Anyone get DirecTv in an apartment complex? (1 Viewer)

[JamesOr]

I'm moving in 2 weeks to an apartment complex where I will be getting DirecTv through the cable company that serves the complex. It's a weird setup. I pay the regular programming fees to DirecTv, not to the cable company but I have to use the cable company's equipment. They have a big satellite dish that they get the programming through and I also have to use their receiver. This ticks me off because I was considering getting a new HD widescreen and an HD receiver but I was told that I have to use their receiver. I've tried calling the cable company several times and all I get is an answering machine. Now I really have a bad feeling about this.

Can anyone think of a technical reason why I would need to use their equipment? The bill is sent to me and in my name so I assume the access card in the receiver will be in my name as well. I'd really like to find a way around this

 

[Robert_J]

This ticks me off because I was considering getting a new HD widescreen and an HD receiver

Getting an HD receiver will probably not get you any HD programming over satellite. Until yesterday, I thought it was only possible to stack a single satellite but someone at another forum posted info on a new DirecTV multi-sat dish that can stack all three satellites onto a single coax. Your apartment is probably using a single dish pointed at the 101 satellite for core DirecTV programming.

Do you have a view of the satellites for a balcony or exclusive use area? If yes, you can install your own dish and the apartment can't do a thing to stop you as long as you stay within the FCC guidelines.

-Robert

 

[JamesOr]

Thanks for the info. I had a feeling there was a legitimate reason for having to use their equipment other than them wanting to make money off me.

There are a few people who have dishes out on their balcony but I was told by the apartment leasing agent that they did this before there was cable available and are going to take them down as soon as their programming contracts run out. She told me I wasn't allowed to put up a dish on my balcony.

I thought that the FCC regulations stated that as long as you owned your property you couldn't be prevented from putting up a dish. Since I am renting I'm assuming I don't have any legal right to put up a dish. I could be mistaken but that was how I always interpreted it. I'm not even sure I have a choice now. I've already signed up for DirecTv throught the cable company, though I don't move in for 2 weeks.

My biggest fear was getting some 4-yr old receiver that wasn't worth the $40/month programming. I'll have to wait and see on that. I'm prepared to raise a stink about though

 

[Robert_J]

The Link Removed also covers renters with an exclusive use area like a balcony or a fenced in patio.

If you don't want to use their equipment, you can purchase your own de-stackers for about $30 each for a lot of on-line vendors.

-Robert

 

[JamesHl]

The only way they can stop you that I've seen here in Texas is that they can require you to have a renter's insurance policy to cover the possibility that your satellite will whack someone in the noggin (it may seem stupid on the surface, but someone was actually killed by a poorly mounted dish falling from a 4th floor balcony at my girlfriend's mother's apartment building a couple of years ago).