# The DECA Rollout plan?



## love that tv (Jul 8, 2006)

I am getting ready to upgrade the bedroom tv to HD, but want to get the DTV guy to come out and install DECA as well as put in the new box. I know some city have the trials going on, does anyone have any ideas when it will be availble to everyone?


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

From what I have heard, in the next month or two.


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## brett_the_bomb (Oct 24, 2009)

rumors are saying july-ish. but i think it all depends on how well it goes with the pilot markets. but i know hd upgrade will be free with the mrv upgrade


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

brett_the_bomb said:


> rumors are saying july-ish. but i think it all depends on how well it goes with the pilot markets. but i know hd upgrade will be free with the mrv upgrade


Installers are reading mid May in their training.


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## brett_the_bomb (Oct 24, 2009)

veryoldschool said:


> Installers are reading mid May in their training.


there goes my credibility lol, i would listen to his guesstimate over mine


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## Mikemok1981 (Jul 9, 2009)

brett_the_bomb said:


> rumors are saying july-ish. but i think it all depends on how well it goes with the pilot markets. *but i know hd upgrade will be free with the mrv upgrade*


Where did you hear this part from?


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## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

I had it installed on Friday. I am in one of the four trial cities. The supervisor came out to help the tech because of some troubles. I chatted with the supervisor. He said he wanted to come out to check out my installation because he is on a regular conference call in which he shares what he has been seeing. He told me it is supposed to go national next month. He is helping training supervisors in other areas.

DECA works very well. MRV playback is very smooth except trick plays. I think it is worth the wait.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Mikemok1981 said:


> Where did you hear this part from?


He lives in a 72 market so that might be where he heard it from however there is not a guaranteed free upgrade to HD with the MRV order.


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## seern (Jan 13, 2007)

Dusty said:


> DECA works very well. MRV playback is very smooth except trick plays. I think it is worth the wait.


What happens with trick play?


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

brett_the_bomb said:


> but i know hd upgrade will be free with the mrv upgrade


This is NOT the case (except for a few small markets that have MPEG4 locals, forcing DirecTV to upgrade everyone in those markets to MPEG4 equipment). For the vast majority, the DECA/MRV upgrade may mean upgrading some older receivers to SWM-compatible receivers, but does NOT mean SD-to-HD upgrades for those receivers.


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## brett_the_bomb (Oct 24, 2009)

well from what i understood if you pay for a mrv upgrade you have to have an hd rcvr for it to work. so they would have to be swapped... guess i could be wrong but i was pretty sure about that.


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## dsw2112 (Jun 13, 2009)

brett_the_bomb said:


> well from what i understood if you pay for a mrv upgrade you have to have an hd rcvr for it to work. so they would have to be swapped... guess i could be wrong but i was pretty sure about that.


The MRV upgrade is there to give you the "basics" to run MRV (DECA dongles, SWM, SWM compatible SD receivers, etc.) It doesn't have anything to do with swapping SD for HD receivers; those would be a separate charge.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

brett_the_bomb said:


> well from what i understood if you pay for a mrv upgrade you have to have an hd rcvr for it to work. so they would have to be swapped... guess i could be wrong but i was pretty sure about that.


Paying for MRV doesn't get you MRV capable receivers for free. The only reason any receivers are upgraded is because non-SWM receivers won't work at all with the MRV upgrade due to the SWM requirement. It has nothing to do with MRV and all to do with SWM compatibility.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

brett_the_bomb said:


> well from what i understood if you pay for a mrv upgrade you have to have an hd rcvr for it to work. so they would have to be swapped... guess i could be wrong but i was pretty sure about that.


If you don't have at least two HD receivers, then MRV/DECA isn't an option.
Step 1: you upgrade to HD receivers and work out "some deal".
Step 2: you pay the $99 + service call [some leeway on the charge for service call] and get the SWiM + DECA setup. Any receivers not compatible with SWiM, get swapped out "like for like".


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## Movieman (May 9, 2009)

hilmar2k said:


> Paying for MRV doesn't get you MRV capable receivers for free. *The only reason any receivers are upgraded is because non-SWM receivers won't work at all with the MRV upgrade due to the SWM requirement. It has nothing to do with MRV and all to do with SWM compatibility*.


