Bad Rex
05-13-08, 09:54 AM
I went 20 months with an HR20 and no 5LNB dish!
No, I'm not crazy (well I am a little crazy, but not so much in regards to the dish!)
It's a long, long story that starts with my initial setup many years ago. I have a cedar shake roof that D* absolutely refuses to install a dish on. That's fine with me. It's a nice roof and I don't mind it remaining intact. But my southern exposure is quite wooded, so good dish locations are not readily available.
So it took several installation attempts, but we finally got a tech who got a dish side-mounted on a second floor outside wall. (I could be wrong but i always recall his name as Peter Parker). This was both a blessing and a curse.
The blessing was at last we had service. The curse was subsequent dish upgrades became extremely problematic because the only access to this dish was on the long extension ladder extended over a single story section of roof. Follow-up techs would resist if not refuse to work on the dish in that location. Wiring was also a problem. Access to the attic from the dish was easy, and the attic had a line to virtually every room in the house, but only one line. The first DVR got its second line by throwing it over the roof to side of the house it needed to be on. The second DVR seemed impossible to hook up, since it would be next to an interior wall. To avoid the extra custom "fishing" charge, we came up (actually, I have to give the tech full credit/blame for this one) the solution of a second dish, eave-mounted, one story above a crawlspace that had access to the interior wall.
Problems continued with the addition of HD via 2 HR-10s. The second dish location was easy to upgrade to the 3 LNB, but it took multiple attempts to line up the dish in the original and more difficult to reach location. But eventually at 20 months ago, everything was stable. I had 2 HR-10s, each with separate lines to different dishes, one of the lines being diplexed with an antenna. Another SD DVR only had one line.
Then, right at the beginning of the 2006 TV season (finally, I'm at the beginning of the HR-20 20 month saga), the HR-10 in the main viewing room dies. And here is where I make the key mistake. I'd been considering a bigger TV for a while anyway, so it seemed like a good time to hop over to the BB, pick up the TV, and while I'm there, grab another HD-DVR.
Well, that may not sound so bad, except they were out of HR-10s and so they sold me an HR20 and neglected to tell me that I needed another dish upgrade to use it to its full capablility! And if that wasn't bad enough, OTA wasn't working on it!!
I will never go anywhere but D* for D* equipment ever again!
repeat
I will never go anywhere but D* for D* equipment ever again!
Well somehow I survived until OTA got turned on, and at that point, even though the wiring scheme was a mess, I basically had everything I wanted. The only channel the 5LNB would have got me that I would have watched once in a while was the local sports networks HD feed, so I was good for over a year without the new dish until the new bird started lighting up. Then panic began to set in. When the first automated phone message came in for the free dish upgrade, I was all over it.
If there's a lesson for D* in all this, and I'm not sure there is, but it would be at this stage, because my situation is proof that "all dish upgrades are not created equal."
You might think that the worst case for my setup would be, "Just replace both dishes and you're done." Nope and double nope. First, the eave-mount won't support the new dish. Second, the diplexers have to be circumvented somehow. The first tech's "solution" to all this? He convinced the wife that many of the new HD channels would be coming in on the old dish and that she should just wait to see what starts coming in. :eek2: I guess she had something else she wanted to do that day, because I relented and postponed the upgrade.
It's no surprise to anyone here that basically no new HD channels came in on the old dish. So my dilemna continued. As you can tell by the length of this post, it was difficlut to explain to a customer service rep what all this "simple" upgrade involved. As result the techs would show up not really knowing what they were in for, and just not prepared for the job. I didn't keep records but I think one more tech came out and recommended taking care of the wiring myself and turned around and left. I seriously considered this, but never got around to setting aside the time to do this.
Well, a few weeks ago another HR10 died. And prior to this, the HDMI had gone out on my other HR10 -- the least used, so it was not a big deal. But at this point, since I knew I would get HR2x as replacements, I decided to bite the bullet.
