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goaliebob99
Supporting Founder
Last reply · posted in DIRECTV General Forum
So I had Directv scheduled today for a dish mover, the installer was slated to show up between 8am and 12pm. CSR said he should be around 8am. Guy didnt show up untill 1150am. Showed him the job (I allready had a pole mount in and pointed. All he had to do was run the wire to the ground block, attache his wire to the existing wire that goes through the wall into the garage. From the garage he had to cut the wire put an end on it and hook it up to the SWM in port.

I showed him how att wired and told him to follow sute and told him that the wire went into the crawl and all he had to do was push the wire up where att's is and put on a dual wallplate. Also explained to him that ATT predrilled the holes using a 1 in pattle bit so he should have no problems pushing the wire up and to the wall plate wich is 1 foot up from where the hole under the crawl is. From there remove the existing wall plate and put in a dual. Attache uverse to the wall plate on both sides and crimp and attach his to the other port on the wall plate.

Also told him all i needed was direct berrial wire layed so I can berry it later from the pole mount to the ground block. This job is CAKE! Guy goes to his truck and comes back with coustomer service on the phone trying to say he has to do a full blown wall fish and is trying to charge me. Sorry guy, but thats not the case. I even mentioned to coustomer service that it seems like the guy is trying to get out of the job as its really simple, if I had the wire I would have done it myself. Come on now the dish is allready on the pole, pointed and holes and wall plates are allready in. Just have to bring the wire up.

The guy started steaming and started saying that I was saying that i thought he was trying to nickle and dime me, wich i never said. He then said im not going to work this job and started cussing up a storm. Called up directv and DIRECTSAT USA. They are sending someone out tommorow night. WOW this guy was out there, for such a simple job. All of the holes were pre drilled, and good to go for him. CRAZY! The amount of time the guy spent cussing ( he was like f this and fbomb that.) on his phone and smoking cigretts in his van he could of had the job done by the time he was finished. I really hope this guy gets fired as he really and I mean really is not the shining image of what a directv installer should be. I have never seen anyone so rude. Wow is all I can say!
13 Replies · 2377 views
Claude Greiner
Technically a wall Fish is not part of the installation, reguardless if the plate is already there and if all the technician has to do is re-pull the wire. A Wall Fish is considered a wall Fish, reguardless if its already half way done before hand.

Its just like as if you went to a car wash and paid for a full wash with the interior and exterior and you had already vacummed out the front of the car. The car wash place is still going to charge you full price, eventhough the interior was only half done.

Yes this is something the installer can technically charge for.

But I do agree with your point. What really pisses me off about alot of these installers is that everything is one sided in their favor.

A perfect example is the time when one of my technicians tried charging me extra to do a Job for one of my customers. Tried to justify it to me saying he had to spend an extra 3 hours on the Job and run an extra 100 feet of cable.

A said to him, what about the Job you did the day before where the customer had Directv and all you had to do was swap the Dish, didn't use any new wire and was out of the customers home in 45 minutes. Do I get to pay you less money for that Job, since afterall you billed me for a complete install as if you had to run all new wire.

The point is that he didn't say anything to me after that, and dropped the issue.

The point im getting at is that its ok for the installer that you installed the pole and did half of his work for him, and now that you ask him to do something considered to be extra he is getting all pissy with you now wanting to charge extra.

The other issue was probably that he didn't like that you where telling him what to do, where as most Jobs the installer makes the determination where to run the wires and where he is going to mount the Dish. To be honest with you, I don't like it either when I get to a customers house and they already have the entire install planned out for me and have everything already figured out for me as to where im going to install the Dish and exactly how im going to run all the wire.

Now granted I probably would not have said anything on your installation if I was the installer, but it does irritate me and most installers when they go to do a Job they are under the impression that the customer is trying to create more work than is necessary
goaliebob99
Claude, I agree with you but the only issue that I have is that the installer isn't the one living at the house and has to deal with how the wire is layed out. The customer does. There has to be some sort of flexibility there. If the coustomer has the install layed out and it makes the coustomer happy, then the installer should respect those wish's as thats what the coustomer wants. I could understand if the installer had did a complete install then the coustomer wanted the change. But the system wasnt even in yet for the most part as the wireing wasnt layed. All the installer heard was fall fish and then wanted to charge.
efbrune
Cluade,

As of now, D* tells the customer what receiver they will get and D* tells the customer what type of dish they get. Now you are telling the customer how and where the wires are going to be run. And, you want to charge extra for it. Where does it end? Next you will be telling the customer what TV to buy and what programs they can watch and at what time they can watch them.

