(Likely) switching from Dish Network - have questions

[Andrewwski]

Writing this post to help a close relative switch from Dish to DirecTV. They are fed up with the lack of MSG at this point in hockey season, as well as the LIN TV dispute and multiple equipment issues lately that Dish is giving them a tough time about.


It’s been a few years since I closely followed DirecTV though. Last I was familiar, the HR20 was the newest receiver and the SWM was just being introduced.

Few questions on how things work now.

They have five TV’s – one with HD, four SD. HDTV needs a DVR, the rest don’t. Because of this, there’s no reason to go with multi-room DVR, correct? It seems that they need HD receivers on each TV – and these cost extra. In order to do this, it’d cost somewhere around $400 extra to make the rest of the receivers HD? In that case, we’ll just stick with a regular HD-DVR.

Second, is the Single-Wire Multiswitch pretty much standard now, or must it be requested, or is it an extra charge? The room that is getting an HD-DVR only has one RG6 line to it, and there’s no way to add another. No basement or attic, and on an interior wall – would require lots and lots of drywall tear-out and repair. I know there are SWM LNB’s and such, we’d definitely need some way to run the HD-DVR’s two tuners over one coax.

Third, is it a requirement to hook up each receiver to a phone line? Does DirecTV have an audit department like Dish? I know with Dish, if you have multiple receivers in a household and not all are hooked up to a phone line or Ethernet, they often will give you a nasty/harassing call asking you to read off numbers from the receiver, or else they shut it off. One of the receivers is in a room with no phone line – and again, no way to run it there. With Dish this was a “TV2” of a receiver in a room with a phone line, so it worked, but with DirecTV we need a receiver in the room. I know they have powerline phone adapter things, but would rather not have to spend the extra money unless absolutely necessary.

Fourth, I believe DirecTV has RF remotes? Will these work with the standard def receivers? One of the tuners is split into two rooms, and an RF remote is needed for the second room. If not, I could go with an IR repeater, but this is an additional hassle.


Thanks for any answers you can provide.[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

[RandallA]

1) The extra HD receiver is only if you're going to use MRV. They can just add SD receivers to the other TVs. I would get an extra HD receiver since it's free to upgrade. So 1 HD-DVR, 1 HD and 3 SD receivers.

2) Only one single line is required to connect the receiver to the dish or switch.

3) No Nazi audit dept. with Directv and no, you don't need the phone line connected to the receiver.

4) Not sure about that one.

 

[Mr Tony]

Few questions on how things work now.

They have five TV’s – one with HD, four SD. HDTV needs a DVR, the rest don’t. Because of this, there’s no reason to go with multi-room DVR, correct? It seems that they need HD receivers on each TV – and these cost extra. In order to do this, it’d cost somewhere around $400 extra to make the rest of the receivers HD? In that case, we’ll just stick with a regular HD-DVR.

correct you would not need MRV. But i'll throw this out there. Get the equipment today to future-prrof the setup down the road. With Choice + you get a DVR & HD receiver free. SD receivers are free (SD DVR's cost $99). If you plan on getting a HDTV soon for another room get the free HD box. You can do like I did with mine that is on a SDTV. I hid the HD channels so the stations dont looks warped on the SDTV or you have to chop part of the picture off. Or you can set it up to crop the HD channels (the SD only ones are unchanged)

Second, is the Single-Wire Multiswitch pretty much standard now, or must it be requested, or is it an extra charge? The room that is getting an HD-DVR only has one RG6 line to it, and there’s no way to add another. No basement or attic, and on an interior wall – would require lots and lots of drywall tear-out and repair. I know there are SWM LNB’s and such, we’d definitely need some way to run the HD-DVR’s two tuners over one coax.

yeah pretty much SWM is stock now. Much easier to run that 4 lines off the roof to a switch and 2 to the DVR. SWM is one line from LNB to switch. One line to each receiver

Third, is it a requirement to hook up each receiver to a phone line? Does DirecTV have an audit department like Dish? I know with Dish, if you have multiple receivers in a household and not all are hooked up to a phone line or Ethernet, they often will give you a nasty/harassing call asking you to read off numbers from the receiver, or else they shut it off. One of the receivers is in a room with no phone line – and again, no way to run it there. With Dish this was a “TV2” of a receiver in a room with a phone line, so it worked, but with DirecTV we need a receiver in the room. I know they have powerline phone adapter things, but would rather not have to spend the extra money unless absolutely necessary.

whats a phone line? No it is not needed. The DVR you might want to hook to the internet for video-on-demand (which rocks by the way)

Fourth, I believe DirecTV has RF remotes? Will these work with the standard def receivers? One of the tuners is split into two rooms, and an RF remote is needed for the second room. If not, I could go with an IR repeater, but this is an additional hassle.

