If TV's 3 and 6 are in different rooms the remote will be a problem. Why not a second 722 for TV's 3 and 6?
Quite simply, cost. The first 722 (actually, now that I look at it, I think they'd give a 722k under the lease, though I'm not quite sure of the difference) would be provided as a free upgrade, but the other two DVRs will have an upgrade fee (at least according to the DishNetwork current online ordering page). $200 upfront is higher than we'd like to pay, but it is manageable. $300 we'd like to avoid, particularly if another 722k won't make that big a difference over a 612.
As for the remote, I was pretty certain the 612 came with a 6.3 UHF Pro remote, am I mistaken? I was working under that assumption and intended to buy a couple more for some of the mirrors in our setup anyways. Scooby's post below yours seems to confirm my assumption.
You can hook up the receivers to the internet with a home plug adapter. The receivers have the technology built into them, all you need is one transmitter that connects to your internet connection. Do a search on the Dish Network site for info.
I'm not sure if this is the same as what you were talking about, but it just reminded me that we are already using some internet over power line technology right now. My brother's Cat-V connection was damaged (we think there is some damage to the cable under the house), so the AT&T guy gave us some PlugLink adapters for free (instead of having to run new lines for a fee). Is it possible to make use of this for the boxes as well and if so, how could I go about doing that?
ON the flip side the only receiver that would save you money having hooked up would be the 722.
Are you certain of this, because it would make the install even easier. The place where we are putting the 722 happens to be the only location where we DO have a spare internet port.
Looking at a specs .pdf for the 612 DVR that I found awhile ago shows an ethernet+phone port on the back on the box, so I'd definitely like some confirmation of this if possible. I'd like to avoid seeing any hidden fees on my bill that aren't appearing on their online ordering site and this is one that I know I should be able to avoid. If having one box connected DOES avoid the fee, would I still be wise to find a way to hook up the other two? What kind of features would that provide?
The 722k does have a home distrobution coax out for both TV1 & TV2 any channel from 21 to 69, the OTA module adds an additional output for channel 3 or 4.
This is good to hear and confirms what took me a lot of research to conclude. Speaking of the OTA module though, I've had some trouble finding out exactly what that does. My understanding of it right now is that it will add an extra 2 streams to the box that can only receive over the air digital channels. Is this correct? If so, would I need to do anything to make sure these two additional streams would be active & viewable on the mirrors in the setup as well, or would simply having the OTA module hooked up be enough? If this is easy enough to setup, I may take advantage of it and purchase one as well.
As for the mirror wiring mentioned a few times, even if the tech can't do it for me, I'm actually not too worried about it. It seems fairly simple to hook up just by myself assuming the install tech handles the hard part of running wire directly to each of the three boxes. Because of the existing cable network (which my brother and I ran ourselves more than a couple years back), I think I can just run a coax from the 722k's modulated output to the wall right by the TV which heads directly to a wiring hub we have. From there I could simply hook it directly to the IN part of a splitter that heads to the rest of the house (replacing the former Time Warner IN cable from outside (luckily the cables are all tagged making this even easier). I should be able to do something similar with the 612 if it has Coax out to get it to TV#3.
By the way, thanks again for the help everyone, its much appreciated.
edit: oops forgot a question. How will I be sure I get the boxes I want? The online ordering tool simply says HD Solo DVR or HD Duo DVR, do I need to call ahead of time to make sure the tech brings a ViP722k and 2x ViP612s or will those be the only options anyways.