MRV cost $20.00 Is this true?

[vlj9r]

MRV is a nice feature but not at $20.00 per month.

Here is the link to the story: Bright House serves up multi-room DVR service in Fla.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Does one receiver replace all your receivers with their MRV?

 

[Steve Mehs]

No. Each TV that you want to access recorded content on must have a set top box. If there is a TV that you do not wish to have a DVR on but want digital cable and the ability to watch recorded content from the rest of your DVRs you can get a MOCA enabled regular nonDVR digital terminal, they call it a ‘playback receiver’. For Cisco setups it’s the model 4642HDC, not sure what the Samsung counterpart is.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Then its a rip off IMO.
But Cable doesn't charge you upfront cost on receivers, where as satellite does.

So if I want MRV right now in my whole house with Directv, It would cost me $199 for the DECA setup , another $198 to turn my SD DVRs into HD boxes for my other rooms. Plus a 24 month commitment.
So lets Break that down per month for 24 months just on equipment charges.
It would cost me a Total of $397 in Upfront cost for 2 HD Receivers, SWM/DECA Install to go along with my HD DVR and HD receiver I currectly have.
The Fees over the next 2 Years for HD ,DVR, and MRV would cost $480
The addtional monthly Receiver fees for 4 rooms for 24 months,$432

Total $1309
Breakdown over 24 months
$54.54 per month over the next 2 years.

I guess if your around that price per month with all your equipment and MRV, Then its compairable.

 

[iceturkee]

hemi, cable gets its price for the box and their ``free'' hd from what they charge for an hd dvr each month. last time i paid for one of their boxes, it was 6.95 for the digital box (which you don't get) plus 9.95 a month for the hd dvr.

i got dtv mrv when it cost 99.99 for an install plus 3.99 a month for the service. i think 20 bucks a month is steep.

since i left dtv, i have a tivo in the bedroom and one of bhn's hd dvrs in the living room.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

hemi, cable gets its price for the box and their ``free'' hd from what they charge for an hd dvr each month. last time i paid for one of their boxes, it was 6.95 for the digital box (which you don't get) plus 9.95 a month for the hd dvr.

i got dtv mrv when it cost 99.99 for an install plus 3.99 a month for the service. i think 20 bucks a month is steep.

since i left dtv, i have a tivo in the bedroom and one of bhn's hd dvrs in the living room.

Yep, I know, But D* increased there MRV Install to $200 and they also will not Upgrade your SD equipment to HD for free.

It would cost me with my local cable company
$39.95 per month for 3 HD DVRS and a Stand alone HD receiver.
Now if they did MRV for $20 it would cost me $6 more per month then what D* would cost me right now for Equipment..

Only Difference is with Cable its Spread out, I wouldn't have to front $200-$400 like I do with satellite.

But thats what I'm trying to say, Yes it is more money in my case , But thats just my cable company!
My Equipment might cost $39.95 , But the Blue Ridge Digital HD Plus is only $83 Per month
Thats $123 per month. Add all the premiums and I'm Looking at $159.

Same setup with D* would cost me $150 Per month. But no VOD like cable,and not even close with the premiums either,And my local Cables has more National NON RSN's HD channels.

Yes cable has high prices on their boxes, but the price difference is minimal over all.

I add High Speed and phone with Cable , Its Beats D*/Verizon Bundle in my area by $50 the fist year and $30 the second.

Its a tough market, But Cable still has by far way more customers then satellite. and for many good reasons.

 

[LonghornXP]

To upgrade to whole home DVR you need to pay a one time $100 installation fee. Also every box in your home must be swapped out for MOCA boxes. If you currently have a box that has a MOCA sticker on it you won't need to have it swapped. However if you have a mix of brands such as two Cisco boxes and one Samsung box you would need to have every box in your home to be the same brand and have MOCA support. Now onto the fees for service.

