Voom to D* to E* II

[ericpd]

Ok, got my install yesterday but it went half right and half wrong. Got a few more Q's as a result.

After several changes to my install, it landed as an 811 in main family room (Hi def Mit), a 510 in basement family room and 510 in top floor master bedroom. Problem was that the 811 was DOA out the box, so the installers pulled the 510 from the basement and set it up at the Hi-def Mit until the arrival of a working 811. Before leaving, the Installer whispered some reality in my ears and I again called E*. Now I"m down for a 942 at the Hi-def Mit and a 625 in the master bedroom. I'll have to wait a week for the 942, and I had to pony up 250, but according to the installer, it would be a better config for my home.

Q1: How is this going to effect my fees? Will I be paying less because I now only have two boxes as opposed to three? Or will I be paying more in fee because of the type of boxes they are? When they arrive to re-wire for the 942, should I have them make another upstairs bedroom active? (I understand the 625 can ALSO heat-up two rooms.)

Q2: What is PVR? Is it different from DVR or one in the same?

Q3: I'm noticing that one of the 510's are changing channels by itself. Is this a clue that something may be wrong with it also? Or is it a set-up problem? Should I dive into the manual or just wait for the 942, at which point I will no longer have any 510's.

I still have my voom dish and OTA on the roof. They've made it so that the OTA WILL feed a signal to my 942 when it arrives. But is there a cheaper alternative to seting up the voom dish to receive the 10 voom originals? E* once offered to set it up at no charge, but that promised got lost in the mix. If not, is it worth the 99 to modify the voom dish. (I've read in some threads that there's a slight chance that E* will make the voom channels available without the use of a second dish in the near future.)

Thanks agains guys-n-gals for your responses!

Eric

 

[jergenf]

Q1: How is this going to effect my fees? Will I be paying less because I now only have two boxes as opposed to three? Or will I be paying more in fee because of the type of boxes they are? When they arrive to re-wire for the 942, should I have them make another upstairs bedroom active? (I understand the 625 can ALSO heat-up two rooms.)

Normally you should be only charged $5 per each additional receiver. The 942 and 625 also have a dual receiver fee if not connected to a phone line.

Q2: What is PVR? Is it different from DVR or one in the same?

Both the same.

Q3: I'm noticing that one of the 510's are changing channels by itself. Is this a clue that something may be wrong with it also? Or is it a set-up problem? Should I dive into the manual or just wait for the 942, at which point I will no longer have any 510's.

If these unit have UHF remotes then you may have a conflict with another UHF remote possibly from a neighbor. You'll need to reprogram the remote address if that's the case, see your manual for the correct process.

Q4: I still have my voom dish and OTA on the roof. They've made it so that the OTA WILL feed a signal to my 942 when it arrives. But is there a cheaper alternative to seting up the voom dish to receive the 10 voom originals? E* once offered to set it up at no charge, but that promised got lost in the mix. If not, is it worth the 99 to modify the voom dish. (I've read in some threads that there's a slight chance that E* will make the voom channels available without the use of a second dish in the near future.)
Eric

If you already have a dish at 61.5 and a OTA antenna it just a matter of adding a switch (SW21 or DP21) to your dish500. However make sure that the LNB for both dishes are the same series. Example if your dish500 has DP series you'll need a DP series LNB and DP21 switch. Worse case scenario you might have to buy additional LNB and switch. Check the prices of the equipment and compare that to $99. Remember it would just be screwing in and LNB and switch and no alignment should be necessary since it already point the the right direction.

 

[ericpd]

Thanks J. Any pointers where I might can find these parts for my voom dish? The dish is easily accessable and kinda feel I can do this myself. What about the rumor that E* will be making those voom origianals viewable by their dish? Any truth to that? If so, how long do you think the wait may be? I've asked this question of E* and most don't even know what I'm talking about!

 

[jergenf]

Shop for the best price but here's a link for example
http://www.dishstore.net/index.php?cPath=40

If you have dishpro series twin LNB on your dish500 then verify that the 61.5 is also has dishpro. If not then you'll need to replace a dishpro dual lnb $37 and add a DP21 switch $26.

The old Voom dish is equivilent to the legacy series LNB and although it still can pickup the Voom sat unless the dish500 is also legacy you can't combine them.

