Trouble with recording over the air channels

[TheKrell]

Had Mary with DIRT schedule a Hopper. When tech arrived he told me I would not be able to diplex in OTA. Only one cable in to house in conduit.

If you are stuck with the OTA antenna co-located with the satellite antenna, I think you can do it all with one cable as follows. Node at the antennas, with two cables from the LNB (sat inputs) and one from the OTA antenna (client input) into the node. A single host cable goes through the conduit to the Hopper. The diplexer goes first to pick off the OTA antenna signal. Short stub cable to a tap, to prevent the MoCA signal from going back up the single cable, and another short stub cable to the Hopper input.

Note that I haven't done this.

 

[dennisinsc]

If you are stuck with the OTA antenna co-located with the satellite antenna, I think you can do it all with one cable as follows. Node at the antennas, with two cables from the LNB (sat inputs) and one from the OTA antenna (client input) into the node. A single host cable goes through the conduit to the Hopper. The diplexer goes first to pick off the OTA antenna signal. Short stub cable to a tap, to prevent the MoCA signal from going back up the single cable, and another short stub cable to the Hopper input.

Note that I haven't done this.

Krell,

Won't argue this one either way, not educated enough on it to say. Contractor tech Tuesday said "no OTA after node." Maybe a knowledge tech will jump in and give us a definitive answer. Dish and OTA are both mounted on my old big dish pole 100'+ from house that is surrounded by 80-90' oak trees.

 

[navychop]

The frequencies used by OTA are from 54 MHz to 692 MHz, channels 2 thru 50, with some gaps. MoCA as implemented by Dish uses 650 MHz and up, with 50 MHz to 575 MHZ reserved for future use. So if your channels are channel 43 (broadcast frequency, not call frequency) and lower, in theory it will work. For a while. But there are other concerns: Stray signals, harmonics, wolf's bane and eye of newt that may impact real world double use of that single coax.

IOW, don't even try it. At best, it might work for a while with little impact on the MoCA system as a whole.



I have diplexed OTA and Sat on one coax before, with older receivers. I later chose to run two separate coax, for best results and future proofing. Of course, then the future came along and wanted THREE coax!

 

[shortspark]

The signal loss problem surfaces on my 722k every now and then. Recently, however, it has persisted. From what I gather here and other threads on this subject, the problem for many of us (I think I am included) is related to the OTA signal. Because I live out in the country, I have to have my OTA antenna up on a 60ft. tower, deep fringe with rotor and amp. A lot can wrong with a set up like this. The receiver detects a weak OTA signal and shuts down in effect, and gives you the signal loss message, even if you are watching a sat channel at the time. I verified this this morning when the signal loss message was coming on every few minutes, no matter what channel I was watching. I put it on my strongest OTA channel and went from there to sat channels but it made no difference. The only way to stop the signal loss message was to disconnect the antenna lead to my receiver. Once I disconnected the antenna from the receiver I had no more of the blue screen loss signal notices (00-000-00).

It is important to have the antenna connected because I live in such a small market that Dish will never give us our "locals" in HD. If they did I would have no need for an antenna. The only reason I subscribe to the Dish locals is so I can see on the guide what is showing on the SD channel but once I do that, I switch over to the HD channel (which has no programming description) to actually watch.

Now that I know it is OTA related, how do I determine if the problem is my antenna and connections or the 722 is somehow loosing its ability to hold the signals? My OTA signal strength goes all over the place with some stations showing 90 - 100 and then a few minutes later it shows 65 and starts to break up. If I can't find a solution I will have to get cable just to watch my locals in HD and just ditch my antenna system all together. Any suggestions?

 

[empiretc]

have always had this same issue on both the 722 and 211k. signal strengths ranging from 65-99.

slinghd also does this while the televisions and tivo do not. it must be tuner related.

 

[boba]

The signal loss problem surfaces on my 722k every now and then. Recently, however, it has persisted. From what I gather here and other threads on this subject, the problem for many of us (I think I am included) is related to the OTA signal. Because I live out in the country, I have to have my OTA antenna up on a 60ft. tower, deep fringe with rotor and amp. A lot can wrong with a set up like this. The receiver detects a weak OTA signal and shuts down in effect, and gives you the signal loss message, even if you are watching a sat channel at the time. I verified this this morning when the signal loss message was coming on every few minutes, no matter what channel I was watching. I put it on my strongest OTA channel and went from there to sat channels but it made no difference. The only way to stop the signal loss message was to disconnect the antenna lead to my receiver. Once I disconnected the antenna from the receiver I had no more of the blue screen loss signal notices (00-000-00).

