# Moving to New Home - Will Directv Wire My House?



## spanozzo (Mar 1, 2004)

Ok - I am moving to a newly constructed home. The carpenters are getting done with the rough carpentry. I called a DirecTV CSR on the movers hotline this evening and asked them if they would come out and wire my home (with outlets rather then through the floors) before the drywall is installed. The CSR told me no they don't do it but I was not confident in the CSR's answer because she seemed very unsure.

I know that the local cable company will do this for up to three outlets and then charge an additional $25 per outlet. Why wouldn't directv offer a similar service?

Any info would be helpful!! Thanks.  

Steve


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## bigpuma (Aug 12, 2003)

I would guess they would not do it for free. The free installation for movers connection is the cheapest possible route on the outside of your house from the dish to the rooms where you have receivers then drill through the wall. So if you want the wiring done right you should either do it yourself or have the electrician do it for a fee.


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

Now is the time to wire the house, for everything you might need. Run all wiring from each room to a central/common location (minimum 2 each). Also run the cables from the dish to that location. Then distribute from there. And while you're at it, run some cat5 as well. Maybe even some fibre.

You'll be happy you did.


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## dagap (Dec 5, 2003)

Yeah, what he said. Run speaker wire too. Be sure to run a coax for a powered subwoofer. Doh! I forgot that one.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

dagap said:


> Yeah, what he said. Run speaker wire too. Be sure to run a coax for a powered subwoofer. Doh! I forgot that one.


And make sure there is an outlet nearby too!


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## grecorj (Feb 6, 2002)

We had the electrician do it for our house when we recently went thru a major rebuild & remodel. Ran everything down to one panel in the basement (electrical, phone, sat wire). Also left a piece of conduit from the basement to the attic for future expansion. If HDTV is a remote possibility for you you might want to run 4 lines to the attic to a multiswitch in the basement, and then 2 lines from the MS to each room location. And while he's at it, have him run one cable line from the first floor to the MS -- this will be your line if you switch to cable or hook up an external antenna.


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## texasbrit (Mar 17, 2004)

If you are going to use an antenna for Over-the-Air digital then you need an OTA cable to each location. You should run four RG-6 cables from the attic to a central multiswitch location (as grecorj says), run another cable from the attic to the same location (for cable or antenna) and then at least three cables from that central location to each room where you want to have TV - two cables for a dual-tuner satellite PVR, and one for antenna. (With the new DirecTV satellites you need a separate feed for the antenna).

The central location would contain the multiswitches for the satellite system and the splitter or distribution amplifier for antenna or cable. As was said, you will need power available at the central location to power multiswitches and any amplifier you may need.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

You built all your walls with 2x8's right? Because 2x4's just don't leave enough room for all the wires and fiber you should run "just in case."


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Oh, and make sure you run enough wire for Dolby's upcoming 26.12.5.1 speaker system.


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## mrailing (Nov 30, 2005)

If you want to wire a "decent" setup you want to run:

2 - RG6 cable lines per jack (send and receive video)
2 - Cat5e cables (one for computer and one for up to 4 phone lines).

That's what I would run as a minimum to at least one jack in each room, if not two jacks. To your main entertainment setup, you will probably want to run at least 2 additional RG6 cables. This will let you run a dual tuner Tivo, plus have a line for incoming cable, and still have one available to send video back to the distribution panel.

Run all lines to a center location and terminiate them in a panel box for easier distribution. label them as you pull them. You can then run 4 or more lines to the attic for a Sat installation and at least two lines out to an exterior location for cable hookup (one for cable and one for cable internet). 

So essitially you will have 4 lines from the attic to the panel for incoming Sat service, and two lines available for incoming cable. You want to run at least a 12 pair line from the distribution box to the exterior box for phone, this allows as many lines as you need, plus I would run at least a single Fiber connection to the exterior box to the distribution panel.

That would give you a wonderful setup for just about any sending and receiving video system, and allow you to run exterior cameras to the system and backfeed it to all TVs in the house.

This doesn't even count on Speakers in the house, but that would provide you with a great starting setup...


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## spanozzo (Mar 1, 2004)

dswallow said:


> You built all your walls with 2x8's right? Because 2x4's just don't leave enough room for all the wires and fiber you should run "just in case."


Nope. Its a 2x4 stud house. Shame but there is no way I will be able to run fiber.


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## SeattleCarl (Nov 11, 2005)

Talk to your construction company and arrange for a low voltage electrician to come in and do the wiring.

