It all started with my sister sending us a TiVo unit for Christmas.
Now, I don't watch TV, except for The Apprentice, because Trump is the Elvis of New York and of Our Time. So, I couldn't care less about TV, or satellites, or TiVo. But, I liked the idea of being able to record some of the offbeat stuff that might come over the Sundance channel, or Discovery Wings. But, the only TVs that have the sat hooked up are my Dad's, in his room, and my daughter Mary Jeanne's, in the basement, where I don't ever go to relax. So, I decided to add a satellite receiver to the TV in the living room, and then I could hook the TiVo up to that.
So on Sunday I went to Best Buy, to get a sat receiver. And, lo and behold, receivers COME WITH Tivo already in them, for only $99! So I described my system to the salesguy, and he said I would need a multiswitch ($90), 50' of RG6 cable ($25), and a wireless transmitter (because the TiVo updates through the internet, $60). So, now I will have a TiVo receiver in the living room, and I can hook the other TiVo up in MJ's room, and everything's cool! So I decided to add Local Channels to my service, as well, and I could ditch all the rabbit ears.
Well.
I hooked up all the wires, and nothing worked right. On the existing receivers, all I could get were every other channel, depending on which port I used. I couldn't call for service, because the system was down at DirecTV; I kept getting transferred to a busy signal. I spent several hours going up and down, between rooms, swapping wires, checking transponders, but still, nothing worked right. So, I set my system back the way it was, and went to look for at least the local channels... not there!
On Wednesday, I finally got through to a live person at DirecTV. She did a check on my system and, guess what? It is incapable of handling more than 2 TVs, and the dish can't pick up local channels because it is the wrong kind of dish, and the receivers are too old for local channels... but fortunately, DirecTV is offering FREE upgrades! Ad when the guy comes out he'll hook up that other unit, too! But about that TiVo....
It seems that the DirecTV TiVo can't use an internet connection, only a phone line, and the regular TiVo box can use either; but unless they both use internet, they don't talk to each other and won't transfer programs between themselves. So I need a phone line to the living room now. OK, I'll run a splitter from the wall unit in the kitchen... Which MJ promptly trips over, pulling the wire out of the wall and causing the jack to splinter all over!
So, I tape the jack back together. Yesterday, the satellite guy comes by, in 10* weather, takes one look at all the wiring and says, "What a mess!" I ask him about the third receiver; he answers that it isn't on his work order. Great. So will this dish support the new receiver? Yes, but it will suck up TWO spaces on the dish; it counts as TWO receivers! So, where do I get the wires for the receiver in the living room? He points to the dish. "You run 'em from the dish to the receiver, but that's not on my work order." Aw, man! And then he says, "I can't hook them up, but I'll do what I can. When I leave, I'll show you."
So, he swaps the dish, installs two new receivers, makes all the calls, and everything is great! Then he says, "I have a big roll of 2-line RG-6 that I took out of a house, you can have it. Get a bunch of compression fittings and a compression fitting tool to put ends on all your cable. Follow me." I follow him outside, it's down to about 5* now. He points to two pairs of wires both joined to two other wires with barrel connectors in the junction box. "See these? They don't go anywhere. Those two wires go to the satellite, these two don't go anywhere. Those are for show, if I get checked on everything is connected. This is where you pick up your signal for the living room. If you run two wires from here to there, everything will work. Sign here."
AWESOME! So, he leaves, I run down to Home Depot and I blow $60
on a compression fitting tool and some fittings. I take the wire he gave me, put ends on it, run it along the outside of the house (I let it run along the ground; it was about 0* by then), run it through a corner of a window and seal that with foam and duct tape, connect it to the back of the TiVo receiver in the living room, and....
Wouldn't y'know it, but by cod the whole dang thing actually works? AND, I got to return 50' or RG-6, AND the multiswitch, AND the wireless transmitter (because the regular TiVo unit updates itself just fine with the supplied phone line, thank you)!
But y'know what? It was fun figuring out all that stuff but I still don't care about watching TV.