When swapping LNBs just unscrew the LNB itself don't loosen the dish itself or you'll have to re-align it.

There is talk of Voom being mirrored on the 129 sat but if you already have 61.5 then there's no reason to change. There will be 11 more Voom channels coming and I assume they will be on the same satellite(s) they are on now. Don't know if they will be mpeg4 or not. Also don't know if there's any change in price.

 

[datwell]

Eric: We just love our 942 and I bet you will too!

--Doug

 

[ericpd]

Thanks again J. for your second round of good info. Not sure about the dishpro thing,... but I do know that the dish I have everyone is referrig to it as a Superdish. And on channel 7000, they congratulate me as a Superdish sub. Now whether that's dishpro or 500, I'm not sure. I'm gonna give it a go. I'm sure if I screw da pooch, the $99 visit will straighten things out.

I'm assuming the 11 additional channels you're speaking of are the remaining Voom original 21. For 5 bucks a month, that's not too bad. I do miss RAVE and EQUATOR.

Yeah Dat, I've heard nothing but good things about the 942. I'm just hoping I'm aware enough to be able to appreciate what I'm getting, thereby justifying the 250. If you don't mind me asking, are you driving two sets with yours? If so, are there any features being gobbled up by the second TV that would normally be available if it were only driving one set? I've been told that that is the case with the 625.

I noticed that you're also gazing at the old voom address. How are those channels coming in? And do you feel they're worth the 99 up front and 5 per month?

 

[jergenf]

Thanks again J. for your second round of good info. Not sure about the dishpro thing,... but I do know that the dish I have everyone is referrig to it as a Superdish. And on channel 7000, they congratulate me as a Superdish sub. Now whether that's dishpro or 500, I'm not sure. I'm gonna give it a go. I'm sure if I screw da pooch, the $99 visit will straighten things out.

If you have superdish then you have dishpro series LNBs. My congradulation channel is 900 so I'm assuming you have the 105 superdish for receiveing locals. You are going to need a DPP44 switch in order to add 61.5 (or 129) satellite. That's an expensive switch so you might consider the $99 install. Also you probably need the dishpro LNB for the wing dish if that dish existed back when you had Voom.

I'm assuming the 11 additional channels you're speaking of are the remaining Voom original 21. For 5 bucks a month, that's not too bad. I do miss RAVE and EQUATOR.

I fired my last fortune teller so I don't know if the price will remain at $5 when they add the other 11 channels. Also if they choose to encode them into mpeg4 you (and everybody) will need another receiver (one that hasn't even been released yet).
PS: RAVE (LAB) and EQUATOR are part of the 10 current Voom channels.

 

[navychop]

On Charlie Chat they have stated that the new Voom channels will be in MPEG-4 and start around the beginning of the year.

I have read where it is expected that the Voom channels and new HD will move to a new satellite, away from 61.5. Your SuperDish might work. Or you might need a Dish 1000. Or maybe there's a SuperDuperDish 5 LNB model coming. But I'll bet by January the reallocations will be a done deal. 61.5 might only be used for international channels then- and maybe a few LILs.

I, for one, have decided to wait until 2006, hopefully early 2006, to add on the HD/Voom tier and move on to an HD DVR (962). That way, I won't need to keep changing dishes and DVRs (942 to 962), just have to do it once, and might not need the second dish at all. The initial MPEG-4 transition details will be known by then, as well as the satellite assignments. The installer will need to feed 5 or 6 drops anyway, might as well get it all done at the same time.

 

[richmert]

what reality did the installer whisper in your ear? was it simply that the 942 is a more stable box or maybe he told you the 942 will be MPEG4 compatible? what exactly did he say to get you to change your mind?

 

[ericpd]

Well he didn't whisper anything about MPEG4, he was basically telling me that I would get better house-wide performance a 942 + 625, than I would from an 811 + (2) 510's. He implied that the 942/625 setup would be cheaper, but never gave me straight answer on that. But he promised it would be more robust.

But since my comments yesterday, I'm finding some cracks in this 942/625 dike. Neither of my TV2's will have 5.1 or S-video capability. Sound and pics are limited to life in the coax lane. Not sure how I'm gonna feel about that. I asked earlier about losing some 942 & 625 features if the boxes are taxed with serving a 2nd TV. I'm still not clear on that either. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Right now everything is chugging alone quite nicely on a 811/(2)510 config. But it's possible to be blown away once the 942/625 get here! But what made me wanna change my mind was the ability to record show 1 and view show 2 at the same time at one location. I understand this is not possible with a 510,... you're limited to recording what you're watching. That somehow kinda pulls all the teeth out of the concept of DVR'ing. The PIP/split screen capability seemed nice to.

