The DROPOUT blueswith the HR21

[gutwrencher]

I'm at my wits end and I guess, for what it's worth, I'll have to call *D support which is usually a waste of time.

I thought that maybe it was just in playback mode...but now realize it might be worse. Tonight I have been watching CNNHD with my new HR21-700 reciever and dish. MULTIPLE audio dropouts are occuring every few minutes. I switched over to SmithHD and watched for about 20min with NO dropouts. MGMHD also has been audio dropping but I have only noticed it on HD playback through the recorder. Thats what got me to thinking I had a playback issue, but now I'm hearing dropouts on live as well. Sometimes, but not as often, the video will stutter and shake. During the playback of "2010: The Year We Make Contact" last night, the last 5 to 10 minutes was terrible. The video shook violently and reminded me of a video tape starting to go bad.

I've had HD service for 3 years, minus the recorder, and have NEVER seen/heard this happen. I can't accept this at all and it must be resolved. I won't pay for it.

Why would one channel be so bad while another channel shows no problems? Whats the fix for that? I have reset the reciever and recorder and checked signal strength, although I am not 100% sure what strength is acceptable. I see a lot of mid to upper 90's on the various sats. I've also checked connections....I use component cables.

Why is this only happening since the new dish was installed? Installed wrong? Not quite lined up?

Will *D keep coming back until it's resolved or are they going to stall me? before I pay up on my bill, I may demand I pay nothing, dump them and move over to the other guys. That would be a bitch. I really like the new channels.

What would you guys do? Have you heard any dropouts on CNNHD?

 

[charper1]

Can't help ya on the resolution as our two HD units do not do that, BUT I will say refusing to pay your bill will garner you more trouble and is not the way to solve a service dispute.

 

[salmonslayer]

Hi the problems could be bad B Band Converter, check channels 480 and 481. It could be a bad cable. I had that problem today. It was a cable that was under a rug. RG-59 cable not RG-6 is what should be used. bad connectors. Dish not correctly tuned. A splitter in the line. Bad receiver. Call and get it fixed. With HD be sure to get the protection plan. Many things can go wrong with HD. Yes $5.95 per month is the cost. A service call is $70 Plus cost of receivers and other things. It pays to have it.
Good Luck Larry

 

[IcEWoLF]

I have the service plan, since I just got DTV I will be billed for it next month for it, its better be safe than be sorry.

 

[Jimbo]

Always use RG-6 cable not RG-59 if possible, if not, go to Home Depot and buy some.

Jimbo

 

[IcEWoLF]

Always use RG-6 cable not RG-59 if possible, if not, go to Home Depot and buy some.

Jimbo

QFT, I made sure before the installer installed anything that he ran the RG6 cable for my HR20 which he did.

 

[JNEUBY]

I was going to ask if you had another set of component cables to try but you said audio and some video freeze frame. So I would not expect the cables from the receiver to the TV. Go back and remove ALL your RG6 connections and visually inspect the inside of each connector to see if any of the fine strands of wire are touching the main feed wire. Sometimes when installing new ends on the cable, a strand or two of the weave will not cut off properly and when installing the connector will push the ground weave and make contact with the main wire. Put your glasses on and look carefully inside each wire connector. Grab your dish and tug on it very gently to make sure it is stable and secure. Then if you have more than one receiver, take a known good receiver and put it where the problem receiver is and see if the problem of drop and freeze still exists. If you don't have a second box to try, do you have an ohm meter? you can ohm the cables to see if they are shorted. If the cables test good, then you either have a dish alignment problem not picking up the new sats properly or you could have one of the two tuners in your receiver defective. I went nuts with this one until I switched receivers and found the problem was a bad tuner in the box not feeding HD channels properly and causing a similar problem only on HD channels.