[allent]

Just helped a friend of mine buy a new 40 inch Sony LCD for his kitchen. Called D* to see about upgrading his receiver that he had in the kitchen to a HD unit. He didn't want or need the DVR model, so I called and at first they said it would be $99. After I asked about any offers the guy came back and said they could install the new 5LNB dish and give him a HD receiver of only the cost of shipping $21.47 with tax. He said great and it is setup for Monday.

Here is the root of my question, any idea what receiver he will get? I am curious because we are going to "hide" the receiver in the basement and I want to know if I need to order an IR repeater system or if the new box will come with an RF remote.

Thanks,
Allen

 

[tstarn]

Just helped a friend of mine buy a new 40 inch Sony LCD for his kitchen. Called D* to see about upgrading his receiver that he had in the kitchen to a HD unit. He didn't want or need the DVR model, so I called and at first they said it would be $99. After I asked about any offers the guy came back and said they could install the new 5LNB dish and give him a HD receiver of only the cost of shipping $21.47 with tax. He said great and it is setup for Monday.

Here is the root of my question, any idea what receiver he will get? I am curious because we are going to "hide" the receiver in the basement and I want to know if I need to order an IR repeater system or if the new box will come with an RF remote.

Thanks,
Allen

He'll get the H20. I have one and so far, it's been fine. Occasional sound dropouts, but they may be related to local HD channels. And it does have an RF remote (you can use either that or IR). The installer set it up for RF by default. Also, they tend to run hot, so I bought a Targus cooling mat for notebook computers at Walmart ($20). It plugs into the unit's USB port.

 

[boba]

How are you going to connect the HDTV in the kitchen to a receiver in the basement?

 

[Yoda-DBSguy]

How are you going to connect the HDTV in the kitchen to a receiver in the basement?

He could do it one of 2 ways.

It requires either the need to run an additional line from the IRD location to the secondary TV location (Or a splitter that feeds multiple TV(s) )

or

The use of an A/V wireless sender/receiver system.

Either of which will work just fine.

PS Most of the wireless a/v sender/receiver systems on the market today also incorporate remote contol repitition as well.

 

[allent]

How are you going to connect the HDTV in the kitchen to a receiver in the basement?

With a 21 ft HDMI cable of course

My biggest concern was if we needed to order an IR repeater system or not, but it sounds like we don't.

 

[boba]

With a 21 ft HDMI cable of course

My biggest concern was if we needed to order an IR repeater system or not, but it sounds like we don't.

Check out post about HDMI problems.

 

[cybrsurfer]

Just helped a friend of mine buy a new 40 inch Sony LCD for his kitchen. Called D* to see about upgrading his receiver that he had in the kitchen to a HD unit. He didn't want or need the DVR model, so I called and at first they said it would be $99. After I asked about any offers the guy came back and said they could install the new 5LNB dish and give him a HD receiver of only the cost of shipping $21.47 with tax. He said great and it is setup for Monday.

Here is the root of my question, any idea what receiver he will get? I am curious because we are going to "hide" the receiver in the basement and I want to know if I need to order an IR repeater system or if the new box will come with an RF remote.

Thanks,
Allen

The H20 is the standard HD receiver that they issue for free usually, I'm surprised they charged you for shipping, and didn't just have an installer drop it off and set it up for free. It's better to let an installer do any necessary updates on switches, newer dishes, cabling, and new HDMI cable for your set. If you subscribe to protection plan, this is all free.

 

[allent]

The H20 is the standard HD receiver that they issue for free usually, I'm surprised they charged you for shipping, and didn't just have an installer drop it off and set it up for free.

Well it was late and I didn't feel like pushing the issue and my friend was happy when it dropped to 21.47 from 99.99. Plus now he gets the new 5 lnb dish also so its all good.

It's better to let an installer do any necessary updates on switches, newer dishes, cabling, and new HDMI cable for your set. If you subscribe to protection plan, this is all free.

Well we still have to mount the thing on the wall and do some other stuff, plus I would rather let them just handle the new dish and connecting the recv. to the TV then I will take car of the fancy stuff.

Allen

 

[bobnielsen]

With a 21 ft HDMI cable of course

My biggest concern was if we needed to order an IR repeater system or not, but it sounds like we don't.

It will operate with RF as well as IR. You can order an additional RF remote from Directv.

 

[cybrsurfer]

Well it was late and I didn't feel like pushing the issue and my friend was happy when it dropped to 21.47 from 99.99. Plus now he gets the new 5 lnb dish also so its all good.

Well we still have to mount the thing on the wall and do some other stuff, plus I would rather let them just handle the new dish and connecting the recv. to the TV then I will take car of the fancy stuff.

Allen

The installer is required to use the best possible cable for the set your connecting. So if your set has HDMI, then the installer is required to use that first, and provide the cable.

Good luck with installation, hope all goes well.

 

[Kapeman]

The installer is required to use the best possible cable for the set your connecting. So if your set has HDMI, then the installer is required to use that first, and provide the cable.

Good luck with installation, hope all goes well.

That's what I thought too, but a call to retention explaining that I had to provide my own cable fell on deal ears.

Does it matter if it is straight HDMI or HDMI-DVI?

 

[bobnielsen]

If your set has a DVI input, HDMI-DVI will work.

When I called to order a H20, the CSR suggested that if I got it at Best Buy I could save the 19.95 shipping cost. Of course I spent more than that for a HDMI cable (at least the AR cable they had was cheaper than Monster). Maybe I could have waited until the installer came with the dish and he would have provided a cable, but I had the H20 running (with OTA HD) during the 3 week wait for the dish installation.

 

[Kapeman]

If your set has a DVI input, HDMI-DVI will work.

Sorry, I should have been more precise. I was asking if D* had any issues providing an HDMI to DVI cable. I had to provide my own and it has been working.

It seems they have issues providing any cabling that is not in the box regardless of what the Hr20 installation video states.

 

[paulman182]

I don't think we can gain much leverage from a video we were not meant to see to begin with.

From the posts on this site, most of us provided our own HDMI cables.

 

[allent]

Well, the upograde went ok. installer came out first time and did not have the part to properly install the dish. I asked them which dish they had and they say it was the new slimline, they came out the next morning and put it up. My question now is I don't think they added any switch between the dish and the 3 receivers, were they supposed to? I see people talking about some Zinwell (sp) switch, is that required?

Also on diplexing the OTA with the SAT, does not being able to do that apply only to the new H20? One of the other 2 receivers is a Hughes HD box from a couple years ago can I still diplex on that one?

Thanks!

 

[Yoda-DBSguy]

Well, the upograde went ok. installer came out first time and did not have the part to properly install the dish. I asked them which dish they had and they say it was the new slimline, they came out the next morning and put it up. My question now is I don't think they added any switch between the dish and the 3 receivers, were they supposed to? I see people talking about some Zinwell (sp) switch, is that required?

Also on diplexing the OTA with the SAT, does not being able to do that apply only to the new H20? One of the other 2 receivers is a Hughes HD box from a couple years ago can I still diplex on that one?

Thanks!

The AT9 dish as well as the new slimline model replacement both a 4 output multi-switch built right into the LNB itself. The only need for a zinwell 6x8 switch is if you need over 4 output lines for additional IRDs or dual tuner that exceed the basic 4 which it already includes.

As far as diplexing your old IRDs, yes you most definetly can. Only the H-20 and HR-20 (mpeg 4 version IRD(s) ) can not be diplexed as a diplexer would interfer with the supplied KA/KU downconverter which runs at the same frequency range. In those cases a seperate line must be ran.