D questions

[Bob Haller]

I am back shopping for D, no doubt this will thrill folks here.

Can I use my old E multiswitch, its a 8 out so it should be plenty big enough. It has a power jack but I didnt get a adapter with it. Does this matter?

I guess theres no problem using one side of a dish 500 with legacy LNB?

Any cable length limits for D? Finding a place for the dish is going to be a problem, because of trees.

Too bad TIVOs dont have UHF remotes jen is bothered by hard drive moise. Our bedroom 508 is in the basement for this reason.

If I bought a used tivo from a friend, they require a new card? Cost? Is there a one year commitment on a used box? A good friend got divorced, moved to a apartment and is basically giving away his stuff, because he has no room, offered me the tivo for $10:(

He is trying to get rid of a storage bin costing him $130 a month:(

We are credit challenged. What does D require for new activations?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[tivosmart]

I am back shopping for D, no doubt this will thrill folks here.

I bet it will. If you decide for the expertsatellite deal let me know and we can split 50/50 whatever rewards they offer. (This gives you a Tivo package w/ free shipping after rebate + 3 months of hbo + a free dvd player for around $22)


Can I use my old E multiswitch, its a 8 out so it should be plenty big enough. It has a power jack but I didnt get a adapter with it. Does this matter?
I guess theres no problem using one side of a dish 500 with legacy LNB?

I have both dish antenna/switch and directv antenna/switch but I never tryed to interchange them. I guess if you use the 300 part of your 500 it would be ok, the dual lnbs are the same. Not sure about the switch though... if it's not one of those new switches it would probably be ok, but I'll pass on this.


Any cable length limits for D? Finding a place for the dish is going to be a problem, because of trees.

the new install restricts free single cable runs to 125 ft I believe. You can have more but would probably have to pay extra, and also put a booster in the circuit. Just to be clear, this is per cable run. You could have all 3,4,5,etc, dependending on how many receivers, run each with 125 ft.


Too bad TIVOs dont have UHF remotes jen is bothered by hard drive moise. Our bedroom 508 is in the basement for this reason.

You can try this:
link (http://www.bluedo.com/bluedocgi/product.cgi?model=RR-X200)
It's the best solution I've seen since the transmitter is embedded inside the battery, but of course this costs extra $$$ per remote.


If I bought a used tivo from a friend, they require a new card? Cost? Is there a one year commitment on a used box? A good friend got divorced, moved to a apartment and is basically giving away his stuff, because he has no room, offered me the tivo for $10:(
He is trying to get rid of a storage bin costing him $130 a month:(

hmm. not sure if I understood... if the receiver came with the old card you can use it when you call directv. If not they sell it to you, but I don't know the price. By the way, killer deal on the directv tivo for $10...


We are credit challenged. What does D require for new activations?

They ask you for the SS number, and though they don't advertise it they do run credit checks. I heard reports of people who refused to give the SS number because they said to the Directv person they wouldn't feel confortable by giving it away. They asked then for a up-front debit in a credit card that would be returned later to the subscriber.

[bonscott87]

Good answers there. Just a couple additions:

The DISH multiswitches will only work with DISH stuff. DirecTV uses multiswitches that you can buy pretty much everywhere. In other words you cannot use your DISH switch with DirecTV.

Cable run length. The rule of thumb is about 100 feet before needing an in line booster. If the length is too long you can get a degraded signal. I have 3 runs of about 80 feet and one run of 120 feet. I don't have a line booster for the longer run and it works fine for me. If you need a 250 ft run you can do it, but you'll need at least one in line booster. No hard fast rule though, you'll just have to test it.

[DCSholtis]

Welcome to the "other" side, Bob....:D

[spanishannouncetable]

...I have both dish antenna/switch and directv antenna/switch but I never tryed to interchange them. I guess if you use the 300 part of your 500 it would be ok, the dual lnbs are the same. Not sure about the switch though... if it's not one of those new switches it would probably be ok, but I'll pass on this...

...hmm. not sure if I understood... if the receiver came with the old card you can use it when you call directv. If not they sell it to you, but I don't know the price. By the way, killer deal on the directv tivo for $10...

Directv receivers will not work with Dish Network multiswitches, and vice versa.

Directv will NOT activate a used card. EVER. They will sell you a new card for $20 then activate the used receiver with the new card.
You are better off buying a new receiver from Directv. Regular receivers are $50 and DirecTiVos are $99 every day to every subscriber, so unless your used DirecTiVo is less than $79, why bother with the used one ?

[tivosmart]

Directv will NOT activate a used card. EVER. They will sell you a new card for $20 then activate the used receiver with the new card.

A friend of mine said to me that he called D* trying to activate an used card and they indeed had a new card sent to him. Sorry for the confusion above when I said they would. I didn't know he had received a new card. He also told me that when he called they sent the new card for free, but this was a long time ago, things could have changed now.

[Bob Haller]

Correct me if I am wrong but the multiswitch I have datres back to when E only had one slot and top 40 was the biggest package. I believe this single slot standard multiswitch will work on D?

its 2 in 8 out

[dishrich]

Correct me if I am wrong but the multiswitch I have datres back to when E only had one slot and top 40 was the biggest package. I believe this single slot standard multiswitch will work on D?

its 2 in 8 out

As long as you are ONLY using a single slot dish on 101, YES it will work fine. (WON'T work with the oval D* dishes)

[spanishannouncetable]

A friend of mine said to me that he called D* trying to activate an used card and they indeed had a new card sent to him. Sorry for the confusion above when I said they would. I didn't know he had received a new card. He also told me that when he called they sent the new card for free, but this was a long time ago, things could have changed now.

Yes, they send the cards via FedEx. They even deliver them on Saturday, and the customer pays no shipping charge.

[Karl Foster]

...and curiously enough, when I got a new card for my daughter's receiver that I bought off EBay, the card came from a Canadian shipper. Yes, I ordered the card from D*...

[pez2002]

Cool enjoy Directv