What we are hearing...

[Fish Man]

Don't forget about the spotbeams from Spaceway-1 that takes away from that 32 TP count. I'd have to go with the other poster with the 16 TP's for national coverage on this bird. That should put them at their 70 goal.

That would totally fit with their claims of capacity for "over 100" national HD channels ultimately.

If they have 16 CONUS TP at 103 and another 16 at 99 after D11 is operational, that will be capacity for 128 national HD channels total from 103 and 99.

But.....

Aren't there potentially 32 Ka/A-band frequencies AND 32 Ka/B-Band frequencies? (Total of 64 at any given orbital location?)

Currently, all the local spot beams are on A-band and all the national CONUS beams are on B-band. Looks like D* may be planning to devide it that way indefinately.

We also don't know how many licenses for A-Band and B-Band DirecTV holds at 99 and 103. Perhaps the number of frequencies not labled "N/A" on 103(a) and 103(b) are a clue to that.

Bottom line: D* seems to have exactly 16 B-Band frequencies active at 103(b). Do they have more licenses than that? How many do they have at 99?

 

[rockaway1836]

When I check 498, I still get a black screen....
480, 481 say I have working BBC's and can see the 103, what more is there.

What rec's are you guy's using, maybe that has something to do with it.
I have HR20-700.

Jimbo

Jimbo, there is a very long thread over at DBS in which people have been trying some fixes. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't. As of yet to my knowledge no one has pinned down what's really going on. I was following the thread yesterday untill my eyes were about to cross. So I have not read the entire thing.

Among the fixes that seemed to work the best were to tune to 498 then to 72 then to 73 and back 498. Why that may work I have got no clue !! Another was to set your receiver to 1080i. It seems that many of the people with the blank screens were having them displayed in 720p even though they had their receivers set to native. Again I don't pretend to understand why this would happen in the first place. Good luck. I hope one of them works for you.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=99799

 

[eandras]

When I check 498, I still get a black screen....
480, 481 say I have working BBC's and can see the 103, what more is there.

What rec's are you guy's using, maybe that has something to do with it.
I have HR20-700.

Jimbo

On the HR20-700 I get the "Congratulations!" screen that my HD Setup is correct.

Now I have to wait to see if the low signals I get are a result of the original alignment. Sometimes they are high and the next morning they are half of what they were the night before. I still think that the arrays are not properly aligned since there are a lot of West coast ans East Coast people with low 103b signals.

 

[Jimbo]

Jimbo, I get the Important HD information screen on 498 right now on my HR20-100.

I get the banner
"B Band converter confirmation Channel"

But i still get NO picture, but like I said when on 480 and 481 I get the screen at the bottom that says they are working and I can see the 103(b) sat
13 and 18 volts respectivly.

Now I have the -700 not the -100 so maybe thats the difference.

Jimbo

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Try switchig around your BBC on your HR20 (move the one on input one to input 2 and input 2's BBC to input one.)

 

[rad]

Well that would be about on target,Because D* has been claimming 150 National HD capacity,so 70 per satellite ,with 2 satellites is 140 Give or take ,I'd say thats right where they want to be.I'm not going to complain about having 140 HD channels instead of 150. And if they are in true HD,I'd be happy with 100.If the new MPEG 4 HD looks anything like YESHD and SNYHD,Then E* better start to worry,because E* MPEG4 isn't even close to D* Mpeg 4,IN Picture quailty. Mepg 2 was a different story,maybe the 6 per transponder isn't such a good Idea.Just let D* work on the picture quality and E* can work on giving us more HD-lite PPV.

Don't forget that they do have some other satellites up there besides the Ka band ones that have a number of HD channels on them now, which makes it the 150 national HD channel capacity. More if they ever convert those existing MPEG2 HD channels to MPEG4.

 

[Rick0725]

I get the banner
"B Band converter confirmation Channel"

But i still get NO picture, but like I said when on 480 and 481 I get the screen at the bottom that says they are working and I can see the 103(b) sat
13 and 18 volts respectivly.

Now I have the -700 not the -100 so maybe thats the difference.

Jimbo

If you are
-getting a decent sat signal 85-100
-ch 480 and 481 is successful
-you have the right multiswitch
-you are not diplexing ota
-all connectors fully tightened

logically the only issue left is the link between the unit , the cable and the tv (if ch 480 and 481 work), and the tv is accepting the handshake.

-try component instead of hdmi
-turn off the native setting

-make sure you have the right multiswitch
-remove the diplexors
-make sure the b convertors are not shorting

what else can you really do.

 

[Ex Direcway]

Satellite is only faster then Dial-up anyway. Its not faster the DSL or Cable. Even the slower version of DSL is faster for $20. Lets see Satellite touch that price.

