# Internet Options



## tomallison24 (Dec 10, 2008)

I will be signing up with Directv from Dish later today. It will be the whole house system. I currently have ATT DSL wireless network and home phone. The DSL portion is $30. I haven't been able, by searching, to tell whether Directv offers any internet service other than through other parties. I would like to move from ATT and kill my home phone service. Any ideas? Do installers do any hookups through wireless networking?


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

DirecTV does not offer internet service directly, only through other parties, normally the local phone company. So your DSL would still be your internet option. Normally there are some bundling options available when you do that though. For that, you probably need to talk to ATT.

As to wireless, there is a wireless Cinema Connection Kit that can be used to connect your entire DirecTV system to your router, but the DirecTV equipment and dish will all be connected to each other by RG6 coax.


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## Cybertoad (Dec 30, 2011)

tomallison24 said:


> = I currently have ATT DSL wireless network and home phone. The DSL portion is $30. I haven't been able, by searching, to tell whether Directv offers any internet service other than through other parties. I would like to move from ATT and kill my home phone service. Any ideas?


You will definitely need high speed internet service at your house so that you can use the on demand Cinema features and also for box updates.

DirecTV does not provide internet service but it does have bundling arrangements setup usually via or with the local satellite vendors.

In my area, Quest is the partner. In other locations, may be others.

Let me tell you my story a bit which might be helpful to your questions ...

While Quest has very fast internet 40 Mbps to 60 Mbps is other parts of my city, I learned doing my own research that they only have 1.5 Mbps speeds available in my neighborhood using standard DSL instead of fiber and I would also need to have a phone line for that service.

Like yourself, I do not want nor need any home phone service as the entire family is outfitted with high end android phones.

Because of all of the above, I opted not to go with the bundled internet and satellite package offered by the satellite vendor and instead only ordered DirecTV alone by itself and then went out and got my own internet service on my own.

After shopping around, I found out that the best option in my neighborhood for internet was Comcast cable (ironically) which gives me typically around 45 Mbps network speeds on average where I am at and unlike Quest and other local phone company options did not require a phone line be installed.

So I ended up getting Comcast for the internet service only without television service and getting DirecTV for my television service and I really couldn't be any happier.

Comcast routinely does try to sell me on TV service which is a bit annoying but as they don't have anything that even remotely compares to DirecTV, I also always tell them to go jump off a cliff. They haven't called in quite a while so I guess they've finally gotten the message. 



> Do installers do any hookups through wireless networking?


The DirecTV boxes actually do not do any communications through the home wireless network *via the WiFi wirelessly* though they do have to be hooked into your network.

Each of the DirecTV boxes at my house have an RG6 coax running through the basement connecting each other on a physical coax wired network that feeds to the whole home networking box that DirecTV provided and then that box is physically connected to my wireless router by CAT 6 network cable same as hooking up a wired network computer to the box. The DirecTV installer did the setup on all of that for me all the way up to the point of the wireless router which I provided and it did not cost me anything to setup the "Whole Home" network, running all the coax lines everywhere and the DirecTV installer did a very clean professional unobtrusive job at installing all of those.

All of our android phones automatically switch over to from 4G to WiFi when we are home and I have an app that lets me use my android as a DirecTV remote control which communicate with the wireless router via WiFi and in turn connecting to the DirecTV box via the coax network bridge after it passes the router and that works very well as a backup remote control and is ironically faster responding to key presses than the real actual remote control.

All the laptops at my house do indeed connect wirelessly to the wireless router via WiFi and there is also a software program you can download from the DirecTV website once you are a customer which allows you to play your DVR shows on screen wirelessly to your laptop or home computer which is fabulous for those times late at night or early in the morning when I don't want to wake up anyone with the big loud big screens or when there is disagreement about what shows the rest of the family wants to watch. I can just simply put on my headphones and watch my shows on my laptop streamed by WiFi from the DVR over the interconnected home network and the laptop acts like another DirecTV receiver box.

So anyway to answer your question though, the DirecTV connection to your network and the whole home features is physical itself wired and is not wireless but you can use wireless devices to communicate with the DirecTV boxes via your home wireless router since all your DirecTV boxes are wired indirectly via the Ethernet to Coax bridge that DirecTV provides.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Cybertoad said:


> The DirecTV boxes actually do not do any communications through the home wireless network though they have to be hooked into your network.
> 
> So anyway to answer your question though, the DirecTV connection to your
> network and the whole home features is physical wired and is not wireless.


Neither of these are "really true".
The receivers do communicate through the internet and there is a wireless CCK that bridges the DECA networking to your wireless router.

Some of the things it "communicates" is ordering PPV.


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## Cybertoad (Dec 30, 2011)

veryoldschool said:


> Neither of these are "really true".
> The receivers do communicate through the internet and there is a wireless CCK that bridges the DECA networking to your wireless router.
> 
> Some of the things it "communicates" is ordering PPV.


Umm ... umm ... don't think you actually really read any of my message. 

