Wanting to switch from DirecTV -> Dish

[kaptain]

My house is currently serviced by DirecTV, but we are about to drop them because of their unwillingness to help us obtain DVR service with a cheap price. We called them up asking for a quote, they gave us one, we said Dish Network gave us a better rate, and then the customer service rep almost cancelled our account right there.

I've gotten much better prices through SBC than direct with Dish Network, but I have a couple questions that I've gotten conflicting (or just confused babbling) answers from the sales reps.

1) Is it possible to have 3 TVs with DVR on Dish? This would only require two DVR boxes because one DVR can handle two TVs. One rep said yes, the other said no.

2) If I can only have the one dual TV DVR, is it a problem for the installers if the TVs are a good 75 feet apart? Do they have long enough RCA wires for that? This one both reps started rambling nervously about because they didn't know.

3) Does the second remote on the DVR really transmit a strong enough radio wave to go through two walls?

4) According to dishnetwork.com, I need a second dish to be able to receive a couple of my local channels. Does Dish Network have an oval dish like DirecTV so I don't need two dishes on my house? I'm having a hard enough time talking my dad into letting installers take down the DirecTV dish and putting up a Dish Network one.

5) The dual room DVR can only pull two live streams off the dish, right? I just thought of that. That would mean that one room couldn't record a live show, watch a live show, and leave the second room uneffected. That's a deal breaker for us, and was the whole reason for us to want DVRs on at least two TVs. We all have different tastes in TV, and our shows seem to come on at the exact same time, so needing to record two channels and watching two more channels while leaving the third room free (yes, that's 5 live streams off the satellite) isn't uncommon.

Thanks for your help

 

[ShadowEKU]

Ill address this as best i can.

1. Yes... or 4 if you really want

2. RCA Cables... no through the Coax yes.. the TV2 out is stereo through Coax (and regarding number 5 coax will be better)

3. Yup... longer antennas have been made and are easy to make but 75 feet shouldnt be a big problem

4. It depends. If your locals are on 105 or 121 a Super Dish would work (one large dish) if they are on 61.5 or the other wig bird a second dish would be required as they are basicly at a right angle to each other.

5. Im not going to answer directly. however...

through the use of diplexors (and a modulator if im thinking strait) and a 4 room DVR system it is possible to pull 4 tuners 3 tuners to anywhere in the house with the 522 TV 1 being the only one that really cant change. The unfortunate downside to this is that you would have to play remote shuffle.

I can lay this out for you sometime but i dont feel like giving myself a wrist cramp at the moment.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Out of curiosity it sounds like you needed 2 dvrs from Direct. thats 200 minus a 100 rebate. 100 for 2 dvrs is a steal

 

[kaptain]

DirecTV mentioned no rebate to us at all for the DVRs, just about $200 apeice for the DVR boxes. They also refused to allow us to add another multiswitch to our dish to keep the third TV live, and wanted to raise our package price to around $90/month.

Existing customers don't get any love, apparently.

 

[kaptain]

I have no clue what satellites the locals are on for St. Louis.

Well, crap. I just looked it up. UPN is on 61.5. I really don't want to put up a second dish just for one channel. I'll pull it over the air I guess.

We really only need two rooms with DVRs, so two DVR boxes and a normal box would suffice.

 

[boba]

Are you aware that on DISH they charge $4.98 for each DVR you have plus the $5 per month lease fee for the DHA through SBC. The DVR 510 is a single tuner DVR and you can watch or record not record and watch a different channel. There is no rebates for existing Directv customers so you are at $99.00 for each DirecTiVo and one $4.99 TiVo fee per account with Directv. But DirecTiVos do have dual tuners so you can record and watch another channel on all TiVos.

 

[ShadowEKU]

I have no clue what satellites the locals are on for St. Louis.

Well, crap. I just looked it up. UPN is on 61.5. I really don't want to put up a second dish just for one channel. I'll pull it over the air I guess.

We really only need two rooms with DVRs, so two DVR boxes and a normal box would suffice.

Well now that im at home and a much more confy keyboard.

Dish boxes have an Antenna In on all of them. this allows you to have cable or another signal coming over the coax and you can hit the TV/Video button on the remote and switch to it or put the receiver in standby.

So if you can follow this congrats if not do a searxch because this has been done several times.

Okay you have your 522 in you living room, a tv in the bedroom and a tv in the office (being generic of course)

The best way to do this is a 4 room (3 box) setup

Take the 522 in the living room's tv 2 OUT and split it to run to the office and bedroom. Have a DVR or standard receiver in each of the other 2 rooms.

Now you have the ability to watch the 522's TV2 on both the other tvs.. and watch another live channel on any tv in the house as long as tuner 1 on the 522 wasnt recording. even then you could watch something recorded on tv1 while recording something on tv2 and so on.

