[jrr4]

Almost 3 months later, I have my HR20! (Sorry for the length, but thanks for letting me vent.)

After 5 installers (most awful, a couple not horrible) I had a team of 4 guys in 2 trucks get me installed yesterday. They moved the dish 5 feet from where it was originally installed (the old fashioned basic dish) and my signal strengths are in the high 90s.

The history:

I wanted to stick with Directv because I have 2 Directivos that would become doorstops if I leave. I hate Time warner Cable.

First installer says "cut the limbs off that tree and you'll be set." I do this.

Second installer says those guys must have been idiots, because you need to cut the limbs on the other side of the horizon.

Third installer (the first one worth a [email protected]#) tells me that, after he and I spend an hour in the rain, he has found the spot, but can he come back so as not to mess up his other appointments. Still feeling like a nice guy, and a promise of a return in 3 days, I let him go.

Fourth Installer does not even turn off the truck, walks into the backyard, states no line of sight and leaves. He tells his dispatcher that the only place a line of sight would work is in the middle of my swimming pool. I'm fairly confident he did not have time to get in my swimming pool.

Fifth installer comes out and says the same that installer 2 says - cut the limbs on the right side of horizon. I reschedule. I get a quote for $400 to cut said limbs, with new growth having to be cut back annually.

I call E*.

Both D* and E* are scheduled for yesterday, and D* showed up first. E* has been cancelled.

I'm ecstatic...

 

[litzdog911]

Glad to hear!

 

[Canis Lupus]

Fourth Installer does not even turn off the truck, walks into the backyard, states no line of sight and leaves. He tells his dispatcher that the only place a line of sight would work is in the middle of my swimming pool. I'm fairly confident he did not have time to get in my swimming pool.

That's too bad. You could have made a nice water fountain feature using the pole and the dish

Congrats.

 

[jrr4]

Just as a follow up - the final installer connected two of the lines into the "flex port"s on the multiswitch, not the line out side of things. No signal to one of my boxes for a couple of days until I can get a look.

My sons are now being threatened that if they don't do well in school, they can grow up to be satellite installers.

 

[Canis Lupus]

Those flex ports are reserved for other non AT-9 inputs like a second dish that picks up locals from another satellite. If you can reach the switch, all you should have to do is take those 2 cables from the flex port and move them to the output side. Can u reach the switch?

 

[devellis]

This is all very scary. I'm scheduled for an AT9 install this Saturday and, living in Chapel Hill, I'm looking at the same batch of installers as jrr4 had. Everything's working well right now with my 3 lnb rig, except I'm not getting much HD content -- not getting HD locals with the current dish. I've had some major tree removal work done to give me a clearer view. The last guy assured me that after removing what he said needed to go (and is now gone), I'd get great reception. I haven't been getting much from 110 because one of the trees was blocking it. But there was also a question about that LNB being bad, which may be the case. I figured there was no point in trying to resolve that issue (LNB bad or not) when I'm on the verge of getting the new dish and can determine how it's doing on all sats.

I have a fundamental distrust of some of these installers' competency. I requested that the same tech come out as told me which trees to lose, so that at least he can't tell me that I got the wrong information on that score. He sounded pretty well informed but it's his work, not his banter, that ultimately will matter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[pgiralt]

This is all very scary. I'm scheduled for an AT9 install this Saturday and, living in Chapel Hill, I'm looking at the same batch of installers as jrr4 had. Everything's working well right now with my 3 lnb rig, except I'm not getting much HD content -- not getting HD locals with the current dish. I've had some major tree removal work done to give me a clearer view. The last guy assured me that after removing what he said needed to go (and is now gone), I'd get great reception. I haven't been getting much from 110 because one of the trees was blocking it. But there was also a question about that LNB being bad, which may be the case. I figured there was no point in trying to resolve that issue (LNB bad or not) when I'm on the verge of getting the new dish and can determine how it's doing on all sats.

I have a fundamental distrust of some of these installers' competency. I requested that the same tech come out as told me which trees to lose, so that at least he can't tell me that I got the wrong information on that score. He sounded pretty well informed but it's his work, not his banter, that ultimately will matter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

If your installer is MASTEC you have plenty to be worried about. Check out my post on the HR20 install forum for details on the disaster I ran into. Best of luck.

 

[jrr4]

I have a fundamental distrust of some of these installers' competency. I requested that the same tech come out as told me which trees to lose, so that at least he can't tell me that I got the wrong information on that score. He sounded pretty well informed but it's his work, not his banter, that ultimately will matter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Honestly, as long as you keep the distrust, and have some patience, you should be OK. As you'll note, I had to have 6 different appointments with 6 different techs to get the job done. Most were awful, but there were a couple of decent ones in the mix. Good luck with the same tech request, as one of mine actually made the rescheduled appointment himself FOR HIM TO COME BACK, and I was treated to the guy that didn't turn the truck off. All in all, a terrible experience. I hope yours is better.

 

[jrr4]

Those flex ports are reserved for other non AT-9 inputs like a second dish that picks up locals from another satellite. If you can reach the switch, all you should have to do is take those 2 cables from the flex port and move them to the output side. Can u reach the switch?

Yeah, I did this. Everything works great now. It's just that a member of the same "team" that finally got me set up screwed up something this easy.

 

[Canis Lupus]

Glad it worked out. When my guys were here and had the Hr-20 running but couldnt figure why the DirecTivo wasnt working, I looked at the switch and suggested actually connecting the cables that were still dangling there.

 

[devellis]

Well, here's an update on today's install in Chapel Hill, NC. All went pretty well, actually. The installer put up a 5LNB Slimline on a new pole and buried all the cables from the dish to the house. He also installed a Zinwell 6X8, which should accommodate all of my needs for a while. At first I panicked when my HD locals weren't on my Guide but then I remembered that I needed to go in and select them. There they were, and working fine. We only get two networks in HD here and I haven't tried recording anything from HD locals yet, but the images are there and looking good. Signals seem pretty robust on all 5 sats (where there are signals to detect). Next weekend I'll run some more cables from the Zinwell to the other units but, in the meantime, I'm happy with how things have gone.