Direct TV problem?

MossRoad · Oct 2, 2001

Swapping out the receivers sounds like a good first step. Nothing has changed in your setup, has it? Lenghtened the cables, etc. I liked TerryinMD's suggestions. Re check all the cables and make sure they are tightened. Make sure all of the cables are RG6. Make sure the dog didn't chew a cable or a cable didn't get pinched. I don't like the message about the access card that you got. Is the system still under warranty? Also, I don't know if this applies to your system, you might be able to hold the select key and the down arrow key on the receiver at the same time. On some units, this brings up a diagnostic menu that can run self tests.

 MossRoad

Tdog · Oct 2, 2001

Richard,
I've got a Dish 500 system with two receivers. We've had similar problems as you describe. Certainly hasn't been trouble free. I've had switches replaced twice - - both time under warranty,thank goodness. Swithches are on the roof.

My last problem was cleared up by finding corrorsion in some of the coax cable connectors - - I gave up on Dish this time & called an independent repair guy.

My other gripe is that I can't get local channels via satelite - -they are not available yet in my area. And when they do become available, there will be an additional charge, I understand. With my roof antena, I can get local CBS & NBC most of the time, but ABC & FOX are right iffy. And of course, those are the networks that carry most NCAA & NFL games. grump.

TerryinMD · Oct 2, 2001

Hey, you can get as many "local" channels as you wish. They just won't be close to you. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif The Dish Network will be more than happy to provide you ALL the "local" channels if you so desire.

Just for a price check, we have Dish100 with Washington DC local channels, HBO package, and the Super stations. LA, Chicago, NYC, and ?? for about $55 (includes second receiver).

Richard · Oct 3, 2001

Problem update:

Have checked all wiring: fine /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Called DTV again about problems: None /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Swapped out receivers and problem: Remained /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

Then my squirrely mind got to thinking.
I swapped my signal line from dish (duel lines and remember, I wasn't using one) and VOILA: Problem fixed. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I would seem to have a bad LNB. Since I'm only using one today, that isn't a problem. I have started looking this morning for replacement LNB and so far can't find one. I KNOW I can't use the same (commonly available) traditional LNB that the RCA dish uses because the Direct-Duo has the internet connection included.

The saga/search goes on, but at least I now know my enemy. If replacing the LNB costs too much, I just might buy a new dish and replace the Direct Duo.

JUST in time for weather to start turning and have to be 30 feet up on a ladder in the cold. Gotta love it. /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

Richard

TerryinMD · Oct 3, 2001

Tracing DSS problems sounds similar to tractor/attachment problems. Just need a little help from your friends. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

TBN brain trust at work.

MossRoad · Oct 3, 2001

So if you swapped lines, isn't it the original line that is bad, not the LNB?

 MossRoad

Richard · Oct 3, 2001

DANG, gotta admit I hadn't thought of that possiblity. I DO think however, the odds are the LNB in fact. I guess, the only way to be sure is make the climb to side of house, swap lines on LNB's and see if the problem moves with said line. If the problem doesn't move, then it is somehow the cable/connection. If it does move, then it's the LNB.

The closer I think I get to the answer, the more it seems to elude me /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Richard

Hillbilly · Oct 3, 2001

I get by with a little help from my friends.

I heard that before /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

jwstewar · Oct 3, 2001

I'll go back to the bashing of DirecTV. I've got an RCA master system with a Hughes slave receiver. I've had nothing but problems with the Hughes (funny since they are the ones that invented it). I finally traced one of the problems down to a corroted coax connection. Once I fixed that I've had heck of a time getting the satellite aimed to support both receivers, didn't have a problem configuring when they were new. I know sounds strange. I wonder if there is something to the theory of old equipment. Mine is 2 years old. The RCA tells me a set of coordinates, the Hughes another, and DirecTV's website another. I went with the one the RCA told me and tweaked it to get as strong as signal on both receivers. Still hasn't helped during storms though. They don't have to be particularly strong storms to lose signal. Was also experiencing yesterday the occasional signal loss others were complaining of. Don't remember which channel it was. Was considering switching to Dish but with them I can't get the local channels for Columbus, Ohio. Wish I could get cable. I call the cable company about every 3 or 4 months to see if service has been expanded. My neighbors up the hill from us can get it, but we can't without a $6,000 cost. They'll pay the first $800. Don't want cable that bad, but it is starting to get tempting.

