Yesterday was the big day, here is my install experience and overall first impressions.
The guy called at about 11:50AM (scheduled install for 8-12), saying he was on his way but would be there a little after 12. No big deal, he got to my house at about 12:15PM.
We walked around, I showed him where I'd like the dish (he verified it would work, it did). Then I showed him where I wanted the different boxes. He wanted to reuse all of my current lines, but only 2 of them were going to work. In my home theater he could use 1 of 2 lines (the 2nd line is my antenna line), in my living room he could use 1 of 2 lines (needed the 2nd for future antenna), and he had to run a completely new line to a bedroom of mine. He was not happy that I would not let him reuse my antenna lines and let me know by saying he was not going to make any money on the install. I tried to work out a deal with him but he said "don't worry about it, it isn't your problem anyway."
So, that awkward conversation out of the way, he then went on about drilling 5 holes that took him about an hour... awfully slow if you ask me
. After about 2.5 hours he had the cabling done around the house, sitting on the ground as I told him I would bury it myself (I can only imagine if I asked him to mount the cable to the house how long it would have taken).
Over the next hour he built the satellite dish and mounted it, so at about 3:40 or so he began setting up the receivers (2 HD-DVRs, 2 SD receivers). Over the next hour he gets them online, he had to call in just 1 receiver as the other 3 all had phone lines near by.
Come 4:45PM, the guy completed the install and walked out the door.
The guy was a very nice person, albeit probably a little slow. I think I could have done this install myself in less than 3 hours, especially if I knew much about building the dish itself.
My first thoughts on the D* HD-DVRs (HR-21) vs E* HD-DVRs (622).
D*'s software is significantly slower. Changing channels is slower, going through the guide is slower.
D* should do what Dish has done and set up a range of HD channels all next to each other. It is easier to navigate through all the HD channels on E*.
The channel numbers seem more confusing than E*, but I may figure out how they are aligned as time passes.
The PQ seems better on most MPEG4 channels. The installer turned it to HistoryHD immediately after activating the receiver and I was impressed with the PQ immediately. Obviously ESPNHD and the other MPEG2 channels looked like crap, but that will be fixed tomorrow (or so I read on here).
All in all, my switch was made for programming, and I know that D* will have a lot more HD channels than E* in the near future. I'm also looking forward to my NFL ST package.
Just my $.02...
The guy called at about 11:50AM (scheduled install for 8-12), saying he was on his way but would be there a little after 12. No big deal, he got to my house at about 12:15PM.
We walked around, I showed him where I'd like the dish (he verified it would work, it did). Then I showed him where I wanted the different boxes. He wanted to reuse all of my current lines, but only 2 of them were going to work. In my home theater he could use 1 of 2 lines (the 2nd line is my antenna line), in my living room he could use 1 of 2 lines (needed the 2nd for future antenna), and he had to run a completely new line to a bedroom of mine. He was not happy that I would not let him reuse my antenna lines and let me know by saying he was not going to make any money on the install. I tried to work out a deal with him but he said "don't worry about it, it isn't your problem anyway."
So, that awkward conversation out of the way, he then went on about drilling 5 holes that took him about an hour... awfully slow if you ask me
. After about 2.5 hours he had the cabling done around the house, sitting on the ground as I told him I would bury it myself (I can only imagine if I asked him to mount the cable to the house how long it would have taken). Over the next hour he built the satellite dish and mounted it, so at about 3:40 or so he began setting up the receivers (2 HD-DVRs, 2 SD receivers). Over the next hour he gets them online, he had to call in just 1 receiver as the other 3 all had phone lines near by.
Come 4:45PM, the guy completed the install and walked out the door.
The guy was a very nice person, albeit probably a little slow. I think I could have done this install myself in less than 3 hours, especially if I knew much about building the dish itself.
My first thoughts on the D* HD-DVRs (HR-21) vs E* HD-DVRs (622).
D*'s software is significantly slower. Changing channels is slower, going through the guide is slower.
D* should do what Dish has done and set up a range of HD channels all next to each other. It is easier to navigate through all the HD channels on E*.
The channel numbers seem more confusing than E*, but I may figure out how they are aligned as time passes.
The PQ seems better on most MPEG4 channels. The installer turned it to HistoryHD immediately after activating the receiver and I was impressed with the PQ immediately. Obviously ESPNHD and the other MPEG2 channels looked like crap, but that will be fixed tomorrow (or so I read on here).
All in all, my switch was made for programming, and I know that D* will have a lot more HD channels than E* in the near future. I'm also looking forward to my NFL ST package.
Just my $.02...
