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DTV nightmare.. Timmac around?

2oldman
Explorer
Explorer
Timmac may be absolutely right. Directv (now ATT) is a nightmare to deal with. No wonder they're losing customers.

The whole debacle started when my GF misplaced one of my HD receivers. 6 months ago, I deactivated it. Something told me I shouldn't have done that.

I got it back today, so I began what I thought would be the easy task of getting it reactivated. First, the My Equipment page on the old Directv website is
gone. You get redirected to ATT, which is a nightmare to find anything. I finally found the activation page, it just says "You're good to go and everything is fine." I can't see my old receiver, so I can't manage it.

So, as directed by the webpage, I got on Chat. I gave the guy the receiver and card number. He couldn't find that on my account. He went off to do something, so I asked him how long this would take. He said 1-2 hours. What?? But then he said he could do it now. Then he said someone would be calling me about "packages." I told him I just wanted what I already had on my account. Then he said he was going to hand me off to his floor supervisor. Then the supervisor told me I would be getting a phone call to verify. A phone call?? What century is this?

I get a call. It's from somewhere in India, I guess, because I can barely understand the man. He says someone ELSE is going to call me.

A nice lady from Oklahoma calls me. Someone I can easily understand. We trade niceties but it gets ugly real fast. I gave her my phone number, and after a few minutes she comes back confused. "Has there been another phone number on this account?" No, not for the last 15 years. "Have you moved?" she asked. "Yes, I said", last year. Well, that was a mistake. She starts talking about a CA address (my last service address) and how I was now going to have to have 2 accounts because ( I guess) I told her I was in New Mexico. I don't know if she knows the difference between a service address and a billing address. I didn't tell her I lived here, I just said I "was" here. Now I'm getting kinda pissed. "What difference does it make? You don't know where I am anyway!!" "Well sir, we have to have an address so our service people.. blah blah.... " Right, like I would ever call you for service. She understands my frustration but can't do anything about it.

In exasperation I said "Look, how about if I just have 2 receivers in this house.. does that work?". Well, apparently you can't just change your story, so she said she was going to have someone else call me.

I'm not doing this any more. I'm not answering any more calls from Directv. I'm not changing anything. The right hand doesn't talk to the left hand. They ask me questions and then ask the same ones again. They can't find my equipment. They waste your time with inept employees. I'll just get along with the one receiver. My account was just fine until I deactivated that receiver. Now I have to pray they leave the working one alone.
"If I'm wearing long pants, I'm too far north" - 2oldman
53 REPLIES 53

Big_Katuna
Explorer II
Explorer II
DISH boxes donโ€™t care if you donโ€™t have a signal. It is โ€œno signal, want to watch your DVR?

Iโ€™ll never go back to DTV.
My Kharma ran over my Dogma.

Carl_n_Susan
Nomad II
Nomad II
Pirate wrote:

Just tested again. Lower antenna, turn off receiver. Turn receiver back on, no access to all recordings. Hr-44 Software ox11b2 Fri 5/10, 317a

I have the exact same model with the same software level (done on 5/9) As I have absolutely no chance of getting a signal where I am, I just turned on the receiver (which had no power prior to arriving) and watched it go through its routine. I had no cable from the antenna and LNB attached to the receiver. Soon enough I got the infamous 775 error (no LNB found). I then press Menu and get two choices in the left pane: Setup; or Recordings. It takes a few seconds for the recording titles to populate in the main display body but once they do, everything is available to play and/or delete.
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2oldman
Explorer
Explorer
I have neither all recording or recording history on mine. I have playlist and manage recordings. Sorry, I guess this is between you and Dtv.
"If I'm wearing long pants, I'm too far north" - 2oldman

Pirate1
Explorer
Explorer
2oldman wrote:
What is the nature of 'no access'? Does the receiver stop all activity when it can't find swm?
When you hit the "list" button, nothing happens. No list of movies shows up. You go to recording history and watch a recording, but not through "all recording."

timmac
Explorer
Explorer
2012Coleman wrote:
timmac wrote:

Do not get the Roko stick, get the Roko 3 box, the stick does not get all the channels and has a hard time receiving internet, I like the Roko 3 boxes, they work just fine and cost under $100 and No Monthly Fees...

timmac wrote:


With streaming you don't need to record, all programs are always there ready to watch at anytime, that is what makes streaming so much better over satellite..

Smart TV's are OK but the Roku box offers many more channels and many are FREE...

https://www.roku.com/
I'm interested in this as well, and my recent (bad) experience with xfinity where I renegotiated my service - having to buy more packages to watch the shows I want (Mountain Men) and the fact that every night on my down time, I'm scrolling through the channel guide seeing nothing interesting.

It seems that you have to know what you want to watch and then go find it. We have Amazon Prime and NetFlix, and scroll through hundreds of movies, often finding nothing of interest. Sure there is lots of content, but I'm not one to watch the same movie over and over.

So I browsed their site and do not see the Roko 3 box. I do have a 4K TV and see that their top of the line box is the ROKU Ultra for 100 bucks. I have the fastest xfinity internet speed and currently have no streaming issues.

