How do I wire my house for Dish Network or Directv?

I'm not sure a Cable splitter will work with Satellite as they are operating in different frequency range. Someone correct me if i'm wrong on this.

And since you have 3 TVs, personally i would replace the splitter with a Satellite drop-amp.

So in short, I think you'll need
1) bulk of RG6 solid copper cables
2) a 3 port Satellite drop-amp (not Cable drop-amp)

Another way to do this is, if your TVs are all HD. Might as well just buy a 1x3 HDMI splitter. That might be easier.

DirecTV at least requires two coax feeds to each DVR; if the room uses just a receiver, not a DVR, then one is sufficient. They may also require an ethernet connection - wired or wireless - for some features to work (such as PPV purchases).

Satellite doesn't use a simple splitter, you have to use a bit smarter box called a multiswitch - for 3 TVs each with DVRs, you'd need a multiswitch with 2 ins and 6 outs. Get a 2x8 multiswitch to allow for future expansion, and they don't cost significantly more anyway.

Not true anymore with DirecTV's "Single Wire Multiswitch" (SWM) setup. With a new installation and the SWM dish, a single line comes from the dish, and can be split using common splitters, just like a cable TV installation.

This requires the SWM dish and all SWM-compatible receivers. Good news is that anything new they would be installing would fit this.

But if I was pre-wiring a home, I would still run 2xRG6 to TV locations as it allows for lots of other possibilities, and is relatively cheap to do ahead of time. For potential satellite dish locations, I'd just make sure you can get wire between that service location and your central distribution point (wherever that is) - add flex conduit if needed. For DirecTV, a single RG6 to the dish would be sufficient, I would run at least 2 (for other antenna purposes), but previously a D* install would have required 4. Not sure what DISH requires now - these are probably questions best checked over at dbstalk.com...

Jeff

What jautor said; for DirecTV, only 1 RG-6 is required from the dish to your main splitter, and a single coax from the splitter to each box. If you're switching from cable, and you have existing RG-6 to each box location, I'm guessing you'll be able to re-use the existing cabling to you TV locations, and the installer will just run a new RG-6 to the dish. They will probably also install new splitter(s) as necessary.

I generally agree with the opinion of not wanting the installer to run the lines to your box locations, but I'd leave it up to them to install the dish cable.

Most likely, this is the case. They definitely will replace the splitter and probably fittings and wallplates, but your infrastructure should be good to go.

Is a special RG6 cable required, for the sat dish, to provide grounding? Maybe RG6 with a carrier wire?

There are RG6 cables with a siamese ground wire, but it's nothing special. Many times the ground wire needs to take a different route, anyway...