Directv Receiver Replacement Question

 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 7:18 am

We have a couple older DirecTV receivers we have been using since we signed up about 10 years ago, they are D10 models. Very basic, no HD, no recording capability and we are fine with that.

One of them has stopped receiving a signal. I verified it was the receiver and not the cable or other components by swapping the receivers around and the problem followed the receiver.

Of course they don't make anything as basic as we have any more and anything we get is more money per month may not work with our one older TV according to the DirecTV tech. They will also have to replace the dish we have with something else.

I do see some of the same basic used D10 receivers for sale and wondered if I buy one of those and just put the card from the old one into the new one will it work? Or is the card that slides into the front of the receiver specific to that serial number? Anyone know anything about this?


 
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Post by mkline » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 9:31 am

Call DTV and tell them you want to upgrade your old receivers. You can tell them the one died too. I did this with one of mine and they shipped a new one and I think I only paid shipping. Now as for the dish, I already installed it and you do need it. It's the slimline. If you can't install it yourself they can send someone to do it. You can't switch cards with receivers as they are married to the one it installed in. Keep us updated with your progress.

Mike

 
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Post by McGiever » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 12:48 pm

New or older TV, I don't see the issue there??? Maybe a line of misinformation there.

Anything can be converted for compatibility purposes.

If you were to get another old D10 it could be married with your existing card by DTV customer service.

Dish Network would be very happy to solve all your issues with Direct TV at no cost to you :verycool:

 
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Post by mozz » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 2:17 pm

I have 1 or 2 of these brand new in the boxes,let me get you a model number.

Model is DRD420RE. You can have them for the price of shipping , brand new in the box, complete with dish and all brackets remotes and wires. I can gain a cubic foot of space in the shed! Or I can just put the receiver and remote in a smaller box. From reading the internets, someones says these still work while somebody else says they won't. If you call directv you should be able to ask if these models still work.

 
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Post by Lightning » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 8:01 pm

McGiever wrote:Dish Network would be very happy to solve all your issues with Direct TV at no cost to you
If all fails, I agree with McG. I've had both satellite services and my opinion is that Dish Network is far superior. With Direct TV I had loss of signal issues several times a month due to thick cloud decks or just a thin coat of snow in the dish. Going out to sweep the dish off twice a week in the winter became a nuisance. With Dish Network, I have a loss of signal only a few times per year during severe thunderstorms or if there was a heavy build up of wet snow on the dish. That's just one of many reasons I like Dish Network more. I think its more user friendly too, mainly the menu lay outs.

 
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Post by titleist1 » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 8:38 pm

mozz wrote:Model is DRD420RE
Unfortunately from what I read it seems this model is an MPG programming unit (whatever that means) and DirecTV doesn't broadcast that any more.
McGiever wrote:New or older TV, I don't see the issue there??? Maybe a line of misinformation there.
The phone tech may have been half joking with me as I mentioned our one TV is so old it only has a coax input not the video/audio jack or HDMI or USB inputs. They were asking questions about the TV as part of their debug Q&A and when I told them it didn't have anything but a coax they were surprised.

I'll have to check out Dish and see what channels they offer....

What I really want is to be able to pick and choose which channels I get rather than a 250 channel package where I only ever sporadically watch 20 of them. I know they can track that and bill accordingly regardless of what they say. The companies just don't want to do it.

 
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Post by McGiever » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 8:59 pm

Dish had a recent ad that if they couldn't save you $250.00 a year over Direct, that they'd give you $250.00.
Worth checking into. :idea:


 
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Post by mozz » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 9:30 pm

You may have had a weak signal because the dish wasn't aligned properly. Properly set up, both should never have drop outs or fades unless you are in a weak signal area such as canada or alaska, or massive thunderstorms can cause problems. They used to sell a slightly bigger dish which had more gain.
If all fails, I agree with McG. I've had both satellite services and my opinion is that Dish Network is far superior. With Direct TV I had loss of signal issues several times a month due to thick cloud decks or just a thin coat of snow in the dish. Going out to sweep the dish off twice a week in the winter became a nuisance. With Dish Network, I have a loss of signal only a few times per year during severe thunderstorms or if there was a heavy build up of wet snow on the dish. That's just one of many reasons I like Dish Network more. I think its more user friendly too, mainly the menu lay outs.
Beware of this, if you get a real good price for the package you want, with a special or coupon, find out what the price will go up to when the special is over.

 
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Post by titleist1 » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 9:32 pm

Tried to get a monthly price for a package from Dish using their chat room feature but couldn't get anywhere without giving them financial info for credit qualifications. No way I was giving them that info just to get a price for comparison. I told them my credit score and that was all they were getting and I couldn't get a price from them. :mad: bye bye dish....