Download speeds are around 1meg which is much faster than dial up. The upload speeds however are sometimes slower than dial up & very frustrating if sending files. I was grateful when cable came out to the country!

 

[diggerTV]

Jimbo,
I have a HR20-700 receiver and have the same blank screen on 498 and confirmed B-band messages on 480 and 481. Also, my channel guide filters are no longer available on this receiver. My H20 receivers are fine.

Like Sharpie, I hope my some miracle we get the Big 10 Network in HD today for the Illinois game. Go Illini!

 

[Jackm]

Scott - I too have the HR20 700 an have the same problem just the grey screen. Channels 480 & 481 are ok. And my H20 recever is having no problems. The software I have is 0X18A downloaded on 8/28@ 4:49am. Any thoughts what to try next - Thanks

 

[shugo77]

I get the banner
"B Band converter confirmation Channel"

But i still get NO picture, but like I said when on 480 and 481 I get the screen at the bottom that says they are working and I can see the 103(b) sat
13 and 18 volts respectivly.

Now I have the -700 not the -100 so maybe thats the difference.

Jimbo

I'm experiencing the exact same issue as you and I have a -100, so that's not it. In fact A LOT of people are having this issue. DBStalk has up a poll and as of now with 456 votes there is about a 29% failure rate. From reading the posts the problem does not appear to be specific between a -700 or -100. Earl is still telling people not to call DIRECTV yet, so I guess we should just play the wait and see game.

 

[shugo77]

Scott - I too have the HR20 700 an have the same problem just the grey screen. Channels 480 & 481 are ok. And my H20 recever is having no problems. The software I have is 0X18A downloaded on 8/28@ 4:49am. Any thoughts what to try next - Thanks

Several people have reported a couple of fixes..

A) tune to 73, then 74, then 498 and see if it works

B) tune to 498, pause for 30 seconds, then fast forward 1X, see if it works.

neither of these tricks worked for me

 

[chalkdust]

There's hope. I'd tried all the remedies suggested, but to no avail. But just now I tuned into 498 and, after a few seconds of the usual gray screen, up popped the Congratulations! slide.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Ive got ok's on 480 and 481 so Im not sweating the grey screen on 498, I feel its a bug.

 

[shugo77]

Ive got ok's on 480 and 481 so Im not sweating the grey screen on 498, I feel its a bug.

I'm with you. I'll monitor the forums, but I'm not going to call DIRECTV until "someone in the know" says that we should. I have a feeling this is an issue that DIRECTV is aware of and will fix all in due time.

 

[mkatts]

When I check 498, I still get a black screen....
480, 481 say I have working BBC's and can see the 103, what more is there.

What rec's are you guy's using, maybe that has something to do with it.
I have HR20-700.

Jimbo

I get the same thing Jimbo.

Go Bucks!

 

[HDhysteria]

Scott - I too have the HR20 700 an have the same problem just the grey screen. Channels 480 & 481 are ok. And my H20 recever is having no problems. The software I have is 0X18A downloaded on 8/28@ 4:49am. Any thoughts what to try next - Thanks

first thing i would do is swap the sat cables on the back of the hr20 700. if that stays the same then i woould put the cable from the h20 to the hr20 700... if still grey, then I would call D* which is what they tell you to do if you have a black or grey screen

 

[mkatts]

My set up and worked for me to get 498 back...

HR20-700.
AT9
no multiswitch
BBC's installed.
Notive mode off. Only have 1080i resolution enbabled on HR20-700.
Sammy 42" plasma.
HDMI input.

Came home after work last night and had ch498 with congrats screen.
Read here about 480/481. Tested them. Nothing. Did a soft boot and they started working, but lost 498.

Several softboots, no joy.

Read about changing native off/on then ch to 72>73>498.
Didn't work.

Turned native on and turned on 480P and 720P resolution. Then did the
ch 72>73>498

And again I get the congrats screen and also get success on 480/481.

Hope this helps others.

Go Bucks!

 

[joed32]

A) tune to 73, then 74, then 498 and see if it works

This is not a fix just a way to make sure you are checking both Sat 1 and Sat2. You go to 498 and check it and then go to 73 then 74 then 498 and you have seen both inputs.

 

[vurbano]

I'm experiencing the exact same issue as you and I have a -100, so that's not it. In fact A LOT of people are having this issue. DBStalk has up a poll and as of now with 456 votes there is about a 29% failure rate. From reading the posts the problem does not appear to be specific between a -700 or -100. Earl is still telling people not to call DIRECTV yet, so I guess we should just play the wait and see game.

Monday if it isnt fixed I am calling. That is plenty of time to fix the problem and notify the CSR's. Do the problems ever end with this POS HR20 and b band dongles?