Satellite Reception Issue
- Thread starter kruss77
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 39
- Views 5K
- Status
OK, I know that there are markings on the multiswitch indicating which port gets the 13VDC and 18VDC inputs respectively. But the instructions on the new switch said "connect the 4 lines from the LNB to any of these ports". Now, I connected them in the same order they were on the old switch, but I don't recall how I knew which lead came from which port on the LNB when I installed the original switch. Does it matter? Am I over-complicating this?
I just replaced the original LNB with a brand new one with no change in performance (the same channels are still out).
Ken
Yes, you are. The markings on the multiswitch indicate what control voltage is being put out of that connector. They "lock" the output of the LNB's built-in multiswitch to that particular signal. 13VDC equals the odd transponders on the 101, 18VDC equals the even transponders on the 101. 13VDC with a 22 kHz tone equals the odd transponders of the 119 and 18VDC equals the even transponders on the 110 and 119. I'm not sure of where the signals from the 99 or the 103 sats fit into all this.
reception issues
I don't know about you, but I have had Directv service people out twice and still have no reception. I will have reception for a few hours and then it will tell me searching for satellite in 1 and 2. I have DVR's in two rooms and they are both doing this. I am at my wits end. If they don't fix it this time I am switching to Dish Network. I have had no Satellite service for almost 2 weeks. Can anyone shed some light as to what would cause this. It can be good weather or bad. Like I said I will have service in the morning and nothing that afternoon. The second service person changed out a "switch" in my attic. No one has even looked at the satellite itself. Could it be something with it?
Any help would be appreciated.
I don't know about you, but I have had Directv service people out twice and still have no reception. I will have reception for a few hours and then it will tell me searching for satellite in 1 and 2. I have DVR's in two rooms and they are both doing this. I am at my wits end. If they don't fix it this time I am switching to Dish Network. I have had no Satellite service for almost 2 weeks. Can anyone shed some light as to what would cause this. It can be good weather or bad. Like I said I will have service in the morning and nothing that afternoon. The second service person changed out a "switch" in my attic. No one has even looked at the satellite itself. Could it be something with it?
Any help would be appreciated.
sounds like water in the lnb. in the morning, it's settled in the bottom out of harms way. as the day heats up, the moisture evaporates and rises into parts that cause shorts and knock out your service until it cools and drops back down in the evening.
I did just start having trouble with one of my DVR's (to the point where I finally had to shut it down until I can get back to it and figure out what's wrong -it kept hanging up). However, I'm still having the same reception problem on the other two receivers. I'll try and determine if it's one of the other two DVR's this weekend by shutting down (and unplugging) all but one of them at a time to see if I can narrow it down to a receiver problem on one of the receivers.
DUMB QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is there any other way of determining that a receiver is backfeeding into the switch (say, with a multi-meter)?
Thanks.
Ken
p.s.: This problem started out of the blue after two years of uninterrupted viewing. I, too, am stumped as to how this could have happened to me.
I would agree with toober, but today I have no reception again. I had no reception last night or this morning. What is the LNB and could it be bad? Sorry guys, I am a woman with a problem and I really need answers. I am tired of having Directv send out "kids" to fix it. They are supposed to send out a Sr. Tech tomorrow, if he doesn't fix it, Dish Network here I come.
I don't think it's my LNB because I swapped-out the old one with a brand new one over a month ago with no improvement at all. I also inspected the old LNB prior to removing it and observed no condesation of any sort inside it at the time of removal. I inspected it again last night (it's been sitting on the workbench in the garage for almost a month now) and again observed no moisture or condensation of any sort inside the LNB protectors. I even replaced my Eagle-Aspen 5x8 multiswitch with a 6x8 Zinwell WB68 with no improvement.
All of this has got me thinking it's got to be something either with the dish (aim?) or something to do with the cabling. First, I'll be re-aming the dish this weekend. Then pending that, I'll be shutting down all but one receiver at a time to eliminate a potential backfeed issue (as TOOBER suggested). Then, pending that, I'll be bypassing the switch to see if that helps. If none of those solve the problem, I'll be getting out my hammer, flat head screwdriver and channel locks -you can fix anything with those tools (especially the hammer)!
Ken
First of all, you need to trace all of the coax back from the receiver to the ground block/multiswitch and from there back to the LNB. Physically look at the cable for damage, and look at the center conductor on all of the connections. It is possible that some water got in the line and corroded out the center conductor. You also need to check the ports on the ground block and switch for indications of corrosion
If the cable is fine, here is what you need to do to check the back feeding. Go to system setup - satellite - signal strength. You will see the signal meter on the bottom, and on the right you will see what sat you are on and what transponder. Trace the cable from the faulty receiver back to the ground block/switch. Unscrew the cable. and select VDC on your meter. You will be dealing with either 13 or 18 VDC, so select the appropriate range. Place the negative probe on the outside connector, and the positive probe on the center conductor (DO NOT SHORT ACROSS WITH EITHER PROBE). If your receiver is on an odd number transponder, you should see 13 VDC +/- 0.5 VDC. If it is on an even transponder, it should read 18 VDC +/- 0.5 VDC. Repeat this procedure for multiple transponders on all sats.
It the voltages are fine, you may want to try and disconnect the green ground wire from the ground block/switch and see if your problem continues.
OK, after having been away for a while attending to other things, I’m finally back onto this problem.
