Your receivers also 'phone home' every now and then. I dont know if directv callerID's those calls and records the phone number used at the service address or not, but that might be how they got it.
multi-room viewing
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Just dont put a bag of your own urine in the box before you send it back. They dont like that.
k:
Have you had the H20 (a fairly old model) for less than 90 days? If so, its under warranty. What ever you do, dont put it too close to the inside of your microwave oven for 30 seconds or so. It might not work after that.
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The good message here is to closely inspect the receivers that are being installed in your home. Know what you need and what the current models are. If the installer wants to put in some 2005 era receivers and they dont suit your needs, ask them for something newer and if they dont have what you want, send them home. Its your only option since directv wont maintain a modern inventory system that can assure you of a box that meets your needs. So make them roll a truck two or three or four times, maybe they'll solve that problem.
In the meanwhile, if they drop a couple of boxes off that you decide later arent what you want, dont put a bag of pee inside the case or nuke the box to get a new one. They pulled a fast one on you and you didnt know any better.
k:Have you had the H20 (a fairly old model) for less than 90 days? If so, its under warranty. What ever you do, dont put it too close to the inside of your microwave oven for 30 seconds or so. It might not work after that.
:The good message here is to closely inspect the receivers that are being installed in your home. Know what you need and what the current models are. If the installer wants to put in some 2005 era receivers and they dont suit your needs, ask them for something newer and if they dont have what you want, send them home. Its your only option since directv wont maintain a modern inventory system that can assure you of a box that meets your needs. So make them roll a truck two or three or four times, maybe they'll solve that problem.
In the meanwhile, if they drop a couple of boxes off that you decide later arent what you want, dont put a bag of pee inside the case or nuke the box to get a new one. They pulled a fast one on you and you didnt know any better.
Reading this thread has both made me excited and hesitant about subscribing to D*. I love the idea that they may soon offer me the option to get MRV, but I hate the idea that if I order now, they are gonna give me old out-of-date hardware. Is this always the case? Will they not give you a good, new DVR with your new subscription? Or is this an isolated case? Cuz I really want to receive a brand new receiver.
One of the main reasons DirecTV went to the leased model was to help them keep their hardware costs down, by being able to recycle hardware from former customers. Probably the best way to go would be to find a local retailer, not ging directly to DirecTV which can promise you all new hardware. If you do go with DirecTV directly, when the installer shows up find out what they were going to give you and if you don't want it tell them to just cancel the order if they can't give you what you need.
Your biggest problem might not be getting newer receivers for mrv, it might be having a network that can sustain the throughput needed. Wireless G and older powerline stuff may not work, and some people have even had trouble with newer powerline and wireless N networks.
Of course, we may see some changes to how MRV works in the next CE.
Of course, we may see some changes to how MRV works in the next CE.
Hmm...well all the satellite specialists I've searched for online, are nowhere near me. I live in an area where there aren't a convenient satellite specialist dealer. The closest one is about an hour away, but I could go if thats my best option. As a closer option, does anyone know if I went to like Best Buy and subscribed, would I be able to take home the receivers they have there that are newer? Or do they still have the installer bring it with them instead of letting you take home the ones from the store?
Check with the retailer thay's an hour away, they might have no problem go that far. I've seen folks post where installers hav driven 3 or 4 hours to get to a customer. Not sure about BestBuy, call them and ask.
That's interesting... I have one of my dvrs on a game adapter/g network and am able to stream mrv without issue... except CBS HD sports a while back for some reason. Haven't tried it lately and lost it with the new CE so can't try again yet. All the SD stuff streamed fine and even all the HD, iirc, with that one exception. My other 2 boxes are straight into a gbit switch so no problems there at all of course.
I'm hoping they put mrv back this weekend in the 01 release... I miss it really badly.
No doubt you'd be able to find a range of people that find slower powerline and wireless work just great.
Depends on what router you have, what wireless/powerline adapters you're using, how far away they are, interference variance, and what you're streaming. If you can run 1080i/mpeg 2 (the highest bandwidth use) without any stops/jitter then it'll be good for your particular implementation. If you're running mostly 720p/mpeg4, that requires about half of the bandwidth. My guess is the only 1080i/mpeg2 high bitrate content you tried to stream was that cbs sports pack.
