Need advice from Sattelite TV users

[MrMike]

I am a couple of mouseclicks away from signing up for legitemate Direct TV or Dishnetwork service from over here, going to try to pass myself off as a resident of the US with the help of friends who live there and getting the larger dish locally etc. With all the free hardware and tivo deals out there it's hard to resist, and local pirate cable has really got me bored lately. (I should be brain-damaged from 5 years of it)

I was wondering if anyone who has gone this route has advice like:

What are the advantages of one over the other in terms of being able to activate the equipment from here? (or does one simply have to have their co-conspirators activate the stuff in the US first)

How does one cancel the "free standard installation" without giving away their true intent?

Does anyone know if a non-US billing adress for the credit card used to pay for the service will be a problem?

Basically I would like to know if someone else has done this and can advise me on simple steps I could take to ensure successful content smuggling.

[Adrian Bye]

- Use a business mail billing address so you show up as in the USA..
- consider HDTV and hDTV TiVo.. would be awesome..

Let me know if you get this to work, I think I'll follow you.. :-)

[MrMike]

I think you have to have a HDTV set to use that, and as I understand those are still prohibitively expensive.

[pati]

I am a couple of mouseclicks away from signing up for legitemate Direct TV or Dishnetwork service from over here, going to try to pass myself off as a resident of the US with the help of friends who live there and getting the larger dish locally etc.

Will a receiver from Direct TV work in DR? All the posts I've read only refer to Dish network.

[trina]

Will a receiver from Direct TV work in DR? All the posts I've read only refer to Dish network.

I can't verify this for sure in the DR, but I'm told by a friend "in the know" that the Direct TV receiver works in Canada...I could only assume it would work in the DR, as well.

[kagg43]

the dish will only work in the DR if the satellite footprint allows the signal to get there. Satellites are positioned to broadcast there signals to specific areas. Depending on where this might be the DR may be on the fringe area of that area. YOu need to check this before you buy the signal.
The bigger the dish means that you can receive weaker signals.

[Dasching]

Hemmingway's in Playa Dorada has Directv. Not sure how they do it, but I watched Directv there.

Wonder about Dishnet?

[sonny]

I live in Santiago and I had DirectTV with the hacked card, it usually never worked and then it stopped working totally when the new P4 or P5 cards came out. So I had my parents who have Dish network buy a new receiver (model 510, that can record shows) and ship it down. With a new receiver you have to call dish network and activate it, which can be tricky because they use 2 satellites for their programming and the big dish that you will use can only catch one at a time. I would suggest buying it and activating it in the US if you know someone there and then shipping it down here. If you want to go legal then you can use Direct TV or Dish Network. They even sell it in the big mall in Santo Domingo, but they charge way too much money.

[twhitehead]

I can't verify this for sure in the DR, but I'm told by a friend "in the know" that the Direct TV receiver works in Canada...I could only assume it would work in the DR, as well.

The direct TV receiver does work in Canada but as of right now no one has the fix for the card

[Riu]

With the phasing out of the HU cards, which you could clone and use anywhere, don't know how it would work in the DR with P4 or P5 card. The only problem to overcome is the card as the receiver should be no problem. DirectTV satelite is in geosynchronous orbit, hence the only thing you need to do is to know the right angle to direct your satelite. One way it may work is, activating your card in the U.S. or Canada, have billing to a U.S. or Canada address, get the card to your DR receiver and should work. Once they have a hack for the P4 or P5 card you would be able to clone your card and in effect have two. In the latter, YOU CANNOT CONNECT A PHONE TO YOUR RECEIVER. If you do your dish provider can render your card unusable.