I have checked out all of those things recommended above and everything checks out. I’ve even checked the dish aim (several times) and replaced all of the feed cables with brand new HDTV satellite grade shielded cable. Nothing!
Alternatively, my wife discovered (by accident) that if a channel comes in fine on one tuner it doesn’t on the other (within the same DVR). WTF? We confirmed this on all three of our DVR’s.
So, what does this mean? I know I’m not the first guy to have experienced this and I know somebody out there knows what this means.
I have checked out all of those things recommended above and everything checks out. I’ve even checked the dish aim (several times) and replaced all of the feed cables with brand new HDTV satellite grade shielded cable. Nothing!
Alternatively, my wife discovered (by accident) that if a channel comes in fine on one tuner it doesn’t on the other (within the same DVR). WTF? We confirmed this on all three of our DVR’s.
So, what does this mean? I know I’m not the first guy to have experienced this and I know somebody out there knows what this means.
Did you replace the cables from the lnb to your switch or did you completely replace all your coax runs throughout your house?
The only time I've ever seen this specific thing happen is when there was a tear/kink/splice in one of the coax cables runs. If one receiver was tuned to one of the Mpeg-2 channels, it would knock out all Mpeg-2 channels on every other receiver. I was able to isolate the cable because once winter set in the faulty cable completely failed & I replaced the complete run. I also learned never to attempt an outside splice to save a few bucks on cable.
I would hook up two temporary cable runs from your switch (disconnect everything else) & hook those cables up to one receiver/tv & see what you get. If available, it might be easier to bring a small TV & receiver to your switch & run your test there.
I finally got around to running two dedicated lines from the switch to one of the DVRs. No improvement. So I bypassed the switch altogether and went directly from the LNB to one of the DVRs. No improvement. I then went back to the dish and re-aimed the dish for the umpteenth time. No improvement. I can't seem to resolve the problem of TUNER 1 getting a great signal but TUNER 2 has intermittent signal loss to the point where it's essentially unwatchable. I must say I'm at the point where I want to take a hammer to the whole damn thing.
Anyone got a satellite repair hammer I can borrow?
Attached is a matrix showing the current transponder strength.
Anyone got a satellite repair hammer I can borrow?
Attached is a matrix showing the current transponder strength.
Ah, it's a tuner 2 problem. What outputs are you using from the unit to the TV? There's a known problem with some Hughes DVRs where the composite outputs interfere with Tuner 2. Try a different set ot outputs.
I'm using the RCA outputs on all three DVR's. But this has always been the case, even before this problem first occurred. Will try using a coax (75ohm) cable on one of the TV's this weekend and see what happens.
From time to time, there is a bit of discussion on this problem (tuner 2), with resulting pixellation and signal strength issues, on tivocommunity. Since this is my first post here, the forum won't let me include any links but if you do a google search on "tivocommunity 333631" it will bring you to useful thread that covers how the dvr outputs interact with tuner 2 and other related issues.
We've had the tuner 2 problem on a couple of our DTivo DVRs resolved by CCS Corp.
We've had the tuner 2 problem on a couple of our DTivo DVRs resolved by CCS Corp.
My thanks to both SATCHAT and JDSPENCER for the above information. This was indeed the EXACT problem I was having with all three of my HUGHES HDVR2 DVRs. This is a known problem with this particular make and model of DVR and it is only a matter of time before it happens to ALL HDRV2’s (I’m told). The problem typically starts with some amount of signal loss (pixilation) on TUNER 2, affecting only certain channels. Over time, the signal loss worsens to the point where most channels on TUNER 2 are unwatchable. If enough time goes by, TUNER 1 will start experiencing similar problems. In my case, only 1 of my 3 DVR’s experienced the signal loss problem on TUNER 1 (where a dozen or so channels on TUNER 1 were unwatchable). On the other two DVR’s, TUNER 1 was fine, but TUNER 2 eventually became almost completely unwatchable.
The reason for the unpredictable and inconsistent nature of this failure from DVR to DVR is that electronic parts rarely fail the same way and at the same time every time. Even thought these parts are known to fail over time, there are many things that impact the failure that have a lot to do with the operating environment of the machine. According to CCS, it’s impossible to predict when each tuner will fail. However, with the HDV2 model, it is almost a certainty that a failure will occur (in their experience) over time. One interesting thing about my situation is that all three of my machines started to fail at roughly the same time 2 years ago, even though I bought them all separately and at different times.
I’ve already sent 2 of my 3 DVRs to CCS in Indiana for repair and both came back perfect! Upon inspection, I noticed that both machines received the exact same repair (both received the same replacement parts on the tuner boards -as one would expect). Obviously, once replaced, these parts resolve the problem. Needless to say, I am elated to finally have this problem resolved. It has been a long year and a half of hunting for a solution. In my case, this involved buying/replacing 2 LNB’s, running all new sat cable, many late nights online reading countless forum posts, and a dozen attempts at reaiming my dish. Despite all my frustration (and incurred expense) trying to diagnose this problem, had it not been for this forum, I would have long since thrown away all three of my Hughes DVR’s and now be heavily invested in all new equipment (new dish, HD DVR’s, new HD TV, etc...) which would have cost me a few thousands dollars instead of the $100 per repair that CCS charged me. Needless to say, I’m thrilled to be back up and running again!
Many thanks to everyone who replied with their advice on this problem!
- Status
