Thanks for the HD but its time to go

[Van]

Well its been two years and my contract is up and so is my time with D. Points that I liked about D was the PQ and the programming though both are about the same on E with some minor differences in who has what in HD. Customer service for the most part was above average and all but two issues have been resolved.

What I don't like about D is the poor quality of the HD equipment as I have been through three of them in the first ten months of service. The mastec installers have left allot to be desired with one taking a receiver that was supposed to have been deactivated then ordering $205 in porn on it two days after it was removed from my home and the last one not securing a ground wire that he left laying right in front of a patio door and not knowing how to use a compass. D not willing to work with me to get a retune on my dish done so that I wouldn't loose signal when an ant crawled across the lnbf. Replacing the third receiver reset my contract which it shouldnt and this was discussed about this time last year and I am still dealing with this as of last week.

Programming is good, customer service is good and the non hd receivers are good but thats where it ended for me, overall there is room for improvement and house needs some cleaning on the installation end and the protection plan end.

 

[fleetfarmer]

What TV service provider will you go with now ?

Do you think another provider will be any better ?

 

[scoop8]

That's a bummer for the OP. Fortunately, I've had very good installs and equip. My original HR22 did go out a couple of months after I upgraded to HD but the 2nd one's still running ok, after a 1 1/2 yrs.

 

[rad]

I wonder if there was something else in the OP's setup that was causing problems with his hardware? My oldest STB is a HR20-700 with a 8/21/06 Mexico manufacturing date on which I got as soon as the HR20's started hitting the street. I have had some other STB's replace:

- H20-600: Bricked by doing a CE download that had the warning that it might be bricked, D* replaced.
- R15-300: Box started wiping out smartcards, D* replaced


I saw a stat once about returned STB's to D*. IIRC it said that 70% of the service calls resulted in a box swap out. Out of those calls only 30% of the STB's had a problem with them. So a question I have is the 70% of the STB's returned and found to have no problem at refurb get sent replaced again due to the same original problem? Maybe Van was getting some of those STB's back that had NTF when they were refurbed?

 

[uncrules]

I have a HR20-700 as well (although not for quite as long as Rad) and it's still going strong to this day. I like it better than my HR22 and I use the HR20 on my living room TV and the HR22 is in the bedroom.

 

[Rey]

i hope it works out for you van

 

[Van]

I'm going with E for a second run and to head it off now I am by no means biased towards E regardless of having had them before, I have had seven cable providers in the past and would have went with V had there been fios in my neighborhood but V has seen fit to ring it like an island with no plans for the future to come in. Now as my past experience with E it was actually a good one with only loosing service twice due to weather and once to a coax that was chewed on by a skunk.

As to whether there was something in my system that I was able to rule out with every part having been replaced including the tv so from the lnbf through the coax past the ground block to the wall plate and two surge suppressors and electrical circuit the problems persisted until I got my fourth receiver which is now 15 months old.

I can't comment on the quality of D's hd dvr as I never had one but from what I've read over the last 2 years on here they seem to be reliable for most everyone though some would like E's dvr interface while others like the tivo / D dvr.

The only issue that I ever had with E was with the 508 dvr saved and locked events being wiped twice but outside of that it was a reliable service and the 311 never gave me a problem either.

Now if anyone likes I can give my reviews of the cable companies that I've had service with in the general cable forum.

 

[Van]

i hope it works out for you van

I think it will and I can call on my work experience to deal with any issues.

 

[dslate69]

Every time I visit my Mom (she has E*), I get so frustrated that setting a recording defaults to ALL Episodes. This is moronic and frustrates me to no end on short visits and would drive me crazy if I returned to E* myself. My daughter tries to record a cartoon or 2 while we are there and ends up recording 20 SpongeBobs or more.
I get reminded how slow my hr22 is in comparison but D*'s functionality of software has eclipsed E* and I couldn't imagine going back now.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

:

- H20-600: Bricked by doing a CE download that had the warning that it might be bricked, D* replaced.
?

