So looking at the signal strength display caused some kind of reacquisition?
So looking at the signal strength display caused some kind of reacquisition?
Yes. Before we see what is playing on the screen, the received signal is processed and sent to the "buffer" where it stores up enough to give you an uninterrupted playout of the program. In the presence of compromised signal, sometimes the buffer isn't big enough, or doesn't have enough delay to store up enough data for a high quality output. But television requires "real-time" viewing so the show must go on. In the worst case scenario, your receiver will "lock up" requiring a re-boot. Sometimes you will lose signal lock, but most of the time the receiver will output the best it can depending on the amount and/or type of data corrupted.
As you went to check the screen, your receiver stopped displaying the picture. In a sense, this is sort of like a mini-reboot. The program you were watching didn't stop and the signal didn't either, but the decoding process stopped. When you went back to the program the receiver started "fresh", processing the signal as it was being received.
It is like with computers that use wireless signal. When you are getting low signal and you are downloading video, there are various things that may happen.
Sometimes your whole computer will "lock up" and fail to respond to anything. So you reboot. The same with digital receivers.
Sometimes, a video will come in slow and stop very frequently to buffer, or it will get "stuck" and not continue, or the quality will be poor. Sometimes when this happens, refreshing the page and starting again will get you far better results on the very same video in the same low signal environment. With digital receivers you get all of the above, or you get loss of signal message because the receiver is not allowed to just stop and wait to buffer longer. You gave the system a fresh start by viewing the signal screen.
Signal quality and strength don't tell you specifically what is lacking in the incoming signal. It only tells you that it IS lacking. Exactly which bits of data that are corrupted determines how it manifests in your system. Sometimes it is overall quality, sometimes a little pixelation, sometimes edge artifacts, sometimes audio sync, etc.
In regards to your signal readings, I would only expect trouble free performance from your 119 satellite. The 110 is only marginal and the 129 is too low.
What we need to remember is that signal is constantly changing due to burst errors, environmental influences and other factors. These factors are not generally reported via the signal meter, though we can sometimes see variation when checking the meter. The sum total of the signal power versus the noise power is signal quality.
