Signal degradation for past month, but only on 1 tv??? HELP!!

[BrianEK]

I apologize for the long explanation... but i've had a long drawn out problem.

I have a 811 hd receiver in my living room and a dvr 510 in the bedroom. for the past month or so (since dec. 9th) my living room signal has been breaking up horribly where i see digitizing and audio stuttering. Sometimes it cuts out all together and stays on the "aquiring satellite signal" screen and doesn't change. this whole time i have tested my signal strength from my dish and it's all 90% on some transponders and over 100% on others. My bedroom tv has worked perfectally this whole time so i know it is not the dish. I also switched the boxes in the rooms and the signal problems stayed in the living room. I've had 3 service calls already. the first time guy replaced part of my cable cause he said there was moisture on the ends. worked for about 20 mins. after guy left then same problem occured so made another service call. 2nd guy said the 1st guy bent cable too much so replaced cable piece of cable again. worked for about 3 hours then back to signal degradation. got so bad my reciever would only give me local channels. wouldn't even switch to anything above channel 64. last guy came out but it was snowing so he couldn't go on roof (first 2 guys didn't go on roof cause they didn't bring ladder they were supposed to bring) but he did put a meter on my cable going to reciever and said it seemed weak. about a day later i got some signal breakup but not as bad as before but i made one last service call. guy's supposed to come tomorrow but now the kicker is everything has been working perfectly for the past week or 2. I don't know what the heck is going on and why it doesn't work for a month straight, then all the sudden works perfectly. I don't know what to do now cause the guy is coming out tomorrow but everything is working ok. so i don't know what i should tell him to do. I thought at first i needed the whole stinking cable from dish to receiver replaced since signal was only bad in one room. but maybe i'm wrong since it's working perfect now. Has anyone had something similar happen that could help me out?? Is there something else it could be, like the switch or something? FYI i have both the regular dish and the 61.5 pointing dish for CBS-HD if that helps at all. I just know my luck as soon as service guy leaves it'll start acting up again. thanks

 

[moccasin]

pixels, losing channels, reception

have your service person check that your dish base installation is solid and does not move around. also have him check that the hub where the dish is articulated is solid and especially the top screw that sits on the pipe end of the base is tightened up just right so that the hub does not move around. the dish MUST be a solid installation or you will get problems like you have described. i have seen many many installs that are simply poorly done in terms of optimizing the dish. i think that installers are often quick to align the dish well but not perfect. i am a firm believer that in acquiring a satellite... the dish must be pointed in such a way where the absolute peak of the satfinder signal is found. then, it must be solidly installed right on that peak. it is not as easy as it sounds but with care in this area you should have a maintenance free system.

initially i was concerned with the quality of your lines to that tv, however my experience is that the dish itself is probably the culprit. i shouldnt tell you this because many 'experts' will say oh puleeze, but i am often able to peak a dish and pin the potentimeter at the top of the scale. (and no i dont cheat by changing it to transponder 5). anyways... i am assuming no trees waving around out there and my bet is that you have simply gone through a bunch of installers that are in a hurry and dont recognize the importance of optimizing a dish completely.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Moccasin: Welcome aboard!

I've looked at your other posts, and you've made a nice start helping out!

It seems like you do have a nice bit of experience, but I must disagree here. He's got solid numbers, and one room working A-OK. Swapped the receivers and the problem stayed in the first room. Sure sounds like a cable or switch issue to me. Of course, the OP hasn't given us his configuration, so we can't help much more.