ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

[Tim Frank]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Tim,

Exactly what I meant, which Dish version do you have, I have a dish 500 dual LNB hanging on the house, with a single receiver hooked up right now, what I want to do, is install a second receiver, so I have HD on both TV's. Right now I have an HD feed to my main TV and a SD feed to my second TV, I was HD on both TV's.

I am in Canada and am hooked up to Bell ExpressVu and both feeds are the old wood-burning SD type.
Looks like you are getting good advice from Bruce so I'll just watch and learn.
I plan on going HD on both, but haven't sat down to do the homework yet.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Bubba,

I still have a 500 foot roll of RG6, from my days installing large sats when I was stationed in Hawaii, so I think I got it covered!

 

[The_Kid]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

I can lease another receiver from them for 7 bucks a month, but they will not ship it to me, they said they have to have a tech install it, which will cost $95, which I am not going to pay, I can buy these solo receivers for less than $100! Right now I have a Vip722 receiver, which is a duo receiver, that delivers HD to one TV and SD to the second TV. From my understanding, the receiver downgrades the second signal to SD for delivery to the 2nd TV, which, in my opinion is really stupid!

After talking to them again today, I almost temped to reactivate my large KU dish!

I'm pretty sure your 722 receiver has an HD output in the form of YPbPr/Component signals for TV2. Since you already have one coax cable run, all you need are two more lines and 6 RG6 female to RCA male adapters. Unless your TV's are very far apart that should give you the HD you want at a small cost.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

I'm pretty sure your 722 receiver has an HD output in the form of YPbPr/Component signals for TV2.

It doesn't. Even if it did, the presense of component outputs doesn't guarantee HD any way. Progressive scan DVD players also have component outputs and they obviously aren't HD.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

The only HD output the 722 has is the HDMI output.

 

[coreybv]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

I bought the rest brand new on ebay and added the to my account. If I ordered them straight from Directv, they wanted the installer to come out like Dish wants to do with you.

Be careful with that. I had 3 DVRs running that I had purchased on eBay, and when I cancelled they insisted that I return them, claiming that "we don't sell receivers, they're all leased". And they were wanting well more than double what the receiver was worth brand new. When I (obviously) refused to either pay that amount or send them my bought and paid for equipment, they pursued collections and it actually landed on my credit report for a short time.

All in all it took over a year and countless hours on the phone to finally get the matter resolved. I managed to do it without getting a lawyer involved, but I was very close to taking that step.

That's been several years ago, and I would hope they've got their policies a little more reasonable by now, but the whole thing definitely left a bad taste in my mouth regarding DirecTV.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Be careful with that. I had 3 DVRs running that I had purchased on eBay, and when I cancelled they insisted that I return them, claiming that "we don't sell receivers, they're all leased".

When I buy the receivers, I always know that this is the case. Even the ebay sellers that are legit Directv resellers state this in their auctions that you will not own the receivers. Dish Network is EXACTLY the same.

With DISH, I returned one of their receivers after I quit and even with the tracking that showed that I returned it, they hounded me until I told them I was going to contact the state attorney general if they kept harassing me.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Well all is good, just got my second receiver hooked up, purchased it from the local satellite company, plugged in and good to go, thankfully the sat install guy left a RG6 cable hooked up to the LNB, so only had to put a terminator in the switch and then a cable extender to my other TV, so now have HD in two rooms and the ability to hook up a SD in the guest bedroom.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Awesome. Glad it was easier than what Dish wanted you to do.

One time with DirecTv, I called support to buy a part that allowed ethernet access to my whole home system. They gave me the same story where they would only do it with a technician coming out. If I did that, the total would have been $200. From my questions I was asking, he asked what I did for a living. When I told him I was an engineer, he told me to just buy this one part on ebay and do a goggle search on it's install. I have a feeling they have problems with non tech people screwing up a system and they waste too much time over the phone solving these problems.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Not sure why you were "offended". I'd think you have more of a beef with the seller than with DirectTV.
Buying something on eBay does not guarantee title at all. I'd figure that DirectTv cut you a break.

Up here, most people are aware that you don't buy a satellite dish on Craig's List, Kijiji, eBay etc. without getting the ID numbers and checking with the provider that they will connect you.
Some boxes are illegal, some are hot, some are leased to someone else....etc.