 

[40_oz]

the 942/625 setup will save you $5/month because its 2 recievers not 3(as long as you connect to phone lines) tv2 on coax isnt usually a big deal as the tv2 is normally a lessor quality tv in a bedroom and you cant tell much(if any) of a difference.
The 942 is definitely superior to the 811. I think you will be a lot happier.
If you have the superdish, you will be better off paying the $99 for the upgrade than monkeying around for days and discovering it costs you more to diy. Those DP44's aint cheap switches.

as far as mysteriously changing channels...the installer more than likely did not change the remote port adress in one of your recievers since all 3 of them use UHF remotes.

 

[ericpd]

Yeah 40 ounce, someone else mentioned that up top. I read the directions on the little red flag attached to the UHF antenna and muddled my way through changing the address on that box. Hasn't happened since. I still have the headache left behind from trying to make sense out of those instructions, but I got it done.

$5? That's it,... just $5? Man I was figuring around 15. Guess I was using voodo math or something. LOL! I thought the dual boxes were fee'd out as single boxes if you kept them plugged into a phone line. AND I was told by E* CS that the DVR fee is waived for the 942. Again, guess I had it wrong!

Well I'm scheduled for the 14th AM. I'll have all the boxes disconnected and repacked for the installer. Oh yeah and BTW, will more wiring be required? I know they're gonna have to lay a cable from the Master bedroom to my son's room for the 625 and a cable from the main family area on the 1st floor to the basement family area for the 942. But after reading some other threads, I'm suspecting that they may have to do additional cables from the dish into the house.

I did hop on over to E-bay and did a search on that switch. And you're right, I saw one for $50. So If I'm hearing you guys right, I could get by with a cheaper switch if I had a LESSER dish (500), but I would be sacraficing my SD locals from dish. I'm not looking at them anyway, I'm doing my locals via OTA. Can the 625 handle OTA locals as well but just in SD format?

 

[jergenf]

Oh yeah and BTW, will more wiring be required? I know they're gonna have to lay a cable from the Master bedroom to my son's room for the 625 and a cable from the main family area on the 1st floor to the basement family area for the 942. But after reading some other threads, I'm suspecting that they may have to do additional cables from the dish into the house.

I did hop on over to E-bay and did a search on that switch. And you're right, I saw one for $50. So If I'm hearing you guys right, I could get by with a cheaper switch if I had a LESSER dish (500), but I would be sacraficing my SD locals from dish. I'm not looking at them anyway, I'm doing my locals via OTA. Can the 625 handle OTA locals as well but just in SD format?

They will need to run 2 lines for the 942 and 2 lines for 625. However if you have the DPP44 switch you could have just 1 line to the 942 and another 1 line for the 625 but you would require 2 (1 each) dishpro separators for the 942 and 625.

Don't know if anyone mentioned this you'll need a TV antenna (outdoor preferred) for getting locals in HD. The ones from dish are just SD. This can save you $5-$6 on locals if you use an antenna but there are other limitations. For example the 625 only receives analog stations on TV1 and doesn't record OTA at all (also TV2 can't view OTA). The 942 gets digital/analog on TV1 but only records digital stations, includes HD (TV2 can only view prerecorded digital OTA programs at SD quality). No guide information provided if you don't subscribe to locals. If you want locals for all TVs with SD record capability and EPG info then you'll need to subscribe.

The DVR fees should be waived if you subscribe to the everything package. This is not the same fee as the additional receiver fee or the dual mode receiver fee for not having a phone line.

Here's the breakdown.
1st receiver (942) is $0 but additional receiver (625) is $5. This is a $5 saving from the 811 and two 510s.

Dual receiver charge $5 for 942 and $5 for 625 but can be waived if phone line connected to both receivers.

DVR fee $5 for 942 and $5 for 625 but waived if you have Everything Pak. (Note I think actual DVR charge is just 4.98 [moot point])

So the worse case scenario is $25 in additional fees.