You just said basically the same thing I did but in a lot less detail!

And yes --- everything I said is "really true"! :lol:

(Sounds kind of like you misread my message and thought I was saying that
DirecTV doesn't use the internet or home network at all which is actually 
 completely the exact opposite of what I said)

_EDIT: I just bolded and underlined the part of the original post I think you missed_


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Cybertoad said:


> Umm ... umm ... don't think you actually really read any of my message.
> 
> You just said basically the same thing I did but in a lot less detail!
> 
> ...


I've read it again and it still comes out the same way.
I have a wireless connection [a DECA wireless CCK] and it does communicate through the internet to DirecTV.

Maybe "your mistake" is using WiFi when you really mean a wireless internet provider that isn't using WiFi, ie a cellphone.


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## tomallison24 (Dec 10, 2008)

To all, especially Cybertoad: Thanks for the answers, exactly what I was looking for. What a great, detailed reply just to help others out, great great , great. 

What's the minimum Mbps required for on demand cinema services?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

tomallison24 said:


> What's the minimum Mbps required for on demand cinema services?


This has more to do with how long you want to wait before you can start watching it.
I wouldn't want to have less than 1.5 Mb/s and even for SD shows, it would take over twice as long as the show is long. HD would be overnight.
3 Mb/s works for SD, but HD would still take a long time.
I have 6 Mb/s, and HD varies by the type of show. It can vary from almost 1:1, to taking one and a half times longer than the program.


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## tomallison24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Thanks. Warner cable roadrunner 30mbps is $50. is this close to the going rate?

2 more questions.

1. does a new subscriber to wholehouse automatically get the hr34?
2. talked to independent installer today and he said the hd receivers with wholehouse won't work with non hd tv's. this can't be true can it?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

tomallison24 said:


> Thanks. Warner cable roadrunner 30mbps is $50. is this close to the going rate?
> 
> 2 more questions.
> 
> ...


ISP prices vary, but that price is close to my 6 Mb/s service  :lol:

1) it isn't "automatic", and you'll need to ask for a HMC [HR34] "and then" it has to be released in your area, as it is not released nationally yet.
2) The receiver doesn't care what type TV is connected to it. "Of course" HD programing will only look "HD" on an HD TV, but there are SD outputs on the receivers.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Cybertoad said:


> You will definitely need high speed internet service at your house so that you can use the on demand Cinema features and also for box updates.


The latter point is incorrect. Updates come via satellite. A good internet connection enhances a lot of things, though, VOD among them.


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## tomallison24 (Dec 10, 2008)

veryoldschool said:


> ISP prices vary, but that price is close to my 6 Mb/s service  :lol:
> 
> 1) it isn't "automatic", and you'll need to ask for a HMC [HR34] "and then" it has to be released in your area, as it is not released nationally yet.
> 2) The receiver doesn't care what type TV is connected to it. "Of course" HD programing will only look "HD" on an HD TV, but there are SD outputs on the receivers.


Could be a problem then as i understand the hr34 is the only one with the 1 tb dvr. can't take less. is this a fact?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

tomallison24 said:


> Could be a problem then as i understand the hr34 is the only one with the 1 tb dvr. can't take less. is this a fact?


The only one with an internal 1 TB drive is the HR34, more more to the point with them are the five tuners they have.
You can connect up to a 2 TB eSATA drive to all HD DVRs, if drive size it what is important.


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## tomallison24 (Dec 10, 2008)

veryoldschool said:


> The only one with an internal 1 TB drive is the HR34, more more to the point with them are the five tuners they have.
> You can connect up to a 2 TB eSATA drive to all HD DVRs, if drive size it what is important.


The one they're offering online for new customers has 5 tuners so it must be the HR34, right?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

tomallison24 said:


> The one they're offering online for new customers has 5 tuners so it must be the HR34, right?


That's correct, but it still isn't available "everywhere" so check and make sure that is what you're going to get. There are some that "thought" they would, but the installer didn't have it.


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## tomallison24 (Dec 10, 2008)

veryoldschool said:


> That's correct, but it still isn't available "everywhere" so check and make sure that is what you're going to get. There are some that "thought" they would, but the installer didn't have it.


what did they do, refuse installation? I believe I would. What were they brought/how many tuners? Thanks.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

tomallison24 said:


> what did they do, refuse installation? I believe I would. What were they brought/how many tuners? Thanks.


Only the HR34 has the five tuners, all other DVRs have two.


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## tomallison24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Thanks again to all that replied. I signed up as a new customer right before the midnight deadline for the current great deal. Premier package, HMC and 3 HD receivers to be installed 1/9. I verified with 3 different people that it would be the 5 tuner model HR34. I did have a CSR tell me that the HMC was only for Samsung TV's. Fortunately I asked her to talk to her supervisor and all ended well.




edit: I just noted that the deal is still showing and it's almost 1 am.


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## Kevin F (May 9, 2010)

They may use that same deal or a very similar one to start off the year for a while.

Kevin


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