[HDJulie]

My mother is going to have D* installed at her house next week. I've had D* myself for awhile now & upgraded to the Whole Home setup as soon as it was available last year. My mother will have Whole Home installed & while I am pretty sure I know what to expect & what is needed, I wanted to double check because she's the type of person who needs things to go smoothly. She's in Memphis & I'm going there so I can supervise the install. She'll have 2HDDVR's, an HD Receiver, an SDDVR, & an SD receiver. I expect the installer to bring:

1. The satellite dish needed for SWM
2. A SWM LNB (since this is not more than 8 tuners)
3. The SWM power supply?
4. Internet (Cinema) Connection Kit
5. DECA adaptors if there are any non-24 receivers/DVR's
6. R-version SD boxes?

My mother is currently on Comcast. There is a cable box at each of the TV's that will get D* boxes. The house is 20 years old. Should it have the correct cabling for D* (can this existing cabling be used)?

Is there anything that I need to pay particular attention to?

I intend to tip the installer well if he does a good job. I'm worried that we'll get someone who barely knows what SWM or Whole Home are, though.

 

[The Merg]

The SD-DVR will be a R22 or R16. The SD receiver will be a D12. The installer will come with the SWM-LNB dish, SWM PI, and DECAs for any non-H24/H25/HR24 receivers. There will also be Band Stop Filters installed for the SD-DVR and SD receiver. As long as the Cinema Connection Kit is listed on the work order, you will get that as well (just double-check the order on-line).

As for the wiring, the wiring inside the house should be usable as long as they are homeruns. What that means is that each coax goes from the room it is in straight to a central location. If the coax runs are split in the walls to reach the different rooms, the installer is most likely not going to mess with trying to replace those splitters. The tech will most likely install new cable. However, if he does this, the free install is to run the cable on the outside of the house and go through an outside wall. If you want any wall-fishing done, which would probably include changing out the splitters used for cable, it will be an extra cost.

- Merg

 

[HDJulie]

Damn, I should have checked the cable in the house when I was there this past weekend. I know my husband's house in New Orleans, which was built in the 70's, had splitters. I don't know if in the 80's, when her house was built, if they knew to run cable to each room. I'll have to cross my fingers.

 

[dennisj00]

Worst case, you could pick up a few 2 way green dot splitters and replace them in the wall boxes.

 

[HDJulie]

If my husband were coming with me, I would do that. Unfortunately, I have no experience with where the "wall boxes" would be nor what I would be connecting to them through the splitters. The cable splitters that I'm used to would be in the attic.

 

[carl6]

The installer should be able to handle whatever variations he runs in to. While you see reports of problem installers, most are good and do a good job.

You realize of course that the two SD locations will not participate in whole-home as server or client).

 

[HDJulie]

Yes, thanks -- I'm hoping the two SD locations are short-lived. It's what she has now & it is important to her at this time to have as little change as possible.

 

[The Merg]

Yes, thanks -- I'm hoping the two SD locations are short-lived. It's what she has now & it is important to her at this time to have as little change as possible.

Just realize that depending on the type of SDTV she has, she can hook up a HD-DVR or HD receiver to those TV's. Thus, when she upgrades the TV, she won't need to upgrade the receivers. Plus, she'll have access to MRV at those locations in the meantime.

- Merg

 

[Drucifer]

. . . . She'll have 2HDDVR's, an HD Receiver, an SDDVR, & an SD receiver.

You might rethink the SD depending on where they are in the home and how much MRV functionality you want with these TV sets.