HD Channels Disappeared Last Night

[speedcouch]

I don't know if this is related to the 6.3 upgrade, but it seems awfully coincidental. Since we got the upgrade last week, when we go to the OTA locals, we occasionally get the "searching for signal" box pop up for a second. No real biggie, just odd that we never used to get this unless the antenna was totally off the setting for the channel.

Then last night around 7:30, I went to ESPN-HD to get ready for MNF and get no picture and a box saying something about "no signal in satellite 1." Checked all the other HD channels in the 70s and get the same message. But channel 80 (CBS-HD out of NY) is fine. Call Direct and get a very nice woman who says "Oh my!" She can't help me though and sends me to "advance support." Get another nice lady with "Oh my goodness!" who tries to help. Tells me to check several test channels, which seem to work fine and then asks me to reboot the system. After this, 70 is there at first, but remote is extremely slow to respond to punching in channels. Then as we go up the range into higher 70s, channel 74 and higher are all totally pixelized. She says she's not sure what to do and sends me to [more] advance support. Then I'm put on hold for about 10 minutes with DirecTV ads blasting me in the ear. Eventually, I get a [not so nice] man on the phone who simply says "uh-huh" to everything I told him that has happened. As with the prior person, I explain I got the software upgrade and suggest this may be the problem. He assures me he's not heard any reports of problems with the upgrade (Yeah, right). Then says "did you hear this from DirecTV?" and I say "no from other users." After a while, he admits "well that's only on local channels." He tries the same test channels and then tells me "well, we have to schedule a service call - maybe it's your dish or cabeling..." I say "Is this gonna cost me?" and he says "well you don't have a service contract, so yes." This is when I start to get pissed and tell him I've been a customer since 1995 and if they're going to charge me and I won't have HD channels till they can send someone out, I may drop my HD package. He thens says they won't charge me. At this point, I needed to make an important call, so I hand the phone over to my husband and go upstairs to use the cellphone. When I return, my husband said he scheduled the service call for Thursday, but in the meantime, he switched the input cabels around (at the guy's suggestion) and now our HD channels are back.

I'm not sure what to think about all this. No, I'm not buying into all the conspiracy theories about the software upgrade. However, I wasn't getting those "check antenna" messages before the upgrade and then I was getting these messages and lost the HD channels. Anyone else have similar problems? It honestly seems like DirecTV either doesn't know the side effects of the upgrade or they are trying to goober up my Tivo so they can sell me one of their new DVRs (which I won't buy). Guy suggested the cabeling might have a problem, the multi-switch or the dish. Is it just a coincidence this happens right after the software upgade? Just wondering if anyone else had similar problems with the HD channels.

If things stay stable tonight, I will probably cancel the service call. If DirecTV is gong to start being so unreliable, FIOS is starting to look awfully good to me...especially since they have Starz, Cinemax and Nat'l Geographic channels in HD, and Direct is only concerned about more locals in HD...

Sorry for the rant, but just had to vent. After all that, maybe it was a "mercy" call by Direct to cut off ESPN-HD since the Ravens totally sucked last night.
;)

Cheryl

[sloan]

Check the signal strength on each Sat (A B and C)

If the signals are fine, then the non showing-up of the stations could be a bad switch. (speaking from personal experience)

Search for "others posts" by me, and you'll find my symptoms.
Actually, here it is:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=317954

What kind of 3LNB dish do you have?

Anyway, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. It might be a simple issue.
Especially if your dish is getting older, as in the switch is getting older.

[TonyD79]

speedcouch, it looks like you are going to be stuck with the ANT messages pretty often unless they change it in the next software upgrade (the one that is coming for the audio dropouts). My conjecture is that the software is much faster and it is reporting the ANT issue in less time than it has before and that time is often within the time it takes to lock in the station (or the lock in is taking longer, but I don't feel that when I tune stations). It is annoying but not a real issue.

As for your HD satellite stations, I wonder if you just needed to reconnect the lines and your husbands switching of the lines fixed that. I have seen issues with rf cables (and that is what these are) where capacitance builds up at the connection and a reconnection clears it up. Just guessing here. Either that or your switch and/or inputs are having some type of switching or voltage issues.

I seriously doubt your SAT issue is related to the software upgrade. The ANT message just threw you off.

[droten]

I've seen the same issue at my place. I got the 6.3a upgrade and didn't notice until the next morning that I wasn't getting DiscoveryHD. I checked the transponders and I was getting signal strength of 85 to 99 on all the transponders except for the known low ones that I could recall.

I checked channels 490-494. This check showed only a problem with even transponders on satellite B. When I checked the signal strength of these it was 95 or higher on all of these transponders.