Specify RG6 with solid copper center conductor and all compression fittings - no exceptions. And has been noted, two Cat5e or Cat6 runs to each location also.

If possible, run a conduit to the attic for the feeds to the dish.

Carl


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## Bob_Newhart (Jul 14, 2004)

I just know that if I were to build a house and were to have it pre-wired with every possible combination of wiring, inevitably 6 months down the line we would rearrange or buy some furniture and discover that an outlet is in the wrong place. ANd then it'd be whipping out the drywall saw and going to town.


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## vogon13 (Jun 1, 2005)

I have had the same customer call me to do a home theater/satellite wiring job on 2 (!!!) consecutive new homes, but both times he called _* after *_ the drywall went up and they had moved in.

Not a customer of mine anymore. I can't work for such creatures . . .


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## a4wanman (Jun 21, 2005)

When I built my house, I did the electrical and TV/data wiring. Anywhere I was going to put a phone or TV jack, I installed 3/4" blue flex conduit for all TV/phone outlets. I used 6-module Leviton QuickPort faceplates. There are many different QuickPort modules: Cat5e, RF, S-Video, RCA, banana plugs, and others.

In the living room, I put in 2 wall boxes. I also have 2 of the 3/4" conduit running from crawlspace to attic. All RG-6 and Cat5 cabling are homerun to the attic.

May be overkill, but has come in handy serveral times when I've had to add another phone jack or RF jack.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

vogon13 said:


> I have had the same customer call me to do a home theater/satellite wiring job on 2 (!!!) consecutive new homes, but both times he called _* after *_ the drywall went up and they had moved in.
> 
> Not a customer of mine anymore. I can't work for such creatures . . .


Well, he may not be a complete idiot as if he is buying a home from a national builder (and even lots of locals) they will not allow a buyer to do any work on the house until it is closed. Usually, only the small custom guyus allow this.

Now, it would have been a good idea for him to at least call you so you could advise him what to have the builder's vendors do, then you could finish the rest of the install.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Before I moved into my house about 20 years ago I wired the whole thing for cable, phone lines, ceiling fans, and central alarm system. Overall I calculated that I ran over 1/2-mile of wiring. I ran into a problem with the electrical inspection since I ran the wiring without a permit so I had to scramble between local government offices to get the permit approved the day before we were scheduled to go to settlement on the house. The moral to the story being that you should have the necessary permits in place or you could be in a pickle with the inspectors.

Since then I have installed DirecTV and have run well over 1000' of RG6 and at least 300-400' of CAT5 plenum cable. I have a two-story house with a finished basement and a drop ceiling. I was fortunate to have a space on the 2nd floor that I could use as a wiring closet and run lines from there to all the rooms in the house without too much difficulty. I had a clear shot from the 2nd floor to the basement which made access to all levels rather easy.

If possible, make sure you can set up some sort of raceway that allows you to easily run cables between all levels of your house. In my case I was able to drop cables to the 2nd floor from the attic and come up through the basement for connections to the first floor. This will make adding more cables later a piece of cake.


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## mjh (Dec 19, 2002)

Having just finished with the low-voltage electrical contractor in my new house, I think some of you guys don't realize how expensive this can get. I simply couldn't afford 2RG6 and 2Cat5 to each room. As it was, I ended up needing a total of 27 cable runs. 18 of those came standard, so I had to purchase 9 extra runs. And that cost me almost $800! If I'd done what I wanted (2x2 in each room) it would have cost me almost $2000 for wiring!

It's really easy to talk about how much wiring someone should have installed in the house they're building. I know, I told a buddy of mine to do the exact same thing a few years ago. But it's a different story now that I'm paying for it!

For those who are curious, my low voltage wiring contracter does structured wiring (a very good thing). So I run everything from the outside and every room to a central wiring panel. Because I knew I wanted D*, I needed many more RG6 external runs so that I could use a cascading multiswitch inside the CWP. Here's what I ended up ordering:
Total of 6 external RG6 lines (4 for DirecTV P3 dish, 1 for HD antenna, 1 for cable modem)
2 external Cat5e
5 bedrooms @ 1 RG6 & 1 Cat5e each
Bonus Room: 2 RG6 + 1 Cat5e (DTiVo in this room)
Family Room: 2 RG6 + 1 Cat5e (DTiVo in this room)
Office: 1 RG6 + 1 Cat5e
Kitchen: 1 Cat5e
That's a total of 27 lines. 18 of which are standard, meaning I had to pay for 9 lines. I can buy lines in a 6-pack for $495 or at $95 each. 1*$495 + 3*$95 = $780.

