I've been a long time DirecTV customer, but I'm thinking about switching to DISH and have some questions, hopefully this is the right place to ask them...

First, my situation: I've got two TVs in the house that have to have DVRs on them - right now I've got an UltimateTV DVR in my theater and another one upstairs. Whatever I get has to handle both locations. The theater needs High Definition, but the TV upstairs is standard def.

My house is wired on a "star" pattern. The hub is in my garage - my DirecTV's antenna feeds into a 4x8 switcher in the garage, and then I have coax that runs to my theater into the UTV box, and more coax that runs to the upstairs TV into its UTV box.

If I got the DISH HD DVR, which I understand feeds two TVs at once, how would the wiring work? I had the forethought to run extra coax to both the theater and the upstairs TV from the hub location in the garage (largely because every interior wall in my house is insulated and pulling cable is therefore close to impossible). I've also got several Cat5e cables run to each location as well (but the hub for that is in my office upstairs, not the garage).

Does each TV share the same shows that are recorded? If I record a High Def show, can it be displayed on the SD TV (in other words, does the DVR box downscale it from 720p or 1080i to standard def 480i) or do I have to set the show up to record both in HD and on a different channel in standard def?

Pipe dream time - I don't suppose the DISH DVR has a working RJ-45 port on it where I could hook it into my PC network and watch recorded shows (playback MPG files) on my PCs? Like I said, Pipe Dream. I'm doing that right now with my HTPC and BeyondTV, but it sure would be nice to be able to do it with the DISH DVR as well...

Finally, and this really isn't hardware related, but - my kids would be very upset if they lost the "PBSKids Sprout" channel, and I can't find out if DISH has that channel. Does anyone know? I'm in the Houston area...

My 622 feeds both my HDTV in the family room and the SDTV in the guest bedroom (currently occupied by my Son). Both TVs can record programs and both TVs can watch recorded programs independent of where they were recorded. The only exception is that only the HDTV can record OTA programs but once recorded they can be watched at either location. The SDTV has HD shows down converted and letterboxed.

I have a second coax leading from my family room to my attic that carries the second TV output. The existing cable to the guest room is connected to this in the attic. Actually it is the third coax to the family room. the other two are the satellite feed and OTA antenna feed. The satellite feed has two satellite tuners multiplexed and I believe you can have the second TV return multiplexed on it also.

The 622 has an ethernet port but I do not believe it can access other nodes on your home network. It is used in place of the phone line for PPV purchases.

I do not know anything about the PBSKids Sprout but I do not believe it is on their national channel list but it might be on the Houston locals or an OTA subchannel.

Hope this helps. The 622/722 are fantastic DVRs.

Rick R