I guess the customer does not have any rights any more! Oh, and remember the customer is just a stupid idiot.
K
Cluade,

As of now, D* tells the customer what receiver they will get and D* tells the customer what type of dish they get. Now you are telling the customer how and where the wires are going to be run. And, you want to charge extra for it. Where does it end? Next you will be telling the customer what TV to buy and what programs they can watch and at what time they can watch them.

I guess the customer does not have any rights any more! Oh, and remember the customer is just a stupid idiot.


Seems pretty standard. Any installer I've had always has a set way to do things and get it done in the quickest manner possible. If you want something different than what they set out to do you have to tell them at least a few times for them to understand or acknowledge what you want done.

For example with my D* installation last week I had to tell the installers 4 times to use the existing component cables for the DVR->TV connection. He kept saying "just use AV1". It's like they were on autopilot.
Van
Van
Funny but I ordered the receivers I wanted with my original install, guess if you rletting D tell you what you will get then that's your decision to be told what your going to get and how its going to go. If you're paying for a service then your the customer and you do have rights when it comes to things like the install and the equipment within reason. For the most part when it came to the install I would talk with most customers to get their input on if they felt ok with my installation plan for their home and the ones that I didn't give this option to were the ones who had it all laid out when I got there and it was obviously not going to work such as the engineer who was convinced that all satellites were located due south.
Ham Radio 2.0
· posted in Ham Radio 2.0
0 Replies · 4 views
Peter Parker
Supporting Founder Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
No idea what improvements might be involved.
18 Replies · 754 views
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bookworm370
Has anyone noticed an FF stutter with 713? I used to be able to hit FF a few times and skip smoothly. After 713 (maybe 712), when I skip forward, there is a definite stutter for as many times as I have pressed FF.

Can anyone check on this and report back? Recorded programs and then press skip forward a few times to see if it's smooth? Normally, it just jumps to the right place after the skips.
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N
I'm getting fabulous picture on Ch. 148 4k, but zero audio with H713. This is with a recorded show (Notre Dame game). Anyone else have this? Audio is fine on every other channel.
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R
Has anyone noticed an FF stutter with 713? I used to be able to hit FF a few times and skip smoothly. After 713 (maybe 712), when I skip forward, there is a definite stutter for as many times as I have pressed FF.

Can anyone check on this and report back? Recorded programs and then press skip forward a few times to see if it's smooth? Normally, it just jumps to the right place after the skips.
My wife mentioned that her remote is acting strange this morning. She hit FF and it went to 15x FF.
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Bobby
I'm getting fabulous picture on Ch. 148 4k, but zero audio with H713. This is with a recorded show (Notre Dame game). Anyone else have this? Audio is fine on every other channel.
This has been an ongoing issue. A fix is coming, probably in the next software version.
Foxbat
Wife bought me a t-shirt that has "have you tried turning it off and on again?"
Here's the one I need:
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Ramy
Supporting Founder
Last reply · posted in The Sports Section
Really excited for this season with Kentucky having a new coach and some really exciting recruits. Probably won't last long, but here's hoping this season is great.
148 Replies · 1717 views
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Foxbat
They ought to have fun with this… :devilish
osu1991
They ought to have fun with this… :devilish
Was thinking same thing. It should be a good week for sec shorts and roll call
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R
A lot of upsets yesterday, but my LSU Tigers won.
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Foxbat
Best fan sign I saw during the ND-BYU game: "Bear ate your Lucky Charms!" (Bear being the Cougars' QB). I was going to suggest, "Have you or your team been involved in a Carr crash?"
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meStevo
Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
A continuation of a thread from the pub, just general discussion of AI.

Brief 60 minute clip about next gem autonomous fighters - not remote controlled, but rather collaborating with controllers and aircraft in the theater.


View: https://youtu.be/DRm0mbp_n1k


We've literally got a movie already about this ;)


View: https://youtu.be/a2PW7a9ViDc
67 Replies · 1130 views
meStevo
Agreed, it mostly regurgitates known solutions. That's the point. Nobody needs an innovative fix for a driver error or a creative way to format a report. Let it handle the solved problems so people can spend their time on the ones that aren't.
harshness
Agreed, it mostly regurgitates known solutions. That's the point.
That's the point at which innovation ends, and there's no longer any point to software engineering other than swatting bugs that result from misapplication.
meStevo
That's the point at which innovation ends, and there's no longer any point to software engineering other than swatting bugs that result from misapplication.

Addressed by what you didn't quote. This cycle is as old as computing: compilers, libraries, frameworks each automated the tedious part, and the human work moved up a level. Innovation didn't end; it shifted. And people still make new compilers, libraries or frameworks.

