Exzavier00

We are thinking about getting direct tv maybe this week
because cable is up to $48 with no movie channels.
I wanted to know about the recievers having to be allways
plugged into a phone line. Do they allways constantly
call up the number to update or do they only do it
once a day in the middle of the night?
I know that it has to be plugged in to order
pay-per-view but we will probably not use that.
thanks

joshd2012

You do not need to have the phone line ever plugged in. The phone line is used to send them info on pay-per-view. Each unit can hold a certain amount of charges before it has to be emptied (it's prolly $100 or so). Once that limit is reached, you can't order any more movies until the unit is plugged into the phone jack and the charges get send to Directv for billing. You will, however, not receive any messages concerning upgrades and free preview/special event notices.

Brian Shannon

If it needs to dial out it is usually late at night and only takes a brief amount of time.

greatjedi

What joshd2012 is exactly right. however, if you do decide to order pay per views, you don't need a phone line anymore. Now you can order them online and the price will show up on your next bill. This was good news for me since I don't have a phone jack anywhere near my reciever.

ChrisHicks

Actually here I have a diff. problem. My local cable gives me Digital cable with atleast 20 more channels than DirecTV does and it is about $15 cheaper a month. And this includes 3 cable boxes where-as DirecTV I only have 1.

Comcast Digital cable:$91.00
DirecTV: $105.00

joshd2012

Do you get every channel available?

ChrisHicks

The only thing I don't get on Comcast is the adult channels.

chanster

If you have to have a sports package, you need to be connected at least at the beginning. they occasionally do checks, but don't turn it off unless it has been a very long time.

If it does happen, plug the unit into a phone a give them a call.

JMLEWIS1

this is all assuming that you are getting a basic model...should you decide to get a tivo, a permanent phone line would be required for the tivo functionality.

Foole

DirecTV told me that the only way you could get away with not having a receiver connected to a phone line is if you only had ONE receiver on the dish and you did NOT partake of any PPVs. For two or more receivers, your account info must be 'mirrored' between both/all receivers and to do this a phone connection is necessary.

Then again, I got in on the 2001 NFL Sunday Ticket promo back in October when I first got DirecTV and I didn't have any phone connection on my single receiver...in fact today I still don't. I am planning on adding a second receiver elsewhere in the house though and I need to install a new phone jack in the old location to do so (new location already has a jack).

joshd2012

On my Dish Network satellite, we have two receivers and both of them aren't connected to a phone line. They work perfectly. I don't see how there would be a difference between Dish Network and Direct TV.

Cusm

I am looking at getting DirecTV, I have 2 tvs and am looking at getting a DirecTivo unit, or maybe one for each tv. The problem is neither tv has a phone jack by them, do I need to have a phone jack added to both locations? A jack added to the main tv only? None, not needed? Thanks for the help.

BJacks

As mentioned, essentially you only need a phone line for Pay-Per-View (otherwise you must call up to order a movie). However, as far as I know, you must have at least one of your receivers connected to a phone line at the time of initial DirecTV activation (at least that's what Circuit City's installer told me). So if you do not have phone jacks available near one of your units, you may need to purchase a wireless jack (such as the RCA one which is popular), which runs around 50 bucks. Also, I believe in order to intially activate the DirecTivo service you must have the unit plugged into a phone line. Beyond that, the Tivo will download program guides directly from the dish.

Just an additional comment about DirecTivo: if you get the oval dish you can easily run two lines to each Tivo, allowing you to simultaneously watch and record programs on two different stations. You will have to pay the 4.99/month for each additional line though.