It was happening to my locals a lot in Dallas. It was so bad that I stopped using the DTV locals and use my am21 and antenna to watch them. The sound is perfect over my antenna. I heard on another forum that it has something to do with the dolby digital decoding on Directv's end. I'm not...
For only $14.00 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 2X1 Manual HDMI Switch - Push Button Type | Manual HDMI Switch
I have a powered one from monoprice that works great, but they seem to be on backorder. This one is pretty cheap and should do what you want.
Does it give you a message? I was unable to order ppv with the remote via ethernet and phone line. I was getting a message that said "check phone line or internet connection" or something like that. I had both hooked up. I called and they told me that the interactive ppv flag was not enabled...
i would suggest the keystone plates. you can pick whatever kind of jacks you want. monoprice has a pretty good selection. i have them in all of my rooms. mine are set up with a cat6 jack, a phone jack, and 3 f jacks.
you will have to pay for the recievers if you get them from dirctv or at a store. if you get your own stuff, you will have to pay for the dish (dish would be free if they install it).