Any Voomers in Philly?

[labatiz]

I have had voom since 4-04 i had a pretty good install the guys did not know what they were doing but they were cool it took them a total of 19 hours to finally realize that they need to run to seperate cables for both ant. and sat. overall satisfied.

 

[chayse]

Do you remember who your installers were? I'm supposed to get installed 6/23. I plan to have most of the cable already run and waiting for a hookup. I don't want people messing with my equipment too much. I'm in Bucks County BTW, Northeast of Philly.

 

[Brajesh]

My install is this Saturday (6/12). I'm in Burlington, NJ. The install will be done by JC Experts. I've called them twice, but the same guy who answered the phone both times doesn't seem to speak English all that well. I'd ask him questions & he'd mutter something pretty unintelligible back. I plan to call them again on Friday to confirm my install. Got my fingers crossed for a smooth install & just that they really show up w/the equipment.

 

[chayse]

That's interesting, I was only offered M-F for installs. No saturdays. I would certainly rather have a Sat appointment So I can make sure I am there, instead of just my wife, when it is installed. Let me know how this works out with JC Experts, they are supposed to be doing my install as well.
Thx

 

[Brajesh]

They just called to bump me to the following Saturday, 6/19.

 

[chayse]

Wow! that was quick. I hope mine is still going to be on for the 23rd. I was thinking of calling to see if I could schedule for a Sat, but we'll wait to see if it actually happens on the 23rd.

 

[Brajesh]

Hey chayse, looks like your install will now be before mine. I had to postpone mine to July 17 for personal reasons. I'll be very interested to hear how your install by JC Experts goes...

 

[chayse]

I should probably give them a call to make sure everything is on track still. How many stb's were you going to get? Maybe I can get your spot for tomorrow?

 

[chayse]

I called the installer this afternoon. They said everything was good. i asked if they had all of the equipment and they said they did. We'll see tomorrow when/if they get here.

 

[Brajesh]

Yes, good luck. Hope all goes well w/your install.

 

[chayse]

Thanks! Just about 2 hours till the install window starts.......


Well, It begins. Installer called and is on his way.

 

[Brajesh]

I'm excited & scared for you (as I am for myself) . Reading all the negative (& some positive) posts on installs shows that it's a crap-shoot. Guess we'll find out soon enough about JC Experts .

 

[chayse]

JC Seem pretty good so far. I'll have to reserve final judgement until i get home. The wife is giving me the play by play over the phone. I also had already run two new RG6 lines to each TV where there is going to be a voom box. All the guy needs to do is mount the antennas and run the wire into the attice where my wiring is waiting. Then hookup the boxes to the TVs.
hopefully Vooming soon....

 

[chayse]

Not vooming yet...

Well, I'm not Vooming yet. The installer has left. I am not able to get a good signal at the stb. Installer says that the signal is 93 at the Sat, but only 30 at the stb. He is blaming my run of cable. He said there were too many connections between the Sat and the stb. I ran brand new RG6 quad shield cable from my attic to the wall jack in each room where the stbs would be located, there are no other breaks or splitters. When the Dish was put in, the installer needed to run a cable into the attic then use an inline F-connector to connect to my cable and there is another inline connector at the wall jack. Could two F-couplers cause that much of a signal degredation? I don't think the total run of cable is more than about 75-80'

 

[chayse]

I ruled out cabling as the problem. Went up to the dish and moved it a little with my wife watching the meter. Got a solid 90-91. The installer is coming back early Thurs. morning. The boxes were never activated b/c the signal was not high enough for them to hit the box. Oh, well. I was able to watch a little of the news via OTA. The picture is great for the channels that I get, can't get all I'm supposed to yet. At least not all that show in the PG.

 

[Brajesh]

Thanks for your report. Hope the second time is the charm. Maybe JC will learn as he does more installs--hopefully he'll actually be an "expert" (as in JC Experts) by the time he gets to me. I'll also be asking JC to use my existing DirecTV RG6 cabling, which I know works fine w/my current DirecTV hi-def setup.

Did they leave all the equipment with you? (DVI cable, OTA antenna, cables, etc.)

 

[chayse]

Well, the installer came back early this morning. He was a really nice guy. I told him what I did for the signal. He said "that's great". I also asked him if he could rearrange the OTA antenna b/c I was missing a couple of channels. I also asked him to please move the diplexor from the dish into the attic. This will make it easier if I decide I don't like it to remove it. He agreed to both things. I was able to get better OTA recept. and he put new cables into the house and did not reuse the old wiring this time. All in all, it was not too terrible of an experience. I think this whole thing would have been much easier if there were two people. One to watch the signal meter and another to tweak the dish. I would have been more than happy to help him, but I could not take off work yesterday, wife was the only one home. He did try, which is more than some of the installer stories that i have read about. I'll be Vooming this evening when i get home. Can't wait.

He did leave all of the cables with the boxes. No issues there.
Juan is a very nice older gentleman, well, older than me.....
Hope your install goes well.

 

[Brajesh]

Thanks. Yep, Juan was the guy I talked to also. So, in the final analysis, it appears the only real issue was bad dish pointing. Hope he learned from you.

 

[jwcool]

Philly OTA reception

Can anyone in Philly tell me about the OTA recpetion? I live in Art museum area and can only cbs, UPN pax and pbs after my voom install.