DirecTV installation just scheduled - any tips? (1 Viewer)

[Bruce Patterson]

The lady scheduled for a slot on Saturday morning so I can be around to 'help'.

She said that each receiver needs a telephone jack within 15' of it, or an extra charge will occur. Any way around this I.E. ethernet?

Also, I have a tile roof. Any suggestions or things to avoid for the mounting?

Thanks very much!

 

[Bruce Patterson]

Oh, and this might help as far as my telephone vs ethernet question: My receivers are the Samsung SIR-TS160 and the Hughes HDVR2.

Thanks.

 

[Robert_J]

She said that each receiver needs a telephone jack within 15' of it, or an extra charge will occur. Any way around this I.E. ethernet?

They have been saying this for years but it is not completely true. You will need a land based phone line for your HDVR2 setup. After that you only need a phone line for certain situations. 1. After 30 days, the HDVR2 will start nagging you once a day to make a phone call. I'm almost at 100 days since my last call. 2. You order PPV with your remote and want to pay for it. Just connect the receiver to a phone jack overnight and it will dial out. You can order PPV over the net and not have to bother with this. 3. You subscribe to the Sunday Ticket. This is one of their requirements. I have read about people calling in and having this requirement waived though.

Mounting to the tile will probably break it. Try a wall mount or sink a pole into your yard to mount to. I mounted my dish to the facia board on the edge of the roof.

-Robert

 

[Grant B]

A pole mount was $40 extra for the company I worked for (directv & dish)
Generally the Wood trim is used if the roof is tile. He needs a clear shot to the sat, when he finds it; make sure he tells you where he plans on putting it.
As long as you have a telephone extension cord to hook up the reciever when he is there (they ask if it's hooked up), no charge.
Just unhook it when he leaves.

 

[Cesar]

If you don't have a phone line near the Directv box, I'd recommend the RCA RF Modem jacks. I got them from Home Depot and they worked fine for my DirecTV/Tivo box. You want the RF Modem, not RF phone, because it seems to be more robust. The phone one did not work for me.

 

[Mike Pottr]

Another thing I would check is the quality of your coax runs if you or the previous owner had cable previously. The previous owner of my place did a terrible job of running the cables with spliiters and bad connections everywhere, not to mention make sure the cable is RG6 coax for the runs to the jacks. If it isn't RG or poorly ran at least in the case of my installer he was more then happy to replace the shoddy cabling with brand new RG6. I wouldn't worry about the phone line too much only my basement has the box hooked up to a phone and my second one had connected I think at the end of may with no problems or disruptions in service. I could easily run a jack to it but I'm not bothering

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

If you live in a subdivision with deed restrictions, make sure the installer puts the dish in an inconspicuous location, if possible.

Also, make sure the coax feed is connected to a grounding block before it goes inside the house. The ground should be connected to the same grounding stake as the electrical service. Connecting it anywhere else may get you a ground loop hum.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[DustinLC]

How can you tell a RG from a RG6?

I have four DirectTV RCA receivers and none has been hooked up to a phone line for over 2 yrs. I never have any problem.

In fact, I was wondering if they would know. I called in one time to add a receiver and I forgot to hook up the phone line (I thought that they do the work through the line), and everything was set up. Afterward I thought, "huh? none of the receivers were hooked up."

 

[Barry BB]

The telephone line should be a non issue for a basic receiver. I have 2 basic receivers that have never been connected to a phone line, even when I called DTV to activate. The Tivo does not need to be connected all of the time but it will nag you if a call has not taken place in 30 days or so.

One tip. Make sure that you check your signal strength on ALL transponders and satellites before the installer leaves. You don't want to check just a couple of transponders and then find out that you have a week signal on some of them after he leaves.

 

[Bruce Patterson]

I also would like to know how to tell the difference in the cable.

Thanks very much for the suggestions, guys!

 

[Grant B]

RG 59 generally doesn't work, it'll look like a direct short at that freq. to the reciever.
The installer should be able to figure that out (They expected me)
Give the installer some room to work behind the TV and move all the nic nacs etc so he doesn't worry about knocking something over. Have an area where you want the antenna and maybe a secondary location if he cant get enough SS. If you can show him where the cable enters the house, that'll save him some time.
If someone had that all together, I'd be a happy camper

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I also would like to know how to tell the difference in the cable.

RG-59 is a smaller in overall diameter than RG-6. But unless you are familiar with the two (read, you have a lot of hand-on experience) it can be tricky to tell the difference unless you have the two side by side.

If you have a piece of each, the differences are readily apparent. RG-6 has a thicker center conductor and the dielectric (the white piece around the center conductor) is a larger diameter.

An easy way to tell with a cable already terminated with F connectors: The protruding center conductor of the RG-59 bends really easy, while the RG-6’s center conductor is fairly stiff.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

The cable should be marked "RG-59" or "RG-6". You may need a magnifying glass to read the markings however.