Its it more related to the SWM needing DECA rather than MRV needing SWM? But as for the timing the earliest anyone can guess will be end of May.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Movieman said:


> Its it more related to the SWM needing DECA rather than MRV needing SWM? But as for the timing the earliest anyone can guess will be end of May.


DECA must have SWiM.
"Mid-May" more than the end of May, but each market may be slow to have everything in place.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

Movieman said:


> Its it more related to the SWM needing DECA rather than MRV needing SWM? But as for the timing the earliest anyone can guess will be end of May.


No, SWM doesn't need DECA, the other way around.


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## Billzebub (Jan 2, 2007)

I received an email response from Directv in late february stating the trail cities would begin in March with a national rollout in May.


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## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

seern said:


> What happens with trick play?


Trick play is not as responsive on remote programs. There will be roughly 1-2 seconds of delay. It's still usable but you know it is a remote program. I use 30-sec slip a lot when I watch locally to skip commercials, but 3X FF more frequently for remote programs. More accurate that way.

For regular playback, other than the initial 3-4 seconds of delay, you hardly notice the program is not local.


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## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

brett_the_bomb said:


> rumors are saying july-ish. but i think it all depends on how well it goes with the pilot markets. but i know hd upgrade will be free with the mrv upgrade


Reporting from the test market. No free HD upgrade. No free receiver swap. I have the most ancient first generation HR20-700 that I paid for within the first month it hit the market and a HR20-100 that replaced another HR20-700 acquired at the same time. They went through 3 hours of struggle to add DECA adapters properly. They will not give me the HR24 they had in the vans.

CSRs told me I would get 2 HR24 at the order time. The supervisor told me there are now specific memos not to give out the confusing information. I am not sure if he just made that up or what. Take it for whatever it's worth. He told me I could call and yell at somebody at DirecTV or refuse the installation but nothing he could do about the new receivers. I considered calling but I decided I wanted to keep my existing programs more than getting 2 new leased receivers.


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## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

Gonna guess a month from tomorrow(ish).


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## drpjr (Nov 23, 2007)

Dusty said:


> Trick play is not as responsive on remote programs. There will be roughly 1-2 seconds of delay. It's still usable but you know it is a remote program.


Wasn't "better' TP reported to be one of the advantages of DECA/SWiM over cat5/6? If not, I'll stick with copper for a while longer. In my experience TP has been the only remaining bug for many months.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

drpjr said:


> Wasn't "better' TP reported to be one of the advantages of DECA/SWiM over cat5/6? If not, I'll stick with copper for a while longer. In my experience TP has been the only remaining bug for many months.


Using 30sec skip on a DECA setup, I'd say the receiver(s) may be the source of the lag.
My HR24 will skip so fast I can't tell if I'm MRV or local, "but" my H21 this weekend was noticeable while using either my HR24 or HR20 as the server.
All are using DECA.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

drpjr said:


> Wasn't "better' TP reported to be one of the advantages of DECA/SWiM over cat5/6? If not, I'll stick with copper for a while longer. In my experience TP has been the only remaining bug for many months.


Yes it was. I think in this case there is a difference between "better" and "perfect".


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## MountainMan10 (Jan 31, 2008)

I am in a test market and am getting DECA installed tomorrow. 

I was told that the Beta ends May 13. Don't know if that is only in the test markets or nationwide.

Contrary to what many are saying I was told unequivocally by 2 different CSR's, that after May 13 that DECA will be required. I was told that they will not be able to authorize MRV without DECA. They were very specific that it would not be turned on. It was not just that it won't be "supported".

CSR's have been know to be wrong, so only time will tell. Don't be suprised if on May 13th there are a lot of new threads complaining that MRV doesn't work any more and that Directv is "stealing" money by "forcing" an upgrade to DECA.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

MountainMan10 said:


> I am in a test market and am getting DECA installed tomorrow.
> 
> I was told that the Beta ends May 13. Don't know if that is only in the test markets or nationwide.
> 
> ...


If that's true, and it's a big if, there will have to be an overlap period between when DECA is nationally available and the end of it working without it.


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## joed32 (Jul 27, 2006)

hilmar2k said:


> If that's true, and it's a big if, there will have to be an overlap period between when DECA is nationally available and the end of it working without it.


If that were true there would have to be, but it's not.


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## ndole (Aug 26, 2009)

The national rollout is May 13th.