It is important to have the antenna connected because I live in such a small market that Dish will never give us our "locals" in HD. If they did I would have no need for an antenna. The only reason I subscribe to the Dish locals is so I can see on the guide what is showing on the SD channel but once I do that, I switch over to the HD channel (which has no programming description) to actually watch.

Now that I know it is OTA related, how do I determine if the problem is my antenna and connections or the 722 is somehow loosing its ability to hold the signals? My OTA signal strength goes all over the place with some stations showing 90 - 100 and then a few minutes later it shows 65 and starts to break up. If I can't find a solution I will have to get cable just to watch my locals in HD and just ditch my antenna system all together. Any suggestions?

Call cable, you need to improve your OTA signal so that it is reliable.

 

[dwarren2]

The signal loss problem surfaces on my 722k every now and then. Recently, however, it has persisted. From what I gather here and other threads on this subject, the problem for many of us (I think I am included) is related to the OTA signal.

Here's a question. If you get the signal loss screen while watching a Dish channel and you press Guide and the channel comes back. Try scrolling back and see if the buffer is still there. If it is, it may not be an ota problem. I was having a similar problem and everyone was telling me it was a weak ota signal problem. It was not. It was lnb drift. Had my lnb assembly replaced and I've never had a problem. Try doing a System Info test and see what is reported inbox a.

 

[shortspark]

Here's a question. If you get the signal loss screen while watching a Dish channel and you press Guide and the channel comes back. Try scrolling back and see if the buffer is still there. If it is, it may not be an ota problem. I was having a similar problem and everyone was telling me it was a weak ota signal problem. It was not. It was lnb drift. Had my lnb assembly replaced and I've never had a problem. Try doing a System Info test and see what is reported inbox a.

Okay, I just hooked back up my antenna to the 722 and within five minutes the channel I had been watching (Golf Channel) cut out with the blue partial signal loss screen. I waited a few minutes and hit the guide button and went back and found the buffer had not missed a thing. Therefore, it might not be a problem with a weak OTA signal (all the local channels are showing good strength of at least over 75 except my NBC channel which is below 65 and cutting in and out). But the buffer is fine but I don't think it is LNB drift because I checked it and it shows in my system info that all satellites are working fine and the status is shown as "good". I think if I had LNB drift it would indicate it under the system info. I am at a loss now because the signal is not lost - I can find it in the buffer.

 

[dare2be]

Find your best OTA channel with the strongest signal, and then change channel to the Golf Channel. See if it returns (wait a good 5-10 minutes). If it doesn't, then do the same with one of the weaker OTA channels, and see if there is a difference. I still think it's an OTA issue. I had the same problem with a weak OTA channel and got the signal message on a SAT channel all without losing any buffer.

 

[shortspark]

I tried what you suggested and the results are the same. I turned to my highest signal strength OTA channel, which read a strength of 98. I then went to a sat channel and after a few minutes the blue signal loss screen came up but it did buffer the program during the time the sgnal loss screen was showing, therefore, it was getting a signal. This was done after I deleted from my program guide the weakest OTA channel that was only in the 60s signal strength and kept going in and out (up until a week or so ago I was getting this channel fine with a stronger signal). I don't think the dish itself has moved as we had little wind lately. As I said before, there is no lnb drift indicated on my test screen. As long as I remove the antenna from the back of my receiver all is well and I never get the loss signal message. It may be time to call Dish.

 

[johnwadams]

I have the same problem with my 612. I have tried 2 different antennas and signal strengths on the channels I use range from 65-79. I have tried with and without an amp. I get partial and complete drop outs. I am going to try a 3rd antenna and see if I can keep the signal strength above 70.

 

[mikfort51]

I get a partial signal loss on almost all my ota recordings usually just once during the recording. My signal strength is 95-100. When watching live ota I never have signal loss.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[shortspark]

I get a partial signal loss on almost all my ota recordings usually just once during the recording. My signal strength is 95-100. When watching live ota I never have signal loss.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

And that is just the opposite of my situation.