml]

then it should be "really easy"...b/c no HD. TO order ppv w/out the phone, do I call on my cell and order it? the $50-75 isn't including the dish, right?

thanks!

If you are going to order PPV, you can use your remote. The phone line only lets Directv know about the PPV's. In other words, you can order PPV's but wont be charged until you actually plug your receiver into a phone line which you can do when you return home. ( if you dont plug your receiver into a phone line, I think your Access card has a set amount on it - Say it's $100.00 (maybe higher) - you can order PPV's until you reach the max Then you wont be able to order more until you plug into a phone line to "reset" your card. I actually had a receiver that maxed out around $250.00... :