Help with DTV REceiver

Janet Wilder wrote:
> We had a day of Baseball and TV hysteria here on Wednesday.
> It appears that Dish has lost MLB Extra Innings. DH needs his baseball.
>
> Skip to the bottom for the question. The middle is just my unhappiness
> with DTV.
>
> We call DirecTV and they offer us all kinds of discounts to get us back
> but we have just paid $200 to install the HD on Dish 3 months ago and
> did not want to pay any installation fees. There was a $200 "Start up
> fee" for the HD receiver but the supervisor who claimed she was at
> Direct for 5 years and was the top authority on the food chain, assured
> us that there would be no installation fee. She said: "we NEVER charge
> for installation"
>
> Okay, we believe her. She wants us back so she offers MLB Extra Innings
> for *free* for the first year to offset the "activation fee" for the HD.
> We order one regular receiver with DVR and one HD receiver with DVR and
> one plain receiver that we intended to use in the motorhome but keep
> plugged into the guest room so it is always updated. We are ordering the
> Premium plus package, the biggest one they have, with the sports package
> and the HD for monthly service. First year of over $100/month with
> discounts after that over $130/mo. Neither including tax. More than
> Dish, but hey, they have baseball and Dish doesn't
>
> The guy comes and wants $105 dollars to hook the 2 DVRs up. Why? We
> don't have 2 wires in the walls. We only have one wire. Can't he just
> fish another wire down along the one that's there and put in a double
> plate? No that's "custom work" and costs $105 for each TV. What is
> "standard installation"? They drill holes in the outside walls of the
> house and run the wire on the floor to the TV. The wire comes down from
> the giant 35 pound dish and runs along the ground or soffets until it
> reaches the appropriate walls. My house is insulated concrete form
> construction. The outside walls are full brick, styrofoam, concrete,
> then sheet rock. The walls are like 6" thick! One room is on the
> opposite side of the house where the dish would be and the other is in
> the middle of the house. This is going to be yards and yards of wire and
> holes in my house. But this is free and fishing two wires is not.
>
> We talk to DTV again and the new supervisor says, that the first one
> gave us MLB for free and she had no right to do that so they are taking
> that off the offer. We say no deal. Cancel it.
>
> Later DH is still upset about baseball so we decide to get a new account
> with one receiver and minimum programming so that we can get the sports
> package and MLB Extra Innings. We'll suspend service when baseball seson
> is over. The guy comes and installs it early and I am not home. DH
> doesn't understand this stuff.
>
> *Question* I want to move this receiver into the motorhome when we travel.
>
> There are tons of wires involved. Things with three colored connections
> and such. (The VCR is hooked in) My motorhome requires me to connect
> two wires. One from the dish to the receiver and one from the receiver
> to the multi-switch box co-ax cable in the motorhome. There is no way I
> can run all of those red, yellow, etc. cables from receiver to TV. NO
> WAY! The setup would make it impossible.
>
> I'm certain that others have these new DTV receivers and there is a way
> to do it with two co-ax wires. The book that came with the receiver
> barely mentions co-ax and has no diagram for such a hookup.
>
> Can anyone give me detailed instructions? It's the small silver-colored
> box with a glowing blue light.
>
> BTW, I don't think even Don Bradner can find a way to make DTV the hero
> when they patently lied to us about installation then took back the
> freebie. If he didn't love his baseball so much, we wouldn't deal with
> them at all.
>
> TIA
>
It's a sad fact that most of the customer service reps at Directv and
Hughes Net should be herding goats in outer Mongolia. It's the only job
they have the intellect to handle.
LZ

> I'm certain that others have these new DTV receivers and there is a way
> to do it with two co-ax wires. The book that came with the receiver barely
> mentions co-ax and has no diagram for such a hookup.
>
> Can anyone give me detailed instructions? It's the small silver-colored
> box with a glowing blue light.
>
> BTW, I don't think even Don Bradner can find a way to make DTV the hero
> when they patently lied to us about installation then took back the
> freebie. If he didn't love his baseball so much, we wouldn't deal with
> them at all.
>
> TIA
>
> --
> Janet Wilder
> Bad spelling. Bad punctuation
> Good Friends. Good Life


That 'small silver-colored box with a glowing blue light' should have a
brand name and model number on a sticker on the bottom or back of it. This
info will be necessary to give you definitive answers on your particular
hookup.

