CUSTOM INSTALLATION HOW-TO

SETUP
Since I’m already a DirecTV customer, the thought of additional holes being drilled into my roof wasn’t appealing. But Dish was able to install its dish in the corner of my backyard using a temporary (but very stable) weighted ground-mounting system, run wires from the dish into my basement and up to my living room, connect the receiver to my TV, and got the system working.

For Sling functionality to work, the ViP 922 requires a broadband network connection. (My FiOS service regularly provides 20- to 25-Mbps speeds, according to speedtest.net, so I was ready for it.) Since the living room is located in an older part of my house that hasn’t yet been wired for Internet access, I became a bit nervous when I learned that Dish’s Wi-Fi adapter ($30) wasn’t yet available. Fortunately, there’s another option: a $30 HomePlug-based adapter called SlingLink that delivers broadband over home power lines.

Browsing the Settings menu, I located a control that allowed me to shift the picture slightly on my TV so that the station logos in the program guide (a new feature) became fully visible. It’s also where I turned to reset the network connections when I couldn’t get the Sling technology to work with my laptop. Other options let you schedule system updates, diagnose connection issues, and save or restore recent settings for things like timers or favorite channels.