[newsposter]

i'm recalling this from years of conversation, so all may not be accurate

My friend only has SD, no HD. Over the years i bugged her to get tivo because she misses her shows. She has told me she is an old primestar customer and gets free service calls and her equipment is rented and if the lightning fries it they get it all new free. She also gets philly locals as well as east and west coast feeds (i just found this out yesterday)

I told her i just saw the announcement that the mpeg2 feeds will all be gone in little while but directv will likely call her with free replacements. She said she may want a dvr but she's worried of losing her primestar status

1. so is it true that she gets free service calls and free equipment for breakdowns?

2. since philly locals are available, will they just shut off the east/west coast and let her have her current equipment or will they upgrade her to mpeg4 and let her keep east west (i assume some primestar agreement let her have all these channels?)

3. if they will just upgrade her standard receivers free, and she decides to pay for a dvr, will that 'unprimestar' her account. For some reason she greatly fears losing that status. I dont know her bill so i dont really know what kind of deal she is getting etc. And will the dvr kick in a commitment (she's not going anywhere though)

anything else i should know about the situation...let me know.

 

[Mertzen]

The only MPEG2 that is going soon is the HD MPEG2. All SD MPEG2 is here to stay for quite some time.
AFAIK all primestar accounts where transferred years ago.

 

[newsposter]

oh so i worried about nothing and she will continue to get her east west feeds without issue?

oops

West Coast DNS Locals
9/17/2008

East Coast DNS Locals
3/18/2009

i saw that and thought it meant her channels

 

[Grentz]

Yes, she should be fine for the SD versions. It is the HD versions moving around and changing format.

 

[Mertzen]

oh so i worried about nothing and she will continue to get her east west feeds without issue?

oops

West Coast DNS Locals
9/17/2008

East Coast DNS Locals
3/18/2009

i saw that and thought it meant her channels

Are D* locals available in her area?

 

[newsposter]

yes she has philly locals

 

[Newshawk]

i'm recalling this from years of conversation, so all may not be accurate

My friend only has SD, no HD. Over the years i bugged her to get tivo because she misses her shows. She has told me she is an old primestar customer and gets free service calls and her equipment is rented and if the lightning fries it they get it all new free. She also gets philly locals as well as east and west coast feeds (i just found this out yesterday)

I told her i just saw the announcement that the mpeg2 feeds will all be gone in little while but directv will likely call her with free replacements. She said she may want a dvr but she's worried of losing her primestar status

1. so is it true that she gets free service calls and free equipment for breakdowns?

If she is still a rental customer, then yes, she does get "free" service calls and replacement equipment... as she is paying a rental fee each month. However, as she has stated, she would lose her free service if she was to get any advanced receiver. The reason is that the original Primestar rental plans covered only standard equipment as Primestar disappeared before DVRs and HD. However, she wouldn't lose her "Primestar status", she'd just be an owner, not a renter.

BTW, in some cases it is cheaper to ditch the rental plan (which can be over $10 a month) and get the Protection Plan instead. Same coverage, cheaper price.

2. since philly locals are available, will they just shut off the east/west coast and let her have her current equipment or will they upgrade her to mpeg4 and let her keep east west (i assume some primestar agreement let her have all these channels?)

There is "grandfathering" for SD DNS channels so she should be able to keep them. The grandfathering is part of SHVIRA, IIRC, so that is what determines whether she gets to keep her DNS. The "Primestar agreement" does not cover services, only equipment.

3. if they will just upgrade her standard receivers free, and she decides to pay for a dvr, will that 'unprimestar' her account. For some reason she greatly fears losing that status. I dont know her bill so i dont really know what kind of deal she is getting etc. And will the dvr kick in a commitment (she's not going anywhere though)

The Primestar rental plan does not allow for free upgrades AFAIK. Moving up to any advanced receiver will change her status from renter to owner. Any upgrade will have a commitment attached. Also, there's another change-Primestar customers used to pay a singe "whole house" mirror fee. When DirecTV changed to leasing receivers, that ended and any new receivers on her account will be leased, with the $.99 fee per receiver like the rest of us.

 

[Rabushka]

What happens to those with legacy receivers like the Sony 300 that get the MPGEG 2 channels in HD in the 70s and 80s? Will they simply lose those channels? My wifes office and my daughters bedroom have Sony 300s. I have a SWM and the legacy ports are going to those receivers.

 

[bobnielsen]

What happens to those with legacy receivers like the Sony 300 that get the MPGEG 2 channels in HD in the 70s and 80s? Will they simply lose those channels? My wifes office and my daughters bedroom have Sony 300s. I have a SWM and the legacy ports are going to those receivers.

Those receivers will continue to work with SD, but will lose access to any HD channels.

 

[Rabushka]

Those receivers will continue to work with SD, but will lose access to any HD channels.

In other words all the money spent on those receivers made specifically for D* to receive HD are now going to be useless for HD. There are thousands of Sonys, Toshibas etc., out there

Unless D* supplies new receivers and a new installation in my case, that's a real bummer. I see trouble ahead because my wife and daughter watch HBO a lot

 

[PeterB]

DTV should have been contacting you already, but you should be able to get free H2x recievers to replace both of those.

Heck, I bought a used Hughes HTL-HD off ebay last year, activated it, and when it didnt work correctly, DTV sent me a free refurb H20 to replace it.

They didn't even want the HTL-HD back.

Installation is simply moving the coax connections and video connections over, and plugging it into power. As easy as hooking up a DVD player.