LONG - Given up on upgrading R22-100; almost gave up on Directv

[lblackhurst]

I'm new here (I joined when I started to look into upgrading my Directv to HD). Just thought I'd share my experiences with Directv customer 'service' when trying to get my R22-100 upgraded to HD. I ended up sending a 7 page 'snail mail' letter to the President and CEO over the experience. But I have a feeling he gets lots of those, so mine probably won't be noticed. I'm not going to include the 7 page letter here, but below is the note I sent to their customer advocate, which pretty well sums up the ordeal. Following this, I received an email from a woman named Cimmaron who sent me a couple of B-Band Converter modules to try. They didn't work. The clincher was when I called back and tried to talk to her - I was told she wasn't there and the guy on the phone insisted on 'helping' me. After explaining all I had gone through, the guy says - But, sir, the R22-100 can't be upgraded. Closest I've come to screaming at someone on the phone in a LONG time. But I remained calm and told him that, if he wanted me to stay with Directv, he would send me a new HD DVR at Directv's expense, which he agreed to do. Here is the note to the customer advocate... I recently decided to purchase an HDTV. I have been a Directv subscriber for close to 15 years, so I called your customer service number to inquire about upgrading my Directv service to HD. One of the main questions I had was whether my existing R22-100 DVR could be upgraded to HD - it has the resolution settings button on the front, so I assumed it could be. This is especially important because we have many hours of recordings we don't want to lose by going to a new HD DVR. I was assured it could be upgraded. Based on that, and the fact that Directv would install the new dish and supply a new HD DVR for our bedroom TV at no charge, I decided to proceed with the upgrade of my Directv service, as opposed to moving to HD service from our local cable provider.The installation went very nicely and the new HD DVR works perfectly. On May 24, I sent an email to your customer service department (I REALLY don't like your phone system) requesting that the existing DVR be upgraded. Thus began a never-ending series of emails, basically telling me different things to try (I will be more than happy to forward to you the email 'chain'). I have tried everything they have suggested and I still cannot get the HD channels - they will not show up in the guide no matter the settings I have tried, as they suggested, nor does the 'HD Channels' category show up when I hit the guide button twice, as it does on my new HD DVR.The email I received today basically says they are giving up and referring me to your forums. To say I am disappointed would be a major understatement. In my last email I asked that a tech support person call me at home last night, which was not done. And, by the way, I HAVE checked the forums and there are lots of entries saying this receiver can, in fact, be upgraded.This is not the level of service I expect from Directv. If I wanted this level of service, I could have gone with my local cable provider. I'm about ready to give them a try.

 

[stonecold]

I'm new here (I joined when I started to look into upgrading my Directv to HD). Just thought I'd share my experiences with Directv customer 'service' when trying to get my R22-100 upgraded to HD. I ended up sending a 7 page 'snail mail' letter to the President and CEO over the experience. But I have a feeling he gets lots of those, so mine probably won't be noticed. I'm not going to include the 7 page letter here, but below is the note I sent to their customer advocate, which pretty well sums up the ordeal. Following this, I received an email from a woman named Cimmaron who sent me a couple of B-Band Converter modules to try. They didn't work. The clincher was when I called back and tried to talk to her - I was told she wasn't there and the guy on the phone insisted on 'helping' me. After explaining all I had gone through, the guy says - But, sir, the R22-100 can't be upgraded. Closest I've come to screaming at someone on the phone in a LONG time. But I remained calm and told him that, if he wanted me to stay with Directv, he would send me a new HD DVR at Directv's expense, which he agreed to do. Here is the note to the customer advocate... I recently decided to purchase an HDTV. I have been a Directv subscriber for close to 15 years, so I called your customer service number to inquire about upgrading my Directv service to HD. One of the main questions I had was whether my existing R22-100 DVR could be upgraded to HD - it has the resolution settings button on the front, so I assumed it could be. This is especially important because we have many hours of recordings we don't want to lose by going to a new HD DVR. I was assured it could be upgraded. Based on that, and the fact that Directv would install the new dish and supply a new HD DVR for our bedroom TV at no charge, I decided to proceed with the upgrade of my Directv service, as opposed to moving to HD service from our local cable provider.The installation went very nicely and the new HD DVR works perfectly. On May 24, I sent an email to your customer service department (I REALLY don't like your phone system) requesting that the existing DVR be upgraded. Thus began a never-ending series of emails, basically telling me different things to try (I will be more than happy to forward to you the email 'chain'). I have tried everything they have suggested and I still cannot get the HD channels - they will not show up in the guide no matter the settings I have tried, as they suggested, nor does the 'HD Channels' category show up when I hit the guide button twice, as it does on my new HD DVR.The email I received today basically says they are giving up and referring me to your forums. To say I am disappointed would be a major understatement. In my last email I asked that a tech support person call me at home last night, which was not done. And, by the way, I HAVE checked the forums and there are lots of entries saying this receiver can, in fact, be upgraded.This is not the level of service I expect from Directv. If I wanted this level of service, I could have gone with my local cable provider. I'm about ready to give them a try.

