Storms and OTA

[JEFFinINDY]

For about the third time in the last few weeks, big storms that interrupt the satellite are also killing my OTA. The 622 goes into "acquiring signal" mode, and when I tune to an OTA channel I'll get audio from the OTA channel but the screen will still read "Acquiring satellite signal."

Very annoying. It must be a bug in the 622... but it's the kind of bug that makes you miss cable a lot.

 

[boba]

Get an OTA converter box ot if your TV has ATSC tuner built in connect to TV.

 

[johnpas73]

Jeff, im having the same exact problem as you because of that storm that rolled through today. I just did a restart on the box, and that seemed to fix it. This is not the first time this has happened, either. Very very annoying

 

[JEFFinINDY]

I rebooted too, but that took 15 minutes. I think I'll get a splitter and plug in to the TV's ATSC. Dunno why I didn't think of that sooner...

 

[bigrich]

The same conditions that effect Dish during a storm can also effect HDTV or DTV OTA. Sometimes you just have to wait it out. I usually go with 3 options: Dish First, QAM HDTV Channels from Comcast, and finally OTA HD. Sometimes Comcast's headend will have the same problems receiving HD during a storm.

 

[tempVAdish]

The same thing has been happening to mine as well. It will actually work the opposite way too. Last week we had a lot of ducting going on in the atmosphere (no rain or storms) & my OTA would go out due to co-channel interference. if the OTA went out and I switched to satellite, it would have the "signal lost" screen showing the Loc & Tansponder #, but the audio from the channel would be there, but if I hit recall to go back to OTA, it would show the correct OTA channel in the banner, have the signal lost pop up (indicating loss of OTA), but still have the audio from the last satellite channel I left from... I still have L449 software, so it's not due to the updates...

 

[Building]

Not sure I'm totally following you, but I think I am. Alot of times bad weather will take out the satellite signal, and you get searching for satellite message. I usually watch my OTA in that situation. Press menu on the remote, then go to program guide, then punch in the channel you want to watch. I can usually still get my OTA signal during bad weather.

 

[jynxsee]

I found a way around this awhile ago during a storm that caused rain fade, works fine on 211's at least. Go into the menu, then the program guide, scroll to your OTA channels and voila.

 

[FitzAusTex]

Yeah, selecting the channel by going Menu -> Guide ->channel number normally works for me when I lose the sats due to weather. Caveat that I noticed is that if i have a power failure during bad weather and receiver reboots, if sat signal is still out due to weather when receiver finishes rebooting, I will not have access to the guide, thus no access to OTA. (reboot seems to clear guide, and a new one needs to be downloaded, which is not possible when system is searching for signal) So, I say it is best NEVER to reboot during bad weather if your intention for rebooting it to be able to get at least the OTAs.

 

[Scroll]

I know this is a different situation but still an odd coincidence. Last night as I was going to bed I was froze on some channel and couldn't get it freed on my 508. Well I just figured it was storm clouds blocking the signals, as my receiver has a habit of that on occasion. I actually had tried that changing channel by using the guide but it didn't work.


Next morning it was still frozen. Power off didn't free it. Check switch didn't free it. The only thing that freed it was removing the access card.

In light of this thread I'm wondering if could be some common reason why some receivers experienced problems yesterday? Probably not, I guess. Or there would be tons more complaints by now.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Maybe DISH should add some new software that pop ups a message during sat fade outs that says:" Signal aquisition in process , if you don't want to wait, tune to an ota channel -via the menu :hit #1 and tune to an ota channel." THis would inform people of the alternative to no channels at all. IF they could add the stupid message that pops up when you hit any other button rather than Sat that says : "your remote is now set to control your tv/vcr/dvd player . PRess sat key to control your sat receiver," then they could add a pop up that accomplishes that.