Harvey S
11-23-2007, 04:36 PM
DTV installed 1 month ago. 5LNB Dish, 2 HR20-100, 1 standard box, Zinwell 4x8 switch.
I wanted the install to run into my basement and connect to the existing cable runs that I had installed when we built the house. There are 10 runs in my house but Installer (Bluegrass) didn't have the 16 output Zinwell so I presently have 2 dead cable runs in my house (There are no TVs on these anyways).
As I expected there was no SWM available and each HR20 needed 2 cable runs from the Zinwell, which is in my basement. Fortunately the more distant HR20 is in a room over my garage that had been wired with two cable runs when I built the house.
The second HR20, in the Kitchen, was right above the Zinwell and I paid the installer $40 to fish a second wire to the wall plate. This took us quite a while as the wall is filled with insulation and he said they usually only fish wires from the basement to a baseboard wall plate (a distance of about 18" at most). In my case the plate is over the kitchen counter and it took some work to fish the new cable that distance (about 5-6').
Installation went OK and everything worked when done. Within a few days I started to have some problems with one HR20-100 which would create unplayable recordings. DTV tech support taught me to press the red button which would erase the bad recordings and reset the recorder so it worked ok for a few days. After doing this a few times I got tired of losing recordings and waitng for the receiver to reset so I had them replace the recorder.
A refurbished HR20-700 arrived in a few days and it has been better. I am still not batting 1000 on recordings, however, as 1 or 2 have not been playable (what happens is that when I try to play them all that happens is that the message you usuually get at the end of playback appears, asking if I want to save or delete the recording. Reseting with the red button will either erase such a recording or make it work. Has anyone else experienced this pattern. ?
Overall DTV is a big improvement over TW Cable. The DTV startup cost ($500 for two HD DVRs) is substantial but the monthly charge for the recorder is $16 on TW and $6 on DTV so eventually the equipment cost is paid back. For the same programming the monthly cost on DTV is somewhat less and the number of HD channels on DTV dwarfs TW. The Big Ten Network is an added bonus. I think Rupert Murdoch really outfoxed the cable companies on that one.
I wanted the install to run into my basement and connect to the existing cable runs that I had installed when we built the house. There are 10 runs in my house but Installer (Bluegrass) didn't have the 16 output Zinwell so I presently have 2 dead cable runs in my house (There are no TVs on these anyways).
As I expected there was no SWM available and each HR20 needed 2 cable runs from the Zinwell, which is in my basement. Fortunately the more distant HR20 is in a room over my garage that had been wired with two cable runs when I built the house.
The second HR20, in the Kitchen, was right above the Zinwell and I paid the installer $40 to fish a second wire to the wall plate. This took us quite a while as the wall is filled with insulation and he said they usually only fish wires from the basement to a baseboard wall plate (a distance of about 18" at most). In my case the plate is over the kitchen counter and it took some work to fish the new cable that distance (about 5-6').
Installation went OK and everything worked when done. Within a few days I started to have some problems with one HR20-100 which would create unplayable recordings. DTV tech support taught me to press the red button which would erase the bad recordings and reset the recorder so it worked ok for a few days. After doing this a few times I got tired of losing recordings and waitng for the receiver to reset so I had them replace the recorder.
A refurbished HR20-700 arrived in a few days and it has been better. I am still not batting 1000 on recordings, however, as 1 or 2 have not been playable (what happens is that when I try to play them all that happens is that the message you usuually get at the end of playback appears, asking if I want to save or delete the recording. Reseting with the red button will either erase such a recording or make it work. Has anyone else experienced this pattern. ?
Overall DTV is a big improvement over TW Cable. The DTV startup cost ($500 for two HD DVRs) is substantial but the monthly charge for the recorder is $16 on TW and $6 on DTV so eventually the equipment cost is paid back. For the same programming the monthly cost on DTV is somewhat less and the number of HD channels on DTV dwarfs TW. The Big Ten Network is an added bonus. I think Rupert Murdoch really outfoxed the cable companies on that one.