Questions regarding satellite TV plus cable modem
 

I am thinking of going with DirecTV as our primary television provider, but then use Comcast for Internet access. I know there are issues of periodic interruptions to the service with satellite dishes, but I think DirecTV offers some sports options that I don't have with Comcast.

Here are my requirements:
A) televisions in all 3 bedrooms (could possibly get by with just 2 BRs) plus living room plus lanai
B) HD on at least two of the TVs
C) DVRs on the two HD TVs
D)YES network plus all NFL games plus possibly the Big 10 network

So, here are my questions.

1) Based on the DirecTV web site, they offer the YES network for Yankee games. Can anyone with DirecTV confirm this for the TV market? Is it available as part of their standard package or do you have to subscribe to it and pay a surcharge?

2) How much does the NFL ticket cost?

3) From a wiring perspective, if I want to use the cable runs in the house for television, I assume that the Comcast cable would have to have its own "network" which could be to just a single location for the cable modem plus a WiFi router. Is this the arrangement that people have who have both cable plus satellite service?

4) As an alternative to cable Internet access, how much slower is DSL from Embarq? How much does it cost relative to a Comcast cable that is only being used for Internet (i.e., no bundled service)?

5) Does it make any sense to also get the bare-bones cable TV offer from Comcast for periods during which the Satellite is down (and also to get the The Villages network)? I'm guessing that the price of this fallback position is going to be quite high since this would require duplicate cabling around the house - unless you brought both the satellite feed and the cable feed to the point of origination for the the house network and manually connected the cable to the house network during stormy periods. Or, is DirecTV reliable enough to not make this extra effort and expense worth it?

6) I believe that someone on another thread implied that to use a DVR with DirecTV that a separate cable run into the room with the DVR is required. I can't think of why this would be, so perhaps I am misunderstanding this. Can anyone comment on this?

7) Does having satellite service on 5 televisions become cost prohibitive relative to cable? In other words, do I have to give up watching the Yankees and Giants. (Please say no.)

Lots of questions, but I have yet to be disappointed with the quality of answers that I have received on this forum, so thanks in advance.

My opinion on #5 is no, it is not worth it to have "back-up Comcast". The Directv is up 99.99% of the time. IF it should be down, you can still watch the programs you have recorded on their receiver.

Not exactly answering #4, but I switched from Comcast bundled internet to Embarq. Comcast kept going up and up, so I am now paying $44.95 a month for life, with no increases. Don't know if tax is included in that.

Question #3
 

So for question #3: No need for installing a separate network. My house has 5 or 6 cable outlets through the house. Each of those cables is a direct run from the splitter located at the service entry point on my house (a gray box on the side of the house) to each of the wall outlets. None are piggy-backed.
If you wanted to run Direct TV to 5 of them and Comcast internet to 1 of them, it would be really easy to use the existing wiring in the house without any modification, other than removing one of them from the splitter and attaching the incoming internet to it (which Comcast will do for you). If you are running Direct-TV and the internet to the same cable outlet, you will need another wire, but just for that run. In the LR we have two outlets for cable. I could easily wire one for the internet and one for the TV.

Directv NFL package is $249 for the season. If you add the "Superfan" package it's another $99. If you don't get the "Superfan" package, you will be very limited in viewing games in HD, so if you want games in HD, you need to cough up the extra $99.

Big 10 network is part of package at no extra cost. You won't get all the games each Saturday, so far it's been about 2 per Saturday. It's only on one channel (610).

There is also a college package you can buy at an additional cost to get more than the limited network games.

Why not dish

Might be close to a toss up between Dish and Direct, but only Direct has the NFL package so that was the difference for me.

I have 2 HD DVRS and 2 standard digital boxes on 4 TV's with DirecTV.


I'll start with #6. YES, you need 2 cables to the DVR box to#record 2 channels simultaniously or to record 1 and watch 1.


Regarding #3 & 4, I have Embarq's medium speed DSL which comes in on a phone line to a modem. I have WiFi for my 2 computers, 1 desktop & 1 laptop.

I don't think there's any signifant loss of speed that anyone would notice, UNLESS you want to play games with complex graphics on the screen.

Can't help you with the YES network as I'm a Milwaukee Brewer fan and I did buy the MLB ticket for the last half of the season (pretty reasonable I thought). I also have the NFL ticket BUT keep in mind for HD and most of the other specials like watching the "game mix channel" that are advertised with the Ticket, you must buy the SuperFan package.

I just spoke with DirecTV and the agent claimed that while there are indeed two cables that connect to back of the DVR that only a single cable run to the place that the TV is is required. She said there was some kind of splitter that is connected between the wall jack and the DVR. This seems to be at odds with what others here on TOTV have said, where thay claimed that a completely separate cable run is required all the way back to the dish or some other central point. Was I being fed a bill of goods by the DirecTV agent?

If a second cable run is required, was this included in the free installation that they provide, or did you have to pay an additional amount for this?

I have Directv on 3 sets, of which one has a DVR. There is only one cable running from the wall to each set. The HD DVR does not require two cables from the wall.

Can you record two shows at the same time or watch live TV and record another show simultaneously? The feedback from above implied that to allow two different statations to be received at the same time required two cables. If I understand their comments correctly, if you only wanted a single channel to be recorded, then one cable would be sufficient.

I have Directv DVR on one set and it requires two cables.

Two cable outlets? Or one outlet that then branches into two cables?

The device they can use is called a multiplxer. What it does is allow for the usage of the existing cable running from comcast into the wall outlets in your house. They need one for the dish and then one for each room TV. It acts like a splitter as it seperates cable/internet signals and uses 2 wires. One goes to your Directv receiver and the other to a comcast receiver be it cable TV or internet.

S

OK, I think I understand it now. Apparently the mux allows BOTH cable as well as satellite feeds to coexist on the same coax. I am then inferring (perhaps erroneously) that the cable can also carry both signals from two different TV stations such that no additional wiring needs to be run from the wiring hub to the room with the DVR. Am I correct in this understanding?