That said, even though there seem to be more wires and such with DTV, it's
not all that difficult once you understand what they all do. Here is an
explanation of what I'm guessing is hooked up now:

-You will have incoming coaxial cable(s) that deliver the signal to the DTV
receiver. Probably says "input" or similar.
-You will have wires (probably the 3 colored wires you spoke of) that send a
picture signal from the DTV rec to the VCR. These are necessary to see your
picture in High Def. The old "coax only" for audio and video won't cut it.
-You will have a pair of RCA type wires, (probably bonded together in the
middle) usually red and white ends on these, for your audio. These go from
the audio output on the DTV rec to the VCR. White is Left and Red is Right.
-Note: you may also have a "fiber-optic" connection coming out of the DTV
rec if you have a "surround sound" audio receiver. This may not be the case
in the RV, so just label this as appropriate so you can hook it back up like
it was when you bring it home.

From the VCR to the High Def TV, you will have more wires, but almost the
same types as the ones that go from the DTV rec to the VCR.
- A "video out" set of wires, which are probably 3 colored wires like the
ones that go from the DTV rec to the VCR, which connect to the "video input"
on the HDTV.
-An "audio out" set of wires, probably red and white like the other ones
are, that go from the "audio output" on the VCR to the "audio input" HDTV.


In your RV, the connections will be more simple if you're not using a VCR.
- A coax which runs from your satellite dish to the "coax input" on the DTV
rec.
- A "video output" on the DTV rec, which will likely be hooked up with the 3
colored wires (called "component video" properly) or a single, multi-pin
black wire called an "S-video" cable, (S-video is not a "High-def" signal,
so avoid it unless necessary) which will run to your HDTV's "video input"
- An "audio output" on the DTV rec, which will be 2 connections labeled
"left" and "right", which uses the aforementioned 'red and white' ended
siamese wire to hook up to the "audio inputs" (again, labeled 'left' and
'right') on your HDTV.

The old method of hooking up TV components with coaxial cables only doesn't
work with HDTV. The reason is that your DTV receiver is taking the combined
digital video and audio signal from the satellite feed, and "expanding" that
signal into multiple high definition video channels (3 of them, each
providing a different part of the picture, which the HDTV will re-combine
into a crisp, clear picture.) and stereo audio channels (up to 8 distinct
"surround sound" channels). Then, these separate channels are sent as
high-volume streams of information to your High Def TV, which translates
them into high-quality video and sound.

If you want an easy, no fuss, coax-only hookup, you're stuck with
non-high-def TV and standard audio.


Print up some small sticky labels on your computer, in pairs, so that you
have two of each number from 1 to 20. In other words, two labels with 1's,
two with 2's etc.

As an alternative, if you can wrap your mind around the concept of "coax
in", "video out", "video in", etc, print pairs of these instead of numbers.
Many folks find numbers simpler, but actual terms will help you to
understand what you're actually doing.

Place the labels on the end of every wire, and also next to the connection
where that wire is plugged in, so that when you unplug wire # 1, you know
where it plugs back in.

Good luck.

> The receiver is NOT DTV. The TV in the motorhome is NOT DTV. All I want
> and need to know is how to hook one coax cable into the receiver from the
> dish and one coax cable from the receiver into the TV system switch box.

I misunderstood then. Your satellite box is indeed a "DTV" box, though.
"Digital TeleVision" (which refers to the signal, not the quality of the
picture), not to be confused with HDTV, or "High Definition TeleVision",
which does refer to the quality of the picture.





>> If you want an easy, no fuss, coax-only hookup, you're stuck with
>> non-high-def TV and standard audio.
>
> That's what I'm looking for. There is no HD involved. We got the basic
> receiver and basic (horrid) package along with the Sports package and MLB
> Extra Innings. Just for baseball.


That's an easy one then. You'll have 2 wires.

- The coaxial cable coming from the satellite dish. Hook this up to the DTV
receiver (also called the Satellite receiver). (yes, Janet, all signals from
your satellite carrier are Digital)

- Hook up a coaxial cable (the kind with screw on male F connectors on each
end, AKA a "jumper" cable) from the "coax out" (may also say RF out, etc- it
would really help to know the brand/model of your DTV box (Ok, satellite
box) to the "coax input" (may also be "cable in") on the back of your TV.

You're done. And so am I.

Hunter wrote:
> Then Co-ax goes from other thingie.... "Out" to TV.
>
> Hunter

All this technical jargon bugs me.
LZ