8 + 100
Equals one happy grandma. Just under two weeks ago on June 12th Broadcast television went all digital. Those without the proper equipment no longer got the free signal. There was tons of time to prepare and supposedly enough information out there but all of it wasn't enough for grandma. We bought her converter box more than a year ago and it didn't work so we weren't sure what was wrong. In February when it was all supposed to convert over they only turned on the Digital signals. I figured that was probably the problem but we still didn't get any signal. I checked on Antenna Web dot org and found that she had the right kind of antenna (long range on the roof) but still nothing was working.
So June 12th came and went and grandma's TV went dark for the first time since she got TV set up in her house. I continued to try to find out what was wrong. There were three TV repair shops listed in the phone book but none of them responded to my calls (in fact one was out of business). Grandma found out just before the last station went off the air that her antenna might be too old. That put us in a pinch. Sure we could buy a new one but there was no one to put it up for her. -_- It irks me to no end that the sold the 20 mile range antenna's in the store too…talk about a racket. -_-
So I looked up satellite packages and managed to work out a deal for my mom through Dish Network. Mom gets a discount for referring a new customer and a discount for being a new customer. She bought grandma the basic package with 100 channels plus her 8 local stations. Mom and I are excited because now we can show her other things she will like to watch when the regular stations aren't showing anything good (like the History channel, Discovery Channel and TV Land).
Today they came out and installed it first thing in the morning. At first they had the wrong stuff. Someone accidentally set it up for HD which grandma can't use. The guy had to drive back and get the correct box but put the dish up for before leaving. He was back before noon and she was all set up when I got there for lunch.
I noticed it right away because the dish is on the front side of the house roof. It kind of stands out like a sore thumb. -_- It's ok though because she has her TV again. Naturally this didn't stop her from calling me back to the house three times that night because she managed to mess with the controls and screw up the connections. _~_ We got it worked out and I walked her through the new remote twice. Once she is used to it I will work with her on how to use the guide to find what's on and new stations.
For now she is set with her local stuff. It's good that she is back to normal. Mom is happy to because she wanted to give grandma some thing special to help her live comfortably. :D
So June 12th came and went and grandma's TV went dark for the first time since she got TV set up in her house. I continued to try to find out what was wrong. There were three TV repair shops listed in the phone book but none of them responded to my calls (in fact one was out of business). Grandma found out just before the last station went off the air that her antenna might be too old. That put us in a pinch. Sure we could buy a new one but there was no one to put it up for her. -_- It irks me to no end that the sold the 20 mile range antenna's in the store too…talk about a racket. -_-
So I looked up satellite packages and managed to work out a deal for my mom through Dish Network. Mom gets a discount for referring a new customer and a discount for being a new customer. She bought grandma the basic package with 100 channels plus her 8 local stations. Mom and I are excited because now we can show her other things she will like to watch when the regular stations aren't showing anything good (like the History channel, Discovery Channel and TV Land).
Today they came out and installed it first thing in the morning. At first they had the wrong stuff. Someone accidentally set it up for HD which grandma can't use. The guy had to drive back and get the correct box but put the dish up for before leaving. He was back before noon and she was all set up when I got there for lunch.
I noticed it right away because the dish is on the front side of the house roof. It kind of stands out like a sore thumb. -_- It's ok though because she has her TV again. Naturally this didn't stop her from calling me back to the house three times that night because she managed to mess with the controls and screw up the connections. _~_ We got it worked out and I walked her through the new remote twice. Once she is used to it I will work with her on how to use the guide to find what's on and new stations.
For now she is set with her local stuff. It's good that she is back to normal. Mom is happy to because she wanted to give grandma some thing special to help her live comfortably. :D