I said this once and I will say this again

R22 getting HD is a as is scenario. WE DO NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORT THE R22 AS A HIGH DEF RECEIVER.

I REPEAT WE DO NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORT THE R22 AS HD DVR.

WE DO ENABLE SUPPORT FOR IT BUT IT CONSIDERED AS IS.

 

[lblackhurst]

I don't know who YOU are, but since you like CAPS - IF YOU WORK FOR DIRECTV YOU NEED TO TELL YOUR TELEPHONE SUPPORT PEOPLE TO STOP LYING TO THEIR CUSTOMERS. AND, WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, GO AND DELETE ALL THE POSTS ON THIS FORUM AND ALL THE OTHERS ON THE INTERNET SHOWING THAT OTHERS HAVE GOTTEN IT TO WORK.

 

[Mr Tony]

chill holmes. He works for Directv (he's a supervisor if I remember right) so he knows what he's talking about

The R22 can have HD sent through it only if you have another HD receiver on the account. I have just a R22 myself and it cannot be turned on as a HD receiver.

Do you have another HD receiver on the account?

 

[wildbill129]

Easy now...Stone is a good guy, he helps a lot here. If you are nice to him, he might be able to help you out.

The R22 was not designed to be an HD receiver. Yes it can be enabled, but there is confusion amongst CSR's as to whether it can be done or not. You now have an HD receiver other than the R22, so yes they should be able to enable that.

Here are some questions for you:

What is your dish setup? SWiM or Slimiline? Do you have two cables going to your other DVR or one? If you have two, you will also need B-Band converters on the R22 to see the HD channels.

If that is correct, you need to go into the system setup, re-do satellite setup with the B-Band converters on. Then go back into the system menu and uncheck the box indicating hide HD duplicates.

 

[Voyager6]

chill holmes. He works for Directv (he's a supervisor if I remember right) so he knows what he's talking about

The R22 can have HD sent through it only if you have another HD receiver on the account. I have just a R22 myself and it cannot be turned on as a HD receiver.

Do you have another HD receiver on the account?

According to his post, he does.

The installation went very nicely and the new HD DVR works perfectly.

 

[sum_random_dork]

A few questions; you mention you had another HD reciever, is it an HR 2X or an H2X? I think you need a HR2X to enable the R22 to work with HD. Secondly, if you keep emailing D* you probably wont get your question(s) answered because it's not going to the correct dept. Sometimes.......you have to pick up the phone and call for help. I have had much more success calling up D* support and getting questions taken care of. Finally, why are you so upset if the CSR agreed to your demands for a new HR2X? They gave you what you wanted. As was mentioned for people to help you on here you will need to give more details as to what your set up is.

 

[stonecold]

First I like to apologize . This issue of the R22 is getting just silly and I type in caps to yell as I am frankly tried of repeating my self on it.

There is no tech reason to my knowledge that would prevent R22 from getting HD if HD reciever was already on the account .

Now This is a best effort service as far as the R22 is concerned unfornately.

