[William1]

Most of the comments posted are about bad installs and other poor service. This is not one of them. While I have had more than my fair share of sub par work down by DTV contractors over the years, what with missed appointments, failure to bring equipment, knowledge of how to install and on and on, today was not one of them.

The tech called early, telling me he'd be here in 2 to three hours. One and a half hours, he arrived. Actual DTV van, wearing DTV uniforms. Not the red 'free candy' van and salvation army clothing. Good!
He gave me a brand new HR-44 DVR, not a well used refurb. He knew what he was talking about. Certain aspects of my current install, he wanted to upgrade. I wanted to move the old HR-24 DVR up stairs and put the new HR-44 DVR down stairs. Happy to do it. Went through, ensured my static IPs stayed. Generally ensured everything was perfect.

The original reason for the call to DTV was because the plain HR-22 in my bedroom was pixelating on HD channels. Not a big deal but bothersome. I called DTV and the CSR noted I was a long time customer and offered to replace the unit and upgrade to a second HD DVR at no charge. No second DVR fees. Whole Home could not be free but she gave me a $10.00 a month credit for 12 months, just about covering three and a half years of the whole home fees. No install costs, no replacement costs. Yes, I had to agree to a 24 month contract however, DTV is the best (and only game) in town.

FYI - The tech told me the HR-44 could not run both IR and IF simultaneously. I confirmed it with a look at the setup. Maybe the next gen HR54.......

KUDOS DTV

 

[Beerstalker]

Sounds like a great experience. However, I am pretty sure the tech was wrong about the HR44. As far as I know it is the only one in the HR series that can do IR and RF at the same time, which may be why the tech was wrong. The HR44 only works in RF with the new RC71 remote though, so if you are using an older remote they won't work in RF period.

 

[bigbw]

I can use both types of remotes with my HR44, and the newer one is set to RF, the older one to IR..

 

[William1]

The remote they left me with is a RC71. I took the techs word on it.

So... I changed the HR-44 setting to RF. The RC71 works wirelessly (on the HR-44, not my Rotel audio amp of course). Also, my Harmony 650 IR remote woks fine too. So I mis-spoke before. Yes, the HR-44 HD DVR, if set to RF, still works on IR. I hope DTV does not do a software update and remove that ability. In my home, the living room TV and the kitchen TV are fed from the same box through a HDMI splitter. It was stinky that I could not control the DTV box in the kitchen. Now I can!

 

[RAD]

I can use both types of remotes with my HR44, and the newer one is set to RF, the older one to IR..

Agree, no problems with my HR44-700 with the RC71 in RF and RC65 in IR mode.

 

[dpeters11]

Not to burst your bubble, but no one gets charged a second DVR fee, that's per account. There is an additional receiver fee of $6 a month. Hoping you were made aware of that by the CSR.

 

[William1]

LOL, no bubble to burst. I did not think I'd get hit with a second DVR charge. I was just making sure

 

[harsh]

The THR22 and the HR44 both support IR and RF control without having to choose.

That other HD devices don't is very likely a "business decision".

 

[William1]

Ok.. so the tech was wrong about the remote. No doubt he is told not to discuss that 'feature'. All I care is that I can do RF and IR at the same time on the HR-44. My wife grooves on having control in the kitchen, out of sight of the IR repeaters.

Being the HR-44 is connected via CAT 6 to my network, it communicates to the other box over the COAX. At my bedoorm HR-23, he installed a DECA(???) that has an ethernet socket. That socket gets connected to the ethernet socket on the HR-23. Oddly, the tech also connected the existing CAT6 cable that goes into my home network (to port 2 of the HR-23). I removed that cable. I checked the living room HR-44. At first, it did not show the Bedroom playlist. But then after a few seconds, it came up.

I also looked at my network mapping and it appears unchanged.

Am I correct in the assumption that that old ethernet connection in my bedroom is not needed at all (due to DTV doing ethernet over COAX) and the tech just was not thinking? Everything had worked fine, it seems to work fine with it removed.

 

[lparsons21]

You're correct. Connect to the HR44 and all the other D* gear on the coax have access to the internet.

 

[William1]

That is what I thought. I am somewhat suprised I did not have any issues from the 'two' connections.

 

[peds48]

That is what I thought. I am somewhat suprised I did not have any issues from the 'two' connections.

Maybe it has to do with the fact the second port is a passthrough instead of being an "input"

 

[harsh]

Maybe it has to do with the fact the second port is a passthrough instead of being an "input"

Is that a fact? I suspect that it is more like a hub.

I seem to recall some using the second port when the first didn't seem to work.

 

[harsh]

Am I correct in the assumption that that old ethernet connection in my bedroom is not needed at all (due to DTV doing ethernet over COAX) and the tech just was not thinking?

It sounds like your "tech" was disengaged during a lot of the training.

It is good that you're paying attention to the details.

 

[William1]

Yeah, I always go over work that is done. Sometimes, even just having the second set of eyes catches things. In the techs defense, there were two guys here, one was a n00b in training and he may of been the one that plugged stuff in.

The CAT6 cable was there from the old STB they took out and I only 'checked' because I knew the cable was no longer needed and was going to remove it from the area to cut back on clutter and make it 'one less thing'. Honestly, I was a little surprised he had it plugged in.

From my limited networking knowledge, having two cables connected can provide more throughput. Pointless in this cas as the DTV ethernet supplies plenty of bandwidth. Certainly not needed for my snail like (3.5 mbs) DSL connection.

 

[lparsons21]

When I made the switch to D* almost a month ago now, the installer did a bang up job. He seemed knowledgeable and got everything setup properly with no glitches along the way. I've been pretty lucky over the years with both D* and E*, getting good installs every time with nary an issue.

This one was interesting in that it was one very damned cold day and it took the HR44 quite a long time to get up to temp so the setup could proceed. I hadn't seen that before.

 

[William1]

ROFL

Today, Directv did a 'QC'. The guy did not call first. He barely spoke english. When I told him all work was done inside my home and that he'd have to take off his muddy boots, he left.

 

[peds48]

ROFL

Today, Directv did a 'QC'. The guy did not call first. He barely spoke english. When I told him all work was done inside my home and that he'd have to take off his muddy boots, he left.

QC "people" never call, they just show hoping you are not home, really.

 

[inkahauts]

Also they can usually check the dish from outside anyway can't they? Sight check.

 

[William1]

QC "people" never call, they just show hoping you are not home, really.

It sure seemed that way

Also they can usually check the dish from outside anyway can't they? Sight check.

My dish is on my roof peak, about 40' off the ground. It was installed about five or six years ago.
All my 'install' work was inside my house. My SWM8 is in my walk up attic. He had zero interest in coming in to check the work that was done.