DirecTV HD...on the road.

[tomhamrick]

The recievers need to be dedicated to the coach or they will get "pinged" and damaged.

Hey Nick,  What does this statement mean. I can no longer use my home receiver in the coach?
Thanks,
Tom Hamrick

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Tom,

No, You can use your home recievers in your coach anytime you want but, you won't be able to have local programming

out of your home area unless you fill out the afadavid and let Direct tv know what recievers are in your coach.

If you don't choose to have locals when you travel, and just take a reciever with you from your home, but, you won't be able

to leave the reciever in your coach more then 3 weeks.  After 3 weeks, if they ping the reciever and it is not in your Home Area,

they will burn the curcuit board and card in your reciever.

Thats one of the reasons you see so many recievers on e-bay for 5 to 10 dollars! One thing about Direct TV, you never own the reciever,

you lease it...  That is how they can distroy it any time they want.

Good Luck
Nick-

[m-werx]

Hi Nick when did thay start leasing the box? we got ours from circuit city for cash never told it was still on a lease, we have been useing it since 04 still never had a lease from them. Darren.

[JackConrad]

    When we got our new HD receiver from DirecTV, I asked the installer what they would do with the old receiver. He said "nothing, that is your receiver, do whatever you want with it".  The old recveiver was the one we got from DirecTV when we originally signed up with them. We have 3 receivers from DirectTV. All are listed at our residence (bedroom, living room-HD, and shop office). Shop office is actually in the bus. We do not worry about local programming when traveling because we get those over our batwing antenna. We have been traveling like this since 2000 and SO FAR, DirecTV has not done anything. Do I need to be concerned about them destroying one of our receivers?  Jack

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Guy's,

Direct TV doesn't want the old recievers either... If you read closely to your Direct TV agreement, [read the fine print] it explains

that all Direct TV recievers are leased weather you buy them from a retailer or from them.

If I remember correctly from class, the actual retail cost of a reciever is about $475.00 but they lease them to you

for much, much less..

Nick-

[Dan C]

Nick,

The receiver is just that, a receiver and not a transmitter. If they send a signal to the receiver asking where it is, there is no way for the receiver to respond to this message unless it can transmit to the sat and that would require FCC approval.

Is there another way?

This sounds like DirectTV hipe.

Dan C.

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Nick,

The receiver is just that, a receiver and not a transmitter. If they send a signal to the receiver asking where it is, there is no way for the receiver to respond to this message unless it can transmit to the sat and that would require FCC approval.

Is there another way?

This sounds like DirectTV hipe.

Dan C.

Hi Dan,

Yes, there is a ping tone. There is a decisive tone that they recieve for each "Spot Area" of local programming.
And of course, they can burn the card and board.. Don't ask me how!  I don't know that one.

Nick-

[TomCat]

Hi Dan,

Yes, there is a ping tone. There is a decisive tone that they recieve for each "Spot Area" of local programming.
And of course, they can burn the card and board.. Don't ask me how!  I don't know that one.

Nick-

Nick,

Having been through it before, I can tell you that the signal they send down from time to time doesn't hurt the receiver, but will fry the crap out of your smart card.

Please don't ask me how I know this. 

Jay
87 SaftLiner

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

UPDATE... 1 for 1

Satellite launch, 3-14-08 of AMC 14 was a total loss. [150 million$ loss]

Sorry folks, this was Dish Networks KU ban HD satellite that was to put them ahead of Direct TV with 200 + HD Channels but failed to make orbit.

2008-03-14  AMC 14  Dish Net  61.5°W  » 32 Ku band TP
» was to replace EchoStar 3

Now both DTV and Dish have both suffered a loss this year with HD sats.

Nick-

[Kirby-XL40-FL]

Re the issue of leased vs. owned, we'll add our 2-cents worth.  For Christmas 2006, we got ourselves a DirecTV HD DVR receiver.  DirecTV had us on a list of customers who wanted one, but they said we'd have to wait as they didn't have any in stock at that moment.  My wife was in Best Buy and saw one sitting on the shelf (the last one, too) so she put it in her cart and paid $300.  We don't recall seeing any fine print on the receipt.  Nevertheless, when we hit the road for our summer vacation in 2007, we called DirecTV and put our home receivers on suspension (reduces the cost).  But after a month or so had gone by, we got a message on our home phone from DirecTV... somewhat garbled but mentioning a "recovery pack" -- my wife called DirecTV and it seems they didn't understand the suspension was temporary and they had sent out a packing box for us to return the "leased" HD DVR.  Well, after a discussion with the DirecTV rep, my wife said the suspension was temporary, we had no intention of returning the box, and good luck getting into our hurricane-secured house to get it. 

It's true that DirecTV doesn't want the old style receivers back, but they seem pretty keen on recovering the HD DVRs.  However, it's also probable that as technology marches onward and they come out with the next new style/model of receiver, they won't be all that interested in getting it back by the time we are ready to get something else.  And by the way, even though they claim it is leased, if it is damaged in anyway the replacement will be on your nickel.  They won't repair or replace; they suggested perhaps Homeowners Insurance would cover it.  I suspect that's not likely, considering typical deductibles, even if your policy covers electronic equipment.

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Kirby,

If you will be spending your winters or just vacationing for at least a month in another market of DTV, listen to this.

Instead of suspending your service, tell them that you have moved. [to where ever your vacation site is] But, keep your billing

address the same. When your vacation is over, tell them you moved back. This is working very well with the SS guy's at RV.NET.

Good Luck
Nick-

[Kirby-XL40-FL]

Good idea for anyone who might be staying put in a particular location while away from home base.  At the moment, we're more like gypsies in our 5 to 6 months of travel each summer, but someday that may change.  Especially as we look at the cost of fuel!!   

[Sean]

Just to clear up some confusion:

If you bought your DirecTV receiver in a store prior to sometime in 2005, you own it.  The lease-only policy was not in effect then, and the receivers were actually sold and became the property of the buyer.  (The smartcard has always been the property of DirecTV.)  I own my el-cheapo receiver.

Also, there is no way for a receiver to report anything back to DirecTV unless you have it connected to a phone line.  That being said, there is a data channel that is constantly sending cryptograhic unlock codes to all legitimately licensed receivers based on smartcard number.  If you stop paying your bill, the codes sent for your specific smartcard will disable it entirely.

The system is designed such that the receiver must be in contact with this data stream for a certain amount of time each month, to keep the codes in sync.  If you pack up the receiver, or take down the dish, for more than about 30 days, your receiver will stop working.  You will then need to call DirecTV with your smartcard number, tell them that your unit was off-line, and have the "reactivate" your smartcard.  They will enter the command in their system, and the satellite will send the special code message that your receiver will need to re-sync and be able to decrypt the channels.

This same back-channel can be used to send a destruct code to a receiver for a smartcard that has, for example, been reported stolen, or is suspected of being modified somehow to pirate the encrypted signals.  Merely taking a receiver on the road with you, assuming you have properly notified the carrier, will not prompt a destruct signal.  However, unless you pay the extra fee for mobile units to receive east or west local channels, your local channel reception will end as soon as you leave the "spot beam" that is being used to supply those local channels to your house.

FWIW, we don't pay the extra local channel fee, and our receiver has been "on the road" continuously for three and a half years.  But we also don't get any local channels, unless we get within about 100 miles of our mailbox in Washington.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com