I called up DirecTV to explain all this and to make a long story short, I ended up with a service call on Thursday afternoon. The CSR suggested that it could be a problem with the multiswitch. If the signal strength was low I'd be inclined to agree, but as it is now I lean more towards a 6.3a software issue.

Since I've scheduled the service call I've also noticed that the WABC-HD satellite feed drops out occasionally and that DiscoveryHD comes back to life. I get WABC-HD since the local offiliate is O&O. I actually watched last night as a pecfect picture on DiscoveryHD went to "searching for signal on satellite 1". It stayed that way until morning while WABC-HD satellite feed was fine.

I'll update once the service happens tomorrow.

[IOTP]

I had the SAME problem. Although I do not have the 6.3 yet.

I had DTV come out, they replaced the Phase III LNB, and the multiswitch. I still had issues, so I had them recrimp all my cable ends, and replace the multiswitch, AGAIN.

So far so good. Now if I can only get the rebooting to stop. :(

[droten]

So the service guy comes out and the expected insanity insues...

"You're signal's good. Looks like a bad unit. We'll just have to replace that thing."

*groan*

So now I have a new HD Tivo on the way. And since 6.3 isn't being pushed down by on the satellites any longer, I'm going to have to get the code via the phone line. One I only have Vonage at my place so that's going to be an issue. This is just going to be painful. Not to mention that unless I do a lot of TV watching over the weekend I'm going to be really out of touch on my season passes.

I talked with several different CSRs and they all insisted that they've not had any reports of problems with 6.3a.

[IOTP]

So the service guy comes out and the expected insanity insues...

"You're signal's good. Looks like a bad unit. We'll just have to replace that thing."

*groan*

So now I have a new HD Tivo on the way. And since 6.3 isn't being pushed down by on the satellites any longer, I'm going to have to get the code via the phone line. One I only have Vonage at my place so that's going to be an issue. This is just going to be painful. Not to mention that unless I do a lot of TV watching over the weekend I'm going to be really out of touch on my season passes.

I talked with several different CSRs and they all insisted that they've not had any reports of problems with 6.3a.

Again, what happen on my end, is originally i was experiencing sat dropouts. They sent a replacement HR10-250. Same issue was happening. Then, one day I was taking the trash out, and noticed some animal, cat, rat, rabbit, something nawed through some cables. DTV fixed that problem. Was ok for a while, then dropout again. Since the cable crimps, new LNB and multiswitch, all is now smooth sailing again.

[droten]

The reason that I don't believe it's any sort of cabling issue is that when I see "searching for signal" it's only when I'm tuned to the channels that are on even transponders for Sat B. When I tune to test channel 493, I see that I have no signal for those even transponders. Then when I check the signal strength for the even transponders on Sat B, they are all 95 or higher. All of that doesn't add up for me. If the signal strength was low then I'd buy it.

Time will tell once the new receiver gets here. I assume that it will show up with 3.1.5f on it. If it works just peachy then I'll be more confident in my suspicion that it's a 6.3a issue.

[speedcouch]

Sorry for not responding sooner. Just saw your message and other replies to my questions.

Check the signal strength on each Sat (A B and C)

If the signals are fine, then the non showing-up of the stations could be a bad switch. (speaking from personal experience)

Yes, the signal strength was the first thing we checked before even calling DirecTV.

What kind of 3LNB dish do you have?

Oval dish, which is about 5 years old maybe. Third LNB was added by DirecTV tech about 3 years ago, I think. Whenever Showtime-HD first became available and was the first on the HD satellite (can't remember now if that is 119 or what). Sorry...

Anyway, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. It might be a simple issue. Especially if your dish is getting older, as in the switch is getting older.

Thanks for the advice. I had to reschedule the service call because of work. They're now coming out tomorrow, so I'll see what they have to say. No way they are convincing me my HR10-250 all of sudden went bad though! It's less than 2 years old. The more my husband and I think about it, we feel it's probably the multi-switch or cabling from the dish or possibly the 3rd LNB going bad. Still, I think it's awfully coincidental there were no problems until the 6.3 update.

Moving the cables around seems to help pull in the HD channels at times, so it's an intermittent problem (which are always the worse).

Cheryl

[droten]

I finally got resolution to the problem that I was seeing. It turns out that my Sat B LNB was defective. The plastic cover over the receiver had basically degraded to the point where it could crumble between your fingers. The inside surface of the LNB was completely exposed to the elements.

I find it odd that it took a software upgrade to 6.3a was what exposed this problem. But nonetheless, it did. When I got a replacement HD Tivo with 3.1.5f the problem went away and came right back when the second 6.3a upgrade happened.

I ended up with a new AT9 dish installed so I'm ready to go for MPEG4 content now. It's just a matter of deciding when to pull the trigger for a new receiver to replace the aging SAT-T60.