This 20 dollar fee is the DVR service fee for the entire house. So lets say you have three HD DVR boxes and you pay 9.95/month x 3 boxes for the DVR Service fee. You also pay 6.95/month x 3 boxes for the DVR rental fee. So this ends up being around 52.00 per month. So lets say you want just one HD DVR to be the Server and you made your other two HD DVR boxes as clients. In this setup only the server can stream its content to the clients so only one of your HD DVR boxes in this setup would be able to share content with other boxes. For this setup your pricing would be as follows.

20.00 - DVR Service Fee for entire home.
6.95 - DVR rental fee for each of the three boxes.

So total cost is 41.00 instead of 52.00.

Now if you want one or more additional HD DVR boxes to also function as servers you would pay an additional 10.00 per month for each box you wish to act as a server. So for my needs I would need to pay an additional 10 bucks a month more than what I pay now. I would be willing to pay this but two other reasons will stop me from ordering.

1. I refuse to pay another install fee (esp a large 100 dollar fee) for these reasons. Firstly I think this is just a part of doing business and you don't charge additional install fees when its part of doing business. Now regardless of this point when I'm a fully trained network tech and I can't even get paid 100 dollars per hour in no way in hell would I pay a basic BHN installer/tech this type of pay. Yes I realize this fee goes to the company but this is an install fee beyond the normal free cable installs and as such this fee is for the added work the installer must do beyond the normal scope of business. Sorry but this process cannot take much more than an hour and doesn't require extensive knowledge and as such I refuse to pay 100 bucks out of my pocket for one hours basic install labor. When I can make that kind of money per hour with all the IT certifications I have and experience I might consider paying this fee.

2. Until BHN can backup my recordings and transfer them to the new boxes I won't be able to sign up. I have different people in my home with multiple boxes that must be replaced. I'm telling ya its a fat chance in hell that every box would be empty at the sametime on the same day of the install. This on the other hand would be worth it to pay a small modest fee of say 25 bucks but no more than 50 bucks. Now if the same 100 buck install fee covered backing up and restoring my recordings from the old boxes to the new boxes I would pay this fee in a heartbeat. But until that time comes I'm afraid I won't be ordering it anytime soon even though I'm sure I would love the service.

 

[iceturkee]

why is there a 100 dollar install fee?

 

[LonghornXP]

why is there a 100 dollar install fee?

Because they can get away with it because people are willing to pay it. This fee is completely over the top for the work being done just like the Lightning install fee. Now this large fee at least does have a decent amount of legitimate work compared to the Lightning fee. Now this is just my own humble opinion based on the fact that highly trained IT Network techs don't get that kind of money. Lets be honest and say that I doubt these techs are anywhere close to as educated compared to a network tech who is Network+ and Cisco Certified (CCNA). I wish I got that kind of money for just replacing a few boxes and installing a few devices and calling in to authorize services. Either the tech is getting most of that extra money "or" the company is keeping it. My guess is that the tech isn't getting jack for this and I refuse to give "THAT" kind of money to BHN itself. Now this information applies to the Tampa Bay market but may be different for Central Florida once it launches.

 

[iceturkee]

i will agree the lightning install fee is a joke.

btw, nice to see you around.

 

[yaz96]

Comcast out here is $19.99 for MRV HD-DVR + $10.00 for each additional HD box. Just regular $10 install fee.

Normal HD-DVR is $15.95 per box, so it is a big savings.

 

[hendrickx]

$100 install fee?!?

Hello, Verizon? How much is your install fee for multi-room DVR? What? $0? I'd like to set up an appointment...

 

[Steve Mehs]

I’m not sure what BHNs plans are but Time Warner is only making MRV available to those that opt for their higher end Signature Home package. Here’s the funny thing, Signature Home is actually a few bucks cheaper and includes more. In my area Digital Cable with two DVRs, Road Runner Turbo @ 15/1 and Digital Phone is about $204. Signature Home is $200 and includes Digital Cable with two MRV DVRs, Road Runner Wideband @ 50/5 (if available) and Digital Phone. Zero install fee. Infact I never paid TW any type of install fee for anything ever. Only thing that comes close is a $15 activation fee when I switched to from Verizon to Digital Phone and that was only since I chose to port the number over.