What I wanted would have been to increase the number to 2 everywhere that there's only 1. That would have increased the additional line number to 24, requiring four 6-packs @ $495 = $1980.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Contrast that with how a contractor will charge you $800 for installation and drywall repair just to run that one line you need but didn't run during construction.

It's not that it isn't expensive to run a lot of wire; it's that it is significantly more expensive and intrusive to try to run it later.

If you provided the cable, would your contractor have charged more to run a cable that was dual coax versus the cost to run a cable that was single coax? It oughta be the same, right?


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

Bob_Newhart said:


> I just know that if I were to build a house and were to have it pre-wired with every possible combination of wiring, inevitably 6 months down the line we would rearrange or buy some furniture and discover that an outlet is in the wrong place. ANd then it'd be whipping out the drywall saw and going to town.


In this case, I would run lines (or conduit) to locations which might sometime in the future become locations for the TV etc. If this means four spots in the living room, so be it.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

I just moved in a few weeks ago. I hear you on the cost adding up. I think the total was about $2500 for low voltage wiring all said and done. 

I had the contractor run 3 Coax and 2 Cat 5e to 4 rooms (Living, Office/Bedroom 2, Master and the third floor bonus room plus a few extras here and there. I figured 2 lines for Satellite and one for OTA HD/ CCTV and one Cat 5e for phone and one for networking. I only ran 2 coax and one cat 5 to the guest room and 2 CAT 5e to the kitchen. I also had them do a 7.1 prewire in one room and a 5.1 in the other (master bedroom). 

Also, the master bedroom runs to a linen closet in the room and then there are 5 coax and 3 Cat5e runs between the closet and the LCD TV location, plus the surround stuff goes there. This was a pre packaged deal they had which they bill as being for plasma TV's, yet they use Red, Yellow and White video jacks on the plate.  I will just use three for component and use one Cat 5 for and IR repeater. They would not run an HDMI cable for me so I had them add the 2 extra CAT 5 since I found a couple of places that sold converters that use 2 CAT5 for DVI/HDMI. I may never use it, but it is there if I need it.

This is really a security company first and they moved into doing prewiring and A/V stuff, so I had to really hold their hand when speccing this stuff. The lady had a glazed look in her eyes when I was pulling out my floorplans and she had to call their install supervisor over and he started getting a glazed look in his eyes.

Add in all the dedicated outlets I asked for (at least one at every TV and computer) as well as additional outlets in various places and I probably ended up paying $4k in wiring upgrades. I never would have thought it would be that much, but luckily, my wife is very understanding and lovers her gadgets and we did budget a fair amount for this going in. 

We ended up drawing scale floor plans of every room including furniture and must have walked around similar houses under construction 20 times before putting it all down and I am already thinking "man, if only I had..." already.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Like the ad says, you can pay me now or you can pay me later. If you can get access to the house before the drywall goes up and the builder doesn't have a problem with it then I would recommend that you run all of the wiring yourself. I wired my entire house in one weekend. There are areas that I coud never have accessed after the drywall went up so now is the best time to get it done.

If you run the wiring yourself then your only expense is the cost of the wire and some plastic outlet boxes. You can buy a 1000' roll of RG6 for about $125-135 and the boxes are usually less than a buck apiece. There is no need to terminate any of the cables at this time. Just install an outlet box at each location and coil the wire inside the box. Use cable clips and not staples to secure the wire to the studs. Use a 3/8" drill so you can pass the wires between studs in a wall. Run the wires horizontally above the outlets and then drop them down to each box location. 

If you're not sure how to do any of this just go to Home Depot or Lowe's and get a book on residential wiring. Get a copy of the floor plans or make one up yourself. Just make sure your measurements and dimensions are as accurate as possible. Do one for each floor. Draw the layout of all wiring you install and show the location of the main junction box and each outlet and label what each one is for. You'll need this when you apply for the permit. Check your local laws for more details or call your local permit office.

One thing I would recommend that you do is mark the location of each outlet box on the flooring just below each box. You'd be surprised how many drywall contractors are too lazy to cut out all of the box openings and will simply cover them up. Label each wire at the main junction box location and then cover the wire ends with a plastic bag. The painters will simply spray everything in sight and you may not be able to read the labels after they get done if they're not protected (this happened to me).

If the builder will allow you acces to the house after the drywall goes up and the painters have done their thing then you should probably try and install the outlet plates and terminate the cables before the electrical inspector arrives to scrutinize your work. I highly recommend the use of keystone jacks and wallplates. Get plates with extra jack openings and use dummy plugs to fill the extra holes. I believe you can get good deals on the jacks from monoprice.com but there are others as well, such as 9th Tee. The keystone wallplates come as either full plates or Decora wallplate inserts so pick whatever your builder uses so they match.


