I've been looking forward to installing a DIRECTV system at my home - I think it will be a great weekend project. However, after making trips to Best Buy, Circuit City, Ultimate Electronics and Wal-Mart, it appears as if DIRECTV requires new customers to get professional installation. Is there any way to get a system and install it myself or not? If so, who sells these systems?
Is Do It Yourself Installation Possible?
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I installed my system myself and was able to get a credit for doing so. It was very easy. About a kit I remember they used to have one and I think it was made by RCA. Not sure if they are still around but radio shack would be a good bet. If they don't have a kit you can always buy the supplies. I did and have been using my Hex crimpers a lot. If you end up buying your own supplies make sure you use rg-6. If you plan on having runs over a long distance your better off having a pro install.
I installed mine about 20 days ago, I hear its getting harder to buy the dish though, But I got everything from Circuit Chitty except the dish, I had them install it for free.
do it you self
it is very easy to do it your self
on Dish or Directv menu there is a place for installing
type in your zip code ( it will tell you what setting for your sat dish.
the pipe must be level ,i have post level mounted to the pipe , and use a compass to find sat.
as you get close it shows on the tv and the tv will start beeping ,the higher the beeping is the better singel you have
We RV and set up the satellite every 2 or 3 weeks when we move
bob
it is very easy to do it your self
on Dish or Directv menu there is a place for installing
type in your zip code ( it will tell you what setting for your sat dish.
the pipe must be level ,i have post level mounted to the pipe , and use a compass to find sat.
as you get close it shows on the tv and the tv will start beeping ,the higher the beeping is the better singel you have
We RV and set up the satellite every 2 or 3 weeks when we move
bob
I did my install myself just becasue as soon as I got the stuff from valueelectronics I was anxious to get it up. I could have waited 2 days for the installer, but I like my toys.
Give Robert at Valueelctronics, his link is somewhere at the top of the screen. I haven't seem him in here in awhile though....
Give Robert at Valueelctronics, his link is somewhere at the top of the screen. I haven't seem him in here in awhile though....
Installs are not too tough. I did mine myself too. I think that VE will give you a credit back if you do a self install. It think the credit was maybe $50. Its debatable whether your time is worth more or less than that price. I spent the better part of several hours doing mine, but that's because I first tryed mounting the dish to a wood fence pole, but changed my mind due to stability issues and remounted to side of my house instead. Rock solid now.
i dont know if they are wanting to push more of the professional installs now, but everytime we call one in, one of the first things they ask from us is our SBCA cert. numbers...
and just my opinion, but i kinda do wish they would require professional installation on most stuff, if i was E* or D* i would, for one for warranty reasons...
and i know, there are probably customers out there that could do the job better than some of the "professionals" out there...
but you would be surprised how many service calls i go on, where some guy and his buddy spent the weekend installin the system, only to find out they can't get it working (because for some strange reason, they can't use their ancient RG59 into a 8 way splitter to run 3 recievers.. that was my last job today
) then they expect me to come out and fix it for free...
if you are wanting to do the self install so that it looks right, or that it's mounted right, or whatever, just get involved...
before the guy gets there figure out where you want it, heck, get a compass out and see if it's gonna work there
then, if you are worried about wire, run the wire yourself, just make sure you use decent wire...
sorry, i'll stop ranting now,
just my 2 cents
and just my opinion, but i kinda do wish they would require professional installation on most stuff, if i was E* or D* i would, for one for warranty reasons...
and i know, there are probably customers out there that could do the job better than some of the "professionals" out there...
but you would be surprised how many service calls i go on, where some guy and his buddy spent the weekend installin the system, only to find out they can't get it working (because for some strange reason, they can't use their ancient RG59 into a 8 way splitter to run 3 recievers.. that was my last job today
) then they expect me to come out and fix it for free...if you are wanting to do the self install so that it looks right, or that it's mounted right, or whatever, just get involved...
before the guy gets there figure out where you want it, heck, get a compass out and see if it's gonna work there
then, if you are worried about wire, run the wire yourself, just make sure you use decent wire...
sorry, i'll stop ranting now,
just my 2 cents
z71tahoe193 said:
You can also find the manual to set up and align the oval 3 lnb dish on www.directv.com in the customer care section. As for "crimpers", I wouldn't use cable grade crimp connections. Splurge for compression fittings, they are more secure and weathertight. You can get compression fittings and the tool to compress them online, or you can get a low cost toll with fittings at most Lowes home improvement stores.
