So Dish Network cut off my distant networks yesterday. I have had them since 1999. They have provided free locals to me, but my old 2700 receiver can't do the spot beam thing and tune them in. I don't really want to shell out to lease a receiver from Dish (I shouldn't have to, right?). I use the 'ol 2700 with my TiVo. Do you think Dish would replace it for free with no terms?
Lost Distants, Old receiver can't do locals
- Thread starter DBSJedi
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Of course, it would help US if you told us WHAT DMA (local market) you were in... 
The 2700's, as do every single E* receiver made, "DO the spot beam thing".
Is it possible you do NOT have a Dish 500, which is needed for most local markets?
Again, all E* receivers work with the D500's as well.
Or, maybe you have some other problem that actually has NOTHING to do with the receiver.
I find it odd that the ONLY thing wrong with your receiver is that it won't receive the spot beams - have you shut it off lately to take a software update?
More info, please...
The 2700's, as do every single E* receiver made, "DO the spot beam thing".
Is it possible you do NOT have a Dish 500, which is needed for most local markets?
Again, all E* receivers work with the D500's as well.
Or, maybe you have some other problem that actually has NOTHING to do with the receiver.
I find it odd that the ONLY thing wrong with your receiver is that it won't receive the spot beams - have you shut it off lately to take a software update?
More info, please...
I'm in the Lexington DMA
Maybe I just need to shut off the receiver and turn it back on. I have a Dish 500 system pointing to 110 and 119. I think it is the receiver. I'll cycle the power and see what happens. It has been doing this for 4 or 5 weeks now (since locals were turned on for free). Instead of my TiVo trying to tune to the local channels, it is now trying to tune the same channels from the dish and can't. I guess the TiVo is automatically assuming it needs to tune through the dish receiver and forego tuning the local channels OTA through the TiVo's internal tuner? Dish effectively messed up my ability to tune locals.
Maybe I just need to shut off the receiver and turn it back on. I have a Dish 500 system pointing to 110 and 119. I think it is the receiver. I'll cycle the power and see what happens. It has been doing this for 4 or 5 weeks now (since locals were turned on for free). Instead of my TiVo trying to tune to the local channels, it is now trying to tune the same channels from the dish and can't. I guess the TiVo is automatically assuming it needs to tune through the dish receiver and forego tuning the local channels OTA through the TiVo's internal tuner? Dish effectively messed up my ability to tune locals.
have you check between 7000-9399? On some older boxes they are in that area (my old 5000 has them there)
Older boxes dont map them to their OTA channel
Older boxes dont map them to their OTA channel
Power cycling did not work. Do I need to turn the receiver off for a certain amount of time? I notice that the channels are mapped to the local channel number. I know they are suppossed to be as channel 9205 for example. Is there a way for the receiver to not make them the actual local channel representations, but the actual dish channel designations? Maybe this is the problem?
What exactly do you mean by "power cycling" - to download updated software, you need to power it off for at least 15 min. I'd just do it overnight, or for an hour or so while your not viewing/recording.
Why does it matter - if you look again, the locals for your receiver are in BOTH places - either one will tune to locals.
But the 2700/2800's do & have for some time.
If he did, he would be having major problems with the REST of his prog...
HOW have you been getting your Lexington locals before thru your Tivo?
Are you getting them from an antenna or cable feed? Or have you just NOT used them at all, since you had distants from E*? If THIS is the case, Tivo does NOT treat distants as locals & since (obviously) the locals are numbered differently than distants, you need to change your Tivo setup accordingly.
I think your problem is that you need to rerun the setup on your Tivo & you need to tell it to pull your locals from DBS & NOT off-air. Or, something else changed on your Tivo & it's not tuning them in properly via the satellite input. Now that you have lost DNS, this will now be the only way to get the networks via E*.
Tell them you are upset over the Distants situation and you demand a reciever upgrade or you're gone. If they cut me off, unless they upgrade all 3 of my DVRs, they can kiss my $125 a month for the past 8 years buh-bye.
When they put up the free preview of your local channels in Oct., some recievers didn't get the hit (including one of my receivers). Just call dish, and tell them you need to have your 2700 receiver hit again (reauthorized) for your locals. I have heard a few people that had this problem.
Why does it matter - if you look again, the locals for your receiver are in BOTH places - either one will tune to locals.
