DirecTivo Installation - 1200 Miles Away From Home

[Phil T]

I just did my 2nd DirecTIVO Installation for a friend in Cincinnati. He was a 6+ year Dish subscriber, but never had a DVR. I was telling him about the DirecTIVO and we stopped in to Best Buy to look at one. Best Buy had the RCA DirecTivo and standard receiver package for package $99.00 after rebates. He did a little better at Circuit City with a Hughes HDVR 40, a standard RCA receiver and a 3LNB Dish for about $80.00 after rebates and gift card. He wanted me to do the installation. He made the purchase on Thursday and I was leaving Saturday morning. The only time I could do it was Friday night.

He had a Dish 2800, a 1000 and a SW 44 switch (I think) so we had to run a third cable for the DirecTivo second tuner and do away with the switch. We started about 6:30 PM with a trip to Home Depot for cable and crimp on connectors. It took about 30 minutes to run the cable and disconnect the switch. I assembled the dish and got everything connected up and started guided setup about 7:30. To my surprise, pointing the 3 LNB dish took about a minute. I immediately got a 80 + signal from the 101 sat and had him help me lock it down. I checked the other sats and everything was in the 80's or 90's with heavy cloud cover. It was 8:00 P.M and we were ready to activate. It took about 10 minutes on the phone to get everything activated.

I spent the rest of the evening showing him how to play with his new toy!

His first surprise was to see that DirecTV carried UPN 25, a low power station in Cincinnati that Dish does not carry.

Since he never had a DVR, he was amazed the you could pause the live TV. I spent the rest of the time explaining the recording features, season passes etc.

I plan on calling him later today to see how he is doing with his new toys. I will tell him about the 30 second skip hack!

Anyway, it was a fun evening for a couple of DBS geeks who only see each other about once a year. :)

[Mark Holtz]

Shhh.... don't remind TNGTony....

(13) Dish Network has made a business decision NOT to carry this channel (WBQC-CA UPN Cincinnati). Though a low power channel and thus not a "must carry" channel, Dish Network is the ONLY multi-channel provider in the area that does not carry this channel. Of the major carriers in the area, both DirecTV (the other DBS provider) and Time Warner Cable (which had a policy against carrying any low power TV channels) now carry this channel. Dish still refuses. When asked directly via e-mail on a Charlie Chat on 9/2003 why Dish did not carry the channel, an automated response saying that the station did not participate in Must Carry legislation was the reason. It urged the reader to contact the station to in order for them to participate in must carry during the next election cycle in 2006. The fact that the station does NOT QUALIFY for must carry, the owner of the station was willing to give the signal and provide the equipment and maintenance at the Dish POP to make carriage possible was not addressed by this completely incorrect automated response. Dish continues to refuse to carry this channel for no good reason other than they can.

[Phil T]

Update:

When my friend called to cancel Dish after 6+ years they offered him nothing to stay!

[beejaycee]

Update:
When my friend called to cancel Dish after 6+ years they offered him nothing to stay!

When we cancelled, first they offered to put the service on 'hiatus' or some such status so we could always come back. Then we were offered a free month so we could compare both services side by side. About two weeks later they called and asked what it would take to get us back. Maybe his name just hasn't come up on the list to be called yet.

[Mark Holtz]

I got the "try both systems for a month" offer from Dish. There were two problems with that idea: 1. Both dishes and the switch were on the ground when I called to cancel, and 2. My mother accepted the fact that the receiver I was getting required the running of a second coax line to my room. (A little white lie, since a DirecTiVo can run off one line. Of course, the functionality is reduced.) She would not tolerate any more cable running along the house.

Besides, how can I try both systems for a month side by side when there is a one year commitment for DirecTV? Would Dish pay for DirecTV's early cancellation fees? I doubt it.

[beejaycee]

Besides, how can I try both systems for a month side by side when there is a one year commitment for DirecTV? Would Dish pay for DirecTV's early cancellation fees? I doubt it.

I pointed out the same thing. If and only if E* offered to pay the cancellation fees would it really have been a valid offer IMO. I was not threatening to cancel in order to force some concessions; I had already made up my mind and my DTivos were up and running. (Reading the problems with availability and bugs in the 522s, I feel I made the right decision but I would have preferred the idea of a house-server.)

In all fairness when comparing equipment, my D* plain-jane Hughes receiver is acting stupid and I'm waiting for it's warranty replacement to arrive. But it is a neat-o receiver that beats the pants off my ol' 3822 with its features. And the Tivos have been solid whereas my ol' 501 was starting to get irritating with the last software upgrade. But I digress...