Tom
Now, I don't watch TV, except for The Apprentice, because Trump is the Elvis of New York and of Our Time. So, I couldn't care less about TV, or satellites, or TiVo. But, I liked the idea of being able to record some of the offbeat stuff that might come over the Sundance channel, or Discovery Wings. But, the only TVs that have the sat hooked up are my Dad's, in his room, and my daughter Mary Jeanne's, in the basement, where I don't ever go to relax. So, I decided to add a satellite receiver to the TV in the living room, and then I could hook the TiVo up to that.
So on Sunday I went to Best Buy, to get a sat receiver. And, lo and behold, receivers COME WITH Tivo already in them, for only $99! So I described my system to the salesguy, and he said I would need a multiswitch ($90), 50' of RG6 cable ($25), and a wireless transmitter (because the TiVo updates through the internet, $60). So, now I will have a TiVo receiver in the living room, and I can hook the other TiVo up in MJ's room, and everything's cool! So I decided to add Local Channels to my service, as well, and I could ditch all the rabbit ears.
Well.
I hooked up all the wires, and nothing worked right. On the existing receivers, all I could get were every other channel, depending on which port I used. I couldn't call for service, because the system was down at DirecTV; I kept getting transferred to a busy signal. I spent several hours going up and down, between rooms, swapping wires, checking transponders, but still, nothing worked right. So, I set my system back the way it was, and went to look for at least the local channels... not there!
On Wednesday, I finally got through to a live person at DirecTV. She did a check on my system and, guess what? It is incapable of handling more than 2 TVs, and the dish can't pick up local channels because it is the wrong kind of dish, and the receivers are too old for local channels... but fortunately, DirecTV is offering FREE upgrades! Ad when the guy comes out he'll hook up that other unit, too! But about that TiVo....
It seems that the DirecTV TiVo can't use an internet connection, only a phone line, and the regular TiVo box can use either; but unless they both use internet, they don't talk to each other and won't transfer programs between themselves. So I need a phone line to the living room now. OK, I'll run a splitter from the wall unit in the kitchen... Which MJ promptly trips over, pulling the wire out of the wall and causing the jack to splinter all over!
So, I tape the jack back together. Yesterday, the satellite guy comes by, in 10* weather, takes one look at all the wiring and says, "What a mess!" I ask him about the third receiver; he answers that it isn't on his work order. Great. So will this dish support the new receiver? Yes, but it will suck up TWO spaces on the dish; it counts as TWO receivers! So, where do I get the wires for the receiver in the living room? He points to the dish. "You run 'em from the dish to the receiver, but that's not on my work order." Aw, man! And then he says, "I can't hook them up, but I'll do what I can. When I leave, I'll show you."
So, he swaps the dish, installs two new receivers, makes all the calls, and everything is great! Then he says, "I have a big roll of 2-line RG-6 that I took out of a house, you can have it. Get a bunch of compression fittings and a compression fitting tool to put ends on all your cable. Follow me." I follow him outside, it's down to about 5* now. He points to two pairs of wires both joined to two other wires with barrel connectors in the junction box. "See these? They don't go anywhere. Those two wires go to the satellite, these two don't go anywhere. Those are for show, if I get checked on everything is connected. This is where you pick up your signal for the living room. If you run two wires from here to there, everything will work. Sign here."
AWESOME! So, he leaves, I run down to Home Depot and I blow $60
on a compression fitting tool and some fittings. I take the wire he gave me, put ends on it, run it along the outside of the house (I let it run along the ground; it was about 0* by then), run it through a corner of a window and seal that with foam and duct tape, connect it to the back of the TiVo receiver in the living room, and....Wouldn't y'know it, but by cod the whole dang thing actually works? AND, I got to return 50' or RG-6, AND the multiswitch, AND the wireless transmitter (because the regular TiVo unit updates itself just fine with the supplied phone line, thank you)!
But y'know what? It was fun figuring out all that stuff but I still don't care about watching TV.
Tom
). Since I have cable, I need to take it down. Can anyone tell me if the dish is 'hot'? There are two wires that disappear into the wall, but I can't trace them well enough to know if they are wired to electricity anywhere or if they are just to hook to the receiver, and the reciever is/was how it got power? I don't want to get up on the roof and then figure out I can't take the thing off w/o trying to trace the wires. Can I just snip all the wires (there must be miles of it!) w/o fear of getting the big jolt?