Directivo here I come!

[kbohip]

I've been a Dish Network customer for over 8 years. As of today I am no longer. Their service was perfect up until last month when I got one of their crappy 522 DVR's. These machines are built in Yugoslavia by that late great car maker of their's. Mine would freeze once a week no matter what, lose timers, skip recordings, and when everything was working perfect, it would have sound dropouts and major video pixelating. Last night I was able to talk them out of letting me out of my 2 year contract with them 6 months early.

I can't wait to get my R-10's. It looks like Robert at VE is going to sell another couple of R-10's today.

 

[Hogarth]

Mine would freeze once a week no matter what, lose timers, skip recordings, and when everything was working perfect, it would have sound dropouts and major video pixelating.

Welcome to D*, kbohip. I had the exact same experience as you with the 522.
Heck, sounds like everyone has.

You may find the TiVo a little difficult to get used to at first.

I find taking a very Zen attitude towards TiVo works best for me. You don't have to babysit it like the Dish DVR.

H

 

[rpcableguy]

Yee Hawww Tivo

Hope you enjoy I know I do lol

 

[kbohip]

I know I'll enjoy it. My parent's have it and I've had some time to play with theirs. I just got off the phone with Robert so my new R-10's are on the way!

 

[kbohip]

My R-10's arrived with the dish yesterday already! I have Friday scheduled as an install. Unfortunately I'll be at work and my wife will be there. I just hope the installer doesn't try to cut some corners. I also hope he can get Vonage to work with it. I have read quite a few threads where others have gotten the R-10's to dial out on Vonage so I'm pretty sure I can make it work.

 

[ShadowEKU]

My R-10's arrived with the dish yesterday already! I have Friday scheduled as an install. Unfortunately I'll be at work and my wife will be there. I just hope the installer doesn't try to cut some corners. I also hope he can get Vonage to work with it. I have read quite a few threads where others have gotten the R-10's to dial out on Vonage so I'm pretty sure I can make it work.

there are a few tricks you can do if it doesnt work at first.

a very zen like attitude is the right way to take it... i love the tivos i never babysit any of mine (3)

 

[Hogarth]

I have Friday scheduled as an install. Unfortunately I'll be at work and my wife will be there. I also hope he can get Vonage to work with it.

As far as I know, DirecTV's official stance is "Vonage doesn't / can't / won't work." As such, the installer may or may not be willing to even try. Being a pessimist, I am thinking not.

The two general Vonage things I've heard are:
1. Make Vonage increase your bit rate. Lower your TiVo's modem speed and call a NYC number. http://www.vonage-forum.com/outgoing/out.php?url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy50aXZvY29tbXVuaXR5LmNvbS90aXZvLXZiL3Nob3d0aHJlYWQucGhwP3A9MjYzNDY5MiYmI3Bvc3QyNjM0Njky
2. Order a serial PPP cable, and wire your R10 up to your PC. Forget calling through vonage all together.
http://www.weaknees.com/modem_fix.php

Neither one is very easy.

I would STRONGLY suggest calling out sick on Friday.

H

 

[slacker9876]

You will love TiVo. I actually went to Dish before D* was giving away DVR's. I hated the 501, it was the sole reason I switched back to D* ... we that and they help current customers where E* will not. Welcome aboard, you will enjoy TiVo and imagine you will like the replacements (NDS boxes) that will be hitting the market soon enough.

It is a good time to D*

 

[rad]

I have three D* Tivo's working over Vonage. I needed to talk to Vonage tech support and they changed the pakct serialization rate on their box. I also changed the Tivo's to call a NYC phone number, since then no problems.

 

[Hogarth]

rad:

Glad to hear it works -- however, I would bet $20 that the Installer sent to kbohip's house will not be so sharp.

If he can't activate the R10 on the spot, and kbohip isn't home, I smell disaster.

H

 

[kbohip]

As far as I know, DirecTV's official stance is "Vonage doesn't / can't / won't work." As such, the installer may or may not be willing to even try. Being a pessimist, I am thinking not.

The two general Vonage things I've heard are:
1. Make Vonage increase your bit rate. Lower your TiVo's modem speed and call a NYC number. http://www.vonage-forum.com/outgoing/out.php?url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy50aXZvY29tbXVuaXR5LmNvbS90aXZvLXZiL3Nob3d0aHJlYWQucGhwP3A9MjYzNDY5MiYmI3Bvc3QyNjM0Njky
2. Order a serial PPP cable, and wire your R10 up to your PC. Forget calling through vonage all together.
http://www.weaknees.com/modem_fix.php

Neither one is very easy.

I would STRONGLY suggest calling out sick on Friday.

H

Cough ahaeha, cough. I think I might be coming down with some sort of "sickness". I just HAVE to be there when the installer comes. If he doesn't try to make the Vonage thing work I really don't care. I've read about every Vonage thread in this forum. It seems the general feeling is that calling the NYC number and slowing the modem via the ,#34 prefix is the best way to try to get it to work. If this doesn't work I'll call Vonage and see if they'll increase my bit rate.

If all else fails I'll take it over to my sister's house and make the initial call from there. Man I can't wait to get these hooked up. I was watching a pre-recorded show last night on the 522 and it was "auto muting" like mad.

 

[scottie_h]

I had the exact same experience as you with the 522.
Heck, sounds like everyone has.

No offense to the Dish users, but this makes me feel better about my decision to go with D*. We already use a stand-alone Tivo with Voom, so won't have a learning curve. As much as the HD-DVR tempted me, I would have never heard the end of it if recordings were being missed...

 

[Hogarth]

As much as the HD-DVR tempted me, I would have never heard the end of it if recordings were being missed...

I never had it miss recordings, but that's because I babysat the DVR timers and made sure the program was on at that time.

My main problems were constant video artifacting / stuttering and chirps through Dolby Digital audio.

Oh, and it rebooted/crashed about five times a week.

My TiVo, on the other hand, hasn't been rebooted since I upgraded the drive two months ago.

DISH DVRs are hunks of junk, if you ask me.

 

[kbohip]

I never had it miss recordings, but that's because I babysat the DVR timers and made sure the program was on at that time.

My main problems were constant video artifacting / stuttering and chirps through Dolby Digital audio.

Oh, and it rebooted/crashed about five times a week.

My TiVo, on the other hand, hasn't been rebooted since I upgraded the drive two months ago.

DISH DVRs are hunks of junk, if you ask me.

Yea the 522's are garbage. The 510 I had for over a year was a far more stable machine. It was the Model T of DVR's though featurewise.

 

[kbohip]

The install went perfectly. My R-10's even dialed into Directv okay the first time using Vonage with no special settings. The second time it dialed out though they had problems. I ended up using the New York number as was suggested in another thread and it worked like a charm.

Now it's time to drop that 200gb drive into my upstairs Directivo .