Again this would take two tech visits. The visits were complicated by the fact that somehow the replacement HD DVRs had vanished from the work order! But that was OK, because I got an actual tech on site, and although he needed to reschedule, I explained all the issues with the muliple dishes and diplexed lines and felt confident that on the return visit, finally, everything would get done that needed to.
So that brings me to last Saturday. Everything is set for a perfect install, right? Wrong! Although the first tech added to the notes that I needed two replacement DVRs, the tech on Saturday calls and says he can't give me new DVRs unless it's in the work order from D*. So the tech is enroute and I'm calling D* trying to get a work order and they're telling me they can't change a work order like that. Their (the CSR and her supervisor's) solution was to ship new receivers to me for only the cost of shipping. While this wasn't ideal costwise, it did give me the option of keeping the HR-10 with bad HDMI which was something I wanted to do. Plus it simplified the tech's job to just the dish upgrade. So I consented.
The tech shows up about 10:30. When I go outside to meet him, he is staring at the eave-mounted dish looking like :nono2: ! Little did he know, this was the least of his problems. So I started my tour at the other dish and his expression didn't change that much. He's calling his supervisor and looking at the dish and he is thinking about cancelling and his supervisor is telling him to let him know one way or the other and then he decides he can do it. So the discussion turns to where the lines from the dish are going and so the tour begins of three rooms and two attics and two diplexers and the OTA antenna and literally a half hour later, he's ready to start. And it was literally 6 hours later before he was done (including a break to pick up more RG-6.)
So my 20-month saga has finally come to an end. Hopefully. I still don't have my new boxes, but I don't expect any problem with that (famous last words, right?) The CSR even said I could get AM21s at no charge if HR21s show up.
And if my 20-months with an HR-20 and no 5LNB isn't a record, maybe the length of this post is? ;)
But I really should end with praise for the last tech to come out. He did what many before him would not or could not do and did whatever it took until the job was done and done right. We even got rid of the cable going over the roof. Keep the faith everyone. There are some amazing people out there doing their best to bring you the latest and greatest quality TV available.
No, I'm not crazy (well I am a little crazy, but not so much in regards to the dish!)
It's a long, long story that starts with my initial setup many years ago. I have a cedar shake roof that D* absolutely refuses to install a dish on. That's fine with me. It's a nice roof and I don't mind it remaining intact. But my southern exposure is quite wooded, so good dish locations are not readily available.
So it took several installation attempts, but we finally got a tech who got a dish side-mounted on a second floor outside wall. (I could be wrong but i always recall his name as Peter Parker). This was both a blessing and a curse.
The blessing was at last we had service. The curse was subsequent dish upgrades became extremely problematic because the only access to this dish was on the long extension ladder extended over a single story section of roof. Follow-up techs would resist if not refuse to work on the dish in that location. Wiring was also a problem. Access to the attic from the dish was easy, and the attic had a line to virtually every room in the house, but only one line. The first DVR got its second line by throwing it over the roof to side of the house it needed to be on. The second DVR seemed impossible to hook up, since it would be next to an interior wall. To avoid the extra custom "fishing" charge, we came up (actually, I have to give the tech full credit/blame for this one) the solution of a second dish, eave-mounted, one story above a crawlspace that had access to the interior wall.
Problems continued with the addition of HD via 2 HR-10s. The second dish location was easy to upgrade to the 3 LNB, but it took multiple attempts to line up the dish in the original and more difficult to reach location. But eventually at 20 months ago, everything was stable. I had 2 HR-10s, each with separate lines to different dishes, one of the lines being diplexed with an antenna. Another SD DVR only had one line.
Then, right at the beginning of the 2006 TV season (finally, I'm at the beginning of the HR-20 20 month saga), the HR-10 in the main viewing room dies. And here is where I make the key mistake. I'd been considering a bigger TV for a while anyway, so it seemed like a good time to hop over to the BB, pick up the TV, and while I'm there, grab another HD-DVR.
