I'm looking into this for myself, but it might take awhile to get all the info.

However, here is the 'story'.

A friend of a friend supposedly can take a DirecTV box to a completely different house (his daughter's) and somehow the DTV box communicates with his dish (miles away at his house) over the phone line.

She can use the DTV box, change channels, and watch on her TV as if the box is connected to a dish on her roof.

Apparently this is something that can be done with DirecTV but not Dish. The guy is telling my friend, a Dish customer, to change to DirecTV so he can have a TV in his shop and access his own the DirecTV signal over the phone.

I have no doubt that some of the information I am quoting is incorrect, but the basic idea seems to be what I've outlined. My friend is not at all a high-tech guy, but his friend is very much so.

Has anybody heard of anything remotely like this?

Not even remotely. It's smoke. The DirecTV box needs a direct, high frequency coaxial connection to the dish, same as Dish Network. It would only work if the daughter also had a dish on her roof.

Is this high-tech guy a salesman for DirecTV?

I agree. Will work if you have a dish on the roof to plug into, but not over the phone line. In fact, our neighbor at the lake does this. He shuttles his receiver between his home and his lake house and they are in different states. Didn't make sense for the few weekends a year to get a whole new setup. But I'm curious, can DirectTVs box discern where it is picking up signals? Every once in awhile his box will revert to basic channels only at the lake. When he brings it back home and plugs it in (just coax, no phone) it starts to pickup all the channels he pays for again.

I don't think the box knows where it is. I have a "friend" who has an old SD box that spends 2 months out of the year at my, I mean my friends, hunting camp about 200 miles from home. Picks up the same channels as it does at the house.

But I'm curious, can DirectTVs box discern where it is picking up signals? Every once in awhile his box will revert to basic channels only at the lake. When he brings it back home and plugs it in (just coax, no phone) it starts to pickup all the channels he pays for again.
No. The receiver does not know where it is. All it knows is that it needs signals from D*s satellite(s) to work.

He probably has a Ka/Ku dish at his home (satellites 99, 101, 103, 110, & 119) and just a basic Ku dish (satellite 101) at the lake.

No. The receiver does not know where it is. All it knows is that it needs signals from D*s satellite(s) to work.

He probably has a Ka/Ku dish at his home (satellites 99, 101, 103, 110, & 119) and just a basic Ku dish (satellite 101) at the lake.

I have no idea what he has. The one at the lake looks like the old 18" round one and it has a single coax from it (I know, I helped him connect it once). I don't know what he has at his home. The strange thing is, it works for all the channels he pays for most of the time. Then it will suddenly only pickup basic with the call customer service to order channel on everything else. He says as soon as he carries it back home it picks up all the channels again.

Makes me appreciate my Time Warner cable, more and more :)

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Makes me appreciate my Time Warner cable, more and more :)Your Time Warner cable box receives ALL the channels at the lake house as it does at home, not just the basic ones? :D

Your Time Warner cable box receives ALL the channels at the lake house as it does at home, not just the basic ones? :D

Ha, I wish. Time Warner at home, sattelite at my lake house. My friend, is really, my friend....He's been up there 20+ years. We just bought up at the lake last year. I thought about switching over to dish at home so I could do what he does, but we like our cable too much.

Not even remotely. It's smoke. The DirecTV box needs a direct, high frequency coaxial connection to the dish, same as Dish Network. It would only work if the daughter also had a dish on her roof.

Is this high-tech guy a salesman for DirecTV?

No, he is a tech for the phone company.

No, he is a tech for the phone company.Well, he certainly should know that you can't send a high frequency satellite signal over a phone line.

I think he needs a refresher course in phone technology (and should stay away from the hard stuff).