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## mjh (Dec 19, 2002)

dswallow said:


> It's not that it isn't expensive to run a lot of wire; it's that it is significantly more expensive and intrusive to try to run it later.


Agreed. I got less than I would have wanted, but more than the minimal that I thought I'd need. The only regret that I have is that I could have skipped several of the Cat5e lines and replaced them with RG6 lines. The primary use of Cat5e is (of course) phone and network. And both of those have very usable, inexpensive and evolving wireless substitutes. AFAIK there's no wireless substitute for RG6.



mr.unnatural said:


> If you can get access to the house before the drywall goes up and the builder doesn't have a problem with it then I would recommend that you run all of the wiring yourself.


I brought this idea up to my builder, but they had a big problem with it. If I were building a custom home and I owned the construction loan, then I wouldn't have had much difficulty with doing this. Unfortunately, I'm working with a tract builder and I won't actually own the home until closing. So my builder was (rightly I think) concerned with

liability - what if I hurt myself
warranty - what if the work that I do, causes a problem with something that they cover under warranty - e.g. structural damage from drilling a hole, or I trip on some electrical wire and create a fire risk, etc.
inspection - what if the work that I do causes an inspection to fail
timing - if what I do causes a delay in their work, they're on the hook for the construction loan. Any delay that I cause means more interest that they have to pay on the construction loan. My price is fixed in the contract.
So I understand their position.

I would have been willing to pay $2000 if the lowvolt contractor would have been willing to install conduit from each room up to the attic and from the attic to the CWP. Then they could have installed no wires at all (except to the outside) and I'd have been able to do whatever I needed. But, alas, no go on that one either. Again, this would have been a no brainer if I owned the construction loan. I'd only pay for a lowvolt contractor who's willing to do it. Such is life in the tract world.



> If you're not sure how to do any of this just go to Home Depot or Lowe's and get a book on residential wiring.


I would also recommend checking out this site: http://www.swhowto.com.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

mjh said:


> I brought this idea up to my builder, but they had a big problem with it. If I were building a custom home and I owned the construction loan, then I wouldn't have had much difficulty with doing this. Unfortunately, I'm working with a tract builder and I won't actually own the home until closing. So my builder was (rightly I think) concerned with
> 
> liability - what if I hurt myself
> warranty - what if the work that I do, causes a problem with something that they cover under warranty - e.g. structural damage from drilling a hole, or I trip on some electrical wire and create a fire risk, etc.
> ...


My first house was a Pulte and they were teh same way, but of course, did not even have options for things like structured wiring or surround prewire, so even though I was willing to pay, they were unwilling to do it. I ended up talking to teh super and just casually asked when a good date to run wiring so that no one got in trouble would be, wink wink, and he told me what day the drywall would be going up. The night before, a buddy and I ran the wires I wanted, though I could not really add any phone/data since it would have been obvious. At least I got an extra Coax in in teh living room and the surround wiring done.


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## footballdude (Apr 16, 2004)

I just built a new house last year. The builder contracted with a security company to wire the place with an alarm system. For $200 I got them to run Cat5 to every room in the house. As long as they were there and running wires, why not add a few?


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## zipdedoo (Aug 31, 2006)

Schedule your appointment for your movers connections. As an installer myself, I would much prefer to run cable in a house before its drywalled. There is not really any wall fishing that has to be done in most cases. If the installer is going to have to drill through several wall studs or floor joices then you will probably need some tip money on hand. Cash talks but you'll get your lines ran much cheaper than going through a sub contractor. If for some reason you get a lazy installer that still won't do it just reschedule your appointment. You might want to have a power cord or outlet near each location and a small tv for the installer to verify. He shouldn't need this, but not all installers have the proper equipment. Also make sure to have outlet boxes for him to use or if you can go ahead and attach them to the studs where you want them. Remember where you put a coax outlet or even a phone outlet, there should be power outlet by it.

Good luck


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## jkaetz (Aug 31, 2006)

If your builder won't let you do the wiring before hand, just take a lot of pictures before the drywall goes up. I was able to get my builder to run a couple pieces of conduit through my vaulted ceiling to the attic for my cables. It made things a lot easier, but I should've used a bigger conduit.  Also remember that it is much easier to ask for forgiveness then it is to ask for permission.  If I build another house, I'll be ready with the wire just before they put up the drywall. Just make sure you follow the building codes for your area.