Well, that may not sound so bad, except they were out of HR-10s and so they sold me an HR20 and neglected to tell me that I needed another dish upgrade to use it to its full capablility! And if that wasn't bad enough, OTA wasn't working on it!!
I will never go anywhere but D* for D* equipment ever again!
repeat
I will never go anywhere but D* for D* equipment ever again!
Well somehow I survived until OTA got turned on, and at that point, even though the wiring scheme was a mess, I basically had everything I wanted. The only channel the 5LNB would have got me that I would have watched once in a while was the local sports networks HD feed, so I was good for over a year without the new dish until the new bird started lighting up. Then panic began to set in. When the first automated phone message came in for the free dish upgrade, I was all over it.
If there's a lesson for D* in all this, and I'm not sure there is, but it would be at this stage, because my situation is proof that "all dish upgrades are not created equal."
You might think that the worst case for my setup would be, "Just replace both dishes and you're done." Nope and double nope. First, the eave-mount won't support the new dish. Second, the diplexers have to be circumvented somehow. The first tech's "solution" to all this? He convinced the wife that many of the new HD channels would be coming in on the old dish and that she should just wait to see what starts coming in. :eek2: I guess she had something else she wanted to do that day, because I relented and postponed the upgrade.
It's no surprise to anyone here that basically no new HD channels came in on the old dish. So my dilemna continued. As you can tell by the length of this post, it was difficlut to explain to a customer service rep what all this "simple" upgrade involved. As result the techs would show up not really knowing what they were in for, and just not prepared for the job. I didn't keep records but I think one more tech came out and recommended taking care of the wiring myself and turned around and left. I seriously considered this, but never got around to setting aside the time to do this.
Well, a few weeks ago another HR10 died. And prior to this, the HDMI had gone out on my other HR10 -- the least used, so it was not a big deal. But at this point, since I knew I would get HR2x as replacements, I decided to bite the bullet.
Again this would take two tech visits. The visits were complicated by the fact that somehow the replacement HD DVRs had vanished from the work order! But that was OK, because I got an actual tech on site, and although he needed to reschedule, I explained all the issues with the muliple dishes and diplexed lines and felt confident that on the return visit, finally, everything would get done that needed to.
So that brings me to last Saturday. Everything is set for a perfect install, right? Wrong! Although the first tech added to the notes that I needed two replacement DVRs, the tech on Saturday calls and says he can't give me new DVRs unless it's in the work order from D*. So the tech is enroute and I'm calling D* trying to get a work order and they're telling me they can't change a work order like that. Their (the CSR and her supervisor's) solution was to ship new receivers to me for only the cost of shipping. While this wasn't ideal costwise, it did give me the option of keeping the HR-10 with bad HDMI which was something I wanted to do. Plus it simplified the tech's job to just the dish upgrade. So I consented.
The tech shows up about 10:30. When I go outside to meet him, he is staring at the eave-mounted dish looking like :nono2: ! Little did he know, this was the least of his problems. So I started my tour at the other dish and his expression didn't change that much. He's calling his supervisor and looking at the dish and he is thinking about cancelling and his supervisor is telling him to let him know one way or the other and then he decides he can do it. So the discussion turns to where the lines from the dish are going and so the tour begins of three rooms and two attics and two diplexers and the OTA antenna and literally a half hour later, he's ready to start. And it was literally 6 hours later before he was done (including a break to pick up more RG-6.)
So my 20-month saga has finally come to an end. Hopefully. I still don't have my new boxes, but I don't expect any problem with that (famous last words, right?) The CSR even said I could get AM21s at no charge if HR21s show up.
And if my 20-months with an HR-20 and no 5LNB isn't a record, maybe the length of this post is? ;)
But I really should end with praise for the last tech to come out. He did what many before him would not or could not do and did whatever it took until the job was done and done right. We even got rid of the cable going over the roof. Keep the faith everyone. There are some amazing people out there doing their best to bring you the latest and greatest quality TV available.