That's the problem.. my locals suddenly appeared as 18, 27, 36, 46, 56 on the 2700, but the real channel designations in the guide (9205, etc) are not present. So they are NOT both represented. When tuning to these locals (as in the 2700 guide) I get 'waiting for satellite signal' and that times out and I see spotbeam 4 and the error. If I press up enough times to bypass these locals (same error for each local) I will be able to tune all my other Dish channels just fine.
When I setup the TiVo many years ago it was setup as OTA + Satellite. I did this for the RF input on the TiVo to pick up the very few locals the antenna could pick up while Dish serviced distants for everything else.
It's a Dish 500 system (20" dish, twin dual LNBs, two SW-21 switches)
My receiver is confused. Perhaps it didn't get hit right with the update that styxfix mentioned. I don't have a landline at my house.. haven't for years. This update is not over archaic telephone lines, right? I'm pretty sure these type of updates come down the dish.
I'll turn it off all night and fire it up in the morning and see what happens.
I do have a Dishplayer 7100 as well and that can tune the locals with the Dish-designated channel numbers (9205 and up). It doesn't list the local channel designations (18, 27 etc). I am just perplexed with the 2700. TiVo is quite pissed about it. Instead of it tuning in the RF channels it is trying to use the Dish and I made absolutely ZERO changes with either the receiver or the TiVo. I'm convinced Dish Network caused this behavior somehow by adding in the free locals.
Fact of the matter is that my 2700 alone (without TiVo in the equation) should be able to tune in my free locals and it currently can't.
The 7100 does not map down the local channels, I would check the lines and switch on the 2700, something is obviously not right on that receiver or the line.
What is Dish going to do that would cause your tivo to try to use Dish instead of the antenna? You need to go into channel setup and make sure that the channels you want tuned using the antenna only have the ANT version checked. If you have the SAT version and the ANT version checked the tivo will only use the satellite version.
I now understand what you are saying now with the "real" local channel numbers...
And no, NOT having a phone connected isn't causing this problem.
The fact that the "real" (read: 4-digit) channels are NOT present in your 2700 receiver tells me that then something HAS happened with it. The other stuff you mentioned would concern me as well. Assuming even there is a problem with the dish itself, this would NOT affect those real channels NOT appearing in the guide, as they are authorized on the same data stream with the mapped ones.
Let us know tomorrow if turning off the box fixed things.
And (unfortunately) it would NOT be unheard of for your receiver to have just gotten a touch of "weirdness" - I had a customer's 5000 receiver recently work for the most part, but on a few of the national channels, they kept getting an error reading. When you went to the signal screen, several x-ponder readings on the receiver, that were supposed to have signals, were DEAD. (of course, I brought it back to my place on my working system, where it did the same, exact thing) Evidently, something weird just happened with this receiver that caused it to not recognize certain x-ponders.
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Sorry for the really late reply (the holidays and all)
I did power it off for an evening, but it didn't help. I will call their customer service and ask them to hit it up with their zap again and see if that knocks some sense in it. I will only have til the end of the month to enjoy the free locals anyway.
I can actually get my locals OTA now that they have switched to DTV/HD transmissions. I have a wireloop antenna I built in my computer room (for VHF channel #4) that picks up the locals (even UHF, cept the CW), but I have a project in mind to move it and add a dedicated UHF antenna with a Channel Master 7777 pre-amp in the attic this winter. I believe with the 7777 I can combine both antennas for the best of both worlds (VHF and UHF) and maybe pick up some distant locals (not NY and LA)
I did power it off for an evening, but it didn't help. I will call their customer service and ask them to hit it up with their zap again and see if that knocks some sense in it. I will only have til the end of the month to enjoy the free locals anyway.
I can actually get my locals OTA now that they have switched to DTV/HD transmissions. I have a wireloop antenna I built in my computer room (for VHF channel #4) that picks up the locals (even UHF, cept the CW), but I have a project in mind to move it and add a dedicated UHF antenna with a Channel Master 7777 pre-amp in the attic this winter. I believe with the 7777 I can combine both antennas for the best of both worlds (VHF and UHF) and maybe pick up some distant locals (not NY and LA)
I have a similar but different problem - - I now receive locals for the first time in a long, long time but the quality of the locals are no where near everything else. Might this change and get better over time? My locals are coming out of Butte and Bozeman, Montana. Thanks !!