Nobody's forced to hand anything off. Anyone who wants to keep doing it by hand still can, and people who couldn't do it at all now can.
harshness
... and people who couldn't do it at all now can.
Misapplication isn't something that the casual coder can identify. They can only discover, the hard way, that it doesn't work at some point.
meStevo
Misapplication isn't something that the casual coder can identify. They can only discover, the hard way, that it doesn't work at some point.
You're not wrong, but that's part of learning. Whether from others or our own mistakes, we've all learned that lesson one way or another.
harshness
Whether from others or our own mistakes, we've all learned that lesson one way or another.
I'm not sure that the school of hard knocks is the quickest or surest education to find your way.

There are many examples in the headlines of people getting burned multiple times and not wavering in their pursuit of stupidity.
meStevo
I'm not sure that the school of hard knocks is the quickest or surest education to find your way.

Good thing not everyone will have to learn the hard way then. The same tools can explain why something broke.

There are many examples in the headlines of people getting burned multiple times and not wavering in their pursuit of stupidity.

This is true of literally anything, though.

Happy to agree to disagree, but I'm already enjoying the dividends personally and helping others at work and at home do the same.
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dishstaller
Been reading this thread but not commenting much, primarily because there is so much "news" out there on this topic and it is hard to tell what is real and what is theater.
My biggest problem with AI is that these agents are taught...not necessarily programmed but taught. Well, there's an old saying "garbage in/garbage out". I remember a Joe Rogan show a while back when he had Elon Musk on and they talked about AI and Elon said one of the AIs (can't remember which one, sorry) was asked which was worse, Thermonuclear War or mis-gendering Kaitlyn Jenner and it came back with the answer that mis-gendering was worse. Now forget the politics involved with all the gender stuff we have been subjected to the past few years.....to say that mis-gendering is worse than the killing of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of human beings.....Kaitlyn Jenner included.....is simply insane not to mention incredibly dangerous.
meStevo
Been reading this thread but not commenting much, primarily because there is so much "news" out there on this topic and it is hard to tell what is real and what is theater.
My biggest problem with AI is that these agents are taught...not necessarily programmed but taught. Well, there's an old saying "garbage in/garbage out". I remember a Joe Rogan show a while back when he had Elon Musk on and they talked about AI and Elon said one of the AIs (can't remember which one, sorry) was asked which was worse, Thermonuclear War or mis-gendering Kaitlyn Jenner and it came back with the answer that mis-gendering was worse. Now forget the politics involved with all the gender stuff we have been subjected to the past few years.....to say that mis-gendering is worse than the killing of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of human beings.....Kaitlyn Jenner included.....is simply insane not to mention incredibly dangerous.

Agents need appropriate context to make what would be understood as the correct read in a situation like that, and that Gemini answer was a clear miss on that front.

That said, we've also seen Musk (and/or his team) put his thumb on the scale (or just release a very poor product) with his own deployed AI since:


In the end, it's all a tool. Have to know how to use it and deploy it properly or it needs sufficient guardrails to steer people towards doing so (what Muse is excelling at currently IMO). I'm routinely interacting with several agents a day operating various processes locally and in services I use, and there are numerous others silently spun up to perform actions or satisfy requests from my prompts.

Related to earlier discussion in the thread on leveraging local inference: this kind of analysis happening behind the scenes is something everyone will have built into Windows, IMO. Most people won't see all of this, just the results, unless they want to dig into how the fix was chosen. Stuff like this will be standard as agents get local system access baked in, and more of the inference itself moves on-device.

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T
Good thing not everyone will have to learn the hard way then. The same tools can explain why something broke.



This is true of literally anything, though.

Happy to agree to disagree, but I'm already enjoying the dividends personally and helping others at work and at home do the same.
You invested in datacenters?
meStevo
You invested in datacenters?


Though, I do have stocks in my portfolio that benefit from data centers.
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network
0 Replies · 11 views
Former member 208119
Last reply · posted in SiriusXM Satellite Radio
My year was almost up and we got the new bill for a year of service for $ 360.00 insane sat radio is becoming like cable!!! i logged into my acct and hopped onto chat and told the rep that i wanted to cancel. she understood my concern and went quiet for a few minutes. i figured that she was canceling my service. she comes back and said that she seen that i have been a sub since 07 and then offers me the same package for a year for 120.00 with taxes and fee's!!! i grabbed it. after almost having a stroke :biggrin
236 Replies · 10940 views
B
What i noticed with my last renewal XM is now billing me $4.99 monthly instead of one time yearly payment.
Jimbo
What i noticed with my last renewal XM is now billing me $.99 monthly instead of one time yearly payment.
Did you accidentally get on the wrong plan ?
I still do the once a year plans.
EarDemon
I tried to do that, when I did delivery driver work (2010- 2013), we had a fleet of Freightliners. The newer trucks had headunits that were satellite compatible (XM only I think), but lacked the antenna and guts. I got a car kt for my old Roady XT and tried to use it, but at the volume levels I needed have it at to hear it over the diesel engine it sounded like crap, so I used my phone with an aux cable. When I was in the middle of nowhere with no cell service it didn't do me any good though.

