DishNetwork/DirecTV equipment questions

[Mark Strube]

A friend of mine has a cabin up north (in Rosholt), and we're interested in getting a DishNetwork or DirecTV package (Dish would be preferred). We want the biggest craziest channel package they have (minus sports), with a single standard non-HD non-DVR receiver... but for only 3 or so months out of the year. We don't want a comittment, we want to buy all the equipment, and it'd be nice if there wasn't some huge charge to activate and deactivate the service every year. (Oh, and we want pro installation of course.)

Any ideas?

[bradsmainsite]

Call TWC :p

[bradsmainsite]

Sorry Mark could not resist that,  however equipment would be around $200.00
or so for a 301 receiver and a dish 500 this would be for refurbed equipment, or you could get it cheaper on e-bay.

Install you could do youself (pretty simple to aim dish 500) doubt you would get
someone to do it unless they have property near you and would do it on the side.

I believe you can activate for around either $10.00 or $25.00 depends on the CSR you get and I would Hangup and recall  till you get one that does it the cheapest!

The first time there would be no activation fee as you bought your own equipment.

They have their everything pack for about $90.00 a month  which is 180+ channels and all the movie channels you can think of.

This would be for dish and I believe direct is about the same maybe equipment would be a little cheaper.

Becareful though once you go SAT you never go Back!

[AndrewP]

I like Dish now more (because they have much more and better PQ HD as of now).
But here you don't need HD and are looking in putting the service on hold. I beleive that DirecTV is a winner here, because they don't charge for putting the service on hold (at least they did not do it before). Dish charges $5/month if you put the service on hold.
I recommend to call them and ask these specific questions. Because SD PQ and pricing are very close. So just select somebody with cheaper installation and ongoing hold charges.

[Mark Strube]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think we're gonna go with DirecTV... I called both DishNetwork and DirecTV today.  With DirecTV, there's no charge to put the service on hold for up to 9 months, we get a free dish and standard-def DVR with a 2 year agreement... and even when the service is on hold, that counts towards the agreement. Even though the full package is $99, a little more than Dish, we'll be saving a lot more than that since it's free to put the service on hold. Nice.

[StarvingForHDTV]

This is good to know, thanks for sharing your information.

[jkane]

We have dish year round at home.  Used to carry a reciever up north with us and use it there.  Installed all my own dishes over the years too.  Now we leave a very old receiver up there year round.  Cost's $5 for the extra fee, but we do spend a lot of weekends up there in the winter too.

So ... what you should do is go all Dish (or DTV) and just have a second (third, fourth, ...) receiver and either leave it there, or carry it back and forth!

[Mark Strube]

Nah... at his house his parents have basic cable which they barely watch... and at college he has Charter Cable with an HD-DVR. He's the only one who wants the satellite service (@ the cabin), and at college he prefers the cable.