Thanks for your story... I'm already sold on DirecTV. Have the equipment, card and all. The dish has been up for months. DirecTV aren't licenced to sell into Canada so I have to "pretend" I live in the US (which isn't a problem since I have access to a US address). I was very curious whether they would (re)activate an older card or if they made you buy a new one. By older, I mean one of the type that's still in use today, not one of the realy old ones for which they no longer broadcast a stream/keys for. I also don't have a phone line to connect to any of the receivers - which can be gotten around on the unit by using network and/or patch. Just hope this doesn't present a problem for activation. Do have a US phone number that rings at my house though (voip).

Running 2 cables instead of one is painless - especially if you use the RG-6U stuff for sale at my local electronics store. 2 RG-6 conductors stuck together with a ground wire as well. Like a wider (but flat) cable. Very nice. They should have had this when I did all my wiring! Right now I also have a multi-switch set up, so I could in fact have 8 receivers all over my house. I'll likely activate 2 and then upgrade to 3 or 4 if I find I need to record from more than one room often enough.

Bruno