Considering DirecTV

[ncted]

I ordered today. Install is Saturday morning. Anything in particular I need to be aware of?

Thanks,
Ted

 

[Mr Tony]

hope the installer allows you to help....Mine let me help him pull cables, hook up the receivers at the spot and stuff like that

 

[ccash]

hope the installer allows you to help....Mine let me help him pull cables, hook up the receivers at the spot and stuff like that

Ice -

I also switched 2 weeks ago. We were 2 months shy of 14 years with dish.

My installer had the easiest day of his life...I did everything while he watched!

 

[ncted]

I think I'll just watch and tell him when he is doing things wrong.

 

[DodgerKing]

I think I'll just watch and tell him when he is doing things wrong.

Are you getting anything special, like MRV or SWM?

 

[ncted]

Are you getting anything special, like MRV or SWM?

I am getting 2 HD-DVRs & 1 HD Receiver with MRV, so hopefully that will mean 2 HR24s & 1 H24. From what I understand, it should mean SWM as well. I certainly hope so, because I would like the flexibility to have DSL or Cable for Internet access.

Ted

 

[DodgerKing]

I am getting 2 HD-DVRs & 1 HD Receiver with MRV, so hopefully that will mean 2 HR24s & 1 H24. From what I understand, it should mean SWM as well. I certainly hope so, because I would like the flexibility to have DSL or Cable for Internet access.

Ted

Then I would make sure they install what you need, put only a single wire to your DVR, and place the dish where you like

 

[Widescreen]

I am getting 2 HD-DVRs & 1 HD Receiver with MRV, so hopefully that will mean 2 HR24s & 1 H24. From what I understand, it should mean SWM as well. I certainly hope so, because I would like the flexibility to have DSL or Cable for Internet access.

Ted

Good luck. I also was hoping for 2 HR24's and 1 H24. They ended up giving me 2 HR24-100's and 1 H23. The H23 seems to work well, however. Let us know how it goes and what receivers you get.

 

[wildbill129]

I am getting 2 HD-DVRs & 1 HD Receiver with MRV, so hopefully that will mean 2 HR24s & 1 H24. From what I understand, it should mean SWM as well. I certainly hope so, because I would like the flexibility to have DSL or Cable for Internet access.

Ted

You will get SWiM...it's required for MRV/DECA installations.

 

[ncted]

Good luck. I also was hoping for 2 HR24's and 1 H24. They ended up giving me 2 HR24-100's and 1 H23. The H23 seems to work well, however. Let us know how it goes and what receivers you get.

Not too concerned about the receiver. The DVRs are what matter. The receiver will get used once in a blue moon. I'll update this thread when everything is installed.

Ted

 

[sparksals]

I have a question about whole home. I have been a long time E* customer and am fed up with their additional fees. It seems every month, my bills creeps up more. I got swindled into their service plan when they said I needed a tech - the tech came and nothing was wrong. Now, I can't get out of the service plan without a $25 fee.

Anyway, I'm thinking of switching to D Whole home. Currently, I have 4 TVs, two with DVR access (Family room and bedroom). I like being able to watch shows recorded on the main tv in bed and vice versa.

I have learned with D whole home, I can have DVR access on all my TVs (4) and the only difference is I can't pause live TV on my bedroom TV if the DVR is set on the main TV in the family room. I like the idea of being able to watch DVR'd shows when I'm working in the kitchen. Is this true?

We have only one HD TV and that is a small TV in the kitchen ... I'm sure we will get some in the future, but even if we had all HD TV's, the HD channels wouldn't be that important. Even then, the lifetime HD with D* is attractive for when we do eventually upgrade our TV's.

Price is a factor and it seems D is much cheaper. We are currently paying almost $90 per month with E* and now they are getting rid of Fox local, news, sports and DH is especially mad FX is gone . We wondered where Sons of Anarchy went! We thought they were on hiatus. We only learned FX was gone when a tech came to check my Canadian satellite receiver/setup.

One other question. If I have 4 TVs, three of which have the HD DVR, can I watch live TV on the third TV while two are recording? Say I'm recording something on the Family room and Bedroom TV's. That takes up my two shows recording at the same time. Does that negate my ability to watch a live third program in my Kitchen that is also hooked to the Whole home but not recording?

 

[cparker]

2 recordings PER DVR at one time. So if each DVR is recording one program, you can still watch live TV on a DVR that is recording. With 3 DVRs you could record 3 things at the same time (one on each DVR) and still be able to watch live TV on ANY of your DVRs or receivers.

The 2 recordings limit is not per household. It's per DVR. And if a DVR is recording 2 things at the same time, you can still watch something that was previously recorded.

 

[DodgerKing]

Actually, with 3 DVRs you can record 6 things at one time

 

[sparksals]

2 recordings PER DVR at one time. So if each DVR is recording one program, you can still watch live TV on a DVR that is recording. With 3 DVRs you could record 3 things at the same time (one on each DVR) and still be able to watch live TV on ANY of your DVRs or receivers.

The 2 recordings limit is not per household. It's per DVR. And if a DVR is recording 2 things at the same time, you can still watch something that was previously recorded.

That is if there are two DVR's, not one with two HD receivers in the Whole Home package?

Our current setup is we have a dual DVR in the family room with TV 2 being the bedroom. DH can watch recordings in the bedroom while I do in the FR or we can watch any combo of one show recording, one live, two shows recording while watching a recording each.

With the D* Whole Home, I would like to add a third receiver to our Kitchen TV so I can watch recordings in the kitchen while I prepare meals, clean up etc. Currently can only watch live on that TV.

What difference would there be in terms of the Bedroom TV and Family room if we have the D* DVR receiver in the family room, HD receiver in the Bedroom and Kitchen? My understanding is we can do exactly what I described above that we can already do with E* with the added benefit of also watching a recording on the Kitchen TV so long as two recordings are not being watched in the FR or BR. I'm seeing the benefit of one extra TV to watch recordings with no loss of the benefits of the dual DVR that we have now.

Do I understand this correctly or am I missing something?

 

[ncted]

Install went well. D* sent out a subcontractor for some reason which didn't make any sense since he needed a 40 foot ladder to put the dish on the roof of my 3 story house. Apparently the D* installers have the ladders and his boss had to go pick one up special for my install. Anyway, he did an excellent job, and I am very happy. PQ is better than cable and Dish.

I got 2 HR24s and 1 H23. The MRV seems to work well on the HR24s. I haven't tried it on the H23 yet. Trick play functionality is fairly responsive, much better than TWC DVR normal operation. The D* remote is decent. Better than TWC, but not as intuitive as Dish, but pretty easy to learn.

The DECA ethernet setup is something I am going to have to think about. Right now, both the DECA box and the power inserter are in my wiring panel which makes things pretty tight. I may move the power inserter, but I need to figure out where else the DECA box might be able to go given it needs its own port on the splitter (per the installer).

2 thumbs up so far.

Ted