What To Do about DirecTV?

upstatemike

upstatemike

Senior Member
I got the notice fom DirecTV saying I have to replace my dish and receivers soon or else lose my HD programming, and I am having trouble deciding how to respond to this. They say they will replace my dish and 4 HD boxes for free but I have some concerns...

1- The current dish has 4 coax wires running to it that I carefully fished through the walls and a series of crawl spaces to the roof. If the new dish needs a fifth cable run I seriously doubt if the installer is going to take the time to follow the same complicated path to the roof. I am also not excited about running another wire myself any time soon.

2- I really like my Sony HD300 receivers and have not heard good things about the new DirecTV boxes (poor UI, slow channel changing, etc.)

3- If I swap them I don't think I would own the new boxes but would instead be converting to a lease arrangement... sounds like a I'm giving up something in that deal.

4- My ReplayTV DVRs work great with the Sony boxes. If swap I would have to get new DVRs (not in the budget) or use the DVR Receivers from DirecTV which are not included in the swapout deal (so also not in the budget).

5- I plan to migrate to SageTV next year but it is not in my budget for this year. Whatever I do should be compatible with that long term plan.

6- I don't want to switch to cable because my local provider does not include Nasa TV and some other stations that I watch regularly.

So what options do I have? Let the DirecTV guy come do a hack job to get the new dish in and live with the receiver downgrade and no DVRs? Or leave things as they are and do without HD for now? (I can always rent Blu-Ray discs from NetFlix.) Is there another option I'm overlooking?
 
upstatemike said:
I got the notice fom DirecTV saying I have to replace my dish and receivers soon or else lose my HD programming, and I am having trouble deciding how to respond to this. They say they will replace my dish and 4 HD boxes for free but I have some concerns...

1- The current dish has 4 coax wires running to it that I carefully fished through the walls and a series of crawl spaces to the roof. If the new dish needs a fifth cable run I seriously doubt if the installer is going to take the time to follow the same complicated path to the roof. I am also not excited about running another wire myself any time soon.

2- I really like my Sony HD300 receivers and have not heard good things about the new DirecTV boxes (poor UI, slow channel changing, etc.)

3- If I swap them I don't think I would own the new boxes but would instead be converting to a lease arrangement... sounds like a I'm giving up something in that deal.

4- My ReplayTV DVRs work great with the Sony boxes. If swap I would have to get new DVRs (not in the budget) or use the DVR Receivers from DirecTV which are not included in the swapout deal (so also not in the budget).

5- I plan to migrate to SageTV next year but it is not in my budget for this year. Whatever I do should be compatible with that long term plan.

6- I don't want to switch to cable because my local provider does not include Nasa TV and some other stations that I watch regularly.

So what options do I have? Let the DirecTV guy come do a hack job to get the new dish in and live with the receiver downgrade and no DVRs? Or leave things as they are and do without HD for now? (I can always rent Blu-Ray discs from NetFlix.) Is there another option I'm overlooking?
Click to expand...

Is it possible to talk to an installer to see what is going to be needed? In other words, they should be able to tell you how many coaxial cables they will need, etc.

I would hope that if you own the current boxes, that you would own the new boxes, but you might have to fight for this (just my gut feeling - no idea if you'll be successful).

I guess you have to decide with is more important for you, HD or DVR? Personally I would go HD. You could always get some cheap SD tuner cards for a computer if you really missed the DVR. But you can't make HD out of a SD feed :)

When you are ready to move to Sage, at least you'll be able to buy the new Hauppaugge HD-PVR so you won't have to replace the HD-DVRs again in the future should you change providers or your providers change things on you again.
 
"5- I plan to migrate to SageTV next year but it is not in my budget for this year. Whatever I do should be compatible with that long term plan."

FYI, MainLobby now has a complete plugin for SageTV ....and DirecTV.

Now, if SageTV isn't in this year's budget, then likely ML isn't either :)

But you did want a plan that was "compatible with that long term plan".
 
Can you use one of the coax cables as a 'pull string', to pull additional lines (assuming there aren't too many sharp turns/corners), or are they stapled down?
 
DavidL said:
"5- I plan to migrate to SageTV next year but it is not in my budget for this year. Whatever I do should be compatible with that long term plan."

FYI, MainLobby now has a complete plugin for SageTV ....and DirecTV.

Now, if SageTV isn't in this year's budget, then likely ML isn't either :ph34r:

But you did want a plan that was "compatible with that long term plan".
Click to expand...

Mainlobby could become part of the long term plan but it doesn't help me decide what to do now. I think I have 2 or 3 weeks to decide on a short term plan and implement it.
 
Nothing is for free.

You could do the swap and have nothing but problems under a contract that you can't get out of.

You won't own the new boxes. Good and Bad. WHen they don't work you have bitching rights.

You could always play hardball and throw out the "If I have to upgrade I'll just go to Dish or Comcast" and see how they respond. Also try to get a reason for having to switch to new equipment and having to pull the extra coax. I' curious as I haven't heard this one before.

My inlaws are using an old RCA box that they havent had to ever upgrade ever. (Also not HD customers either)
 
Dan (electron) said:
Can you use one of the coax cables as a 'pull string', to pull additional lines (assuming there aren't too many sharp turns/corners), or are they stapled down?
Click to expand...

Unfortuantely no. That would get me up the first riser but then it goes through a small hole to another attic, then serpentines through some rafters, etc. etc. I can get another wire there eventually but it isn't going to be easy and it isn't going to happen before the free swapout deadline.
 
gatchel said:
Nothing is for free.

You could do the swap and have nothing but problems under a contract that you can't get out of.

You won't own the new boxes. Good and Bad. WHen they don't work you have bitching rights.