 
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Post by warminmn » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 9:55 pm

I don't have either anymore but my Dad's is in my name thru direct-tv. Forget the asking prices on the packages. I always call every time my VERBAL agreement ends (no contract) and tell them I want to cancel, they ask why, I tell them I cant afford it, and I get it for the same price Ive been paying for quite a few years. I just keep telling them its too high and I want to cancel until I get it. I pay $32.53 (29.99 plus fees) per month for the select package, one TV, no high def, no contract. I usually get a movie package for 3 or 6 months each time free. I always try to weasel the western movie channel out of them with limited success. They offer me high def free if I will commit for a year but I wont. They have good salesman and will try to get what they can out of you. Also, I am on auto-pay which Im sure matters. the last sales lady really worked me over but I stuck to the plan and got it for the same price.

The price you will be able to get packages for will be the same price they offer new customers. I don't care what they say, that is the available price, so have it written down and keep saying no until you hit that amount. Good luck

edit: I see the select package is offered for 19.99 now so that would be the price. Choice is $10 more. Even if you have to agree to one year, call at the end of that year and your price wont go up, unless you agree to something longer.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 11:09 pm

titleist1 wrote: may not work with our one older TV according to the DirecTV tech.
On their website the standard HD box has RCA outputs for older SD TV. What I don't see is component out which can be issue with older HD televisions.

http://www.directv.com/technology/hd_receiver

Image

Ultimately anything can be made to work but the question is do you want to spend a few bucks making it work or put it towards a new TV.

------edit------------
our one TV is so old it only has a coax input
If it only has cable input you'd need something like this:

http://www.mycablemart.com/store/cart.php?m=produ ... gQodZt4P8Q

 
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Post by SWPaDon » Thu. Jun. 25, 2015 11:16 pm

I have Direct TV as part of the Verizon package. Direct TV sucks as far as I'm concerned. I lose my TV during heavy overcast conditions.
We got 90 days of HBO and some other channels free. You can't cancel early, you must call in on the EXACT day of the expiration or they will charge you for another month.
The installation tech told us we needed to keep the phone line hooked up to the equipment for 30 days......... I soon found out why. The SOB's kept track of what channels I was watching, then transferred them to 'extra charge' if I want to keep them. The 'Bass Turds' pee'd me off good, cause the most played channels on my TV were the childrens cartoons for my two grandsons.

 
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Post by titleist1 » Thu. Jul. 02, 2015 7:46 am

Well the spousal unit got tired of no TV in the LR and called DirecTV on Monday. The answers she got were way different than mine. Maybe I am like Cool Hand Luke and I had a failure to communicate!

Anyway the person she talked to said they could send out a replacement receiver at no charge, the dish wouldn't need to be swapped and the cost would remain the same. Maybe she got somebody with a brain or maybe those answers had something to do with me telling them I was shopping for new TV service as that was a note they had from the last call for our account....who knows.

The receiver came yesterday, no shipping charges, and I hooked it up, made the call to activate it and within 5 minutes was back in TV land re-blocking about 50 shopping / infomercial channels that are trying to sell me something and about 50 other channels that don't interest me. Now I can click through the ones I do have an interest in without seeing all the garbage.

 
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Post by freetown fred » Thu. Jul. 02, 2015 8:45 am

Nice T. Sounds like you need to work on your social skills also! :clap: toothy

 
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Post by titleist1 » Wed. Dec. 14, 2016 1:23 pm

Revived this to vent a little and also put some useful info out there for others that might be in a similar situation someday....

The other old DirecTV receiver in the house went bad over the weekend. It stopped finding the satellites for some reason. I swapped the two receivers we have and did some testing and the problem always followed the receiver no matter the combination of cables used. Same as the other one did.

So the spouse decides she'll call this time since I have even less social skills than last year when it comes to dealing with idiots. Well after 45 minutes on the phone with the dweeb / drone from who knows what country that she could not understand very well, she is yelling into the phone I don't want an upgrade, I don't want to pay more, I want the same equipment, I want to talk to your supervisor!!! :lol: I am not ashamed to say I was amused that my behavior from the previous year was now apparently justified. Of course I had to help by wandering by and asking if she wanted to switch to de-caf for the day?!

The sales pitch the drones won't get away from is the equip is so old it can't be replaced and we need to buy a newer receiver and upgrade our monthly service. We learned from the last time if you wear them down and get to a supervisor they miraculously find they can send the same basic receiver and we can keep the same priced monthly service. Apparently the cost of getting the old receiver technology is to give up an hour of your life and some blood pressure medication.

So if you have to call them for a similar problem set aside an hour, stay away from caffeine, ask for a supervisor and have the tums & bp medication handy.


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