New Problems with DIRECTV

[scots]

OK...so I posted not too long ago about service going out every time it rains. Haven't had any problems with that lately that I'm aware of and things have been working really well, but now we have something new going on. Not sure exactly when it started happening. We were out of town, came back late Friday evening, and first started noticing the new issue Sunday evening. We have the HR34 Home Media Center in the living room, and two H25 HD receivers (one in each bedroom).

We're having random issues with picture and sound freezing up/going out. Each time it happens it lasts for about 1 or 2 seconds, but it happens over and over and over...like we'll hear every other word when people are talking. Sometimes the picture will freeze at the same time, sometimes it won't and it's just the sound. Sometimes the picture just freezes then starts back up, sometimes it goes to a black screen and comes right back. I haven't noticed any pixellation...just the freezing/going out. One thing I've noticed is that it doesn't occur on all the TVs at the same time.

Sunday evening we were watching TV in the living room and everything was fine. Turned off everything in the living room, went upstairs to go to bed, turned on the TV up there, and the freezing/going out was happening there in the master bedroom on the same channel we were watching downstairs. Went to the other bedroom, turned on the other TV, put it on the same channel, and it was working with no problems while the master bedroom was still freezing/going out. Turned on the TV in the living room just a few minutes ago and it's freezing/going out. Went upstairs and both bedrooms are working with no problems on the same channel as the living room. The freezing/going out also occurs while watching recordings, and the same thing happens with recordings. Whatever receiver is affected with the freezing/going out on live TV has freezing/going out on recordings, but we can go to another room and watch the recording with no issues.

I've tried doing resets on the affected receiver while this is going on (using the menu, pressing the red reset button, and by disconnecting power), and the resets never seem to help. I've gone into diagnostics on the HR34 when the problem is occurring and run the various diagnostics and everything checked out OK. Found information somewhere about clearing the NVRAM on the HR34, did that while the problem was occurring, and that didn't help. When it's occurring it does it on all channels (HD, non-HD, local) and (as already mentioned) on all recordings. I haven't seen it happen on more than one receiver at a time. It'll go on for quite a while, and then for no apparent reason it goes away and everything starts working great.

Any suggestions for anything else I can check before I contact DIRECTV? If they send someone out here it probably won't be going on when they get here, and they'll probably say they couldn't find anything wrong.

One more thing...also have the AM21 off air tuner connected to the HR34. Just checked and the freezing/going out is also occurring on OTA channels that are coming in through the AM21.

 

[OSD771]

Is it on live tv? Or recordings only? It could be a bad connection somewhere, check all connections, especially the ones outside.

 

[raoul5788]

Just a guess, but I suspect the lnb is starting to go.

 

[scots]

OSD771 - It's on both live TV and recordings. The issue jumps around between the receivers and I haven't seen it occur on more than one receiver at a time. We can have it occurring on the H25 receiver in one of the bedrooms, but the other H25 in the other bedroom and the HR34 in the living room are fine. Or right now the HR34 in the living room is experiencing the issue, but the H25 receivers in both bedrooms are working fine for both live TV and recordings. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to when it occurs, which receiver it occurs on, or how long it lasts. I'll go around and check the connections.

raoul5788 - The LNB is starting to go? After only one month? We just had it installed exactly one month ago.

 

[raoul5788]

Intermittent issues are difficult to track down. Like I said, just a guess.

 

[Hutch1814]

Where are you located? If you're in this heat wave that could be an issue. As the temps move up and down it effects the way signal is being ran through the coax. Seems dumb but for every 10 degrees you lose a certain amount of db's which in turn could cause what you're describing. Might not be an issue other then the fact hell decided to take a vacation I'm the U.S. this year

 

[scots]

I'm in Raleigh, North Carolina. I think it got up to 101 degrees here today. If it was the heat, wouldn't that affect all the receivers? It occurs on one receiver at a time, and there's no rhyme or reason (that I can tell) which receiver it will occur on at any given time. Whichever one it's occurring on at the time, the other two receivers are fine and have no problems. It's like a ghost that jumps from receiver to receiver. And when it was happening on the H25 in the master bedroom Sunday night it was after midnight and maybe in the mid-80's if even that hot.

 

[Hutch1814]

I'm in Raleigh, North Carolina. I think it got up to 101 degrees here today. If it was the heat, wouldn't that affect all the receivers? It occurs on one receiver at a time, and there's no rhyme or reason (that I can tell) which receiver it will occur on at any given time. Whichever one it's occurring on at the time, the other two receivers are fine and have no problems. It's like a ghost that jumps from receiver to receiver. And when it was happening on the H25 in the master bedroom Sunday night it was after midnight and maybe in the mid-80's if even that hot.

That's what heat does, makes it all so random. Right now central Indiana is battling pixelating/freeze frame due to the heat. Mine just will randomly drop out then pick back up but everything is perfect. I would say it COULD be the heat but I wouldn't stop there, it could be simple as maybe the power inserter is weak or plugged in to a power strip (sometimes they work flawless and sometimes they don't)

 

[scots]

UGH. Whatever it is, I don't like it. I've had pretty much every provider - Dish, Time Warner, AT&T U-verse, and now DIRECTV. This is first time with DIRECTV. I've never had this many problems with any provider before.

