Direct TV .... Gotta love 'em

[Ray Davis]

I went through the same 9 day thing with the CC in August and I asked for a few additional days and they did it with no problem

I specifically asked that, and was flatly told "No, can't be done".

[garyde]

Hi Ray. A universal maxim when dealing with large conglomerates is to simply say thanks, hang up and call again, and simply re-phrase the question to another person. Repeat until satisfied. Its not what you ask but who you ask . With my card issues, I asked them to Fed ex blue label. Also, regarding the previous owners cards, they sent me an empty envelope to send the old cards back.

[Danss]

After a period of time your receiver will not work (I assume because of no phone line). All you have to do is call them and give the serial number on the card and they will reset it and it will work immediately if no other problems.

[phorner]

Yes, my DirecTV receiver with Tivo needs to be plugged in when you "activate" the receiver during initial setup. Since we live in the bus full-time, we have had the receiver plugged into a phone line on occasion, but we have spent several months without connection and not had a problem.

You do get messages stating that it's been xx days since a successful call was made, but so far, all I do is erase them.

We've had this receiver for a couple of years now, and so far, very happy.

BUT, I fear the day when a change will be necessary because it seems like a roll of the dice to see if all the equipment and DirecTv programming work together once you have to involve "the company" in any changes.

I also found that it was very easy to up-grade the programming to my KVH antenna with a simple program down-loaded from their website. Sometimes this resolves "failure to acquire" issues.

[truk4u]

Paul,

I have a new RF remote in the box from those idiots and it's yours if you want it. We installed 3 more receivers at home and they were suppose to work anywhere with the RF remotes, but duh, no good. They then informed me that the RF only works with the HD receivers now.

[jello_jeep]

Well then, a Tivo might be in my future then.

I would have to get a new dish though, because mine has to "talk" to the receiver (advanced receiver) with a serial connection.

I think it might be wise to wait until the dish is being made to pick up all the new stations though, I am in no real hurry.

[mike kerley]

There is more involved than just the dish. The new dish looks at 5 different satellites, two of which use a different format for transmission and can only be decoded or received by the new HD receivers. Our old (two years) Hughes HD unit looks for three satellites and will pick up about 10 or 12 HD channels and has a true TIVO interface. The newer direct TV HD DVR units will pick up (by year end) almost 100 channels of HD programming but will no longer have a TIVO interface. That may change someday, but for now, new units do not have the TIVO logo or operating system. Kinda like going from windows XPto 3.1 (not Vista) and even though it works, its just not as user friendly.

The KVH roof top, in motion unit can be programmed for the three (101-110-119) satellites and my guess is they will come out with an upgrade to allow it to see the others, but extra external equipment will be required along with the new receiver to get all of the HD channels.

Very confusing. It gets even worse when you have two or three receivers all looking for something on different satellites (with some units you can record two shows and watch a third that is already recorded) and can only see one satellite at a time. So with three HD DVR's, you could be recording 6 different channels at the same time off of 5 different satellites. Easy at home, tough on a bus. Who wins? (the wife, of course) Lifetime network forever!

I'm going back to reading as long as the eyes hold out.

[Ray Davis]

I would have to get a new dish though, because mine has to "talk" to the receiver (advanced receiver) with a serial connection.

That was a concern of mine, and the reason I decided to try to get the existing receivers authorized on my account.

But the question is "how would I know that this is an advanced receiver, and requires a serial line, etc"?

My previous bus didn't require a special reciever, and perhaps I was just lucky in purchasing the cheap receiver from Walmart. Is it a specific model of dish which requires the advanced receiver?

Thanks,
Ray

[jello_jeep]

Ray, this is a 96 era dish. It is automated, but has no "brains" on its own, the receiver has to tell it when there is a signal, and fine tunes it.

I think most of the newer "dome" dishes recognize the sats on their own, I would imagine the advanced receiver is not required any longer.

I don't have the newer dish, so I could be wrong, but it would seem to make sense that way!

That was a concern of mine, and the reason I decided to try to get the existing receivers authorized on my account.

But the question is "how would I know that this is an advanced receiver, and requires a serial line, etc"?

My previous bus didn't require a special reciever, and perhaps I was just lucky in purchasing the cheap receiver from Walmart. Is it a specific model of dish which requires the advanced receiver?

Thanks,
Ray

[Coloradobus]

Ray,m

For our Motosat Executive Dish on the 2000 Marathon "H", after the Marathon installed receiver went to the great beyond, we went to Camping World and bought a new Direct TV receiver. Then we discovered the the Exec Dish couldn't find squat on its own. The Marathon receiver knew where to look. I called Motosat Mat and he said we needed to get a Nomad II for our dish. So, for around $208.00 direct from Motosat we had us a new satellite locator. I am going to call them to see if we can get a Nomad of sorts for our old Direcway dish for the Direct TV "bird on the wire". The internet part is de-commissioned. We use the Verizon card in the 'puter, or rely on a Wi-Fi system whereever.
The new Nomad II knows where to look and points the dish and the new receiver, receives. So, there was no need for us to buy a whole new dish, just a new "finder". So far HD is not in our future until we absolutely need to shell out "Lew $$$Bucks for a new system.