using Genie HD DVR with a old DIRECTV satellite dish

It depends on what type of satellite dish it is. There’s obsolete dishes that can only receive SD on 101, and there are modern ones that can get the HD channels on 103 and 99 needed for the Genie HD DVR. Take a look at the dish that you have, as well as the LNB. Does it say SWM? If not, the LNB is not compatible with the Genie HD DVR. Genie receivers work off of SWM dishes only. They won’t work off of 18x20 dishes or just 18 inch dishes as apparently, even with the right SWM multiswitch (converts legacy LNB to SWM so you CAN use a SWM-only receiver), DIRECTV has decided to remove these older dishes from Satellite Setup so it is not possible to use them.

To reiterate what was stated, you need a SWM LNB in order to use a Genie receiver. IF it is not SWM but the dish is still a Slimline HD dish, you MAY use the 4 port non-SWM LNB but a SWM multiswitch (SWM-8 is fine with just one receiver) is REQUIRED in order to use the Genie.

18, 18x20, and any older SD-only dishes are NOT supported. Those should be trashed as directv is actively phasing out SD/MPEG-2 feeds at the 101 location.

When you say "activate", do you just mean booting it up using that old dish, or is the Genie not active on the account to begin with?

And there are multiple "Genie" boxes over a few different lines of them. Always best to include the actual model number to get the most precise help.

@Juniper 

OP seems to have made 5+ posts over the span of 2 days, all relating to them not being a current directv subscriber and coming from u-verse. This question seems to be quite odd though if they don’t currently have satellite.

Unless they have an old dish already installed and are aware they would get a Genie (so seeing if they would be compatible), this series of threads is getting rather weird. I'm hoping it is someone new to DirecTV tech so is just trying to prepare themselves as best they can beforehand, and not one who is just playing around in the forum.