[andjuan]

Hey guys,

I’m upgrading to an HR34 on Monday. I won’t be around so my wife wanted me to make sure I left her with good notes for the installer. I just wanted to get your guys’ feedback on what I should tell them and if there’s anything I need to ask my wife to make sure the installer does or checks. Here’s my current setup with some notes.

HR24 in the living room.
• This where we’d like to the put new HR34.
• I have a splitter at the wall. One cable runs to the HR24. The other runs to the DECA box connected to that DVR. It’s not the wireless connection kit. I used an Apple Airport Express to bridge my Wi-Fi and then an Ethernet cable to connect. I did this myself and I don’t think is actually how it’s supposed to be set up, but it works. Is it true that the DECA box will no longer be necessary since the HR34 has one built in?
• I have an external hard drive hooked up to this box via eSata. Make sure not to hook up the external hard drive to the new HR34. The hard drive needs to move with the HR24 to the master bedroom. Otherwise all of my recordings will be deleted. Perhaps I should disconnect this and put it away before the installer gets there and gets ahead of himself?

H24 in the master bedroom.
• This is where we’d like to move the old HR24.
• This is also where the main power supply is.
• Does the DECA need to move in here? Would that allow me to record more on demand content at one time? Not sure I really need to that anyways…
• The installer may take the old unused H24. If he does, make sure he leaves a receipt or some kind of documentation that he picked it up.

H24 in the guest bedroom. As far as I can tell, nothing should happen in this room.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Cheers guys!

 

[dpeters11]

Sounds to me like you're using the DECA box as the CCK. The HR24 itself has one built in, like the 34. One option is to use the ethernet jack in the 34 over to your Airport and not use the DECA. Unlike on the 24, using the ethernet jack on the 34 does not disable the internal DECA. This would give Internet access to all receivers.

I would take the external drive off and plug it in myself.

 

[Beerstalker]

First, why not move the HR24 yourself now and save the installer the trouble. That way you can move the eSata drive with it and not worry about him messing that up. Then all the installer needs to do is remove the H24 and install the HR34 in it's place.

Second, I'm assuming he has the old version of the CCK without wireless, and that is what is hooked up to the Apple Airport Express. This shouldn't need to be touched at all, and I doubt the tech will. At most he might replace the old CCK with the new wireless version and then the OP can use his Airport Express elsewhere, or sell it.

I can pretty much guarantee that the tech won't hook the HR34 directly up to the Airport Express. DirecTV has trained them all that this can't be done, we know it can, but DirecTV tells them it can't. My guess is this is to avoid the confusion about how this can work for the HR34, but doesn't work for the HR24 or H24. If the tech leaves the CCK and Airport Express hooked up the way they are currently then the OP can decide to leave it like that or hook the HR34 up directly to the Airport Express after the tech leaves if he wants to. I suppose that would save a tiny bit of electricity since you wouldn't need to power the DECA anymore.

 

[crabtrp]

Tell him to turn up. I canceled my install of an HR34 after the third unsuccessful appointment. Stayed with Dish. Hopper.

 

[Nick]

Any existing wireing (cable, Dish, fios) that you may want to preserve for possible future use, have your wife instruct the installer not to cut, alter or remove.

 

[andjuan]

Tell him to turn up. I canceled my install of an HR34 after the third unsuccessful appointment. Stayed with Dish. Hopper.

Well apparently this was the most important piece of advice I should have listened to. Installer was supposed to show up between 8 and noon with the new box. It was the wife's day off, but she agreed to wake up early so she could meet the guy. It's now 10 til 1pm and still nothing from D*. Not happy.

 

[andjuan]

Well the local installer's supervisor just called. He said my request got "lost" in the ticketing queue. However, he also said they don't have any HR34s in stock so they can't even come out today anyways. He said they might get some more on Wednesday and he'd call me. Very frustrated.

 

[joshjr]

I had a HDDVR already where I wanted the HR34 to go but wanted to keep the HR24 there as well. I let the guy know since I had a SWM 16 under the house I neede them to make sure that only those two DVR's were hooked to that port on the SWM 16. Low and behold after telling them that before they even started when it was time to test the box I was missing a tuner. After a reboot the missing tuner # changed lol. They had to go back under the house and hook it up right. I have a total of 15 tuners in my house. They had to set it with 7 tuners on one port and 8 on the other. Minor details but it happens. Might keep that in mind in case they do the same hooking up yours.