They do but I think its only for the HD units. SD units is IR only

 

[Andrewwski]

Thanks.

Is the additional HD receiver free? When building online it seemed to be $99 for the second HD receiver...maybe I clicked the wrong things.

(Edit: OK, see it now, if I check multi-room DVR I get the second HD receiver free.)

If that's the case, it's likely worth it for $3/month. Although I'll only be able to use it on the one TV, that will give an extra HD receiver if there is another TV that is switched to HD (which is likely).

No reason to get the other 3 boxes for HD as those TV's will likely never be HD...at least not before this equipment is obsolete!

Glad to hear the SWM is pretty standard, makes things a lot easier. Same for the phone line - would love not to have to bother with that.

Will consider hooking the DVR to the internet, although they only have 768 kpbs DSL (and don't have a computer fast enough to justify anything better!). So it would likely be very slow. Plus I'd have to add a wireless router and ethernet bridge, or a wired router and powerline adapter...that may come down the road, but not immediately.

Probably will do an IR repeater then for the RF remote. Or put the extra HD box in that room for now, and deal with it when it comes time to replace one of the other TV's with HD, deal with it then. Or, for that matter, make that receiver an HD one as it's only $45-50 more than getting an IR repeater additional...then I will be really future proof.

So to summarize...MRV is on HD receivers only, correct? SD receivers will work fine normally, but don't have access to DVR programming?

If so, that sounds fine to me.

 

[RandallA]

So to summarize...MRV is on HD receivers only, correct? SD receivers will work fine normally, but don't have access to DVR programming?

Correcto!

 

[Mr Tony]

and the HD receiver can watch its own programming or something from the DVR

 

[Andrewwski]

Cool, will likely do that then. Actually thinking about doing 3 HD receivers as the cost and hassle of doing IR repeaters helps equalize the cost between the free SD receiver and the $99 HD receiver.

One question though, is it possible to either disable MRV or block DVR'd programs from that receiver? It feeds the rooms where the grandkids sometimes stay, and don't want them to be able to watch some of the DVR'ed shows.

EDIT: Another question: Does MRV require the boxes to be hooked to ethernet/home network? They currently don't have even a router, and getting an ethernet drop to that location would be a pain. Could go wireless, but probably isn't worth it.

 

[bebop]

You can set parental controls on each receiver. Also - if you didn't know this - one IR remote can be used on multiple receivers (at least of the same model) - if that helps.

 

[Andrewwski]

You can set parental controls on each receiver. Also - if you didn't know this - one IR remote can be used on multiple receivers (at least of the same model) - if that helps.

Thanks, will have to toy with the receiver settings.

I know that one IR remote can be used on multiple receivers, trying to accomplish the other way around though. Control one receiver that is in a different room than the TV.

 

[kjlued]

If you sign up, they will give you an HD/DVR and an HD receiver (along with up to 4 standards) for free.
I would definitely the second HD as it will be no extra charge and no other monthly charge unless you get MRV (which is only $3).

SWM is supposed to be automatic on all new HD accounts.

Only receivers that are currently RF remote capable are HD/DVR's, HD, and DVR's.
Currently there are no standard non DVR's that are RF capable.

Only receivers that come with an RF remote is the HD/DVR

As installers we like to get phone lines hooked up as our jobs and pay kind of depend on it.
With SWM we only need to hook one up.
If you want to disconnect it, wait 3 days to make sure all the receivers ping.

We can also get our phone lines with an internet connection.
You want this anyways as it is free and has several benefits to you.
If for some reason you change your mind about it, disconnect it after a few days.
I am sure several members here will take it off your hands. lol

There is no penalties for disconnecting phone lines.

 

[harshness]

I second Iceberg's lesson of not shortchanging the initial receiver setup. Get everything you can while you're still a "virgin". Subsequent upgrades come slowly and may cost more.

 

[Andrewwski]

If you sign up, they will give you an HD/DVR and an HD receiver (along with up to 4 standards) for free.
I would definitely the second HD as it will be no extra charge and no other monthly charge unless you get MRV (which is only $3).

