HD Locals Disappeared

[Becket]

Hi all.

I got the new 5LNB dish and HD DVR (the new one, not the TiVo) installed last Friday. When the tech left, all HD locals were working.

I don't watch a lot of live TV, and hadn't checked the HD locals since then, though I did have a few series set to record from broadcast.

Today, when I went to all the HD locals, there was no picture, just a message "Searching for Satellite In 1 (771)" I checked the programs that I had set to record and there was nothing there, either.

Everything else (HD package, SD locals, Total choice channels, etc.) is working fine.

I called D* to figure out what was going on, and they had me repeat setup. The setup procedure showed a failure for satellite 99b.

The D* had no idea what else to do and decided to send a tech out next week.

Any idea why my locals would just disappear like that? Or why 99b wouldn't get a signal? Any help appreciated to avoid having to wait at home for hours for a tech next week.

 

[charper1]

What is your DMA? You would get either HD locals from 103 or 99, not both.

Did they offer to send a "signal rehit/reauthorization " to that receiver before going through the entire initial setup again?

Do you have another outlet in the house you can test it on?

At this point it could be a host of things; receiver needs a rehit/reauthorization, a bad RG6 cable from the dish to the receiver or multi-switch if you have one in-line, or even an LNB issue.

Can you give some details about your hardware?

 

[Becket]

They did a reauthorization, but not connected to this issue. The installer failed to deauthorize the receiver that was replaced, so I called this morning to do that (that's how I discovered this issue). He had to reauthorize the receivers since the old one being deauthorized was the main receiver.

I have RG6 wiring coming off the 5LNB dish and going directly into the house, with a RG6 wire going from that inside to the HD Plus DVR. Wiring is about a year old.

The 5LNB dish is new, was put in with the install last week.

No idea when during the last week the HD locals disappeared.

 

[Becket]

Oh - and this is the Washington DC DMA.

Heading out for a while, will check back in an hour or two. Thanks for any help.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

What are you signal readings on 103.

 

[Jimbo]

He didn't say for sure,
Are your locals coming from D* or OTA ?
If from D*, are they Mpeg 2 or 4.
99* not having a signal MAY not be a problem if it is not used in your market.
If OTA, did you try to do a OTA reset in the menu ?

Jimbo

 

[Becket]

They are through D*. All sats except 99b are getting signals over 80 in strength, and SD locals are there. 99b reports "failed" and the HD locals (while selectable in the guide) are black with the message noted above. :/

 

[raoul5788]

They are through D*. All sats except 99b are getting signals over 80 in strength, and SD locals are there. 99b reports "failed" and the HD locals (while selectable in the guide) are black with the message noted above. :/

I don't have my H20 any more (I sent it back due to rebooting issues), but IIRC, 99B and 103B will be the new D10 and D11 sats that have not launched yet. If so, it has to fail.

 

[Jimbo]

I don't have my H20 any more (I sent it back due to rebooting issues), but IIRC, 99B and 103B will be the new D10 and D11 sats that have not launched yet. If so, it has to fail.

Raoul,
there are locals on the 99 and 103 already.

Becket,
are your SD locals coming from a different sat, 101 for example ?

Did the HD come back after a reboot ?

I wonder if this is something that D* has to input into the persons account (the HD portion) and they just have not activated it for whatever reason.

Jimbo

 

[raoul5788]

Raoul,
there are locals on the 99 and 103 already.

Becket,
are your SD locals coming from a different sat, 101 for example ?

Did the HD come back after a reboot ?

I wonder if this is something that D* has to input into the persons account (the HD portion) and they just have not activated it for whatever reason.

Jimbo

I know there are locals on 99 and 103. The new sats, D10 and D11 will be co-located at 99 and 103. I suspect the failure that occurs when setting up an H20 or HR20 is partially due to those sats not being there, yet.

 

[Becket]

I believe the SD locals are on a different sat, as I always received them even when I had the old dish. The D* had no idea what to do, so they just made a tech appointment.

The strangest thing is that the HD locals were okay when the thing was installed on the 7th....only went black later.

 

[plnoldrick]

just did a service call today with the exact same problem, everything except hd locals.

it ended up being a bad fitting at the back of the ird.

 

[charper1]

Bad fitting as in the RG6 cable F-connector (repairable), or a connector (input jack) on the receiver (hardware issue)?

 

[plnoldrick]

Bad fitting as in the RG6 cable F-connector (repairable), or a connector (input jack) on the receiver (hardware issue)?

rg6 f conn.

seems like a dumb reason to loose locals but its the first and only thing i did. removed it, the dielectric was sunk a little bit so i whacked it off and replaced it. plugged it back in and it was good to go.

some real simple things can cause alot of problems.

