Stabbing The Beast

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SINewton

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Jan 1, 2010
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This Sunday, I stab the Time Warner Cable beast and switch to Direct TV. I am a new member to this site and wanted to contribute with a play by play of my experience switching to Direct TV. I hope this will be helpful for others that are considering making the switch and will know what to expect.

1. 12-30-09: Researched TV options and picked Direct TV.

2. 12-31-09: I went to Direct TV's website and signed up there. It was a VERY easy sign up process and it only took about 10 minutes. They have an instant customer service chat option that helped out a lot. I could not find where to enter my referral number and through the chat the rep gave me the correct link. At the end of the sign up process, you get to pick the day of installation. I was surprised that I only had to wait 3 days and they would do an install on a Sunday! The install is scheduled for 1-3-10.

3. 1-1-10: The installer called at 10am on New Years Day to confirm the install!!! So far the customer service has been great and I am very impressed!

4. 1-3-10: The install is done with VERY mixed feelings. My appointment was for 8am-Noon, but because of the bad weather the installer did not get here until 2:30 which was understandable. I ordered the HD-DVR receiver but all he had was the much older silver HR20 model (is this a big deal, because it really bugs me and may be a deal breaker, am I missing features with this old model?). The installer was very nice and very professional BUT he did not put putty over the hole were the cables from the dish come inside the house. I could see a lot of light coming in through the hole, I am sure cold air and moisture is coming in to the house. He also left cables in the basement hanging down from the ceiling. My signal strength is 90-98 but I swear the dish is pointed right in to my roof so it just has to be an optical illusion as my signal strength looks good, though I only checked 101. On the very positive side, my picture is ten times better then with TWC. I am not exaggerating when I say the SD picture on Direct TV was as good as my HDTV picture with TWC. The Direct TV HD picture has vibrant crisp colors and NO picture artifacts with fast movement. From a picture stand point I am blown away by the improvement!





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Welcome to DirecTV and welcome to this site. You will find the staff and other members very helpful for any questions you may have.

1. Which receiver did you get?
2. What package(s) did you sign up for?
 
Congrats! You made a wise choice. I had my system installed last week and couldn't be happier. The PQ is outstanding and the technician was very knowledgeable.

I also ordered my system online and you are correct, they make it so easy to order via their website. What equipment did you order?

Welcome to the site! I'm new myself and everyone has been extremely gracious.
 
1. Which receiver did you get?
2. What package(s) did you sign up for?

Thanks for the warm welcome my friends! Great place you have here! It is nice to be surrounded by people that know how to do TV right as I have a 56" HDTV, huge cigar humidor, full bar, hot dog roller, pizza maker and a refrig in the basement with nothing but beer.

1. HD DVR Receiver
2. Choice Xtra with HD DVR
3. Will add NBA League Pass & Showtime and just about everything else, lol


I do have a question for the Zen Masters. My invoice says that I am getting a Slimline Satellite Dish. Is this the one that I want??? I was thinking that I want the extra thick 12 footer. Are they going cheap on me or is this right?

Thanks.......
 
Thanks for the warm welcome my friends! Great place you have here! It is nice to be surrounded by people that know how to do TV right as I have a 56" HDTV, huge cigar humidor, full bar, hot dog roller, pizza maker and a refrig in the basement with nothing but beer.

1. HD DVR Receiver
2. Choice Xtra with HD DVR
3. Will add NBA League Pass & Showtime and just about everything else, lol


I do have a question for the Zen Masters. My invoice says that I am getting a Slimline Satellite Dish. Is this the one that I want??? I was thinking that I want the extra thick 12 footer. Are they going cheap on me or is this right?

Thanks.......


You need the slimline for HD. You are good to go.
 
welcome newbie!!!! i hope you enjoy your new directv sat system!
:welcome
 
Thanks for the warm welcome my friends! Great place you have here! It is nice to be surrounded by people that know how to do TV right as I have a 56" HDTV, huge cigar humidor, full bar, hot dog roller, pizza maker and a refrig in the basement with nothing but beer.

1. HD DVR Receiver
2. Choice Xtra with HD DVR
3. Will add NBA League Pass & Showtime and just about everything else, lol


I do have a question for the Zen Masters. My invoice says that I am getting a Slimline Satellite Dish. Is this the one that I want??? I was thinking that I want the extra thick 12 footer. Are they going cheap on me or is this right?

