Pciture not formatting correctly

[n33dh3lp]

We have had 5 new boxes in the past 6 weeks from Dish and we're still having the same problem. We have another tech coming out next Monday, but I was hoping to get some input from anyone who may have had this similar problem. Dish seems to be unable to fix the problem:

We recently upgraded our box to a 522 as our old box finally died. Since the upgrade, the picture 'stops' (but not the sound) for a second or two periodically throughout the day when watching any program.

The worst problem we've been having is that after 6:00 p.m. or so, the local broadcast stations are coming out stretched out on the screen. We have 2 televisions. One is a 36" widescreen and the other is just a typical old 4:3 screen. It affects both screens. We've called friends who have DirectTV and Comcast, and we'll all be watching the same show, and they don't have any issues with the picture, just us.

We've been able to show the Dish tech's what the screen looks like when it goes wide, but none seem to have an answer. We're trying to troubleshoot before the 6th receiver box comes with the technician.

One tech mentioned that it appears that the box is trying to function for an HD signal (which we don't have).

Does anyone have any ideas? It appears to only be happening with local Sacramento broadcast stations. Does anyone else have this issue?

It's almost like when you see a movie on t.v. and it says, 'this motion picture has been formatted to fit your screen'; it's not formatting the local broadcast stations correctly. Everyone is wide and fat and any credits are pushed to both the left and right of the screen equally.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. We've done EVERYTHING. New eyes on the dish itself, new wires, new receivers. Nothing has helped. We did not have this issue prior to the upgrade. Oh, and they did try a 625 receiver yesterday, but we had the same issue with it.

Thanks!

 

[Jim5506]

Let me see if I understand. Your SD locals through Dish Network display the picture stretched out when the local station switches to HD.

If this is the case, it may be a problem with the signal the local station is sending to Dish, or a problem with the way dish is converting the signal.

If it is only on locals stations I would way it is not your receiver, but a systemic problem.

Email dishquality@echostar.com

 

[n33dh3lp]

Not always HD programming

Thanks for your response Jim5506. We noticed last night that our public station was even doing it and I don't believe our public television even offers HD programming right now. In addition, we watched Jeopardy this evening, which is in HD, and it came out fine. It seems to not stretch the screen out until at least 8:00 p.m. now. Which is just odd.

We did ask many techncians over at Dish if anyone else was having this problem, but all of them said they didn't know; they don't keep logs of problems so they can't correlate them.

We also don't believe it is the receiver itself, but rather the software or signal; however, getting Dish to do anything about it has been nothing short of exhausting. It seems that if it were the signal the local stations were sending to Dish, they'd have a ton of people calling all of the time about it. But they're obviously not.

If we can't get the problem fixed by Monday (when the 6th Dish tech comes out), we'll just end up switching to DirectTV.

Thanks again!

 

[oldford]

That type of problem with local channels is almost always as a result of the signal that the local channel is sending to Dish to be up linked. Complain to the local channel engineers as well as the Dishquality address.

Good Luck, Eric

 

[tempVAdish]

sounds like to me you have the tv set for 16x9 instead of 4x3, i know the 625 isn't HD, and i don't believe the 522 is either, so it should only have one output mode, 4x3...

 

[n33dh3lp]

Picture formatting

Our set up for the screen is fine. Believe me, we've been through this with Dish several times. We're very aware of how our picture should be. It doesn't matter where it is set. Like I mentioned in other posts; the 2nd t.v. is a regular 4:3 screen t.v. and the picture formatting problem is the same on that television.

It's an obvious software problem with Dish Network, but trying to get any 'tech' over there to troubleshoot it is like running into a wall several times, head on.

 

[n33dh3lp]

Just an update on our progress (or lack of) on our signal. A service tech manager came out today and was stumped by what he saw. He saw first hand what we see and has no idea what could be causing it, other than the signals that the local broadcasters are sending are not right. However, we let him know that our friends with DirectTV and Comcast do not have this problem with their picture. It's an obvious issue with Dish and the local broadcasting. But all he could tell us was to go with DirectTV is that is what we have to do.

At least we can get out of our contract without any penalties.

 

[tempVAdish]

can you post pics of when you're not having trouble and when you are? the 625 cannot output a 16x9 pix that i know of & it's weird that it's stretching @ a certain time????