I dont have a particularly large or odd house, and my wiring is good and <20 years old. My router is ~20' and one floor from the second HR20. No powerline option from 3.5-170Mb/s was adequate, nor was wireless G or N. I pulled a wire. Still have some issues, but those are software related.
What you need is ~15-18Mb/s of absolutely uninterrupted data stream. If things stop for a half second to a second or more, you'll get a blip in the video. Maximum throughput isnt the critical piece...fluidity is.
Having been in networking since Bob Metcalfe asked me "is that transceiver connected yet?", I can assure you that the vast majority of home networks wont meet that criteria.
They could solve this problem by putting in a ~30 second buffer that would fill itself dynamically, and perhaps a "please wait..." while it filled to start and on trickplays, but then they'd have to store the video somewhere for buffering where .003% of their users, nefarious thieves of content, could possibly snap it up and republish it.
Directv seems hell bent on making sure nobody can copy the content. Other dvr providers buffer, copy content from one place to another, and dont enforce things like HDCP. Directv wont buffer, wont allow copying, enforces HDCP, uses DTCP on all interbox transfers, locks esata content to the receiver, etc, etc. Everything has to be encrypted end to end and nothing can be stored.
Its an admirable effort, but while technically sound in a lab environment, all these super whiz bangy features simply wont work for most of their customers.
Depends on what router you have, what wireless/powerline adapters you're using, how far away they are, interference variance, and what you're streaming. If you can run 1080i/mpeg 2 (the highest bandwidth use) without any stops/jitter then it'll be good for your particular implementation. If you're running mostly 720p/mpeg4, that requires about half of the bandwidth. My guess is the only 1080i/mpeg2 high bitrate content you tried to stream was that cbs sports pack.
I dont have a particularly large or odd house, and my wiring is good and <20 years old. My router is ~20' and one floor from the second HR20. No powerline option from 3.5-170Mb/s was adequate, nor was wireless G or N. I pulled a wire. Still have some issues, but those are software related.
What you need is ~15-18Mb/s of absolutely uninterrupted data stream. If things stop for a half second to a second or more, you'll get a blip in the video. Maximum throughput isnt the critical piece...fluidity is.
Having been in networking since Bob Metcalfe asked me "is that transceiver connected yet?", I can assure you that the vast majority of home networks wont meet that criteria.
They could solve this problem by putting in a ~30 second buffer that would fill itself dynamically, and perhaps a "please wait..." while it filled to start and on trickplays, but then they'd have to store the video somewhere for buffering where .003% of their users, nefarious thieves of content, could possibly snap it up and republish it.
Directv seems hell bent on making sure nobody can copy the content. Other dvr providers buffer, copy content from one place to another, and dont enforce things like HDCP. Directv wont buffer, wont allow copying, enforces HDCP, uses DTCP on all interbox transfers, locks esata content to the receiver, etc, etc. Everything has to be encrypted end to end and nothing can be stored.
Its an admirable effort, but while technically sound in a lab environment, all these super whiz bangy features simply wont work for most of their customers.
Each of those wires can support 100Mbps speeds, which is as fast as the NIC card is in the DirecTV receivers.
You'll get longer 100Mb/s links with 5e and 6. Gigabit over more than about 7' runs wants cat6. Cat6 is more difficult to terminate than 5e, but unless you're doing 30-40 wallplates by hand, it doesnt matter that much.
Cat 1: Currently unrecognized by TIA/EIA. Previously used for POTS telephone communications, ISDN and doorbell wiring.
Cat 2: Currently unrecognized by TIA/EIA. Previously was frequently used on 4 Mbit/s token ring networks.
Cat 3: Currently defined in TIA/EIA-568-B, used for data networks using frequencies up to 16 MHz. Historically popular for 10 Mbit/s Ethernet networks.
Cat 4: Currently unrecognized by TIA/EIA. Provided performance of up to 20 MHz, and was frequently used on 16 Mbit/s token ring networks.
Cat 5: Currently unrecognized by TIA/EIA. Provided performance of up to 100 MHz, and was frequently used on 100 Mbit/s Ethernet networks. May be unsuitable for 1000BASE-T gigabit ethernet.