If you are doing it yourself, I would really recommend you spending the money and buy the compression fittings and the compression tool. I got tired of replacing the crappy crimp on connectors that kept falling off the coax. I was so happy with these connections that I went back to the store and purchased more and changed all my crimp ons. I was supprised how much easier it is to install these fittings, and the cost is very inexpensive. Happy installing!!
RAL686 said:
The cheapest I've ever seen a compression fitting tool was still more than $40. If that's "inexensive", then yeah, go ahead and switch over to compression fittings. But I think that's a lot of money for a tool that will rarely get used in the averge home. At that point, it is much better to just have a professional installation.
Well, I've ordered all of the stuff I'll need.
ValueElectronics
- R10 TiVo Receiver
- 18" x 20" Dish
- $139.98 (-10% satguys discount, -$50 self install, -$50 DirecTV rebate)
TheSatelliteShop
- RG6 Cable
- Crimper / Stripper / Weather Resistant Fittings Kit
- 2 Flat RG6 Coax pieces (going through a window)
- Cable ties to keep the two lines together
- $56.35
Looks like my total cost after rebates will be about $80.
I'll post later with my progress.
ValueElectronics
- R10 TiVo Receiver
- 18" x 20" Dish
- $139.98 (-10% satguys discount, -$50 self install, -$50 DirecTV rebate)
TheSatelliteShop
- RG6 Cable
- Crimper / Stripper / Weather Resistant Fittings Kit
- 2 Flat RG6 Coax pieces (going through a window)
- Cable ties to keep the two lines together
- $56.35
Looks like my total cost after rebates will be about $80.
I'll post later with my progress.
You would be suprised at how many service calls I go on and the customer says its on a metal pole in the ground so its grounded right? lol of course I say no!
grydlok said:
What do I need / how does that work?
I'm doing this because I want to learn more about how all of this works - please go easy on me.
Edit: I've found a lot of info on grounding the dish thanks to google. Is there anything else that I've overlooked? Thanks for catching that.
phatnuts said:
It comes with 25... that should be enough to get the hang of it. I ran / crimped ethernet cable at my place, it can't be any worse than that... or so I hope.
"new" install
If this needs to be posted in a new thread, somebody speak up.
I got a used RCA DSM735RH 3-receiver system off ebay, but with only 2 receivers. It has the phase III triple LNB model 150946. I don't see any dings/dents on the skin and the arm seems fine. Not a scratch on anything. I am in Houston zip 77082, and the receiver says to point to 51.7 elev and 203.3 azimuth with 66.3 tilt for the 101 sat. DirecTv site said 54.9 and 185.3 without specifying which sat that was for. Sadoun website says 54.9 and 191.2 for the 101. I started at 50 elevation, sweeping from 160 all the way to 240 then increasing elevation 1 degree and re-sweeping the same azimuth all the way up to 58 elev. with no signal so far. I read on a forum that with a triple I should aim at the 110 sat first, so I switched the receiver to 110 (C)/119 (B) and repeated the whole process. Oh I almost forgot to mention, I did 2 sweeps at each elevation, one using an odd transponder, once with an even. The receiver gave me 51.7 and 203.3 for 110/119. I checked the Sadoun calc and it said 51.9 and 207.8 for 110. Still nothing.
Again I neglected some details: the actual dish is on my apt patio which faces due south, and I can sit next to the dish and see/hear the signal meter thru the patio door a few feet away. I'm on the 2nd floor and the nearest building to the south is about 50 feet away and the roof doesn't slope very high. The only trees high enough to block a signal are at about 230 azimuth. I checked the voltage coming from the receiver and got 19.3 even/13.5 odd at the LNB. The cable is 12-15ft Zenith RG6 quad 2.3ghz with nice compression fittings pre-installed. I couldn't find any outer braid touching the center conductor, and using my meter showed no problems with grounding and showed no breaks in the center conductor. I had used the same piece of coax with digital cable and also cable modem and it worked perfectly in the past.
