New DirecTV (or maybe DN) Hookup - Questions

[BQuicksilver]

Well, I've decided to go the route of Sat TV after watch cable prices climb more and more.

A little about my needs, so you can help out easier:
- Want to keep costs at a minimum
- 3 TV's (wouldn't mind a 4th soon)
- 1 HDTV, but it's not super important to have HDTV for me, though it would be nice
- looking at 185/200 channel packages from DTV / DN
- I'm leaning toward DirecTV

I'm really just wanting to avoid any setup pitfalls that might be unknown to a new customer.

Are there any brokers that give a better deal for new customers than you'd get over just calling the company directly?

Should I purchase any of the equipment myself rather than use the equipment provided/leased?

[TBoneit]

Lease.

If you go Dishnetwork you could get a VIP622 dual tuner to feed 1 HDTV and a SDTV with seperate tuners for each in one box with a 200Hour SD or 30 HD or a mix of them on one Hard Drive. DVR IOWs. a Second 625 would feed two other TV sets with SD the same way.

This would give you two boxes that have 4 tuners + 1 OTA Digital tuner between them that can feed 4 TVs with different channels. Each box comes with two remotes one for TV1 and 1 for TV2 (UHF) this will save you money versus having 3 or 4 seperate boxes. Each box has a mirroring fee after the first box.

So Dishnetwork 1 mirror fee for 3 or 4 TVs. DirecTv 2 mirror fees for 3 TVs or 3 mirror fees for 4 TVs.

I've had both over the years.

What could tilt the decision either way would be locals?

The DirecTv for HD has two tuners that can either do sat or TV but only two total. The Dishnetwork 622 hs 2 Sat tuners + a OTA Digital tuner so with an antenna you can record 3 at a time.

Dish also has non DVR two set models for HD or Sd too.

For me ever since I bought the Series 1 Tivo and then 2 Dishnetwork DVRs I can't stand live TV where I'm at the programmers mercy. YMMV.

One other thought research, research, research!

Dishnetwork lease 18 month commitment
Most DirecTv 2 years.

Go to www.dbstalk.com , www.dbsforums.com and http://satelliteguys.us/ read and don't jump.

You will find boosters for both services on those forums.

Myself I have dishes everything pack with HD, 300+ channels including 30+ HD national channels. DirecTV is promising more HD this year. Will it? New owner now. Dishnetwork run/owned by Charlie Ergen, a smart man.