Where i was talking diplexors is interesting as you would be sending the outputs of each receiver to all the other receivers. Very confusing. I cant get my thoughts strait for some reason. I know others on here will know what im talkking about and hopefully chime in.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Are you aware that on DISH they charge $4.98 for each DVR you have plus the $5 per month lease fee for the DHA through SBC. The DVR 510 is a single tuner DVR and you can watch or record not record and watch a different channel. There is no rebates for existing Directv customers so you are at $99.00 for each DirecTiVo and one $4.99 TiVo fee per account with Directv. But DirecTiVos do have dual tuners so you can record and watch another channel on all TiVos.

sucks you cant get the rebates... but ide still gladly pay 200 for 2 directivos over dish's 522.

I also dont see why they wont allow you to put another mutli-switch in the line. ide jsut go buy the appropriate one and stick it in there and tell them to go to hell.

With Direct you own the equipment.

 

[kaptain]

Are you aware that on DISH they charge $4.98 for each DVR you have plus the $5 per month lease fee for the DHA through SBC.

Yeah, I'm aware of the DVR fee.

What's this $5/mo lease fee? (And what is a DHA?)

 

[Neutron]

Welcome to Satelliteguys!

See if you can talk to someone in Customer Retention. Not only is Directv better as far as existing customers, but the DVRs at Directv, IMHO, are better than the DISH boxes.

I was able to get a DTivo for $99 a couple of months ago. They threw in the multiswitch free.

I would call D* back.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Welcome to Satelliteguys!

See if you can talk to someone in Customer Retention. Not only is Directv better as far as existing customers, but the DVRs at Directv, IMHO, are better than the DISH boxes.

I was able to get a DTivo for $99 a couple of months ago. They threw in the multiswitch free.

I would call D* back.

As a E* customer i agree.

 

[kaptain]

Welcome to Satelliteguys!

See if you can talk to someone in Customer Retention. Not only is Directv better as far as existing customers, but the DVRs at Directv, IMHO, are better than the DISH boxes.

I was able to get a DTivo for $99 a couple of months ago. They threw in the multiswitch free.

I would call D* back.

Thanks for the welcome!

$99 might not seem like much, but it's a ton to a lower-middle class family. The deal we had worked out with SBC had us saving a total of $80 for the first year (including switching our phone service back to them at a cheaper rate than we have now-bouncing back and forth between companies has its benefits), which gives us 180 channels vs. the 145 we had with DirecTV, and also included a 522 receiver. I'm going to call and ask how much more a second 522 would be. I would be ecstatic if we could have more channels and two DVRs for the same price we have now.

DirecTV may be better with new customers, but Dish Network doesn't have contracts. Any time 6 months from now or later if we grow tire of Dish we can go back to DirecTV and qualify for the new customer specials, which we all know are much better.

EDIT: And as far as the DVRs being better, that doesn't really bother me. Just wanting to switch the family off of old VCRs and fading tapes onto some new technology, giving them back their watch a live program while recording capability we had when we were on cable.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Getting a second 522 is a trick frequently. On the contract it specifies 1 dual tuner dvr. There is hope as There are many people who have sicessfully done it.

Be careful about the no commitment. Going through dealers those dealers can charge you. I dont know about SBC.. considering how big they are i doubt they would charge you but make sure of that before you sign up.

Just keep in mind that Without the AEP Each DVR has a VOD fee so 2 522's would be 10.00 VOD and 5.00 for the extra receiver.

 

[Neutron]

You have to get what's in your budget.

I was able to get away with the $99 by having Directv make it into 3 payments of $33 and bill me for it.

 

[kaptain]

Getting a second 522 is a trick frequently. On the contract it specifies 1 dual tuner dvr. There is hope as There are many people who have sicessfully done it.

Be careful about the no commitment. Going through dealers those dealers can charge you. I dont know about SBC.. considering how big they are i doubt they would charge you but make sure of that before you sign up.

Just keep in mind that Without the AEP Each DVR has a VOD fee so 2 522's would be 10.00 VOD and 5.00 for the extra receiver.

I've heard it's a trick. I'm hoping I can pull it off through SBC. I don't think I'm going to switch if I can't. Having the equivalent to a single tuner DVR on a TV is no better than a VCR.

I've verified with SBC already that there is no contract. Thanks for the warning

What's AEP? I hate how every provider has its own slew of abbreviations

 

[kaptain]

You have to get what's in your budget.

I was able to get away with the $99 by having Directv make it into 3 payments of $33 and bill me for it.

So true

I never even considered breaking up payments on equipment. That's a good idea.

 

[n0qcu]

AEP = Americas everything pak (official name)
AEP = Almost everything pak 'that most people might want' (what it should be called)

 

[Neutron]

It stands for America's Everything Pak.

It's equivilant to the Total Choice Premiere with Directv. It's the TC Plus pak with every movie channel and the sports pak. With DISH it's the America's Top 180 plus every movie channel and the sports pak.

 

[boba]

There is no contract with SBC but you indicated in 6 months you might want to go back to Directv if you do you will lose any discounts with SBC. DHA is Digital Home Advantage the lease promotion from DISH Network that SBC suckers you into to save $4/Mo.

 

[Neutron]

So true

I never even considered breaking up payments on equipment. That's a good idea.

It's the only way I could do it at the time.

It's well worth it to me.