My friends are telling me the 5-LNB is a beast and their installer wouldn't install it on their roof. Is it really that heavy/big/problematic? I'm looking at a Chimney installation which should handle anything.

It's larger. Ask the installer(s) in your area. I had mine installed on a pole in the ground.

P. Smith said on November 28, 2006:

They also said one of the satellites is so low, unless you live in a field you won't get the signal, true?

No. They're at the same height in the sky but at different angles across the sky, from 99° to 119° I believe.

P. Smith said on November 28, 2006:

Does the Box require a separate subscription like TIVO or is that just part of the monthly DirecTV fees?

It requires a monthly DVR fee. Why, I don't know, but it does.

P. Smith said on November 28, 2006:

I have a 2-LNB DirecTV setup for Standard TV, I assume I'll be needing to rewire the works to handle HD.

I don't know. My 3-LNB dish had four lines out of it and received all HD channels except the MPEG-4 local channels. It required no re-wiring at all.

My friends are telling me the 5-LNB is a beast and their installer wouldn't install it on their roof. Is it really that heavy/big/problematic? I'm looking at a Chimney installation which should handle anything.

They also said one of the satellites is so low, unless you live in a field you won't get the signal, true?

Does the Box require a separate subscription like TIVO or is that just part of the monthly DirecTV fees?

I have a 2-LNB DirecTV setup for Standard TV, I assume I'll be needing to rewire the works to handle HD.

Thanks.

The phone line is "strongly desired" by DTV for PPV and other items. I was able to get my installer to not care after some coaxing ("I never use PPV, it's a rip-off." is what that amounted to).

Yeah, but my "installer" is just installing the dish. He's not being paid by DirecTV, he's being paid by me.

But DTV wouldn't even install it without a land line. When the installer showed up he said he wasn't allowed to install it unless he could hook it up to a phone line initially (same thing the person on the phone said when I ordered it, but told them I had a phone line just to see if I could get away with it at install).

DirecTV uses local satellite businesses. They outsource their installs. So far as I know, it's not their policy at all to "require" a phone line. Some of the TiVo models require a phone line, but that's how TiVo has always worked, and that too is unrelated to DTV.

When the Dish installer came he just said I wouldn't be able to order PPV but installed it without complaint.

One problem with DirecTV is they wont hook up your system without a land line, when I moved into my new house I went cell only.

Not true. This receiver doesn't need a land line unless you order PPV movies and, soon, will be able to integrate via your home network.

I'm not sure it's worth ten bucks per month. The locals in HD are included in the basic Total Choice Plus package, and that's all Carey and I will likely ever watch.