DVR record failures

[vigfoot]

Because I have a connection problem w/ one of my cables running from the dish into my DVR80, I have redone the guided setup, choosing the ""one cable connected to the Sat IN 1" setup.

I have the "good" cable in the SAT IN 1 and have disconnected the other cable from the SAT IN 2 jack. All my channels work properly for viewing. Shouldn't non-conflict recordings record properly, or am I missing something? I've had several recordings fail "because the video signal was unavailable".

TIA

[John T Smith]

My GUESS is that you have either an LNB or a DTivo unit that is just about to fail completely

How do you know that you have a "connection problem" with a coax line?

How are you sure the other coax is good?

[CrashHD]

If there is no conflict, they should record correctly.

On the shows that did not record correctly, manually check if there was a conflict. I have seen DTivos cancel recordings, and then have the wrong reason listed in in the ToDo history. E.g. I have seen recordings that were canceled due to a conflict, and their entry in the recording history log said they were canceled due to disk space. In that example, there was plenty of space availabe, and investigating further determined there were two higher priority recordings already in progress at that time. It has happened many times.

[vigfoot]

If there is no conflict, they should record correctly.

On the shows that did not record correctly, manually check if there was a conflict. I have seen DTivos cancel recordings, and then have the wrong reason listed in in the ToDo history. E.g. I have seen recordings that were canceled due to a conflict, and their entry in the recording history log said they were canceled due to disk space. In that example, there was plenty of space availabe, and investigating further determined there were two higher priority recordings already in progress at that time. It has happened many times.

thanks for that suggestion- i'll check, although i'm 99% sure it's not the case.

to john smith- i made my conclusion by having switched the cables and the jacks they were connected to.

i also followed the lines outside the house and one has been spliced in 2 spots and i switched the lines in each splitter and noted what change there was, if any.

i cannot get up to the dish to check the connection there, so i'm guessing that's where the problem is

[CrashHD]

i cannot get up to the dish to check the connection there, so i'm guessing that's where the problem is

Ouch. That's why I install dishes at ground level whenever possible.

[bengalfreak]

Ouch. That's why I install dishes at ground level whenever possible.

That must be really fashionable.

[Dkerr24]

That must be really fashionable.

How would that be any different than a dish on the roofline of a home? I'd think a ground level mount in a backyard with some vegetation around it would disguise it pretty well. And like mentioned, make it easy to check/adjust if needed.

[CrashHD]

I'm not a fashionable person. I'm a practical one. A dish accessible from the ground is a dish easily serviced. I also despise ladders, and am therefore inclined to seek an installation option which does not require them. I've also never thought of a satellite dish as an unsightly object... least certainly no more than the other things attached to the average house, like the phone/powerlinces, gas meters, the OTA antennas everyone used to have on their roof before cable/satellite were so common. A satellite dish also occupies less space than the average AC condenser, too, and it doesn't even make noise!

If you are inclined to conceal it, it is easy to do so in many cases, with a little creative thought. In one instance, I buried coax out some 50' from the house, and mounted the dish on a wooden pole that was already there in the backyard. In another instance, the backside of the garage was the south face, so that dish was only visible to folks driving down the back alley. If options like that don't work, it's usually pretty easy to obscure with a shrub or a bush of some sort. Remembering that the signal comes from south AND up, position the dish behind the shrub, so that from it's POV, it is looking just over the top of the shrub, at the sat.

This reminds me of a joke, "Yo momma so dumb she sits on the TV and watches the couch!".

"Yo momma so dumb, she got satellite TV and she watches the satellite!"

[wkearney]

Yeah, but a dish accessible from the ground is also one likely to get knocked out of alignment. My brother has one tucked between some bushes on the front lawn and it's gotten knocked out of alignment way too many times.

You may also want to check any cable connections between the dish and the receivers. It's possible a connection wasn't crimped right and has allowed water to get into it, or has corroded. That or a cable was loose enough to have gotten crimped or otherwise damaged when something else was moved near it.

Bad cable problems are indeed harder to diagnose when the dish is roof mounted. But I'd trade a well done installation up on the roof over an accessible one at ground level any day. Now, bolted to the side of the house and accessible by hanging out a window works for me too.