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## mjh (Dec 19, 2002)

Lee L said:


> I ended up talking to teh super and just casually asked when a good date to run wiring so that no one got in trouble would be, wink wink, and he told me what day the drywall would be going up. The night before, a buddy and I ran the wires I wanted, though I could not really add any phone/data since it would have been obvious. At least I got an extra Coax in in teh living room and the surround wiring done.


I had planned on doing something similar. I spoke with the super, also. Then when I got around to actually doing it, the lowvolt contractor had caulked all of the holes that they drilled. So I either had to punch through the caulk, or drill new holes. When I asked the lowvolt contractor about it, they said that my builder required that. I also noticed that they did NOT caulk *any* of the holes for the electrical wiring. I think that this was an intentional message by my builder that they did not want me to run my own cabling.


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## spanozzo (Mar 1, 2004)

mr.unnatural said:


> Like the ad says, you can pay me now or you can pay me later. If you can get access to the house before the drywall goes up and the builder doesn't have a problem with it then I would recommend that you run all of the wiring yourself. I wired my entire house in one weekend. There are areas that I coud never have accessed after the drywall went up so now is the best time to get it done.
> 
> If you run the wiring yourself then your only expense is the cost of the wire and some plastic outlet boxes. You can buy a 1000' roll of RG6 for about $125-135 and the boxes are usually less than a buck apiece. There is no need to terminate any of the cables at this time. Just install an outlet box at each location and coil the wire inside the box. Use cable clips and not staples to secure the wire to the studs. Use a 3/8" drill so you can pass the wires between studs in a wall. Run the wires horizontally above the outlets and then drop them down to each box location.
> 
> ...


Excellent Info. Thank You.


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## spanozzo (Mar 1, 2004)

zipdedoo said:


> Schedule your appointment for your movers connections. As an installer myself, I would much prefer to run cable in a house before its drywalled. There is not really any wall fishing that has to be done in most cases. If the installer is going to have to drill through several wall studs or floor joices then you will probably need some tip money on hand. Cash talks but you'll get your lines ran much cheaper than going through a sub contractor. If for some reason you get a lazy installer that still won't do it just reschedule your appointment. You might want to have a power cord or outlet near each location and a small tv for the installer to verify. He shouldn't need this, but not all installers have the proper equipment. Also make sure to have outlet boxes for him to use or if you can go ahead and attach them to the studs where you want them. Remember where you put a coax outlet or even a phone outlet, there should be power outlet by i
> 
> Good luck


Thank You everyone!!


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## kb7sei (Oct 4, 2001)

It's amazing how quickly the wiring can get out of hand, according to my wife.  

We are building with a small local builder and have the construction loan, so I can do whatever I want to.  So far, the plan is as follows: 

Bundled wire to every room (2 RG6 + 2 Cat5e in a single jacket) 

Entertainment center will get an extra run. (4 of each) 

6 RG6 + 2 Cat5e to the attic, probably to an eve mounted box. The installers will just terminate the cable on the roof and plug into existing connectors. I'm going to run the outside box by an electrician friend of mine and the builder to make sure I comply with any codes specific to outdoor boxes. The builder is installing eve mounted 120V outlets, so I don't foresee any problems with my low-voltage stuff. If I can't have the box, I'll just leave the wire in the attic. 

1 bundled wire run to the side of the house for phone and cable TV/Internet. 

The builder is also installing a 2" conduit attic to basement to make future expansion eaiser. He said I can run my stuff outside of the conduit, leaving it empty for future use. 

Whole-house audio. 6 zones will get 14/4 speaker wire + 1 Cat5e to a box on the wall at light-switch height. From there, 14/2 speaker wire to the speaker locations in the cieling or wall. There will be a few zones with remote input boxes as well.


I've allready got the bundled cable. That stuff is great, one pull for 90% of the runs. I just need to buy/build something to mount the spools to. I also have extra RG6 and Cat5e for the extra runs where I don't need 2 more of each. Of course, everything will home run to an equipment rack.


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## extension 721 (Sep 29, 2005)

also as a once-installer, I agree with spazzado 100% Have the plates and boxes (but don't let on that you have the plates unless they mention those are extra) and be prepared to shell out a few bucks for custom work. Some guys pay for their own cable, but wholesale... be prepared for that if you want extra lines run in excess of your directv requirements. I flashed my SBCA license at a DTV HSP warehouse and got 500' of twin for $45

ah, for the days of my excessive-torque drill and a 3/4 auger bit.


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