Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Television woes, a learning experience

We recently switched from Dish to Direct TV.  I was loving the change until a couple of days ago, when recorded programs would freeze up and it took ten seconds to switch channels after I pushed the button.  Hmmm.  Then the receiver reset itself, and I called the guy who installed this stuff.  
See, he asked me to call him, rather than Direct TV, if a problem arose, because he didn't want them on his back.  
I told him if this resetting thing was an isolated problem, no biggie.  But this is what my Dish receiver was doing for the last year, and I had hoped to see the end of it with Direct TV.  
This morning, the only thing that showed on my television screen was "searching for signal".  I called my installer again, and he's supposed to come tomorrow and check things out.  
I missed "Raising Hope" and "Lie to Me", so I made myself comfortable in Cliff's easy chair, opened up his laptop, and went to Hulu.com to catch up on what I had missed.  
That's when I noticed that there's an option for captions on the full-length episodes online.  That's great!  Now when Cliff misses a show, he can enjoy it on his computer.    
This whole business of Cliff having a computer is still very strange to me.  He used to walk past my computer shaking his head, saying, "I don't know how you can spend so much time on that thing."  
Now he's on the Internet several times a day, checking out Craigslist and watching videos of tractors doing what tractors do and reading his email.  I can always tell when he's reading his email because I hear him laughing out loud.  He loves the jokes, jokes I've seen multiple times over the years, but they're all new to him.   
And I can't help but recall how, back in 1998 when I'd be chatting in the chat room with my friends ("tatting in the tat-room", as my little granddaughter Monica put it), the conversations would be so hilarious I'd laugh out loud.  Cliff would say, from the other room, "Sometimes I worry about you."  
And now the shoe is on the other foot. 

4 comments:

  1. Cliff sounds like my dad when it comes to texting. He would always say things like,"Why don't you get call them?" or "It takes more time to text than it would to just call them." Now he takes his phone with him when he goes deer hunting so that he can text his brother who is in a deer stand a mile away. I can't get him to stop texting! lol

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  2. I hope you get that dish all sorted out. I love the computer and am glad Cliff has gotten into it too. With retirement coming it will help him to keep in touch. One thing about men is that usually they do like working and miss it when it's no longer there. I know he has a lot of other things he likes to do so maybe he won't miss it. I just remember how my Dad was when he could no longer work. As for me, I love retirement and haven't missed work at all. Hope your Thursday is a great one!

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  3. Oh my goodness, this reminds me so much of me and Thomas! It still surprises me to see him sitting at the computer. He daily checks out Craigslist and YouTube, his email, and now Facebook. And I hear him chuckling over funny emails that I read years ago. It's so funny.

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  4. You really should call the 1-800 number. They can reset the receiver remotely. I went thru this with Direct TV and found out that you have to readdress the receiver if the power has been disconnected. If you are disconnecting the power at night, as some people do, that may be your problem

    One other thing, it is almost impossible to get a real person on the line. One evening after numerous failed attempts to resolve the problem using their voice recognition system, I became VERY angry and used an expletive. I was immediately connect with a REAL LIVE PERSON. I was later told that the voice recognition system recognizes angry expletives and real customer service reps are connected. I don't know if this is true.... but it worked for me.

    The installation reps are subcontractors (at least in Alabama they are) and Direct TV monitors their service very closely. That is why he didn't want you to call. But I believe your problem could probably to handled remotely.

    By the way, we cancelled Direct TV when our contract was completed. We went back to cable, which i believe is not an option for you.

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