Hi all, I'm new to all of this, hoping you could help me out. My father is a subscriber to DirecTV at his home in MD. He also has a summer house on the eastern shore just north of Rehobeth Beach, DE. Instead of paying for cable at the shore house, as he has been doing, he's investigated the possibility of installing a second dish at the shore house and either bringing his receiver to the house each time he visits, or buying another receiver outright. He checked with DirecTV and they say that this is completely legit and he would only need to pay a fee to have the dish installed at the new house, and either a one-time or monthly fee for a decoder card that would be inserted into a receiver that he would need to buy. FYI, his receiver at home is not a DVR and he's only interested in the cheapest receiver he can get (even used) that will make this work - he doesn't need recording capability. His current DirecTV receiver is an H12 (all the info I have).

So my questions are:

1. Can you recommend a decent, cheap, receiver to buy (not rent from a provider) that will do the job?

2. Where should I buy such a receiver? He's also interested in getting something used, maybe ebay?

3. Will any receiver do the job or does he need one that's specially compatible with DirecTV (as opposed to Dish or another)?

Thanks for your help.

My local Goodwill is constantly full of Direct TV receivers for like $5, no access card of course.

Really any of the RCA ones are ok, I would try to get a more modern one. It's pretty easy to tell the newer ones as they are half the size or less than the older ones.

I believe Direct TV only charges an extra $5 to $7 a month to mirror a subscription to a second box and will send you a new access card.

Oh, yeah it HAS TO BE a Direct TV receiver.