OH so now you believe this can happen, or should I say admit.
You didn't sound like you believed me one bit when it happend to mine.
I forgive you though.
Just for the Heads up, The Warning was my Smoked H20-600.:up
And Satellite Guys was the first to post the Warning, Not DBS talk

 

[uncrules]

While I did replace my old H20-600 with the HR22, I loved that box. Once the initial software got updated (months after I got it) the box was very fast and it's OTA tuner was far superior to the OTA tuner in the HR20 and AM21. The box had a reputation for running hot but I never encountered that problem. But I didn't have mine in an enclosed space. It was in a wide open area. The H20-100 came along to replace the H20-600 and it didn't run as hot, but it's OTA tuner wasn't as good either.

 

[rad]

OH so now you believe this can happen, or should I say admit.
You didn't sound like you believed me one bit when it happend to mine.
I forgive you though.
Just for the Heads up, The Warning was my Smoked H20-600.:up
And Satellite Guys was the first to post the Warning, Not DBS talk

I've said in a number of posts that a CE download bricked my H20-600 and the CE download notes at DBS did have the warning in it, maybe you're thinking of two different CE's. This was back very early in the CE process. Since then not one CE has bricked any of my STB's, and as you know I have a lot of them.

Oh, and I did a search for prior posts where I said I bricked my H20:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/119129-directv-wants-upgrade-me-free.html

And this was a post in response to you, http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-technical-discussions/126655-dod.html where I said a CE bricked my H20.

Selective memory strikes again!

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I've said in a number of posts that a CE download bricked my H20-600 and the CE download notes at DBS did have the warning in it, maybe you're thinking of two different CE's. This was back very early in the CE process. Since then not one CE has bricked any of my STB's, and as you know I have a lot of them.

What one are you thinking of?
I know the date on when my broke, I still have the shipping label copy.
And my refurbished H-20- 600 receipt to get out of another 24 month commitment.

 

[rad]

What one are you thinking of?
I know the date on when my broke, I still have the shipping label copy.
And my refurbished H-20- 600 receipt to get out of another 24 month commitment.

Hemi, reread my post, I updated it with links to posts where I said I had a CE brick my H20, and one was a response to a post of yours.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Here was mine.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv...01-0x2030-warning-read-proceed-w-caution.html

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Hemi, reread my post, I updated it with links to posts where I said I had a CE brick my H20, and one was a response to a post of yours.

Well you did say it Bricked your HR20-600.
Whats that?

 

[rad]

Well you did say it Bricked your HR20-600.
Whats that?

That's my old brain not talking correctly to my fingers, a usual occurance, it was a H20-600, never was a HR20-600. Got confused because we were talking about the HR20's in the prior posts.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

That's my old brain not talking correctly to my fingers, a usual occurance, it was a H20-600, never was a HR20-600. Got confused because we were talking about the HR20's in the prior posts.

What did your receiver do when it broke?

Mine kept jumpping around odd,even,odd,even like it was an LNB issue, and then it refused to let me do a manual forced download to go back to national.
This was before I knew of Protection plans, Now I don't go without them.
Not because of the receiver cost, But those commitments.

 

[rad]

What did your receiver do when it broke?

Mine kept jumpping around odd,even,odd,even like it was an LNB issue, and then it refused to let me do a manual forced download to go back to national.
This was before I knew of Protection plans, Now I don't go without them.
Not because of the receiver cost, But those commitments.

IIRC, it just wouldn't boot up, never even got to the 1st blue screen. I had the proction plan to there was no new commitment. Still have it because I own two HR2X's and a H21, plus two SWiM8's.

 

[fleetfarmer]

I keep reading here that you're never supposed to get a 2 year commitment for getting a bad receiver replaced even if you don't have the protection plan. The only way they can supposedly stick you with a 2 year commitment is for adding new receivers to your account.

Now in this thread the 2 of you are arguing back and forth and one of you said something about having the protection plan so you got out of the 2 year commitment thing.