 

[scots]

I dunno if it's the temperature or not. It's only 88 degrees now, and it's worse than it was earlier.

 

[Hutch1814]

I dunno if it's the temperature or not. It's only 88 degrees now, and it's worse than it was earlier.

Thats why I said I wouldn't stop there. It could be a number if things, glitches happen quite often but it sounds like its more than that that you're seeing

 

[scots]

It's horrible now. It's just about to the point where we can't watch the HR34 at all. Both the H25's upstairs are working flawlessly. Live TV on both the H25's is fine, and both of them can play recordings from the HR34 with no problem. The HR34 is about to make our brains stutter.

 

[scots]

Hmmmmmmmmm...so...riddle me this, Batman...

We have some storms rolling through and the power went out and back on several times fairly quickly. This didn't really affect the HR34 because it's plugged into a bigass battery backup. All my internet and network equipment is also plugged into a bigass battery backup (different ones)...however, something about the storm knocked out the Time Warner internet for the neighborhood for about 20 or so minutes. From the instant the internet went out the HR34 started working flawlessly. I went around and checked the two H25's, and they were working fine also. They installed one of those Cinema Connection Kit things that connects everything to the internet. Is there any chance that thing is causing some sort of weirdness with things?? Just seems odd that everything started working fine the instant the internet went out. Internet is back up and things are still working fine, but if the problems start up again I'm going to disconnect the Cinema Connection Kit from the network and see what happens.

 

[raoul5788]

You may be on to something here! Is the TW line properly grounded?

 

[scots]

All the Time Warner stuff is fairly new, so as far as I know it is. I had trouble with Time Warner 5 or 6 years ago, and they came out and eventually replaced EVERYTHING. Replaced the cable modem first, then all the inside wiring (had them for TV at the time also), then the line from the pole to the house, and then finally they figured out (after I had told them about 500 times from the first call and told them every time that the neighbors were going out at the exact same time as me) that the main line into the neighborhood was f-ed up and they replaced that.

Internet's been back up for almost 2 hours now, and everything is still working fine on the DIRECTV side.

 

[raoul5788]

So far, so good! (fingers crossed)

 

[tigerfan33]

I had the same problem with one of my HR24 last year.
My coax to the receiver was loose.

 

[raoul5788]

I had the same problem with one of my HR24 last year.
My coax to the receiver was loose.

Heat, or lack of it, certainly can affect how tight a connection is.

 

[Joe Diamond]

Like Chips says, since the problem seems to wander around...the common source is the LNB and the line feeding the splitter.

Could be worse..........on my sets the picture and sound are fine but on the news and political channels all I get is lies and half truths. No amount of tuning can remove the BS.

Joe

 

[cjwct]

OK...so I posted not too long ago about service going out every time it rains. Haven't had any problems with that lately that I'm aware of and things have been working really well, but now we have something new going on. Not sure exactly when it started happening. We were out of town, came back late Friday evening, and first started noticing the new issue Sunday evening. We have the HR34 Home Media Center in the living room, and two H25 HD receivers (one in each bedroom).

We're having random issues with picture and sound freezing up/going out. Each time it happens it lasts for about 1 or 2 seconds, but it happens over and over and over...like we'll hear every other word when people are talking. Sometimes the picture will freeze at the same time, sometimes it won't and it's just the sound. Sometimes the picture just freezes then starts back up, sometimes it goes to a black screen and comes right back. I haven't noticed any pixellation...just the freezing/going out. One thing I've noticed is that it doesn't occur on all the TVs at the same time.

Sunday evening we were watching TV in the living room and everything was fine. Turned off everything in the living room, went upstairs to go to bed, turned on the TV up there, and the freezing/going out was happening there in the master bedroom on the same channel we were watching downstairs. Went to the other bedroom, turned on the other TV, put it on the same channel, and it was working with no problems while the master bedroom was still freezing/going out. Turned on the TV in the living room just a few minutes ago and it's freezing/going out. Went upstairs and both bedrooms are working with no problems on the same channel as the living room. The freezing/going out also occurs while watching recordings, and the same thing happens with recordings. Whatever receiver is affected with the freezing/going out on live TV has freezing/going out on recordings, but we can go to another room and watch the recording with no issues.

I've tried doing resets on the affected receiver while this is going on (using the menu, pressing the red reset button, and by disconnecting power), and the resets never seem to help. I've gone into diagnostics on the HR34 when the problem is occurring and run the various diagnostics and everything checked out OK. Found information somewhere about clearing the NVRAM on the HR34, did that while the problem was occurring, and that didn't help. When it's occurring it does it on all channels (HD, non-HD, local) and (as already mentioned) on all recordings. I haven't seen it happen on more than one receiver at a time. It'll go on for quite a while, and then for no apparent reason it goes away and everything starts working great.

Any suggestions for anything else I can check before I contact DIRECTV? If they send someone out here it probably won't be going on when they get here, and they'll probably say they couldn't find anything wrong.

One more thing...also have the AM21 off air tuner connected to the HR34. Just checked and the freezing/going out is also occurring on OTA channels that are coming in through the AM21.

Wow someone else is having this problem; great to know. This started for me a week or so ago, and haven't called it in yet. I guess I am hesitant because storms here in CT have caused incredible damage again and I figure I give the service folks a break. It is annoying, but haven't been watching much tv with the beautiful weather lately.