 

[Becket]

Thanks. I just went outside and felt along the outside cable. There is a slight indentation - from the tooth of my dog, no doubt - is this the kind of thing that could affect the ability of the receiver to pull HD locals (but have no effect on anything else)? I don't even know if it happened recently (the tooth mark, that is).

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks. I just went outside and felt along the outside cable. There is a slight indentation - from the tooth of my dog, no doubt - is this the kind of thing that could affect the ability of the receiver to pull HD locals (but have no effect on anything else)? I don't even know if it happened recently (the tooth mark, that is).

Well if water and weather gets in it, I would imagine it would start to cause trouble, not nesasarily right away either, maybe corrosion has set in.

I would make up a temperary cable to hook up and see if it clears your trouble, if so, then replace it permanently.

Jimbo

 

[plnoldrick]

Thanks. I just went outside and felt along the outside cable. There is a slight indentation - from the tooth of my dog, no doubt - is this the kind of thing that could affect the ability of the receiver to pull HD locals (but have no effect on anything else)? I don't even know if it happened recently (the tooth mark, that is).

in all honesty a small indentation is probably not gonna do it but its always possible. i would look at any and all connectors and f barrels in the line the whole way back to the switch. if they are sunk or corroded or moisture is present etc any of those can do it.

if your multiswitch is outside any of those things can do it and also add in a bad port as a possibility.

did you try swapping the 2 sat feeds (flip flopping) or checking your strengths on both tuners? i would start with that as a way to help isolate a problem.

i almost never figure lnb failures because i almost never see them. most techs are way to quik to start replacing lnb's. they are possible but from what i see day to day they arent that frequent.

 

[Becket]

Well, it's fixed now - though it revealed a shoddy installation job.

I ran completely new RG6 directly from the satellite to the receiver to see what happened - still nothing: no HD locals, no signal on 99b, almost no signal (I discovered) on the 5th sat, either. So, I started looking at the dish itself. The elevation was off by 4 degrees. Fixing that brought in a strong signal on the 5th sat, but still nothing on 99b. So, I tried moving the azimuth (just guessing, since I have no compass or anything), and *poof*, I got a strong signal on 99b, too. So, I put the old cables back in place, and everything works fine.

It's possible that a recent storm changed the dish, but it had loose bolts. Worse (I should take a picture of this), the work attaching the mast assembly to my deck is completely shoddy. One of the three bolts attaching it to the deck is properly flush; a second is drilled in at a jaunty 45 degree angle and not completely screwed in, and a third is not as bad, but not true either. Also, the installer stuffed bark mulch in between the assembly and my deck to stabilize it (that's going to last....).

I can understand if he had problems in the install, but I would have preferred him to tell me (I know, I should have inspected...it never would have occurred to me to look at the bolts attaching it to the deck, and I was on a work call when he had to leave....lesson learned). This same guy didn't bring a drill with him, asked to borrow mine, and then was annoyed when the battery on mine died.

Ah well. At least it's fixed for now and I can pay my electrician (who also handles satellite TV) to do a proper job.

 

[plnoldrick]

Well, it's fixed now - though it revealed a shoddy installation job.

I ran completely new RG6 directly from the satellite to the receiver to see what happened - still nothing: no HD locals, no signal on 99b, almost no signal (I discovered) on the 5th sat, either. So, I started looking at the dish itself. The elevation was off by 4 degrees. Fixing that brought in a strong signal on the 5th sat, but still nothing on 99b. So, I tried moving the azimuth (just guessing, since I have no compass or anything), and *poof*, I got a strong signal on 99b, too. So, I put the old cables back in place, and everything works fine.

It's possible that a recent storm changed the dish, but it had loose bolts. Worse (I should take a picture of this), the work attaching the mast assembly to my deck is completely shoddy. One of the three bolts attaching it to the deck is properly flush; a second is drilled in at a jaunty 45 degree angle and not completely screwed in, and a third is not as bad, but not true either. Also, the installer stuffed bark mulch in between the assembly and my deck to stabilize it (that's going to last....).

I can understand if he had problems in the install, but I would have preferred him to tell me (I know, I should have inspected...it never would have occurred to me to look at the bolts attaching it to the deck, and I was on a work call when he had to leave....lesson learned). This same guy didn't bring a drill with him, asked to borrow mine, and then was annoyed when the battery on mine died.

Ah well. At least it's fixed for now and I can pay my electrician (who also handles satellite TV) to do a proper job.

thats bizzare it wasnt effecting anything else besides hd locals. deffinatly not my first guess thats for sure.

 

[cableman2]

the installer might not of dithered the dish correctly.....i am a qc field manger and see this all the time and this will cause issues like he is experiencing