Here is the problem is this. Our billing system sends the programing down to the access card and controls all programing on the box. The problem is that the R22 is an SD DVR plain and simple and will always set to be that way in our system. ( There are techincal reasons behind it has to be that way and we cant magically flip a switch unfortnately to make it work ) I wish we could but we cant.

We will try things to make it work as it is considered an Unsupported feature. As an unsupported feature you are not going to get far with corporate. If they gave you an hddvr to replace it great for you. But we did that as a courtsey for you and not because we owed you anything for the R22 not functioning as an HD DVR.

I will not go into the 200 + things that could be wrong and why your not receiving HD on that unit.

We will try all 200+ things but at the end of the day if it still does not work well were sorry but you have an SD DVR trying to function as an HD DVR unofficially.


I have helped many on here and I am just giving you the truth. Dont like the truth then I am sorry.

I will not request that other post across the this site or any other site be taken down as this is not DBStalk. I take the good with the bad here and I am sorry things are not going your way but your getting mad about an unsupported feature that we do not officially support on the R22

 

[Davedirectv]

Amen Stone, Amen.

 

[plumfam4]

I recently had an hr22 go bad. I was sent an r22 as a replacement. I called and HD was activated to it. I have other HR's on account

 

[stonecold]

I recently had an hr22 go bad. I was sent an r22 as a replacement. I called and HD was activated to it. I have other HR's on account

Most likey a shipping mistake as when people in mpeg4 markets who use to get r22 as SDDVRs are getting HR2x boxes as the R22 die out. Mainly the r22 was a bad idea.

 

[lblackhurst]

Although I swore I wasn't going to return to this forum, I'm visiting long enough to say that I got the HD working on the R22-100. I figured it out on my own, since Directv was useless. It finally occurred to me that the R22-100 satellite configuration had not been changed - it still showed the round dish as it was before the new slimline HD dish was installed. I changed it to the slimline, for which it said the B-Band Converters were required, which Directv had sent me, but, again, they said nothing about reconfiguring the dish. I now get all the HD channels. Absolutely no one at Directv even mentioned this as a possibility. Nor did the installer mention it, even though I told him I was planning on upgrading the R22-100 for HD. At the very least, he could have changed the satellite dish type, or told me to do it. The sad thing about all this is that as bad as the 'service' I received from Directv was on this issue, cable is even worse, and DISH is on a list by itself.

 

[Jimbo]

Although I swore I wasn't going to return to this forum, I'm visiting long enough to say that I got the HD working on the R22-100. I figured it out on my own, since Directv was useless. It finally occurred to me that the R22-100 satellite configuration had not been changed - it still showed the round dish as it was before the new slimline HD dish was installed. I changed it to the slimline, for which it said the B-Band Converters were required, which Directv had sent me, but, again, they said nothing about reconfiguring the dish. I now get all the HD channels. Absolutely no one at Directv even mentioned this as a possibility. Nor did the installer mention it, even though I told him I was planning on upgrading the R22-100 for HD. At the very least, he could have changed the satellite dish type, or told me to do it. The sad thing about all this is that as bad as the 'service' I received from Directv was on this issue, cable is even worse, and DISH is on a list by itself.

was this the main recvr that he was working on ?
If so , I would have thought that it wouldn't work if the sat configuration was not correct.

You would never get the HD channels if you didn't have the BBC's on at the time.
Yopu'd get a few,but most are on the 99 and 103 sats that require the BBC's.

 

[wildbill129]

Although I swore I wasn't going to return to this forum, I'm visiting long enough to say that I got the HD working on the R22-100. I figured it out on my own, since Directv was useless. It finally occurred to me that the R22-100 satellite configuration had not been changed - it still showed the round dish as it was before the new slimline HD dish was installed. I changed it to the slimline, for which it said the B-Band Converters were required, which Directv had sent me, but, again, they said nothing about reconfiguring the dish. I now get all the HD channels. Absolutely no one at Directv even mentioned this as a possibility. Nor did the installer mention it, even though I told him I was planning on upgrading the R22-100 for HD. At the very least, he could have changed the satellite dish type, or told me to do it. The sad thing about all this is that as bad as the 'service' I received from Directv was on this issue, cable is even worse, and DISH is on a list by itself.