You could always play hardball and throw out the "If I have to upgrade I'll just go to Dish or Comcast" and see how they respond. Also try to get a reason for having to switch to new equipment and having to pull the extra coax. I' curious as I haven't heard this one before.

My inlaws are using an old RCA box that they havent had to ever upgrade ever. (Also not HD customers either)
Click to expand...

As I understand it the HD stuff is moving to the new satellite. To see it you have to have the new 5 LNB dish which I understand requires 5 coax lines. They say aliging the 5 LNB dish is not simple and not a DIY job so I have to use their installers to swap the dish which is fine with me. Tacking new coax down the outside of my house is not fine with me though so I either have to add a new run myself or do without HD for now. Even if I run the new wire I still have to determine if I can live with the DirecTV brand boxes and I also need to resolve the DVR issue.

I doubt if they care about losing my business. Plenty of easy no-hassle installs out there so they don't need me.
 
The 5 LNB dish uses the same four coax lines as a triple LNB dish. The difference is that they stack the new satellite locations above and below the standard frequencies and a B-band converter hangs off the back of your box to band shift the Ka low and Ka high frequencies back to the normal 950-1450 range. If you have RG-6 that is good to 2150MHz with a copper center conductor due to the higher power draw you'll be fine. Also diplexers cannot be used between the dish and the B-band converter.

A new development is the SWM-8 multiswitch. It takes the four coax inputs from the dish and has a single output that allows 8 tuners to share a single coax plant using normal splitters. This lets DirecTV install into houses prewired for cable TV.

Sean
 
This is all news to me.

I would assume you can get some functionality with 4 coax runs.

Get over the DVRs you have no control over and just wait for Sage.

I feel for you on the owned vs. lease thing, that sucks. Also related to above.
 
Can't say I've been to happy with Directv's customer service these days.

I'd definately play the switching to Dish or Cable card, you might want to consider actually switching. Wish we had timewarner (or whatever there operating under these days) in my area, always had good service with them.

I'm thinking about just having them run all the cables to my basement and then running the cable through the hallways till I can pull some coax through my walls. All the boxes are going to be down there eventually with the feeds distributed to my TVs.

Hoping for a slightly more friendly installer this time.

*edited rant*
 
SPeacock said:
The 5 LNB dish uses the same four coax lines as a triple LNB dish. The difference is that they stack the new satellite locations above and below the standard frequencies and a B-band converter hangs off the back of your box to band shift the Ka low and Ka high frequencies back to the normal 950-1450 range. If you have RG-6 that is good to 2150MHz with a copper center conductor due to the higher power draw you'll be fine. Also diplexers cannot be used between the dish and the B-band converter.

A new development is the SWM-8 multiswitch. It takes the four coax inputs from the dish and has a single output that allows 8 tuners to share a single coax plant using normal splitters. This lets DirecTV install into houses prewired for cable TV.

Sean
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! I'm glad I don't need a 5th run but now I am worried about the type of coax I used. My original runs were done in '99 and I was mainly concerned that I was using SAT rated RG6. I doubt if I knew to check for copper vs copper clad steel in those days. I better do a magnet test tonight to see what I have. If I have to rip out and replace the existing runs then forget it; I'll live without HD!
 
I would definitely use the "I'll just switch to Dish" with DirectTV and see what they offer. I also wouldn't shy away from doing it if they are not willing to sweeten the pot.

My wife and I have not had cable or satellite (only OTA) for the last ten years. We just switched to Dish and their new HD only package. We felt it was a very decent price for what we are getting. Plus, not having cable or satellite in the past, we are not "missing" any of the channels that are SD only. We are simply enjoying the new channels that we haven't had before.

Currently the HD only package is $29.99/mo and includes about 45 HD channels, but they are changing their HD only package from the 1 option we have to 3 options starting 8/1 and their price ranges from $24.99/mo to $32.99/mo to $39.00/mo. DVR and regional sports channels are extra. They have not made public which channels are on which tier (at least the last time I checked - about a week ago). The people on the original HD only tier are suppose to be grandfathered in for a period of time, probably until Feb 09 when we must choose between one of the three tiers.

We've been happy with out decision so far. The installation was painless and the installer was very willing to work with my requirements of where to run the wire and also the fact that I wanted the receiver in the wiring closet. So my setup was not a typical installation for him.

(If anyone is considering switching to Dish, I have some referral codes that give us both some nice discounts. PM me if interested)
 
CollinR said:
This is all news to me.

I would assume you can get some functionality with 4 coax runs.

Get over the DVRs you have no control over and just wait for Sage.

I feel for you on the owned vs. lease thing, that sucks. Also related to above.
Click to expand...

I can live with the lease thing as long as there is no service commitment (they told me there is not) and as long as they don't take away my Sony boxes (forgot to ask about that).

The DVR is a shame because it has the lifetime activation for the guide and does a good job combining SAT and cable channels (I run basic Cable for school closing info and as a rain fade backup for network feeds). I wonder if the receiver supplied by DirecTV has a tuner for basic cable? Actually a full cable ready tuner would be better since my modulated channels are in that range. Both the ReplayTV DVR and the Sony Sat box do a really good job of combining channels.
 
I started replying from my office when you first posted, but my remote connection got hosed. Anyway I was gonna say it used the same 4 runs but that was answered. It is BEST to have copper core swept to 2 Ghz min, but depending on the quality of the cable and length, it may work ok anyway. As for the boxes and DVR, there is no reason why everything but the HD moving to the new sat should not work, so your existing DVR's should still be able to work and record SD. And yes, the new 5 LNB is a bit trickier to align, a signal meter is really recommended. I would definitely let them do the dish swap out, they usually don't mess that up too bad. So I think the only thing you need to do is swap the dish and replace whatever HD receivers you need to and leave the SD stuff in place.
 
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