I have enjoyed the disucssions here. I am on the quest to find what I will be able to do in my new RV. The main issue will of course be first getting a wifi signal from something. I do have an ATT air card which has a 5GB cap, I have my cell phone but have the minimum data plan on it currently and they do not offer an unlimited. I have a zyxel portable router that can make a hotspot from a wifi signal. 11n-compatible Wi-Fi router supports DSL/Cable and 3G connectivity, and a unique failover capability; should your wired connection be interrupted for any reason, the MWR222 will automatically switch to a 3G/4G wireless signal via the users Mobile Broadband Adapter modem. So now I have the ability to have enough wifi in the RV to use any of the devices I want to use. but I need to search out other cheap(ha!) sources to obtain an internet signal on the road. I know some places we will stay do provide free wifi and using my own portable router will make that wifi secure, but for those places out in the boondocks that don't provide wifi, I will need some kind of access. My ATT air card at 5GB cap sure won't allow much streaming of anything. Any thoughts? I have been looking at Roku and other boxes and with the usb port I definitely could download plenty of my own content to have available to view for the times I am not able to gain decent access to anything. The RV does have a roof top antenna and it is wired for cable for when we are at a site with cable. I do have direct tv at home and I know they do offer an on the road version to be able to use you current direct tv account with RV direct tv equipment, no idea of additional costs. the zyxel I have MWR222

I'm kind of picky it's probably my OCD.lol I already have coaxil cables going to each room in my house where I have t.v. sets. I don't really won't the service man going all up under my house, through the closets and such. Can he simply install my Dish and run the cable to my junction in my basement and hook up the receivers to the cables that are already in the rooms where I have my t.v.'s or will he have to run all new coaxil cables to every room in my house. I would rather him not. Just don't won't to have a big mess in my basement. I have 3 t.v.s I want hooked up to dish network. Also, will I have a box for each t.v.? How does the installation of the boxes work?

If you are a sports fan that no longer lives near your favorite Baseball or football teams city, DirecTV has an exclusive on every football and most every baseball game that isn't nationally broadcast. Plus even the baseball, besides the football is now available in HD. I would think there was some glitch in installation if SD quality was better in DISH than Directv. It would make more sense if there might be a difference in HD quality, as it takes up far more bandwidth. I've had both systems and the only thing I liked better about DISH was their superior PVR. I hear DirecTv is making a new one so maybe they will be comparable. Too bad both companies are so greedy that won't let TIVO into their market anymore. MY SD Sony SAT-60 TIVO still kicks butt in usability over any other. Greg

You better double-check on using a Tivo without active service. As I remember, without it, its a doorstop -- no recording at all. A great place to get started with Tivo is ebay. I bought 2 for $40 each. When I activated service, one of them had a lifetime subscription! A extra nice bonus was since I now own an activated Tivo, the second Tivo only costs me $7/month. Tivo's do not have built in Ethernet. They have 2 USB ports. You need to get either a wireless USB network adapter or a wired Ethernet network adapter. Tivo's web site will tell you which ones are supported. Others may work, but Tivo will help you if you have trouble getting a supported adapter to work. A Tivo without a netowrk adapter is just not as much fun. I now have 3 Tivo's (2 wireless, 1 wired) on my home network. This means I can record 3 shows at the same time, transfer shows between them and my computers, schedule recordings on all Tivo's from work or the road, play games with other Tivo users over the Internet, subscribe to Internet only shows (like Rocketboom), and yes, more :) (Curiously, Tivo 3 sits in a closet -- connected to basic cable but with no TV attached. All scheduling is done over the Internet and shows are transfered to Tivo 1 or Tivo 2 for viewing.) You CAN transfer video from your computer to your Tivo. You need to download the free Tivo Desktop software. (I think you also need to enable TivoToGo, but this is also a freebie.) This software announces your computer to your Tivo's and you can "pull" video to a Tivo using your Tivo remote. If the video is not in the correct formnat, you can download a free converter from videora.com. I used this recently when I missed the second half of ABC's "The Path to 9/11." I downloaded it off the Internet using utorrent.com's free BitTorrent client, converted it using Videora's Videora Tivo Converter and copied it to a Tivo for viewing. The recording was from England, which broadcasts PAL instead of NTSC which means different resolution and frame rate, but Videora handled it with minimal audio "slip." Be aware that just because it's available on the Internet doesn't mean you aren't violating copyright. I figure that since it was broadcast and I would have recorded it, no harm, no foul. And finally, yes you can take the disk drive out of a Tivo or other DVR and put it into a computer. They are just plain old IDE drives. The only difference is that they are supposed to be quieter and do seamless spiral reading better, but I've replaced all of the drives in my Tivo's with 300gb drives from Costco or Fry's. 300gb means about 280 hours of TV so it's rare that something "disappears" before I get around to watching it. Since you can get a 300gb drive for $70, I wouldn't bother taking the time to put a used 40 or 80 gb drive from a DVR into a computer.