Glad you figured it out.......go back a few posts and you will see I mentioned re-doing satellite setup.....not that I am saying I was right.....

 

[lblackhurst]

Glad you figured it out.......go back a few posts and you will see I mentioned re-doing satellite setup.....not that I am saying I was right.....

I hadn't returned after caps boy p*ssed me off - I've been a technical guy probably longer then he's been alive and I would never respond to a new forum member in that fashion. But thanks for the tip. Sorry I missed it.

 

[lblackhurst]

was this the main recvr that he was working on ?
If so , I would have thought that it wouldn't work if the sat configuration was not correct.

You would never get the HD channels if you didn't have the BBC's on at the time.
Yopu'd get a few,but most are on the 99 and 103 sats that require the BBC's.

The new one they installed as part of the upgrade is an HR23-700. If it has BBCs on it, they are internal to the unit. Directv can't decide whether they installed a SWiM dish or not (don't even get me started on that...), if that makes a difference.

 

[lblackhurst]

chill holmes. He works for Directv (he's a supervisor if I remember right) so he knows what he's talking about

The R22 can have HD sent through it only if you have another HD receiver on the account. I have just a R22 myself and it cannot be turned on as a HD receiver.

Do you have another HD receiver on the account?

Don't tell me to 'chill holmes'. I don't care if he's god (and he probably thinks he is - I know lots of guys like him) - he can still be courteous, especially to a new member. And apparently he doesn't know what he's talking about since I got it to work. And, as I said in my original post, I had HD turned on.

 

[Jimbo]

The new one they installed as part of the upgrade is an HR23-700. If it has BBCs on it, they are internal to the unit. Directv can't decide whether they installed a SWiM dish or not (don't even get me started on that...), if that makes a difference.

Yiu are correct, the HR23 is the only DVR that has the BBC's built in to them.

If you look in your Sat set up info it will tell you what LNB set up your using.

 

[Jimbo]

Don't tell me to 'chill holmes'. I don't care if he's god (and he probably thinks he is - I know lots of guys like him) - he can still be courteous, especially to a new member. And apparently he doesn't know what he's talking about since I got it to work. And, as I said in my original post, I had HD turned on.

Hmmm, I must have missed this discussion .... thankfully apparently.

 

[stonecold]

Don't tell me to 'chill holmes'. I don't care if he's god (and he probably thinks he is - I know lots of guys like him) - he can still be courteous, especially to a new member. And apparently he doesn't know what he's talking about since I got it to work. And, as I said in my original post, I had HD turned on.

Sir I did apologize to you since I had a bad day that day like we all do from time to time.

I am here to help you may not like my answers but I always tell it how it is.


You got caught up on what the box can physically do. it had the components inside to display resolutions higher then SD even though it was marked as a SD DVR.

My daily driver ( 08 Jeep Compass ) here 2.4L World engine does 172hp stock but I know techincally she can do 337HP stock in a slightly difference configuration that is used by Chrysler. So why does the jeep not get the other configuration well because frankly it not made to race and if I did change make the changes to the other components it would rip my trans mission apart because it was my low end torque cvt would tear appart at 337HP . So while it was great that your R22 now works it was never intended to when it was designed it was an after thought.


Now before you go bashing me again . I feel that every time I have to deal with someone who acting like you currently are as a learning experience for DTV.

First we look at where did we go wrong. If your this upset there is something that customer think we did wrong ( some times there right and sometimes there wrong plain and simple )

In your case it was after they sent out the b-band converters and you still did not have hd it should of been handles as what could be the issue which should of lead to having you try the HD test channesl to make sure your getting signal. Which would of given them a fail which would of had check your dish config. Which is what it should of been set to in the start. but that is nether here or there. Some one droped the ball .


But instead of just asking in here in a calm maner. You type up this rant of a post bashing D because the r22 was not doing soemthing it was never ment to do ( but physically could ) We decide to give you an hddvr free by your own admission.

I am here to help and I am again sorry if you feel insualted but only thing I seen you do is make demands around here and insult people.