SWM is supposed to be automatic on all new HD accounts.

Only receivers that are currently RF remote capable are HD/DVR's, HD, and DVR's.
Currently there are no standard non DVR's that are RF capable.

Only receivers that come with an RF remote is the HD/DVR

As installers we like to get phone lines hooked up as our jobs and pay kind of depend on it.
With SWM we only need to hook one up.
If you want to disconnect it, wait 3 days to make sure all the receivers ping.

We can also get our phone lines with an internet connection.
You want this anyways as it is free and has several benefits to you.
If for some reason you change your mind about it, disconnect it after a few days.
I am sure several members here will take it off your hands. lol

There is no penalties for disconnecting phone lines.

At least 3 out of 5 phone lines won't be a problem...and 4 out of 5 should be possible, as I could get one run to the one room. But the one receiver is on an interior wall in a room with no basement or crawlspace under it (concrete floor under the carpet), and a second story above it (so no crawlspace). The way the floor joists run in the ceiling, it's not possible to fish the length of the room, so it'd be a nightmare to connect.

If the installer can come up with a way to connect that TV to the phone line without an extra charge to us, then great, go for it, but if not, I'd say the phone line just doesn't get hooked up. Behind the baseboards also isn't an option, as there are sliding doors between the TV and the other side of the room, would require cutting into the drywall to go around those.

I mean, if it needs to be hooked up for a day or so, I suppose we could lay a 50 foot line on the floor and into another room for temporary purposes, obviously though, this is not preferred.

Also not sure what you mean by this: "We can also get our phone lines with an internet connection.
You want this anyways as it is free and has several benefits to you."

The way I'm looking online, the second HD receiver is free with MRV, but costs $99 with no MRV?

 

[kjlued]

On a SWM system we only need to hook one receiver to a phone line to ping them all.
But if we give you an internet connection we don't have to hook up any phone lines and all the receivers will still ping.

Add MRV and if you do not want it, cancel it after a month.
That 2nd HD then just cost you $3

However, for $3 a month, I would keep MRV as it is pretty cool.

 

[Andrewwski]

On a SWM system we only need to hook one receiver to a phone line to ping them all.
But if we give you an internet connection we don't have to hook up any phone lines and all the receivers will still ping.

Add MRV and if you do not want it, cancel it after a month.
That 2nd HD then just cost you $3

However, for $3 a month, I would keep MRV as it is pretty cool.

Hmm, you can just cancel it after a month? Then will definitely get it, try it out, and see if it gets used.

Definitely can get a phone line to one receiver without an issue. Will it still ping the SD ones though? If not, can put the extra HD receiver in that room for the time being anyway.

There's no router for internet in the house, so won't likely be connected that way. They have a single computer and no plans to add any more.

 

[Mr Tony]

I second Iceberg's lesson of not shortchanging the initial receiver setup. Get everything you can while you're still a "virgin". Subsequent upgrades come slowly and may cost more.

yep. Sadly I didnt futureproof when I got set up originally and it cost me in the long run

 

[kjlued]

Hmm, you can just cancel it after a month? Then will definitely get it, try it out, and see if it gets used.

Definitely can get a phone line to one receiver without an issue. Will it still ping the SD ones though? If not, can put the extra HD receiver in that room for the time being anyway.

There's no router for internet in the house, so won't likely be connected that way. They have a single computer and no plans to add any more.

One phone line will ping them all no matter what kind of receiver it is.

If you think they may enjoy a bunch of free movies, Video on Demand, and dvr2pc then getting a cheap non wireless router and the cinema kit might be worth it.

 

[RandallA]

I agree. I would try to find a cheap router to connect the receivers to the Internet. VOD content with Directv is pretty good.

 

[harshness]

Every broadband connection needs a router. Internet isn't limited to computers as modern disc players, media players, gaming consoles and televisions support cool stuff when directly connected to the Internet.

 

[Andrewwski]

Oh yeah, I know that for sure, I have my BluRay player, etc, connected to the internet at my house. Lots of nice features.

But this household will never use it. They are both ~70 years old, have used a DVD player about 5 times in the past 5 years, and have no desire to do anything more advanced.

 

[RandallA]

Oh yeah, I know that for sure, I have my BluRay player, etc, connected to the internet at my house. Lots of nice features.

But this household will never use it. They are both ~70 years old, have used a DVD player about 5 times in the past 5 years, and have no desire to do anything more advanced.

Got you!