 

[ericpd]

They will need to run 2 lines for the 942 and 2 lines for 625. However if you have the DPP44 switch you could have just 1 line to the 942 and another 1 line for the 625 but you would require 2 (1 each) dishpro separators for the 942 and 625.

uhmmm! Maybe I'll get lucky and the 942/625 installer will opt to install the 44 switch to save himself from having to run more line! Yeah right, I should be so lucky.

Don't know if anyone mentioned this you'll need a TV antenna (outdoor preferred) for getting locals in HD. The ones from dish are just SD. This can save you $5-$6 on locals if you use an antenna but there are other limitations. For example the 625 only receives analog stations on TV1 and doesn't record OTA at all (also TV2 can't view OTA). The 942 gets digital/analog on TV1 but only records digital stations, includes HD (TV2 can only view prerecorded digital OTA programs at SD quality). No guide information provided if you don't subscribe to locals. If you want locals for all TVs with SD record capability and EPG info then you'll need to subscribe.

I'm using the HD OTA antenna from my old voom days to take on HD local tasks. Since coming to this forum, I've learned that it WIL NOT pick up any SD locals. But if I'm not mistaken, E* is no longer charging for locals in the Everything pak. They've even done away with their AT60Plus pak from their web site, which is nothing but the AT60 pak with locals. Isn't it? At least I don't think I'm paying for it, the CS told me that my locals were included with my service and because I upgraded to the superdish. That upgrade was also free for new subs incidentally.

The DVR fees should be waived if you subscribe to the everything package. This is not the same fee as the additional receiver fee or the dual mode receiver fee for not having a phone line.

Here's the breakdown.
1st receiver (942) is $0 but additional receiver (625) is $5. This is a $5 saving from the 811 and two 510s.

Dual receiver charge $5 for 942 and $5 for 625 but can be waived if phone line connected to both receivers.

DVR fee $5 for 942 and $5 for 625 but waived if you have Everything Pak. (Note I think actual DVR charge is just 4.98 [moot point])

So the worse case scenario is $25 in additional fees.

And best case is only $5. Ok, now I'm pretty straight on this fee ramp thing E* is throwing at everyone. It's beginning to make sense. Since I don't mind having a phone connect to the receivers, (at least I think I don't mind) AND I plan to allow the auto switch to the everything pak after the promo period has ended, AND after thinking about it I not THAT upset over coax video and L/R audio at the TV 2 locations, the 942/625 IS a more robust config. You guys make a whole lot-a sense. Thanks. So when the dust clears, I'm really heating up 4 rooms instead of three, with less fees ($5). Nice!

And if at a later time I decide to upgrade the basement family area with let's say a 510 Then I'm only talking a $10 (5 for receiver and 5 for DVR) increase in fees. I wouldn't need an 811 because I moved our 9 year old 57" SD toshiba down there, which used to be in the main family room where the new MIT now sits.

I tell you this, it's a pleasure when you spend time reading stuff coming from folks who know what da h*ll they're talkin' about! Thanks again.

 

[jergenf]

uhmmm! Maybe I'll get lucky and the 942/625 installer will opt to install the 44 switch to save himself from having to run more line! Yeah right, I should be so lucky..

If your installation includes adding your Voom dish in the install then they should mount the DPP44 instead of the standard DP34 switch that comes with superdish. They must know that ahead of time and agree to it.

But if I'm not mistaken, E* is no longer charging for locals in the Everything pak.

This is a trick question they're actually charging you for it. The new policy is all packages include locals unless the customer specifically asks not to have locals and in those cases it's $5 cheaper.

If you're getting the $32 new customer special promotion then locals are inclusive so having them removed won't change the price.

And best case is only $5.

Correct.

Ok, now I'm pretty straight on this fee ramp thing E* is throwing at everyone. It's beginning to make sense.

Actually the dual receiver fee never made much sense to me. They know you bought a 942 so why do you have to prove it every month. It not like you can separate it into two receivers and give one to a friend. I guess you could run a coax to your next door neighbor but how would they know that as long as the box resides in home with your phone line.

Also the DVR fee is just being charged because their competitors pass on the TIVO fees they pay for licensing. DN isn't charged any outside fees so they're just pocketing the money.

I tell you this, it's a pleasure when you spend time reading stuff coming from folks who know what da h*ll they're talkin' about! Thanks again.

Your welcome.