How many miles are you from the towers?
Around 60 mi, give or take. But our part of PA is VERY mountainous, so you have to take that into account.hardcase said:How many miles are you from the towers?
First of all, HELLO and welcome to DBSTALK.COM!! :welcome_smalan89 said:*What DVR will I get? I've heard horror stories about the R15 so I'm hoping I won't get that. Is the R16 in regular circulation with installers yet? My market isn't one of the select few that get SD locals in MPEG-4, but will I still be able to get R22s?
Good question. I think that was the original concept, but it quickly disappeared. I honestly don't know if the R22 can be "upgraded" to HD, and I don't think anyone else knows either.malan89 said:*If I get lucky and snag an R22, will I be able to keep the same unit and use it as an HD DVR when I am able to pay the HD access fee in the future? Or will I need to order a new unit?
Maybe if the TV itself has an adjustment. The R22 is "locked" at 4:3 output. BUT if you get an R15 you can change it's output to 16:9 just like your D11's.malan89 said:*Will I be able to watch my standard def content in widescreen on the HDTV (even if it is slightly stretched)? That would be great if I could.
Can't help you here. I have a 3-LNB (phase III) dish like you with an old non-SWM multiswitch. Each of my DVR's has 2 lines run to it to support both tuners (all of this including the dish & multiswitch installed by yours truly). I would suspect that you will get a couple R15's and the installer will run an additional line to each new DVR using your existing multiswitch or installing a larger one if more ports are needed.malan89 said:*If I manage to get an R16 or R22 (both are have SWM), will the installer still have to run additional lines? Do installers carry SWM switches with them so they don't have to do this? A more important question, is my 3 LNB dish able to work with the SWM switches (I don't think it is, but you guys probably know much better)?
Oh, yes, you will probably find more DirecTV experts here on DBSTALK.COM than many actual employees/CSR's who work for DirecTV!!malan89 said:I know I gave a lot of information, but I wanted to make my situation clear. You guys seem to be experts on dealing with DirecTV and its equipment. I know I'm probably labeled some sort of freak for not wanting HD, but the $120 a year just doesn't seem practical if I'm only going to have one HDTV out of 6. Thanks so much in advance for helping me make sense of all of this.
Glad to give you the information! It won't be long before you become frazzled with your D11's when you keep hitting the special DVR keys on the remote and then you remember that you have to suffer through commercials and can't do the "trickplay" functions as they are known on the DVR's. Ha ha!malan89 said:Thanks for clearing some of that up. I guess I should just deal with the fact that they're going to have to run a second line to each room. It shouldn't be a problem, it just wasn't the ideal situation. I'm also glad I got a second opinion on the R15, as I'm guessing that's the one I'll get as well. A lot of the problems were probably cleared up in testing and with software updates. I talked to a friend who had the R15 from the beginning and he said basically the same thing. I'm also pretty happy about it being able to output in 16:9. I couldn't imagine watching a 3:2 image on a 16:9 TV. I have exactly two open outputs on the multiswtich (just the amount I need), so it's just a matter of running the lines when the installer gets here. Again, thanks for all the help.