Other questions are how long do I have to wait for a new movie release to be available? Also, I'm sure I could take it with me camping and get internet via my work phone hot spot.

Any other costs involved? Thanks for the info - kind of lit the fire under my butt to cut the cord.


Well I have had my Roku boxes for a while back when they called it Roku 3, I now see they have changed there box names overtime, my mistake..

As to new release movies it depends on what channel you want to watch movies, there is so much content that I can not explain, Fandango has a channel on Roku that offers new release movies, I have not signed up on there channel yet, Amazon offers new release almost weekly.

Its not just movies that attracts me to streaming TV on Roku its the other hundreds of special channels you can watch, special channels just for boating, hunting, sports, Red Bull channel, documentary channels, news channels, over seas channels, YouTube, etc, etc...

2012Coleman
Explorer
Explorer
timmac wrote:

Do not get the Roko stick, get the Roko 3 box, the stick does not get all the channels and has a hard time receiving internet, I like the Roko 3 boxes, they work just fine and cost under $100 and No Monthly Fees...

timmac wrote:


With streaming you don't need to record, all programs are always there ready to watch at anytime, that is what makes streaming so much better over satellite..

Smart TV's are OK but the Roku box offers many more channels and many are FREE...

https://www.roku.com/
I'm interested in this as well, and my recent (bad) experience with xfinity where I renegotiated my service - having to buy more packages to watch the shows I want (Mountain Men) and the fact that every night on my down time, I'm scrolling through the channel guide seeing nothing interesting.

It seems that you have to know what you want to watch and then go find it. We have Amazon Prime and NetFlix, and scroll through hundreds of movies, often finding nothing of interest. Sure there is lots of content, but I'm not one to watch the same movie over and over.

So I browsed their site and do not see the Roko 3 box. I do have a 4K TV and see that their top of the line box is the ROKU Ultra for 100 bucks. I have the fastest xfinity internet speed and currently have no streaming issues.

Other questions are how long do I have to wait for a new movie release to be available? Also, I'm sure I could take it with me camping and get internet via my work phone hot spot.

Any other costs involved? Thanks for the info - kind of lit the fire under my butt to cut the cord.
Experience without good judgment is worthless; good judgment without experience is still good judgment!

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2oldman
Explorer
Explorer
What is the nature of 'no access'? Does the receiver stop all activity when it can't find swm?
"If I'm wearing long pants, I'm too far north" - 2oldman

Pirate1
Explorer
Explorer
2oldman wrote:


Pirate- my recordings play just fine sans antenna. One thing weird, if you go into the aiming screens and end up in the download advanced guide, there's no way out of it save a reboot. And to that's 7 minutes of your life you'll never get back.
Just tested again. Lower antenna, turn off receiver. Turn receiver back on, no access to all recordings. Hr-44 Software ox11b2 Fri 5/10, 317a

2oldman
Explorer
Explorer
Bill.Satellite wrote:

Do they play fine without the antenna AND after a loss of power?
Yes, my receiver is without power for the duration of the towing between campsites. And that's what happened yesterday.

Not just turned off, unplugged.
"If I'm wearing long pants, I'm too far north" - 2oldman

Bill_Satellite
Explorer II
Explorer II
2oldman wrote:
timmac wrote:
do you have it plugged into the HDMI port and have the TV set on the right port ?
yes, yes

Pirate- my recordings play just fine sans antenna. One thing weird, if you go into the aiming screens and end up in the download advanced guide, there's no way out of it save a reboot. And to that's 7 minutes of your life you'll never get back.


Do they play fine without the antenna AND after a loss of power?
What I post is my 2 cents and nothing more. Please don't read anything into my post that's not there. If you disagree, that's OK.
Can't we all just get along?

2oldman
Explorer
Explorer
timmac wrote:
do you have it plugged into the HDMI port and have the TV set on the right port ?
yes, yes

Pirate- my recordings play just fine sans antenna. One thing weird, if you go into the aiming screens and end up in the download advanced guide, there's no way out of it save a reboot. And to that's 7 minutes of your life you'll never get back.
"If I'm wearing long pants, I'm too far north" - 2oldman

timmac
Explorer
Explorer
2oldman wrote:
I'm trying Roku right now. Problem 1: The picture won't format to my screen properly.


That's strange I have never seen that before, have setup many Roku box's over the years and never a issue..

Maybe your doing something wrong, do you have it plugged into the HDMI port and have the TV set on the right port ?

2oldman
Explorer
Explorer
I'm trying Roku right now. Problem 1: The picture won't format to my screen properly.
"If I'm wearing long pants, I'm too far north" - 2oldman

CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Explorer III
From another thread...
CA Traveler wrote:
Confirmed. Disconnected coax cable on my HR44, powered up and no recordings were available. Waited 60 minutes periodically trying various key combinations etc, Nothing, nada, zip. Reconnected coax and in 2 minutes live TV and all recordings available.

This is a disappointing DTV new problem.

Pirate wrote:
This issue happened before. Unable to access recordings on DVR unless hooked up to antenna.

Anyone else notice? This is a new problem.

I recall a fellow RV'er spent quite a bit of time fixing this issue last time it happened.
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