 

[DetFan]

Because they can get away with it because people are willing to pay it. This fee is completely over the top for the work being done just like the Lightning install fee. Now this large fee at least does have a decent amount of legitimate work compared to the Lightning fee. Now this is just my own humble opinion based on the fact that highly trained IT Network techs don't get that kind of money. Lets be honest and say that I doubt these techs are anywhere close to as educated compared to a network tech who is Network+ and Cisco Certified (CCNA). I wish I got that kind of money for just replacing a few boxes and installing a few devices and calling in to authorize services. Either the tech is getting most of that extra money "or" the company is keeping it. My guess is that the tech isn't getting jack for this and I refuse to give "THAT" kind of money to BHN itself. Now this information applies to the Tampa Bay market but may be different for Central Florida once it launches.

I had lightning installed today here in Michigan and they got me for 50.00. For all of 15 minutes of their time.

 

[The Insider]

Hey even employees get stuck with that install fee. For something I could of done myself. They are trying to recover the massive cost to upgrade the network

 

[LonghornXP]

Hey even employees get stuck with that install fee. For something I could of done myself. They are trying to recover the massive cost to upgrade the network

I thought that is what the extra 30 bucks a month was for. Last I checked I could get an entire internet account for not much more than that. They charge the install fee because they can. I don't believe for one second that a tech is needed to hook up a box for highend customers. Lets be honest and agree that only the higher end and educated technology customers would even consider paying the extra money for Lightning. So with that said I'm pretty sure these customers can hook up a simple box and use the splitter provided if needed. In the case of major signal strength issues this would cause the tech to completely rewire the room if not the entire house. Well last I checked if you order Turbo Plus and have signal issues they won't charge you 50 bucks to cover "if" you have signal issues. I also firmly believe that signal issues that would keep Lightning from working would also create problems for Turbo Plus and maybe even HD channels and On Demand. All of these would be fixed at no extra cost.

Again I understand the cost of a truck roll but I don't understand why Lightning and Whole Home DVR (the two newest services) are the only services that have an install fee. This seems to be the new trend from BHN to make additional money. I always believed that install fees cover the cost of the truck roll and hardware and really aren't intended to create a profit stream. So I don't believe that a basic install tech, gas, van, etc warrants 100 bucks "if" they aren't trying to make a profit out of install fees. If it does cost that much they are paying way too much. Now if they are sending Knight people than you are being robbed blindly considering what those guys are paid. Now if its a BHN employee that might cost a bit more but come on not 100 bucks for a job that would take on average no more than 1 hour and 15 minutes. I can go to a customers location and do a complete install of Windows 7, do all windows updates, install anti-malware software, create the first system backup etc which takes me just about 2 full hours onsite. I charge 149.99 for this service now because of the economy and considering the cost of gas, car and other expenses I can easily make a profit. I don't want to hear that BHN cannot charge less when they are getting a monthly income which is something I don't get.

Now this is just my humble opinion and maybe I'm wrong but this fee puts a bad taste in peoples mouths when they see how little the tech does and how little time it takes. People don't like to feel like they are getting robbed and it's how I felt after the Lightning tech left. I had a plumber come in and fix a pipe that took a solid hour and required "far" more training and knowledge than a BHN install tech and this cost me 79.99. Heck auto guys charge 80 bucks an hour but at least they also have far greater training than BHN techs. I'm sorry but the cost to work ratio isn't in line with other jobs that require far more education and experience.

 

[iceturkee]

i thought the fifty for a lightning install was totally absurd. tech wasn't here any longer than hooking up a modem for the first time. after a month i cancelled. i totally refuse to pay the 100 for whole home, especially when i already have the correct boxes. bhn keeps muttering something about changing the wiring outside. this isn't satellite people so how frickin complicated can it get. even a tech told me i shouldn't have to pay the entire fee because i already had the newer boxes. so, i totally agree with you L!!