Half my Hd channels went missing

[dgrosen]

I have had dish network High Def service for about a month now, I am using the 622 DVR receiver. Yesterday (Sunday 12/23) we got a new entertainment center. I unplugged everything (the power frist and waited before moving it) took it out of the center, put the new one together and set everything back up the way it was. After all was hooked together the receiver went through its startup cycle except it had trouble establishing a connection. It would just say the sat signal had been lost, however, I am positive everything was hooked together properly. I reset the box several times with no luck. About two hours later it finally booted up and got a signal. However, once it was running I was missing about 3/4 of my HD channels. I rebooted, did the signal tests etc etc and everything is fine, but most of my HD channels persist in being missing.

I am located about an hour west of Philadelphia. My system uses 2 sat dishes and the receiver tells me it is using sat 110 and 119 both of which have good signal strengths. I spent about an hour on the phone with support and they had me do all the tests, resets etc and could not find anything wrong. Eventually he said that he thought that my signal from sat 129 was weak and that was the trouble.

My questions:
1)Am I even using sat 129 even though it doesn't show up in the diagnostics etc?
2)Is there anything that could cause the loss just some of my HD signals from just unplugging the receiver for a while.
3)Will fixing whatever the problem is cause the missing channels to appear back in my guide after a reboot or do I have to do something to make it relook for the channels.

Thank-you anyone for any help or insight you can provide....I miss my HD.

 

[dgrosen]

After a bit of reading I have concluded that because I am on the east coast I have nothing to do with sat 129 but instead use 61.5. After using the Dish Network Satelite Chart from the sticky, it is apparent that my receiver is not using the signal from my second dish pointed at 61.5 (I am missing the channels it carries).

This seems to me to indicate either:
1)The signal is not getting there or
2)The receiver is not using it somehow.

How the setup is configured is a coax line comes from each dish, condenses into one line, enters the house, makes the run to the receiver, runs through a separator and into the back of the 622.

Is there something configurationally that could be wrong with the receiver that it is not using the signal, or is there no other option than the dish is out of alignment and this coincidentally happened as I moved the box from one entertainment center to the next.

 

[Barry Erick]

Did you do a check switch test?, I'm an hour west of philly, using a 3 dish system, with one pointing to 61.5, and it's fine. Also, undo the SAT connection on the receiver and then re-connect it.

 

[gbjbany]

sounds like you are using some sort of switch, a box to "condense" the lines from the SAT, i dont think your dish will be out of alignment because you unplugged inside , it sounds like the signal from 61.5 isnt getting to the receiver.
Do you have another box inside that looks like a power brick ? is it connected too ?

 

[120inna55]

If you had said channels before you disconnected everything, then you should have them now. According to your post, you didn't mess with anything outside on the dishes or switches.

You should definetly do what Barry said, check switch.

You should also know which sats you're pointed at. Here's quick way to see that everything is working and to tell which sats you're looking at: Menu-->6-->1-->3.

Tell us, then which satellites you have (I suspect 110, 119, 61.5). If any of them say unavailable, do a check switch as follows: Menu-->6-->1-->1-->Check switch.

Even if the expanded system status screen (the first screen to which I referred) says everything is OK, it won't hurt to do a check switch anyway, especially if your channels are still gone.

Let us know about your progress.

 

[dgrosen]

There is no box that looks like a power brick, or anything other equipment inside. The small box that makes the one line into the 2 that enter the receiver is clearly labeled a separator (if that helps)

 

[dgrosen]

If you had said channels before you disconnected everything, then you should have them now. According to your post, you didn't mess with anything outside on the dishes or switches.

You should definetly do what Barry said, check switch.

You should also know which sats you're pointed at. Here's quick way to see that everything is working and to tell which sats you're looking at: Menu-->6-->1-->3.

Tell us, then which satellites you have (I suspect 110, 119, 61.5). If any of them say unavailable, do a check switch as follows: Menu-->6-->1-->1-->Check switch.

Even if the expanded system status screen (the first screen to which I referred) says everything is OK, it won't hurt to do a check switch anyway, especially if your channels are still gone.

Let us know about your progress.

6->1->1 shows 110 and 119 but does not show 61.5. Check switch says everything is ok. 61.5 however is not listed and I assume thus not checked.

 

[dave2609]

after the check switch... what switch is being detected?

 

[JH1949]

I have the same setup as you do. When I got error messages similar to yours, my local installer/dealer told me to try the following to test for a boken separator, which turned out to be the cause. I stopped in to get a new one, plugged it in myself, and got all three sats OK.

#1: On the back of your receiver, unplug SAT1 and plug it into SAT2 and unplug SAT2 and plug it into SAT1, rerun check switch, then see what you get.
#2: Unplug separator, plug the line before the separator into SAT1, rerun check switch, see what you get this time.
#3: Unplug that same single line before the separator from SAT1 and replug into SAT2, rerun check switch, and see what you get this time.

Hope this helps

P.S. As an alternative, I think he said that you can test the separator halves one at a time to tell if it is broken by singly plugging in the outputs and check switching the following way:

#4: plug left output of separator in SAT1, right output unplugged
#5: plug left output of separator in SAT2, right output unplugged
#6: plug right output of separator in SAT1, left output unplugged
#7: plug right output of separator in SAT2, left output unplugged

 

[dgrosen]

Thank you everyone for the help, here is an update if anyone cares.

First a bit of background info. The walls of our house (under the siding) are not that OSB wood stuff, but instead a foam and fiberglass mesh that gives it a bit of insulative value but not much support. Everyone can probably see where this is going now.

When the tech installed the second dish to 61.5 he didn't bother to attach it to any actual wood but just some screws through the siding and into the foam. I'm sure screws never got tight or anything (imagine mounting a dish into only drywall with no mollies and you get the picture), but apparently he didn't care.

The dish probably started sagging from day 1 but the day that I disconnected the receiver it must just have coincidentally sagged to the point where I was no longer getting a signal.

I called dish and expressed my *cough* slight displeasure with the tech's installation job and they are sending someone out to install the dish properly.

I never thought to check the physical alignment of the dish because it is well up off the ground and I lost the channels that that dish carries at the same time that I moved the receiver. For the time being I have the dish propped into place with a 2x4, a couple shims and everything is working again.

Thanks again for everything, at least I learned alot about how sat systems work from this.

 

[JH1949]

dgrosen: thanks for the update.

 

[120inna55]

That is an odd coincidence. Glad you got your channels back and a plan for a better installation.