Cat 5e: Currently defined in TIA/EIA-568-B. Provides performance of up to 100 MHz, and is frequently used for both 100 Mbit/s and 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet networks.
Cat 6: Currently defined in TIA/EIA-568-B. Provides performance of up to 250 MHz, more than double category 5 and 5e.
Cat 6a: Currently defined in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-10. Provides performance of up to 500 MHz, double that of category 6. Suitable for 10GBase-T.
Cat 7: An informal name applied to ISO/IEC 11801 Class F cabling. This standard specifies four individually-shielded pairs (STP) inside an overall shield. Provides performance of up to 600 MHz.
Cat 7a: An informal name applied to Amendment 1 of ISO/IEC 11801 Class F cabling. Provides performance of up to 1000 MHz. Suitable for 40 Gigabit Ethernet.
EDIT
I use a lot of Cat5e in Gb connections without any problem.
You may be getting a good number of data errors but unless you've got a managed switch you wouldnt notice it. Might also only happen when the traffic volume is high.
5e will allegedly work, but on longer runs its very susceptible to the type of interference that can give you grief with gigabit signaling. It'll work, but not optimally.
Not to mention a lot of 5e cables kicking around are sloppily made and while they more or less work okay with 100Mb, they fall down when you go to gigabit.
Would I suggest ripping out all your 5e for 6? Not without trying it first. If I were wiring now or buying cable, I'd get 6. Especially if I had interference sources in the home or long runs.
I'm running a mixed gigabit/100Mb network here. About half of my patch cables were giving me a lot of errors with gigabit while they worked perfectly fine with 100Mb.
Wow, I do not get errors on my CAT5e connections. We have a huge patch panel that is all CAT5e and it runs all through the lab with about 50 benches and 7 patch panel connections per bench going to the central location. We have been running Gb in this environment for over 5 years and do not have issues with CAT5e and Gb.
If you are using server NIC's, they will also have statistics showing errors and such.
If you are using server NIC's, they will also have statistics showing errors and such.
I have not priced CAT6 versus CAT5e in a while, so the price may be close enough that it does not matter. But that was not the case last year.
The ones they know about. If you're using the server nic stats as the clear indication of the quality of your network, let me suggest you need a little more information.
I used to have a friend with a roommate. The roommate would get drunk and take his pants off, put them over his head and run across the busy street next to the house. He thought it was hilarious as everyone would hit their brakes and he was sure nobody would ever hit him.
As far as I know, nobody ever ran him over. Which doesnt mean it was ever a good idea.
Going back to the post I responded to, the individual asked which wire he should buy since they were all about the same price. My suggestion was to use 6, since...well...its the same price and he's less likely to have trouble with it and 15 years from now when he wants to run 10Gb, he can use the same wire. Even if the cat 6 cost twice as much, for the couple of hundred feet a homeowner would be running to connect two or three receivers together for multi room viewing, the $20 or $30 difference wouldnt be that big of a deal.
Also, its not really fair to equate success in a lab environment with a lot of open wiring and professional installation with a homeowner yanking cable through a closed wall in their home and terminating it themselves, then using patch cables they've had laying around since 1995.
I used to have a friend with a roommate. The roommate would get drunk and take his pants off, put them over his head and run across the busy street next to the house. He thought it was hilarious as everyone would hit their brakes and he was sure nobody would ever hit him.
As far as I know, nobody ever ran him over. Which doesnt mean it was ever a good idea.
Going back to the post I responded to, the individual asked which wire he should buy since they were all about the same price. My suggestion was to use 6, since...well...its the same price and he's less likely to have trouble with it and 15 years from now when he wants to run 10Gb, he can use the same wire. Even if the cat 6 cost twice as much, for the couple of hundred feet a homeowner would be running to connect two or three receivers together for multi room viewing, the $20 or $30 difference wouldnt be that big of a deal.
Also, its not really fair to equate success in a lab environment with a lot of open wiring and professional installation with a homeowner yanking cable through a closed wall in their home and terminating it themselves, then using patch cables they've had laying around since 1995.