At my current job, one of our new cars has the free trial of SXM active, I frequently have to go off site to a location 75 miles away in a rural area and it's nice being able to use the service off of the satellites versus using the app. There are many places on this journey where all three providers lack service.
B
Did you accidentally get on the wrong plan ?
I still do the once a year plans.
I have to think maybe more people dont keep track of the monthly XM bill. Every time i renew i put a reminder on my calendar week before its time to renew. My wife told me the other day not to renew her and then i told her you are not going to be able to listen to XM at home. Then she changed her mind...!!
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TRG
TRG
I have to think maybe more people dont keep track of the monthly XM bill. Every time i renew i put a reminder on my calendar week before its time to renew. My wife told me the other day not to renew her and then i told her you are not going to be able to listen to XM at home. Then she changed her mind...!!
I get an e-mail every month reminding me that X amount will be charged to my credit card. If I see it go up I get on chat or pick up the phone. But I also remember that my year is up in December.
B
I get an e-mail every month reminding me that X amount will be charged to my credit card. If I see it go up I get on chat or pick up the phone. But I also remember that my year is up in December.
yea i don't understand WHY, like you I get a notice each month. Mine is also up in December.
Jimbo
yea i don't understand WHY, like you I get a notice each month. Mine is also up in December.
You get an email every month to let you know they are billing you for the next month.
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68525 Replies · 2672483 views
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Bobby
Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town - Charley Pride
harshness
Delta Dawn - Tanya Tucker
dishstaller
Can't You See - Marshall Tucker Band
sdfntx
See You in September - The Happenings
long_time_Dish
You Look Like You Love Me - Ella Langley
meStevo
Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Sports Section
Schedule drops tomorrow. Mandatory mini camps in June. Hall of Fame game August 6th.
111 Replies · 1714 views
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osu1991
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M
Hopefully nowhere near a microphone.
Y
Hopefully nowhere near a microphone.
After having experienced Gus Ferguson trying to call soccer games, I'm uncertain why NFL football analysts get hate. Even the "worst" of them are pretty good.
meStevo
Jalen Hurts out indefinitely as they treat and monitor a superficial blood clot in his leg.


View: https://x.com/RapSheet/status/2111074303185989663?s=20
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meStevo
Browns lead the AFC North 🤣

Seth Meyers What GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers
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T
Last reply · posted in Free To Air (FTA) Discussion
Picked up a sweet directv dish, mount, twin lnbs and a short cable.
Has anyone converted one to FTA? A Frankenstein of sorts...
5 Replies · 166 views
Titanium
Yes, many have hacked a DirecTV or Dish Network dish before. Quite undersized, but would receive the 97w KU stations with an LNBF swap. Make a template to set the LNBF face angle and distance from the reflector. Remove the current circular polarity LNBFs and make a bracket to hold the replacement linear LNBF in the correct centered position. Remember to set the polarity skew.
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B
would probably also work well for NHK on 101W and possibly for PBS on 99W. I used one for a while on 30W. Just keep in mind that because it's undersized for those satellites, it might work fine in clear weather but won't have much margin to account for signal degradation during rain/snow
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O
If you can find one, the Shaw / Star Choice 75e ellipticals are great for use on 97, 99, and 101W. They are really just rebranded ChannelMaster 75 cm reflectors and use linear LNBFs by default out of the box.

Everyone else's mileage may vary.
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T
I have read that some have converted this type dish but after giving it a good look, it's the lnb conversion that is the bottleneck. Does anyone have a picture of their attempt to configure the lnb? I watched a video on youtube from the save it for parts guy and he used duct tape! Guess it worked but I'm thinking something a bit more permanent!
Thanks to all for your interest and replies...
Titanium
Many of us have used a universal LNBF mount (or get creative with L brackets and plumbers tape - perforated metal strapping). Use a few inches of aluminum tube (or a piece of 1x2" lumber) to extend the support arm (replacing the plastic mount used by DirecTV and Dish) to place the LNBF throat opening at the correct distance from the reflector, the correct height and at the correct angle. Nothing magical... simply place the new linear LNBF in the center at the same distance, height and angle as the current combo.
www.amazon.com/Universal-Single-Bracket-Holder-FTA-US/dp/B074L85WK2
LNBF mount.webp