In the receiver's menu I tried having the unit detect the type of multi switch but it could not detect anything. I tried this with the 2nd receiver with the same results, other than I didn't check the voltage. So far I have run the sweeps with both receivers connected directly to the LNB and each one solo, with terminator caps on unused ports on the LNB. The cable I used on the 2nd receiver is 3000mhz RG6 about 30 feet long, again visually and electrically checked for grounding/continuity and previously worked fine with digital cable /modem. Either with both units connected and powered up or with one at a time they could not detect the multiswitch. The funny thing is, the first night I had accidentally picked up a signal way out east, but the receiver said "wrong satellite" so I figured I hit DishNet by mistake so I'm not sure if I have a bad LNB or not. Obviously I have spent many hours over 3 different attempts to get this thing working. I see lots of DirecTv and DishNet systems all over the complex, some of which don't have as good a view as I do but as far as I know they work fine. HELP!!!!!!
P.S. I just had to remove 2 links to be able to post so I hope this still makes sense.
If this needs to be posted in a new thread, somebody speak up.
I got a used RCA DSM735RH 3-receiver system off ebay, but with only 2 receivers. It has the phase III triple LNB model 150946. I don't see any dings/dents on the skin and the arm seems fine. Not a scratch on anything. I am in Houston zip 77082, and the receiver says to point to 51.7 elev and 203.3 azimuth with 66.3 tilt for the 101 sat. DirecTv site said 54.9 and 185.3 without specifying which sat that was for. Sadoun website says 54.9 and 191.2 for the 101. I started at 50 elevation, sweeping from 160 all the way to 240 then increasing elevation 1 degree and re-sweeping the same azimuth all the way up to 58 elev. with no signal so far. I read on a forum that with a triple I should aim at the 110 sat first, so I switched the receiver to 110 (C)/119 (B) and repeated the whole process. Oh I almost forgot to mention, I did 2 sweeps at each elevation, one using an odd transponder, once with an even. The receiver gave me 51.7 and 203.3 for 110/119. I checked the Sadoun calc and it said 51.9 and 207.8 for 110. Still nothing.
Again I neglected some details: the actual dish is on my apt patio which faces due south, and I can sit next to the dish and see/hear the signal meter thru the patio door a few feet away. I'm on the 2nd floor and the nearest building to the south is about 50 feet away and the roof doesn't slope very high. The only trees high enough to block a signal are at about 230 azimuth. I checked the voltage coming from the receiver and got 19.3 even/13.5 odd at the LNB. The cable is 12-15ft Zenith RG6 quad 2.3ghz with nice compression fittings pre-installed. I couldn't find any outer braid touching the center conductor, and using my meter showed no problems with grounding and showed no breaks in the center conductor. I had used the same piece of coax with digital cable and also cable modem and it worked perfectly in the past.
In the receiver's menu I tried having the unit detect the type of multi switch but it could not detect anything. I tried this with the 2nd receiver with the same results, other than I didn't check the voltage. So far I have run the sweeps with both receivers connected directly to the LNB and each one solo, with terminator caps on unused ports on the LNB. The cable I used on the 2nd receiver is 3000mhz RG6 about 30 feet long, again visually and electrically checked for grounding/continuity and previously worked fine with digital cable /modem. Either with both units connected and powered up or with one at a time they could not detect the multiswitch. The funny thing is, the first night I had accidentally picked up a signal way out east, but the receiver said "wrong satellite" so I figured I hit DishNet by mistake so I'm not sure if I have a bad LNB or not. Obviously I have spent many hours over 3 different attempts to get this thing working. I see lots of DirecTv and DishNet systems all over the complex, some of which don't have as good a view as I do but as far as I know they work fine. HELP!!!!!!
P.S. I just had to remove 2 links to be able to post so I hope this still makes sense.
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