topflight70
05-29-08, 06:38 AM
Background
Well, yesterday I got my replacement HR21 Pro unit from Solid Signal. As I discussed previously, they sent me a receiver and activation card only (not a complete box of stuff, and that is all they want shipped back (no cables or anything like that). As some folks who have swapped Pro units already, the new Pro unit has a small yellow circle sticker on the back of the case between the two fans.
I powered the unit on and it started booting up. It was loaded with 0x195, so a few minutes after coming up it started downloading 0x022D. (Of course this would start to happen when I'm on the phone with D*, so I had to wait a while for that to finish and then call them back.)
The girl that I talked to said that this was the first Pro unit that she had a customer call about, but she seemed to know that it was a purchase and not a leased unit. Then we started the changeover....
Activation
I was expecting some hiccups as the first Pro had some hiccups in its activation. After a couple of tries, I got transferred over to a guy who was obviously a few steps up the technical ladder due to the issues we were having. I think the order of things was something like this:
- Unit Activated
- No HD channels
- Got some HD, Lost Locals Appearing in Guide
- Got SD locals, Lost DVR service (on any receivers, including my R15)
- and so on... gain something, lose something else
Eventually the tech basically re-built my services from the ground up. The guy was very polite and worked with me every step of the way. Actually, he seemed to be as puzzled as me as to why this was so difficult.
Afterthoughts
It seems as though the D* support system is still not quite programmed for the HR21 Pro. Both times that I have activated a Pro unit have resulted in longer-than-expected (but polite) phone calls with D*. Thankfully, the CSR staff seem to be getting a bit more familiar with the fact that the Pro unit even exists.
I also seem to have inadvertently learned something about the On Demand service. I was under the impression that the list of available DoD programs was fetched upon request over the network. However, it seems as though that list populates in the same manner as the programming guide; i.e. when I first got going, there was no DoD content available, but a couple of hours later I had more (but not all) of the DoD channels available as the EPG continued to populate.
Everything was still working as of this morning, and there was even an apparent software release last night of 0x0230. Don't see anything different (yet), but we shall see. I have my old Pro unit packed up, and will send it back on Friday via the pre-paid return label from Solid Signal.
Well, yesterday I got my replacement HR21 Pro unit from Solid Signal. As I discussed previously, they sent me a receiver and activation card only (not a complete box of stuff, and that is all they want shipped back (no cables or anything like that). As some folks who have swapped Pro units already, the new Pro unit has a small yellow circle sticker on the back of the case between the two fans.
I powered the unit on and it started booting up. It was loaded with 0x195, so a few minutes after coming up it started downloading 0x022D. (Of course this would start to happen when I'm on the phone with D*, so I had to wait a while for that to finish and then call them back.)
The girl that I talked to said that this was the first Pro unit that she had a customer call about, but she seemed to know that it was a purchase and not a leased unit. Then we started the changeover....
Activation
I was expecting some hiccups as the first Pro had some hiccups in its activation. After a couple of tries, I got transferred over to a guy who was obviously a few steps up the technical ladder due to the issues we were having. I think the order of things was something like this:
- Unit Activated
- No HD channels
- Got some HD, Lost Locals Appearing in Guide
- Got SD locals, Lost DVR service (on any receivers, including my R15)
- and so on... gain something, lose something else
Eventually the tech basically re-built my services from the ground up. The guy was very polite and worked with me every step of the way. Actually, he seemed to be as puzzled as me as to why this was so difficult.
Afterthoughts
It seems as though the D* support system is still not quite programmed for the HR21 Pro. Both times that I have activated a Pro unit have resulted in longer-than-expected (but polite) phone calls with D*. Thankfully, the CSR staff seem to be getting a bit more familiar with the fact that the Pro unit even exists.
I also seem to have inadvertently learned something about the On Demand service. I was under the impression that the list of available DoD programs was fetched upon request over the network. However, it seems as though that list populates in the same manner as the programming guide; i.e. when I first got going, there was no DoD content available, but a couple of hours later I had more (but not all) of the DoD channels available as the EPG continued to populate.
Everything was still working as of this morning, and there was even an apparent software release last night of 0x0230. Don't see anything different (yet), but we shall see. I have my old Pro unit packed up, and will send it back on Friday via the pre-paid return label from Solid Signal.