We've been told that all "New" installs will be MRV capable. My conclusion from that memo is that all parts of a new install will all be MPEG4 capable as well.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

MountainMan10 said:


> I am in a test market and am getting DECA installed tomorrow.
> 
> I was told that the Beta ends May 13. Don't know if that is only in the test markets or nationwide.
> 
> ...


I talked to some networking specialist (I can't remember the actual name of his department) at D* who seemed to know his stuff, all the way down to the green dot on the LNB who told me that DECA will be required as well. Take it for what you will...


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

ndole_mbnd said:


> The national rollout is May 13th.
> 
> We've been told that all "New" installs will be MRV capable. My conclusion from that memo is that all parts of a new install will all be MPEG4 capable as well.


Meh.

All installs = Mpeg 4 = No
All installs with MRV = SWiM = Yes
All installs = MRV = No.


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## samrs (May 30, 2004)

We watched the movie and sat through a brief orientation.

They left off the part about compensation. I asked.

There is no plan.


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## rod.b (Apr 15, 2010)

Who thinks there will be a monthly charge for mrv after the national rollout? I think there will, and it will be between$3-$5 per month.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

rod.b said:


> Who thinks there will be a monthly charge for mrv after the national rollout? I think there will, and it will be between$3-$5 per month.


Old news


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## zudy (Jul 23, 2009)

rod.b said:


> Who thinks there will be a monthly charge for mrv after the national rollout? I think there will, and it will be between$3-$5 per month.


Already been set at 3 bucks a month.


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## rod.b (Apr 15, 2010)

sorry...I'm a newbie. Does anyone know what the equipment cost will be yet?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

rod.b said:


> sorry...I'm a newbie. Does anyone know what the equipment cost will be yet?


http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=2410856&postcount=1


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## DiSH Defector (May 4, 2008)

Dusty said:


> Reporting from the test market. No free HD upgrade. No free receiver swap. I have the most ancient first generation HR20-700 that I paid for within the first month it hit the market and a HR20-100 that replaced another HR20-700 acquired at the same time. They went through 3 hours of struggle to add DECA adapters properly. They will not give me the HR24 they had in the vans.


You're still just half-right. No free upgrade to MRV-capable equipment; however, receiver swaps for non-SWM compliant receivers IS free (with a new 12/24 month agrement). This covers the old legacy receivers as well as D10, D11, and H20 receivers.

Going from an HR20 to HR24 isn't a "swap", and technically isn't really an upgrade either since D* doesn't upgrade by model number. It's been covered ad nauseum here and other places that there's no way to guarantee model number on an upgrade thru D*. There _is_ an issue with HR20-100 where is requires a special setup using a power-passing splitter (satellite port 1 doesn't pass power to the DECA so it needs to get power from satellite 2



Dusty said:


> He told me I could call and yell at somebody at DirecTV or refuse the installation but nothing he could do about the new receivers.


How many stories have any of us read at DBSTalk regarding "yelling at somebody" and actually getting what we want? All yelling gets you is a sore throat.

Is this info really THAT new? No one got free HR22's when they came out just because they were "newer" or had bigger hard drives... why should anyone expect a free HR24 just because it's the latest and greatest?


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## Movieman (May 9, 2009)

rod.b said:


> Who thinks there will be a monthly charge for mrv after the national rollout? I think there will, and it will be between$3-$5 per month.


Its been posted and seems from the test markets that it will be $3 regardless of your setup. If you use DECA (which is supposed to roll out next month) Directv will support your setup. If you already have a setup like hardwiring or powerline adapters you will pay the fee but not receive any tech support. Most of us might start seeing the fee within the next few months.

Hope this helps.


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## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

DiSH Defector said:


> You're still just half-right. No free upgrade to MRV-capable equipment; however, receiver swaps for non-SWM compliant receivers IS free (with a new 12/24 month agrement). This covers the old legacy receivers as well as D10, D11, and H20 receivers.
> 
> Going from an HR20 to HR24 isn't a "swap", and technically isn't really an upgrade either since D* doesn't upgrade by model number. It's been covered ad nauseum here and other places that there's no way to guarantee model number on an upgrade thru D*. There _is_ an issue with HR20-100 where is requires a special setup using a power-passing splitter (satellite port 1 doesn't pass power to the DECA so it needs to get power from satellite 2
> 
> ...


I did have an HR20-100. It is using a strange looking power splitter as you described. It was explained to me the same way, though. I don't think the installers really know why it is needed. They just follow their procedures to put that thing on HR20-100's.

"Yelling at somebody" were his exact words. I don't actually believe in yelling at CSRs. I have never been pissed off by any DirecTV CSRs. The CSR that helped me ordered MRV never heard about it before and took that order for the first time. He had to put me on hold for an extended period to talk to someone. The CSR was actually very nice and courteous. He told me they had to swap out my receivers and read the contract extension text to me for me to say I agree to the new 24 month contract extension. He did say he didn't know what model numbers I will get. I was bummed that I got into a new commitment without new receivers but I decided I prefer to keep my recordings.

Earlier this week, I learned on this board I was not supposed to get a new commitment because I didn't get new receivers. I called and checked. I was so happy that this board once again was proven to be more accurate than most CSRs. I am really happy with my DECA installation right now.


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## DiSH Defector (May 4, 2008)

Dusty said:


> Earlier this week, I learned on this board I was not supposed to get a new commitment because I didn't get new receivers. I called and checked. I was so happy that this board once again was proven to be more accurate than most CSRs. I am really happy with my DECA installation right now.


FWIW, you are correct; a new commitment only goes into effect if equipment is swapped for SWM compliance or if receivers are upgraded for MRV. I'd bet that since it was his first MRV sale that the CSR was most likely reading from the entire confirmation script to be safe.

With all of the trouble D* has been slammed with for supposedly not telling customers about new commitments being applied, is it better to be told you HAVE one and then find out you DON'T?


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## Gocanes (Jul 15, 2007)

All I know is that when the beta ends, DirecTV had better offer me one of 2 options:

1) Continue to use my network that works perfectly in Beta but pay the monthly MRV fee with the understanding that I will not get support if there is an issue.

2) Upgrade me to SWM/DECA at no hardware or installation cost (I could do self install) fast enough for me to have no downtime.

I rely on MRV to virtually expand my recording capacity. The beta opt-in warned me that there would be a charge in the future but there was no warning that said I would have to upgrade equipment in the future to use it.


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## NR4P (Jan 16, 2007)

Gocanes said:


> All I know is that when the beta ends, DirecTV had better offer me one of 2 options:
> 
> 1) Continue to use my network that works perfectly in Beta but pay the monthly MRV fee with the understanding that I will not get support if there is an issue.
> 
> ...


All the threads indicate option 1 will be fine for you.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Gocanes said:


> All I know is that when the beta ends, DirecTV had better offer me one of 2 options:
> 
> 1) Continue to use my network that works perfectly in Beta but pay the monthly MRV fee with the understanding that I will not get support if there is an issue.
> 
> ...





NR4P said:


> All the threads indicate option 1 will be fine for you.


I would expect option #2 to never happen.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

Gocanes said:


> All I know is that when the beta ends, DirecTV had better offer me one of 2 options:


They better, or you'll show them!


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## kevinturcotte (Dec 19, 2006)

Gocanes said:


> All I know is that when the beta ends, DirecTV had better offer me one of 2 options:
> 
> 1) Continue to use my network that works perfectly in Beta but pay the monthly MRV fee with the understanding that I will not get support if there is an issue.
> 
> ...


If they make DECA a requirement, they had BETTER have somebody here to install it the DAY non-DECA support ends. MRV has become a requirement here.


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## Gocanes (Jul 15, 2007)

matt1124 said:


> They better, or you'll show them!


I can show them by cancelling my service since I don't have any commitments right now.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

kevinturcotte said:


> If they make DECA a requirement, they had BETTER have somebody here to install it the DAY non-DECA support ends. MRV has become a requirement here.


So, they should drop every appointment for you? :sure:


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

Gocanes said:


> I can show them by cancelling my service since I don't have any commitments right now.


That'll show 'em :grin:


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

sigma1914 said:


> So, they should drop every appointment for you? :sure:


Yes. How dare them give us a free trial then expect all the thousands ( or millions) of customers who will want MRV to have to wait!


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## kevinturcotte (Dec 19, 2006)

sigma1914 said:


> So, they should drop every appointment for you? :sure:


Then don't make DECA a requirement, or at least not the first day it comes out of beta and most of us haven't had any chance to get a DECA upgrade.


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