DP811 and Signal Problem

[DaveN]

I've had two HD DP811s working just fine (aside from their buggy firmware) for a little over a year now. I've got the 500 dishs (2 dishs, twin? lnb, and 2 sw-21s). However, the other day, one of them was hanging indefinitely on the Attention screen, waiting for satellite signal.

I've got clean line of sight, etc, so I'm not concerned about that. When I swap the coax on the receiver side, the problem seems to stay with the cable. I figured the cheap solution was to toss in a couple new SW-21s, so I did, but that didn't solve a thing. It *seems* like it should be easy to troubleshoot this - I've tried moving only the #1 LNB to the other sw-21, or moving it back, and moving only #2 over, hoping to isolate a bad LNB. However, just when I think I've narrowed it down, the other one will do something goofy - hanging on some channels, or not showing my locals ("You need a second dish" - gee, ya think?) I don't see any physical damage on any cables, and it's all in a pretty low-risk area as far as that kind of thing goes.

Any thoughts on the best way to pursue this? Dish has informed me that they're happy to send someone out, and happy to sell me service plans/etc, but it just doesn't seem like it's worth all that.

Thanks for any ideas,

Dave

 

[Fredinva]

How about getting a DishPro twin (or quad, if needed) and elimnate the dang sw-21 switches??

fred

 

[SimpleSimon]

How about getting a DishPro twin (or quad, if needed) and elimnate the dang sw-21 switches??

fred

Because he's got TWO dishes - wing dish for locals from the sound of it.

I'm gonna guess he's got the same setup I just dropped: Legacy Twin, legacy dual, pair of SW-21s. I'm now running DPP-Twin with a DP Single for the wing. Love that wing input on the DPP-Twin.

 

[webbydude]

And Simon's set-up is probably the best. Less equipment means less chance of screw-ups. Dave, just get a DPP Twin and a DP Dual or Single for the wing dish. $35 for the DPP Twin and $30 for the Single. With everthing DP or DPP, your receivers will probably operate a bit better as well

 

[DaveN]

Thanks for you replies. Yes, I have the second dish for my locals.

I know "replace everything with new stuff and maybe it'll all work better" is the easiest answer, but I was hoping someone could give me a little more experienced assistance.

Any thoughts?

 

[SimpleSimon]

The point is, the gear, cable, and connectors are getting old & tired.

You've already done the smart thing and tried to isolate a failing component with no luck, so it's more likely a failing LNB is in the mix.

So, you can spend time nailing that down and replacing them with other old stuff, OR for about the same amount of money, get all new parts.

I hate to waste old parts, and I love to play with this stuff, but for most folks, the thing to do is just make it work. Some folks get satisfaction by spending hours repairing the old gear - which fails again in 6 months, while others just replace it and forget about it for another 5 years.

Don't forget to replace any questionable cable ends while you're at it.

 

[DaveN]

hmm .. I thought I had mentioned in my original post, this gear is right around 12 months old (they installed it when I signed up as a new customer at that time). That's considered old and dated? If so, I should consider swithcing back to DirecTV - my Sony A50+dish/etc lasted for years and years, and still works great.

 

[SimpleSimon]

If you received (used for certain) Legacy gear (as implied by the SW-21s) 12 months ago, you got ripped off - even for a "free" install.

OTOH, if you've been mis-reporting your switch types, and meant DP-21s, well, then you've been wasting our time with bad information.

 

[DaveN]

They say SW-21 right on them. I could send you a photo if you wanted.

From the day I signed up with Dish, I've been feeling ripped off. I've been lied to on multiple occasions, both by the dealer and Dish customer service. I'm not just talking about misunderstanding rates, but honest to goodness lies. I tried to pursue it with customer service. They couldn't do anything of course, but they offered me some refunds. Great. However those refunds never showed up. No sense in pursuing this either, as it'll be the same people that made the false promise.

I'm not trying to rant here--it's not your problem. I'm just saying it's par for the course, being ripped off. Having said that, care to share a couple of URLs of what I should buy? (imho, what Dish should have sold me with my "state of the art HD receivers" to begin with).

Thanks