jwstewar · Oct 3, 2001

One little thing that we have done to get around the $5.00 for additional recievers and the $ to purchase one. I bought a broadcaster from X-10 - yeah those annoying people with all of the pop-up and pop-under adds. For $50 it takes the signal from our receiver in our bedroom and rebroadcasts it to a receiver in the kitchen. As I haven't bought a remote extender yet, you have to go to the doorway of the bedroom to change channels. The only other thing is try to keep it out of line with the microwave. They are both using 900 Mhz and the cooker interferes with the TV. Moved the TV so that it wasn't inline with the microwave and still get a little interference but nothing like I was. Works great. At least I can get the little one to eat in the kitchen and not have ketchup all over the living room carpet because she wants to watch Blue's Clues or Bear in the Big Blue House.
My personal favorite is Bob the Builder. Have to figure how he has all of his equipment do the work for him....nah, that wouldn't be any fun.

PS Sorry for those of you who don't have little ones and don't get the cartoon humor.

Richard · Oct 3, 2001

Gotta keep the microwave & tv from interfereing with each other. I sure would hate to think I was turning to the "Bodys by Jake" infomertial and instead, changed the microwave settings and crisped the popcorn!

/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

MossRoad · Oct 3, 2001

I love x-10 stuff. I bought a universal learning remote from them, taught it all of the codes from my other remotes, took out their batteries and put them on the shelf. With this one remote I run the TV, VCR, DSS, CD, Stereo and all of the lights in my living room. The remote still has the capacity to run one more of each of the above, plus 4 auxillary devices. It cost $35.00! Bought the light switches for $6.00 each. I could go on, but this is the Directv forum. I ran two RG6 coax cables to every room that has a TV and two to the dish rooftop location. By using 2GHZ splitters, some channel modulators, some diplexers and one amplified antennae, I can watch local TV or either dish or vcr in any room in the house. It isn't that expensive either. A 1000' box of RG6 is under $100.00., the splitters were 15.00 and the diplexers came with the antennae.

 MossRoad

MReeter · Oct 3, 2001

Rich,Our local Wal Mart has dual LNB's for RCA Direct T.V. recievers.About 75.00,they have a year warranty and thats about how long they last before they start acting up.Also Direct T.V. throws a wrench in the mix every once in a while to screw up the illegal cards that are out there.This gives everyone a flawed signal now and then.They won't tell you,but I've heard that Direct T.V. is for sale and Dish Network is in the "hunt"

brewerbob · Oct 3, 2001

Had some trouble with our Dish 500 system last week. Got where we couldn't get channels on satellite 119. Signal strength was down to 38. We couldn't get programs we regularly watch. We got a message saying to check connections, as there was a switch problem. I got under the house (where the switch is), took the cable from each connection and cleaned it with contact cleaner. Didn't work!
Called the Dish 500 dealer, told him what I'd done, and the signal strength. He wanted to know how the dish was installed. It's on a treated post. He said to re-aim the dish. Seems that if the post is green, it will sometimes twist or warp and throw the alignment off. I did the setup and realigned the dish, and strength is now around 90. BTW, Dish is trying to buy Hughes, sort of like the minnow swallowing the whale since Hughes is a subsidiary of GM.
Bob

mikim · Oct 5, 2001

A coupla months ago I wouldn't have had a clue what Blues Clues was --- but the daughter and 2 kids have moved home and now I am totally familiar with little bear and the blue puppy - via tapes from wherever she buys 'em. The wife and I were doing just fine with a radio shack $25 antenna to watch tv ... but guess it's time to invest in a sat dish now ... no doubt as soon as I buy - whatever outfit I go with will be bought out by another. do ya think they make a blocker for any dog that is a wrong color??

Knight9 · Oct 5, 2001

do ya think they make a blocker for any dog that is a wrong color??

Don't think so. But here I thought blue was your favorite color!? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif Now if it was Orange's Clues it would be a show worth watching /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

For the record...I can't stand that guy Steve on that show. When the kids turn it on....I head outdoors!!!