Be careful with that. I had 3 DVRs running that I had purchased on eBay, and when I cancelled they insisted that I return them, claiming that "we don't sell receivers, they're all leased". And they were wanting well more than double what the receiver was worth brand new. When I (obviously) refused to either pay that amount or send them my bought and paid for equipment, they pursued collections and it actually landed on my credit report for a short time.

All in all it took over a year and countless hours on the phone to finally get the matter resolved. I managed to do it without getting a lawyer involved, but I was very close to taking that step.

That's been several years ago, and I would hope they've got their policies a little more reasonable by now, but the whole thing definitely left a bad taste in my mouth regarding DirecTV.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Up here, most people are aware that you don't buy a satellite dish on Craig's List, Kijiji, eBay etc. without getting the ID numbers and checking with the provider that they will connect you.
Some boxes are illegal, some are hot, some are leased to someone else....etc.

That's why I only get new receivers from directv dealers on Ebay or elsewhere like MT did with Dish. If you happen to get one from someone who is behind on their Directv bill, they won't activate it for you.

And they were wanting well more than double what the receiver was worth brand new. When I (obviously) refused to either pay that amount or send them my bought and paid for equipment, they pursued collections and it actually landed on my credit report for a short time.

The fee that you pay for the equipment is basically an initial lease fee. The actual cost of the equipment is much more. The people that sell the used ones on Ebay are doing so illegally actually since it is against what is written in their service agreement.

 

[coreybv]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Not sure why you were "offended". I'd think you have more of a beef with the seller than with DirectTV.
Buying something on eBay does not guarantee title at all. I'd figure that DirectTv cut you a break.

Keep in mind that this was quite some time ago, and the equipment was purchased before they started the whole "lease not buy" policy. That policy changed during the time I was subscribed, but I change in their policy does not give them the right to retroactively claim ownership over equipment that I had *purchased* and *owned* before their change.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

So how much did you pay for the receivers that you think you owned?

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

The only receivers that can be legally sold, is those that have been purchased, or lease units that have been refurb and sold to a dealer, the one I just purchased said refurbished on it, but looks like new, works like new and has a 1 year warranty on it from Dish.

I actually had a very long talk with the customer service manager at Dish, I was suggesting they get a hold of ebay and have ebay add an receiver number check in the listing procedure, which would check the numbers to make sure it is a legal receiver to sell and it the numbers come back showing it to be illegal, that would give Dish an avenue to recover their units. She thought it was a great idea and was going to talk to one of the VP's to see what it would take.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

They should give you a $5 discount/month for that suggestion. Or you can just call and threaten to quit and they will give you $10/month.

The only time I ever owned my own receiver was many years ago with Dish when I bought one of their first DVRs at Costco. It was very expensive. Basically, if you didn't pay around $500 for your receiver(Directv or Dish), you don't own it.

Whenever I get a new DVR these days, I never get them for Directv. I buy from a dealer. If you order a DVR from Directv, they can give you any DVR model they have in stock. You have no choice. The newer DVRs are a lot faster

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Bruce,

I remember back in the day, when direct came to the market, I had just returned from the first Iraq war and I bought one of their systems, there were no installers back in those days, talk about a mess and it cost me about $1000 bucks, took me a couple of weeks to get that thing working, I actually still have that old receiver around here somewhere, the idea of a DVR had not even been thought of!

Heck, Dish would not even sell me a receiver, they told me they didn't have a way to ship it to me, they said they had to have an installer come out, by time it was all said and done, it would have cost me quite a bit of money. Took me all of about 5 minutes to get it hooked up and 30 minutes to download the updated software. Works perfect.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: ANybody here added a 2nd receiver...

Keep in mind that this was quite some time ago, and the equipment was purchased before they started the whole "lease not buy" policy. That policy changed during the time I was subscribed, but I change in their policy does not give them the right to retroactively claim ownership over equipment that I had *purchased* and *owned* before their change.

I think you are missing my point.
Just because you gave someone money for something neither validates their legal right to be selling it to you, nor your legal ownership of it.
I'd bet that DirectTV was in the right but just couldn't be bothered following through.

I once recovered an outboard motor from the "new" owner (or at least the police did) and he had paid $400- for it. He was unable to get his head around the fact that I had the original bill of sale with serial number that matched, there was a police report on the theft, and the motor did not come with a gas tank, manuals or any of that stuff.

He, too, did not believe that I had the right to"retroactively claim ownership over equipment that he had *purchased* and *owned*" .... :facepalm: