On Saturday, we upgraded my D****TV service to HD D****TV . Two technicians showed up at the house. One could not speak English at all, the other barely spoke English, which made it was difficult to converse with him.

The installation of the dish went smoothly, then the wheels came off the track.
• The HDMI cable that came with the HD DVR box was too short. Instead of providing a longer cable, the technician told me to go to Best Buy to buy a longer cable.
• I asked the technician to show my how to record TV shows on the DVR box. He said that he didn’t know how and told me to read the book.
• I asked the technician how to attach a second TV to the HDDVR box. He said that he didn’t know how and told me to read the book.
• The technician didn’t know how to change the remote from an IR remote to a RF remote.
• The technician didn’t clean-up before he left. There was sawdust on the floor and bits of cut cable all over the place.

Is this the typical level of quality for a for D****TV installation?

I highly suggest you read the tips and tricks doc over at dbstalk, it'll answer your questions.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=72648

As for the cable, they give you a 6 footer in the box that works for most applications, if you need something else you are on your own. Check out monoprice, I just ordered a 10 footer for around $6 plus shipping.

I'd be more annoyed by the mess then anything else.

Three weeks ago I moved into my new house and I called DTV to set up service. I had purchased an HD DVR, a regular DVR and a regular box with the intention of having the install date fall on the weekend of my move.

They never showed up on the said date even though they called to confirm. I call and set up a second appointment. I mentioned at that time that I did not want the dish mounted to the roof or the side of the house and to please bring a post. The tech shows up, late.. no post, no idea what was going on. That appointment is out the window, schedule another please.

Saturday I wait all day for the next joker to arrive and no sign. I run out to the store and I get a phone call from some area code I have never seen before in my life. Taking into account that there may be a chance I pick up some call that will result in a $69.95 charge routed to prison in upper Mongolia, I let it go.. if they want they can leave a message. Nothing. So an hour later a second call from the same number as I am arriving home. I pick it up as I had just passed a truck that looked like it may have been the installer parked in front of my home. Lo and behold it is.. "I am sorry sir but I waited for an hour and I am at the gate leaving now." You can't be at the gate, you drove by me just two seconds ago. "Well, I cannot turn back, I have to go, I called and waited." You called, failed to leave a message and waited.. "I can't come back." Thanks, I will reschedule.

So now we are on install attempt number three.. and by the way, if they did not mention it before, if you have a DVR you need two lines in to the same box which requires an install. Please deposit $52 to run the line. Oh, and the pole mount; please deposit $75. Never mind the fact that I am saving you the time of climbing on my roof or having to mount it to the side of the house. This is simply stick a flipping pole in the ground.

DTV blows. I cancelled my order and told them to stick their pole and their second line where the sun does not shine.

*end rant

I highly suggest you read the tips and tricks doc over at dbstalk, it'll answer your questions.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=72648

As for the cable, they give you a 6 footer in the box that works for most applications, if you need something else you are on your own. Check out monoprice, I just ordered a 10 footer for around $6 plus shipping.

I'd be more annoyed by the mess then anything else.

I agree that I'd be more annoyed by the mess than anything else. Honestly, though, if both could barely speak english (unfortunately not just a problem with D*), I think you'd be better off just reading the manual than, quite honestly, what any D* technician (english-speaking or not) told you.

The manual is fairly informative and well laid out, as far as owner's manuals go.

The link provided above is a good resource. And as far as the cable issue goes, count yourself lucky that they even provided an HDMI cable at all. Unfortunately, a lot of hardware nowadays doesn't. Order a longer cable from Monoprice and run component (if you have a longer one available) until then; they look identical on my monitor. This is also an answer to your question of how to hook up to two different TVs; the HR20-700 that I have outputs via component and HDMI simultaneously, so just hook one up to each TV. I would imagine, though, that each TV would be displaying the the same picture; I don't think there's a way to watch one tuner on one TV and another tuner on the other, since I've never tried it. I just have both hooked up to my monitor as a "backup" in case the HDMI goes all flaky on me (I don't trust HDMI farther than I can throw it).

Three weeks ago I moved into my new house and I called DTV to set up service.DTV = digital television
D* = DirecTV
E* = Dish Network (Echostar)

I've had this problem before....

What I did was find an independent satellite installer that sold D* and did HT installs. That way I knew I would get someone who knew what they were doing.

If you can't get a deal through a local guy, you may have to just pay him to put up a dish and run the cable. You can buy a 5 LNB dish, mounting supplies and a multi-switch from solidsignal.com Then call D* and tell them there is already a dish installed. Then they should just send the guy with set top boxes or ship them directly to you.

I was tired of trying to get one stupid line run from my multi-switch on the back of the dish to my son's room. I had 3 trys with 3 different install teams until I said just upgrade my dish and run one line. That time I got someone who spoke english and said there's a work order for the dish install only, no extra line. So I gave him a look like c'mon man, and he said for $50 I'll do it. I paid him and everything worked until it started to snow/rain. I was loosing signal at the drop of a hat. While driving home I passed a van that said satellite pro's on it. I figured what the heck, it can't be any worse. For $125 the guy ran an addtional line to the basement and adjusted the dish perfect. He put a hand-held meter on the dish to adjust it to near 99% on all 3 LNB's.

It's worked for 4 years through white out snow and down pours without a glitch until two weeks ago a wind storm had other plans for the dish. But no worries, they're coming out tomorrow to align the dish again.