Upgrading my DTV System.

[rnelson]

Guys

Over the last several years, I really haven't done much to upgrade the hardware I used to receive DirecTV.  My dish is a 3 LNB Dish.  I do not have any Multiswitch installed.

As it is now, I have DTV Receivers in three rooms:
•   Living Room
•   Bedroom
•   Theatre in the Basement.

In my Living Room I have a line connected to my RCA Scenium with built in D*.  I have a second line connected to one of the original Sony T60 Tivo's.  I get HD via the connection to the RCA.

In my Bedroom, I have a single line connected to a Sony receiver I got in June 2001.  The TV is a Proscan 36" SD.

The only D* Hardware I have now in my basement Theatre is an H20 Receiver.

I get all OTA channels with my roof antenna and that is not a problem.  I have feeds from my antenna to all three rooms

What I have in mind is to make the following changes.

1.   Upgrade old 3 LNB Dish to 5 LNB Dish
2.   Install Zinwell WB616 Powered MultiSwitch.
3.   Trash Sony Box in Bedroom.
4.   Move H20 Receiver from Basement Theatre to Bedroom
5.   New HR20 DVR for Basement Theatre
                       Need to run additional line from satellite
                       so that HR20 has two satellite connections.
6.   New HR20 DVR for Living room.
                        Keep Sony Tivo to record SD Programming (126 hours).
                        Single satellite connection should be enough.

                        Run New line for connection to HR20
                        Use connection to RCA TV for second connection to HR20.

                       When done, will have HR20 with two connections
                       and Sony Tivo with one connection.  Need total of 3 connections.
7.   Remove DirecTV license from RCA TV.

Any other suggestions?  Although the TV in my bedroom is SD, I like the Pany in my theatre so well, I'm planning on getting a plasma for the Bedroom this fall.

[vegasvic]

I'm in the process of upgrading myself.  I have 5 TV's hooked up to D*.  3 are HD, 2 are SD.  The only DVR I have now is an old Tivo series 2 on one of the SD's.  I want to get the 5 LNB dish so I can get the new HD channels when they are online later this year.  I also want to get 2 HR-20's.

I started "negotiating" with DTV last week.  I am under no contract, I have every channel they offer plus Sunday Ticket and am an "A-List" customer.  

We'll see what kind of deal I can get.  Since I am under no contract I do have other options.  I love Sunday Ticket, I don't think I can give that up, and after years of horrible TWC service I would NEVER go back there but DTV doesn't have to know that.

[rnelson]

Thanks for the reply.  I worked out a deal with D* last Thursday Evening.

Here's the deal.

Remove RCA Scenium from D* Installed Equiptment.
Remove old Sony STB from D* Installed Equiptment.

Replace Roof Dish with new 5 LNB Dish.
Install 8 Port Multi Switch.
Move H20 from Basement Theatre to Bedroom to replace Sony STB.
Install new HR20 in Basement.
Install new HR20 in Living Room to replace RCA Scenium.

They split the agreement into two work orders.  They were out yesterday (Saturday just after Noon ) and put up the new dish/multiplexer and ran new lines to the living room and installed the HR20 yesterday.

They will be out Monday AM to install the second HR20.

Total cost was $230.12.  Their was a $19 delivery charge which I though was included in the $230.12 but I see the second work order has the delivery charge attached to it.  So the bottom line is that it will cost me about $250 to D*.

In addition, I will be getting a $10 discount for 12 months off of my programing package ( Worth $120 ) and a $10 discount for 6 months off of my movie package (Worth $60).

Things I had to deal with was that the HR20's only come with HDMI and a RGB cable.  If your A/V Receiver doesn't support HDMI, you will need either a Fibre Cable or a Coax cable for audio.  I had a coax cable I could use in order to get DD.

Also, I didn't have enough RGB Inputs on my A/V receiver so I had to buy a Audio Authority 1154A Component Video Switch.  I got that off of the internet and installed it Sat AM before D* came for the upgrade.

My only concern right now is that I'm seeing some week signals from the new new satelites that my old 3 LNB dish could pick up.  I don't know enough about what stations turn into in order to verify the 99 and the 103 satelite.  That will come in time.  If I have a problem, I'll have to get them out to re-adjust things.

Roy

[bubbaridesfast]

Not sure what you meant by "weak signals". I don't have the HR20 but the H20 is known to register a signal strength that's about "20" lower than older equipment so if that's what you saw (signals in the 70's instead of 90's), your signal should be normal.

[rnelson]

Closing this thread out, my upgrade is now complete.

I was not charged the additional $19.  My total cost was the $230.12

Installation went OK except for a few hickups.  The D* Installer obiviouslly didn't know the difference between the remote RF Antenna Connecter and the OTA Antenna connector.  In both cases, he attached my OTA antenna to the Remote Antenna port.  He couldn't figure out why I could not get any OTA channels. :bang:

Both HR20's are working fine and both are model 100's.  Within the first hour in both cases they download new software ox15C.  He did a good job in running new cables.  Nice clean work.

I also asked the installer to deactivate the old Sony STB and my RCA Scenium so that I would still have only 4 devices installed.  He deactivated my Tivo Instead.  I had to call support to get that fixed.

[vegasvic]

My upgrade is being installed tomorrow.  I finalized the deal Thursday night and was pleased to get installation just 2 days later, and on a weekend no less.  One Free HR-20, another HR-20 for $199, a free R15 and one year of HD programming free.