Thanks.......

12 footer ?

Yes they are getting you the right set up, they slimline is the current one and will get you everything you mentioned.
 
12 footer ?


I went for a little humor in the din, I should of been even a little more absurd and said;

"I was thinking that I want the Arecibo size like they have in Puerto Rico."


That way it would of been 100% obvious instead of 99.9% ;)
 
I went for a little humor in the din, I should of been even a little more absurd and said;

"I was thinking that I want the Arecibo size like they have in Puerto Rico."


That way it would of been 100% obvious instead of 99.9% ;)

Oh, you were almost obvious !
I just wanted to make sure you weren't trying to use a 12' C-Band set up.
A 12 foot dish in C-Band is common.
 
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The install is done with VERY mixed feelings. My appointment was for 8am-Noon, but because of the bad weather the installer did not get here until 2:30 which was understandable. I ordered the HD-DVR receiver but all he had was the much older silver HR20 model (is this a big deal, because it really bugs me and may be a deal breaker, am I missing features with this old model?). The installer was very nice and very professional BUT he did not put putty over the hole were the cables from the dish come inside the house. I could see a lot of light coming in through the hole, I am sure cold air and moisture is coming in to the house. He also left cables in the basement hanging down from the ceiling. My signal strength is 90-98 but I swear the dish is pointed right in to my roof so it just has to be an optical illusion as my signal strength looks good, though I only checked 101. On the very positive side, my picture is ten times better then with TWC. I am not exaggerating when I say the SD picture on Direct TV was as good as my HDTV picture with TWC. The Direct TV HD picture has vibrant crisp colors and NO picture artifacts with fast movement. From a picture stand point I am blown away by the improvement!
 
You are not missing anything with the HR20. Actually you have gained an OTA tuner as this was the last model prior to them being removed. All other features are the same except the newer models have a slightly larger hard drive (I mean slightly).
 
You are not missing anything with the HR20. Actually you have gained an OTA tuner as this was the last model prior to them being removed. All other features are the same except the newer models have a slightly larger hard drive (I mean slightly).
What model HD DVR is not HR20?
 
The install is done with VERY mixed feelings. My appointment was for 8am-Noon, but because of the bad weather the installer did not get here until 2:30 which was understandable. I ordered the HD-DVR receiver but all he had was the much older silver HR20 model (is this a big deal, because it really bugs me and may be a deal breaker, am I missing features with this old model?). The installer was very nice and very professional BUT he did not put putty over the hole were the cables from the dish come inside the house. I could see a lot of light coming in through the hole, I am sure cold air and moisture is coming in to the house. He also left cables in the basement hanging down from the ceiling. My signal strength is 90-98 but I swear the dish is pointed right in to my roof so it just has to be an optical illusion as my signal strength looks good, though I only checked 101. On the very positive side, my picture is ten times better then with TWC. I am not exaggerating when I say the SD picture on Direct TV was as good as my HDTV picture with TWC. The Direct TV HD picture has vibrant crisp colors and NO picture artifacts with fast movement. From a picture stand point I am blown away by the improvement!

The HR20 is a good box. I have one, it responds much faster to remote commands than my new HR21. If the hard drive space turns out to be to small, you can put on an eSata external drive and increase capacity.

As far as your install goes, sounds pretty typical. There are some really good installers out there, and there is a lot of not so good ones. The fine points of an install are lost with the schedule these installers keep. If everything is working good, which it sounds like it is, you can fix the other relatively minor issues yourself.
 
You are not missing anything with the HR20. Actually you have gained an OTA tuner as this was the last model prior to them being removed. All other features are the same except the newer models have a slightly larger hard drive (I mean slightly).
The HR20 has a 300 or 320 GB hard drive and the HR22/23 have 500 GB drives. That's a bit more that "slightly larger". :) However, I find my HR20 does respond a bit faster than my HR23. Hopefully, the next software release will address this problem.
 
The HR20 has a 300 or 320 GB hard drive and the HR22/23 have 500 GB drives. That's a bit more that "slightly larger". :) However, I find my HR20 does respond a bit faster than my HR23. Hopefully, the next software release will address this problem.

With the ability to replace the drive for very little costs the difference is very small IMO. If you were going from 300 GB to 1TB then I might agree it would be more than slightly larger.
 
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