Kevin

butzkeg · Oct 5, 2001

I've had Direct TV (2 receivers) for about 7 years with the same receivers. I have the intermittent problems with the signal too, especially in the last 6 months. Direct TV replaced my access cards 4-5 years ago for some reason? Well, the cards went bad about 9 months ago and had to have them replaced. Direct TV replaced them free of charge, except they put a $180 deposit ($90 for each card) on my account until they received the old cards. What really ticked me off though was I have my account auto bill to my AMEX, and they ended up charging me for the $180, because they got the old cards back after new billing cycle. After I waited on the phone for 45 minutes with one of those idiots, they got an earful and a piece of my mind.

Cable is not available in my area, and I'm about ready to check into Dish Network really soon.

TerryinMD · Oct 5, 2001

DirectTV vs Dish Network - here we go.

I have viewed DirectTV but have no operational experience. We went with DishNetwork because they were offering a little more for the money. Number of channels, etc. Their service has been good. We have never really had any major problems. Whenever we've called, they've given us an answer to our problems.

We had our system installed professionally. It took the installers two days to get our equipment up and running. Two receivers with two dishes mounted on our roof. We have a Cape Cod style house and I refused to crawl up there since I have zero roofing skills and frankly, am afraid of heights. We had surge protectors installed. These are industrial type protectors. My only complaint is that the people that provided the equipment charged us a little too much for the surge protectors. I didn't know that at the time. Oh well, live and learn. However, the system has been rock solid since being installed.

A couple of my neighbors have DirectTV and have had no complaints about equipment or service.

Since have a choice between two services and maybe just one in the near future, go with the best deal. And I believe that DishNetwork has a great deal going on right now.

Good luck,
Terry

MDNick · Oct 5, 2001

I have had DishNetwork for about 3 yrs. Except for a BAD electrical storm with dark clouds, it comes in perfect nearly 100% of the time. I really like the system.

Having said that . . .
I moved this summer. I had 2 receivers and one dish at the old place. I went through their dishmover plan. Another tenant and I were sharing the payments, though it was my equipment. They bought out my 2nd receiver. I left the dish.
DishNetwork had a deal going for free pro. installation (I installed the original system at the old place), free dish at the new place (upgrade dish to 500), so long as you sign up for credit card auto-pay. What do I care, I have to pay it whether via credit card or other so fine.
We schedule a date for them to come out and install it. They were 2 hrs late, I had an appt., had to leave, missed them /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif(though my girlfriend was there, and the guy wanted to know if we had any beer, and could he buy one!!!!/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif). We resched, they were 3 hrs early/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif, I wasn't home yet. We finally meet up 3rd time. Says we can use existing primestar cabling. Good answer/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. I don't want the TV to be where the cabling comes up in the house. Guy says oh well, guess we have to penetrate. Bad answer./w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif The dips*** is going to put the dish on the roof, run new cable, drill through the side of my house and have the line come through the wall right behind the TV/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. Existing primestar installation is on a post in front yard, comes in through crawl space. Oh no, it is $49.95/hr for him to work in a crawl space, attic, etc/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif. What the hell kind of professional installation can you get if it is drilled through the side of the house, and not come up cleanly through crawl space.
I told the sob to give me my dish and get the hell off my property. I'll install it myself. At construction the place was wired for cable (6 yrs ago when built they actually thought cable was going to make it out to the country, then sat systems came along). I removed original cable coax, drilled a hole through the sill plate(had to go buy the 18 volt DeWalt kit to drill the hole/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif, my 120V or 12V wouldn't do it), pulled the sat coax into the box along with the phone line, got a sweet dual coverplate, coax and RJ-11 phone jack. I had to get a machinist friend to make an adapter as the post for the primestar was bigger than what the dish would receive, gorgeous AL. sleeve down into the pipe and up into the dish mount. Now that is a classy professional installation/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.
What I really wanted in the first place was for them to just ship me a dish. Oh no sir, we will come out and install it for free. Yeah, BEEP you.
The point to this is that free pro. installation is likely to work great but not be great work.
I think the company is great, but the subs that do the field work suck. Sorry this is long, but ya'll reached a touchy spot with me, and it is recent enough that I'm still po'ed over it.

Nick

Farmer kid usetabe, Farmer Wannabe

TerryinMD · Oct 7, 2001

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. You're going to get some bad service now and then (seems to be happening a lot more).

I think that I would have asked for the equipment after the first visit (i.e. installer asking for some beer - oh yeah, very professional!!!). Have you reported (i.e. complained) this incident to the DishNetwork people. I would. I believe that the installation companies need to be certified by Dish Network. But, after the certification.... /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Terry