HR21-700 Signal Strength Readings

[egnlsn]

When I look at the signal strength on my HR21-700, rather than showing satellites 101, 110, 119, 99, 103(a) & 103(b), it shows 101, 110, 119, 99(s), 103(s), & 103(c). I also see 0s on a few transponders where I expect to see higher numbers. Both tuners indicate the same.

Occasionally, I get pixelization (mainly on HD locals) to the extent that it is unwatchable. When that occurs, it is not all local channels, but just one that is affected, and it is not always the same one.

Any thoughts? I have been wondering about my DVR. There is no multiswitch involved, and my other receivers seem to be fine.

 

[Jimbo]

When I look at the signal strength on my HR21-700, rather than showing satellites 101, 110, 119, 99, 103(a) & 103(b), it shows 101, 110, 119, 99(s), 103(s), & 103(c). I also see 0s on a few transponders where I expect to see higher numbers. Both tuners indicate the same.

Occasionally, I get pixelization (mainly on HD locals) to the extent that it is unwatchable. When that occurs, it is not all local channels, but just one that is affected, and it is not always the same one.

Any thoughts? I have been wondering about my DVR. There is no multiswitch involved, and my other receivers seem to be fine.

As for the A, B vs the S and C, nothing to worry about.

Seeing 0's on your transponders also is normally not a problem, unless it's on all of them.
Whats happening is that they are only using certian transponders and your area is not going to get all of them, maybe only a few, depending where your located and the DMA's spot beam.

You mentioned "Other" rec's, are they HD as well or SD, if SD , you probably would not see the same problems, if it IS HD and one does not do it while one does, then you need to check connections and cable on the bad run, possibly a barrel or a connector, maybe a BBC , lots of options till you start to break it down.

You could move your HD rec (bad one) to the other location, see if your problem still exists or not.
Thats a start.

Also, the locals you mentioned, are they coming to you thru D*, or with an OTA antenna ?

Jimbo

 

[egnlsn]

Thanks for the response!

Locals are via D*

I expect to see 0s on transponders 4, 12, 18, 20, &, 28 of 101. Always have on my D11 as well as every other SD receiver I have ever seen around here. On my HR21-700, 0s are indicated on several other transponders as well. I thought that when doing a signal strength reading, the transponders are scanned once and the level (well, number anyway) was displayed until a scan was initiated again. In other words, when a signal strength measurement is done and the resultant reading for a given transponder is 96, 96 would be displayed for that transponder until either exiting out of that function, going to the other tuner, going to another bird, or just initiating a new scan. The SD receivers (D10, 11, & 12) scan once and display the resultant levels even if the input is completely disconnected (after a scan is complete). My H21 behaves the same.

After doing a scan on my HR21-700, though, in addition to seeing more 0s than my other receivers (D11 & H21), I can watch as some transponders change from 90s to 0. Not while doing the scan, but some time after the scan is complete. Perhaps the HR21-700 does a continual scan, though. Even if it does, I would expect slight fluctuation but not from 96 to 0, and then 10 seconds later another transponder that has been 0 (other than 4, 12, 18, 20, &, 28) suddenly be 100.

All barrels are 3GHz and all fittings are compression.

I have swapped around BBCs and cables with no change. Could there be too strong of a signal or the HR21-700 is rather sensitive?

As for the A, B vs the S and C, nothing to worry about.

Seeing 0's on your transponders also is normally not a problem, unless it's on all of them.
Whats happening is that they are only using certian transponders and your area is not going to get all of them, maybe only a few, depending where your located and the DMA's spot beam.

You mentioned "Other" rec's, are they HD as well or SD, if SD , you probably would not see the same problems, if it IS HD and one does not do it while one does, then you need to check connections and cable on the bad run, possibly a barrel or a connector, maybe a BBC , lots of options till you start to break it down.

You could move your HD rec (bad one) to the other location, see if your problem still exists or not.
Thats a start.

Also, the locals you mentioned, are they coming to you thru D*, or with an OTA antenna ?

Jimbo

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks for the response!

Locals are via D*

I expect to see 0s on transponders 4, 12, 18, 20, &, 28 of 101. Always have on my D11 as well as every other SD receiver I have ever seen around here. On my HR21-700, 0s are indicated on several other transponders as well. I thought that when doing a signal strength reading, the transponders are scanned once and the level (well, number anyway) was displayed until a scan was initiated again. In other words, when a signal strength measurement is done and the resultant reading for a given transponder is 96, 96 would be displayed for that transponder until either exiting out of that function, going to the other tuner, going to another bird, or just initiating a new scan. The SD receivers (D10, 11, & 12) scan once and display the resultant levels even if the input is completely disconnected (after a scan is complete). My H21 behaves the same.

After doing a scan on my HR21-700, though, in addition to seeing more 0s than my other receivers (D11 & H21), I can watch as some transponders change from 90s to 0. Not while doing the scan, but some time after the scan is complete. Perhaps the HR21-700 does a continual scan, though. Even if it does, I would expect slight fluctuation but not from 96 to 0, and then 10 seconds later another transponder that has been 0 (other than 4, 12, 18, 20, &, 28) suddenly be 100.

All barrels are 3GHz and all fittings are compression.

I have swapped around BBCs and cables with no change. Could there be too strong of a signal or the HR21-700 is rather sensitive?

It would not be a situation of being too strong ...
The changing from 90's to 0 is a problem that you need to have checked out.

If you have them out, make sure they check the LNB set up as well, seems you've changed everything else already.

Did you say you swapped a HD rec with a different location , did it do the same thing at the other location ?

IF you moved the rec in question, to another location and it still does the same thing, it's either the rec. or the lnb set up, remember your other rec's are not looking at the same sats if they are not mpeg 4.

Jimbo

 

[egnlsn]

That is my next step.

Did you say you swapped a HD rec with a different location , did it do the same thing at the other location ?

IF you moved the rec in question, to another location and it still does the same thing, it's either the rec. or the lnb set up, remember your other rec's are not looking at the same sats if they are not mpeg 4.

Jimbo

 

[egnlsn]

Now I suspect that there may be 2 issues. I moved my (known good) H21 to the living room where my HR21-700 is. None of the signal strength anomalies I saw with the HR21-700 were present. To me, that makes the HR21-700 more suspect.

The other issue is a signal strength reading on 119 of ~50 on all transponders that have signal strength other than 0. I read that on both HD receivers. The HR21-700, of course, indicates some transponders that go from 0-~50 (or vice versa) in the blink of an eye.

According to my Bird Dog, 101 is at 190 on the signal and 92 on the quality. 119 is at 184/72-78.

Service was professionally installed in 11/07, with us upgrading to the DVR last month. Perhaps misalignment has happened since install (when it was installed, I looked at it and both were 195-200+ and mid-90s on the quality), and while the H21 had no issues with the degradation of signal, a flaky H21-700 can't quite handle it.

Is that plausible? I can do the alignment; I just have a few days that I can return the DVR to Best Buy, though.