|
Last night I thought for once I would get to bed before 2:00 am. That’s what I was thinking at 1:00 am when I got an error message on my TV. My satellite receiver was “Powering Up.” I thought DirecTV had probably downloaded some new software that required a restart. After a few minutes the receiver flashed some horizontal colored lines at me, and then I got the “Powering Up” screen again. I sat through this cycle several times before giving up.
I really didn’t have high hopes that the situation would be any different this morning when I got up, and I was right. It was still “Powering Up” on an apparently endless loop. I unplugged the receiver and tried rebooting the system that way, but it didn’t have an effect. So I called DirecTV to let them know. I talked to some very nice technical people who had me try the things I’d already done, including unplugging the receiver and pushing every button on it (and on the remote).
So they’re sending me a new receiver. There’s no charge, except a small handling fee, but I’ll be losing my TiVo service. In its place I’ll have to put up with the vastly inferior DirecTV DVR service. I talk to people. I know it probably works as well as TiVo, but with a steep learning curve (which doesn’t intimidate me) and much less user-friendly interface (which doesn’t intimidate me but does annoy me). But I’ll get used to it. I’ll live.
And at least it’s “free,” and I assume its new, or at least newly reconditioned. I’ve had the old receiver for six years, which is longer than any other electronic device I own has ever lasted. In the meantime, I still have some channels through the cable company, to whom I pay for the minimum possible service (and get a little more, because they can’t be bothered to turn off the channels I don’t pay for). I have two VCRs that I’ve barely used in the last few years, but if I have to tape, rewind, and play back programs in order to be able to fast-forward through commercials, that’s what I’ll do. |
