DirecTV, part three

So, we called and spoke with our friendly neighborhood DirecTV representative tonight, thanks again to my buddy Chris.

Previously, I had mentioned that we had three options we saw as available to resolve the outstanding DirecTV issue (either using the TiVo or manually entering the numeric code for a channel caused the HD DTV receiver to go to the HD version of that channel as the default for numeric entry for any channel number that has both feeds; i.e., USA Network is available in both a High Def (HD) and Standard Def (SD) on channel 242. The HD receiver defaults to the 242 HD version, which we don't get/pay for. Only by using the Guide or the Channel Up/Down buttons and manually editing the guide and preferred channels lists can we go to the 242 SD.

So, the three options as we saw/researched them appeared to be:

1. Receiving a new channel lineup from DTV that only includes the SD channel list; no HD channels would be set to our receiver allow it to default to the SD channels.
2. Re-enabling the SD tuner and using both the HD and SD tuners and the two TiVos to mix and match until we got everything working close to the way we want it.
3. Canceling the HD tuner, going back to only the SD tuner and saying Fuck It loudly and often. (This may not be a direct quote from the previous entry on this subject.)
   

We spoke with Joe this time, our first male service representative. Joe is working and living in Texas, way down south on the coast, and wasn't getting more than some rain and a lot of humidity from Ike. He also simply couldn't get what I initially asked him/explained to him. I explained the issue to him and that we wanted DirecTV to resend our channel line up without the HD channels on it as the resolution to this problem at least four times (but I think it may have been 5). He finally understood what we were asking well enough to go ask someone if he could do that for us. Nope. If you have an HD receiver, it doesn't matter that you are not paying for the HD channels, those channels are sent to your receiver and just not enabled-- so you get black screens with the "Channel not purchased" error code. Very useful *sarcasm*, especially considering that DTV knows exactly which channels we are paying for, they can enable/disable individual channels (proved by their special packages where you can purchase individual and small groups of channels), and, if you have your DTV receiver hooked up to a phone line, they can push all sorts of individual items on and off your system, but they choose not to in this particular circumstance.

Note: M did some research and it turns out that their HD receiver software originally defaulted to the SD channel for dual definition channels. They only switched that fairly recently; we didn't see a specific time, but it was within the last couple of years at most. Had they not made that change, we would not have this problem.

Note 2: I don't understand why they don't just separate the HD and SD channels. People who have SD would then have no problem, and people with HD would have no problem. Yeah, so USA Network would be on, say, 242 (SD) and 2242 (HD). Who cares? As long as the receiver knows what it is doing and pushes the right channel output to whatever input you have it attached to on your recording device or TV, it doesn't matter where it is. Add into this the availability of setting up channel Favorites and personalized channel lists and the argument to have the SD and HD versions on different designations just becomes stronger. And, yes, I will be informing them of this in a letter/email in the very near future.

So, next up I asked him to re-enable the SD receiver. I explained that I wanted to add that to our existing account for use in the bedroom. His first response, "So, you want to cancel the HD and switch to the SD?" No. I want to I add the SD to the same account for the additional $4.99 a month and have two receivers on the account. It took a couple more tries, but I got him to do that.

Because of Chris' help, we were having this phone call from our front room and had set up the SD receiver for testing purposes prior to the phone call. So when Joe said, "It should be working," we were able to test it immediately and find it was not working. So poor Joe had to do some more work to re-enable it, but by the time we hung up, we had a working HD and SD receiver.

Now, we're going to pair the Dual Tuner TiVo and the SD receiver and the Single Tuner TiVo with the HD receiver. (Since the dual works like a single on satellite channels anyway, we might as well put the single with it. And that way we can have the dual working with the most channels and resolving the most conflicts by having both satellite and cable channels to choose from.) We will decide in which room each pair is going to go, re-do all of our Season Passes on both TiVos depending on the satellite-only or satellite+cable setup of that room/system, and then we should be done.

Outside of this, we need to decide if we're running a separate coaxial line from the dish to the bedroom, or if we're running a splice from the existing line to the bedroom (we're leaning toward new line, as that will provide the lease degradation of signal), and then setting up the permanent solution in the bedroom.

Things we have learned along the way:

1. DirecTV has a great product that their poor customer service, arrogant and abusive business practices, and Machiavellian and narrow-vision procedures completely obfuscate. If this wasn't our only real option for what we wanted, we would have given up a long time ago and gone with a competitor or just with the cable services available.
2. It amazed me when we knew more about their systems and services than those with whom we talked. M said it best when she said, "Do they not know how their own system works? They should all have to use it and understand it before they can talk to customers!" Amen, wife, amen. I mean, trying to convince me that my dish somehow is "talking back" to the satellite-- give me a break! This is a unidirectional communication system-- unless you have the receiver hooked to a phone line. Trying to tell me that I cannot have an HD receiver without also getting HD service? Unreal. How many dozens of people are doing just what we're dong-- trying simply to have local channels for which they must have the HD receiver and dish but do not want HD services? Trying to inform me that the channel guide preferences and setups can resolve my lineup issues, even though I've just told you that I used them/followed them and they did NOT solve the problem? Get real.
3. DirecTV does not want you using any sort of recording method except what they provide you. Luckily, TiVo is smarter and better than they are, and can overcome a lot of these issues. Probably why they are limping back to TiVo and having them do the software for their DVRs again, starting in 2009.
   
4. Thank god for Weaknees.com, eBay, and our own smarts. The people at weaknees consistently provided email answers to questions we had, usually within an hour. eBay had vendors with great reputations to choose from, and we got exactly what we ordered and better instructions from the vendor than anything we got from DTV. And, well, I'm always the first to praise my own or my wife's brilliance. ;-)
   
5. I'm just happy that DirecTV has not outsourced their customer support. I can only imagine how much longer I would be on the phone and how many more calls I would have to make to them had that been the case.
6. The new dish does provide a better signal capture and picture than the previous one. And it has outputs for up to 4 lines on it (which may be handy when we re-wire).
7. If you are okay with having DirecTV come out, do their own installation, get you setup on the TV, and you hold firm to exactly what you want (assuming you know going in), you are okay. If you don't like conflict, or if you have special needs/setup issues, you are pretty much on your own. And if you don't want them coming out to do the dish setup, prepare for battle or go through eBay or a third-party vendor. From what I read, it is nearly always better to go through a well-spoken-of third party installation company than DirecTV. That's just sad.