“DIRECTV READY” should be called “READY ... as soon as you give us another $50″
So I got the itch to replace my 11 year old Sony Bravia 40" LCD TV that I use with my Xbox One with a new 4K HDR TV to get ready for Project Scorpio coming later in the year. My gaming systems live in a hutch and I found I could upgrade from the 40" set to a 49" display thanks to the newer TVs' thinner bezels. After some research my choices came down to the Sony XBR-49X800D and the Samsung UN49KS8000. Ultimately I went with the Sony based on the price (I was able to get an open-box special for $600 less than the Samsung would cost) and that it's primarily just a gaming TV, not my main home theater display.
So far the Sony hasn't disappointed, it makes an excellent Xbox One display and I've enjoyed using the Android TV apps for Netflix and Amazon, trying out 4K HDR shows like The Grand Tour and The Man in the High Castle (this is my first 4K set, my home theater has a 60" Pioneer Elite Kuro plasma and InPlay HD projector, both of which are "just" 1080p).
I also had a DIRECTV Genie Mini hooked up to the old gaming Bravia and Xbox One that I connected to the new Sony 4K TV. The 800D has an IR blaster built in and includes a few remotes which I initially used to have it control the Genie mini and my Vizio surround soundbar setup which provides the audio for this rig. It as a little finiky to setup but eventually I got it all working great. Then in the Android TV section I noticed an app called DIRECTV Ready, and realized the 800D has RVU tech built-in. That's cool, I thought; using the Genie Mini is kinda clunky, why not switch over to use RVU in the Sony and get rid of a box?
So I disconnected the Genie Mini, connected the DIRECTV coax directly to the 800D, launched the DIRECTV Ready app; the display showed "Searching for Genies" ... and that's it. After 30 minutes I called DIRECTV support and said I was trying to hook up my new 4K DIRECTV Ready set to my Genie and was told, "Sure thing! I can totally help you with that!" We discussed my account, the rep noted they had just been out to my house last month to replace my three aging HR20 and HR24 DVRs with the single Genie Server DVR, blah blah, and then said, "OK, so we'll need to schedule a technician to come out and install your TV".
I'm like, "what are you talking about? Its already set up and working fine. Just replace the mini on the account with the RVU and it will be good to go." And then I get a bunch of nonsense about how its not simple to setup, the tech needs to "sync" the tv to my sytems, blah blah. I'm frustrated, but I'm like fine, lets get it scheduled. And then she says it will cost $49.99 plut $19.99 shipping and handling.
And I lost it.
"WTF?!?! Are you f*@$knig kidding me?!? You call this DIRECT 'ready' - there's nothing 'ready' about a set that requires a technician visit to activate it!" So I yell at this poor support person for a good 15 minutes. To her credit, she just listened, said she understood and that's just how it is, and did waive the $19.99 shipping and handling fee since she couldn't figure out what that was for anyway.
So two days later the tech comes out, great guy, and "installs" my Sony 4K TV. Which was basically him just running a test on my Genie DVR to make sure everything was configured correctly, which it was, and then logging into the DIRECTV tech system to flag that everything was good to go. At that point the Sony sudddenly was able to connect to the Genie DVR, we entered the PIN to connect it, and voila! DIRECTV Ready is finally "ready".
I guess I understand there are probably a lot of older DVR installs out there and not everyone is up to speed on how these devices all connect, but it still feels criminal to me that I was charged $50 to have a tech come out, run a system diagnostic that I could have run my self over the phone with Customer Support, and flag my system as "ready". The tech didn't have to touch my dish, didn't change a setting on my DVR, didn’t touch my TV other than to enter the "add a device" PIN on the Sony screen which I could also have done with Customer Support over the phone. What could have taken 10 minutes on the phone took two days to complete because DIRECTV feels the need to gouge me another $50 to hook up a TV to use a service I pay on average $250 a month for. It was a waste of time for me, for the tech that came out to the house, and caused 15 minutes of angry customer grief for the poor customer support person who took my initial call.
Like most things related to AT&T/DIRECTV customer service, it was all just stupid and unnecessary. Unless, of course, you're AT&T and you've baked in those $50 service calls as part of your revenue stream.
Actually I think DIRECTV could fix this really easily - just drop the "ready" from the name, call it "DIRECTV Inside" or something like that.
So bottom line, if you're a DIRECTV customer and your thinking about a DIRECTV Ready TV, just know that you won't be able to just bring it home from the store and use it, you'll need a $50 visit from your DIRECTV tech first. Plan accordingly.
