An audio and a video issue...

[Nealio]

Hi, this my first post so be nice

I've had Dish Network since May '05 and for the most part it has worked great, except now for the last couple months... I've noticed two things that aren't too bad, but they get annoying at times.

The first thing is an audio related issue. This just started I'd say about a month ago. There is always a decently loud audio hum noise in the background of every channel. It is super noticable when there isn't much noise on the show. Oh and just to let you all know... I have two receivers (one upstairs and one downstairs) and they both are doing this. I was trying to figure out what caused this, and for both TVs I noticed it would chime in the hum whenever I plugged the video cable into the television (I have it hooked up via RCA downstairs and S-Video upstairs). If I just have the audio plugged in, I don't get the hum...? It used to never do this, so I emailed DN and they said I'd have to call. I figured I'd ask on here before going through all that customer service boredom.

The second issue is video related. This also started occuring just within the last month or two (I'm not really sure if they started at the same time or not though). I noticed at times I could see a horizontal line panning from the bottom of the screen to the top. It is usually only noticable on dark scenes, but it is at times noticable on lighter scenes. I tried adjusting the brightness on both of my TVs (yes, this is happening on both receivers as well) and I noticed when I made it really bright, I could very easily see a bright line panning that is I'd say about an inch thick. This too gets quite annoying.

I have really no idea what to try (it does this hooked up via coax as well) so if anybody knows anything I could try, I'd appreciate any help. If there's more info needed, please just say so and I'll post whatever.

Thanks in advanced,


Neal

 

[gdarwin]

Sounds like a 60hz ground loop. Is the dish grounded properly. Do you have a 110 outlet that might be wired incorrectly?

Just some ideas.

G.

 

[Nealio]

I remember the technician grounding it and had a little bit of a hard time (I think just cause it was hard to run it through the space we had...) I'll go out and check that right now. The 110 outlet... could you please explain what that is and then I'll take a look at it as well?

Thanks for the reply,


Neal


EDIT: I checked the ground wire and it seemed like it was setup right and still connected and whatnot. I checked all of the connections made from the dish to the receivers and everything is quite snug. BTW what exactly is a 60hz ground loop?

 

[gdarwin]

110 is the AC power that the boxes plug into the wall. AC current is 60 cycles. The hum you hear and the bar going down the screen are indications of bad or nonexistant grounding somewhere between each set.

They make a device that you plug into the wall to see if each 110 outlet is wired correctly.

 

[Nealio]

Ahh, I see. Well the thing is it used to work and it just started doing this lately. Do you think something could've caused it to mess up on both of them or something?

Also noticed you're from Louisville... I lived there when I was a kid I still live in KY now too.

 

[gdarwin]

Sounds like one of the TV's is causing the problem. Try hooking them up one at a time to see when it happens.

 

[Nealio]

Hmm, tried that as well. Still the same thing. Any other ideas out there?

 

[SimpleSimon]

Keep swapping things and hooking stuff up ONE step at a time to isolate the problem.

Ground loop IS the most likely cause - but you've got to find it's source.

 

[Nealio]

Alright, I'll try that out. Sorry for being a n00b, but what should I try with the ground loop? Unhook it, then hook it back up? And why is it called a "loop"?


Neal

 

[gdarwin]

Try reading these pages:
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/
http://www.elect-spec.com/faqgrdl.htm

G.

 

[Nealio]

Thanks gdarwin for the links. I read up on everything and tried unplugging/rewiring things inside of the house and made sure nothing was onto of wires outside that shouldn't be, and now the lines have gone and there is only a small humming noise with the audio

We'll see if it'll stay like this cause in the past it has come and gone by itself.

Thanks for the help,


Neal

 

[gdarwin]

Great! Need anything else just post here.

G.

 

[Nealio]

Hmm, well what I was hoping wouldn't happen, has happened. It only disappeared for a few days and now it's been back for a few days. I tried doing the same thing as I did last time, but it didn't help so I'm assuming that what happened last time when I thought I helped/fixed it was a coincidence. The panning video lines and the audio humming are about as bad as they have ever been.

Any ideas of what else I could manually try?

TIA,


Neal

 

[Nealio]

UPDATE: I tried what you said again gdarwin about unhooking everything from one receiver and trying to locate the source of the humms. Well I found out that the coax coming from outside, going into the receiver upstairs is causing the audio and video humms both upstairs and downstairs... because when I unplug it, the TV downstairs has a very minimal audio humm and no panning video lines anywhere, but when I plug it back in, they are immediately there again. What can I do to get the one upstairs grounded like it's supposed to?

 

[Van]

Disconnect the ground wire from the coax ground block and recheck your tv's, sometimes the ground source will have current going through it that can cause issues. Also think about what appliances or utilities in your home may have been off while the problem was gone and have since come back on when it has returned. Try turning off all appliances and utilities and see what you get, if it is a clean A/V then start turning on your appliances and utilities one at a time to see if there is a culprit that could be at the heart of this.

I did a service call for a customer that had A/V issues and found that not only was his electrical wiring damaged from repeated power surges and overloaded on every circuit, but when his fridge came on it messed up his receiver and his entertainment center was overloaded on one electrical outlette.

 

[Nealio]

Van, thanks for replying. I tried unhooking the ground wire, but it didn't help the problem... it kind of looked like it made it a little worse. I'm going to try and unplug different things/appliances and see if something like that could be causing the problem. I'll post with updates in a bit.

 

[Nealio]

Hmm, well I experimented a little more just to see what would happen and found something else similar to what I found a few minutes ago. This time I tried unplugging the coax that comes from outside to the TV downstairs (the opposite receiver I tried a few minutes ago) and now the TV upstairs doesn't have any audio or video humms. Any ideas on what to try based on this info?

Nutshell: When both receivers are connected, they both produce audio and video humms... but when only one of them is connected, the humms all go away. Also keep in mind that these problems just started occuring a month or two ago and I've had DN since May '05.

 

[Nealio]

I've done a little more experimenting and found something else out. First of all let me explain how I have my wiring setup.

Receiver upstairs: I have the provided 3-feet coax cable running into my TV and I also have S-Video with the two RCA audios hooked up running into my PC. This is how I've always had it setup.

Receiver downstairs: I only have it hooked up via RCA video and audio cables straight into my TV.

Here's the deal... when I unplug the S-Video and RCA cables from the upstairs receiver, the humming goes away on both TVs. I thought at first that maybe it was the connection going from the upstairs receiver to my PC, but when I unplug everything from the receiver downstairs, both the TV and PC have no humming. I've always had the wiring setup like this and everything used to work just fine with no humming on anything (for like the first 5 months).

Any ideas anybody?

 

[JohnTenn]

I've seen a similiar problem before. In my case it was the Hot water heater. Found out that one of the heating elements was going bad and disrupting the signal and causing a weird humming sound on the TV. Took me awhile to isolate this as I initially thought it was Equipment related, and also, with the intermitent nature of the Service call it was difficult to trouble shoot.

One suggestion would be to turn off all the breakers in the fuse box. The turn one on that controls the primary tv. Test for problem. If no problem, turn on other tv and test again. Continue to click on breakers and check each time you do this on both TV's. Also, it might be a good idea to have at least 5 mins in between breaker tests to ensure whatever equipment that may be causing problem is completely on.

Unplugging things doesn't always eliminate power on a circuit. You have items hardwired in that can't be plugged in, not to mention capacitors that you can't possibly discharge.

If you turn on a breaker and the sound returns, isolate that breaker and see what's on it.

Hope this helps,

 

[Nealio]

Alrighty, I'll try that all out within the next day or two and hopefully that'll help some. Thanks for the reply.