Suffering from old age or...

[runtothedaylight]

I have 2 units:
SIR-S4080R & SD-DVR40

I enjoyed problem free use of these units until now. I am experiencing intermittent freezing, sputtering, recording cutoffs on both units connected to two tvs, in different rooms.

I see that similar recordings are both botched (especially in the early AM hours) with frozen frames, sound interruptions, pauses and skipped speech patterns by whomever is speaking on the tube.

I called Directv and they had a guy come out to check out the problem.

He moved the dish to another part of the roof (I believe the area is more visible to the southern heaven's) and he left stating he changed out the outer hardware.

That night I was watching a basketball game then all of a sudden a box at the bottom of the screen said searching for sat 2 (no weather probs outside), but the screen was clear with perfect audio.

I went into the other room. Turned on my Plasma and see that the same box at the bottom of the screen, but it says searching for sat 1 (THERE IS NO PICTURE).

I called Directv and they had no ideas except to send a rep out for the 2nd time in as many days.

After being on the phone with them for 30 minutes - the note at the bottom of the screen with the basketball game on disappeared.

I went in the other room and there was picture and no note...

Directv said they would send someone out in about a week, but said it might be sooner.

I got a call today from the guy who did the job stating his supervisor told him to call me to try to troubleshoot the problem or to have him come out without a work order to try to fix the problem for me.

After describing the problem he thought it might be the boxes themselves and that I might have to replace them.

I DO NOT WANT TO REPLACE THE BOXES - not for the DIRECTV boxes at least. And I don't want to go away from directv either.

I was hoping to get the new DIRECTIVO HD box whenever it comes out this Sept or the first of next year - but I have some decisions I need to make.

Can anybody identify with what is going on here?
Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks!!!

[rbtravis]

Could be a multi-switch going bad, that would effect one or both units. By their age one or both hard drives could be going bad. To test the Hard drives run the manufacturer's diagnostics and Hard Disk Sentinel http://www.hdsentinel.com. To test the multi-switch bypass the switch with female to female barrel connectors to see if the problem goes away. Good Luck :)

[cramer]

Go to the sat signal screen and see if it's getting a "usable" level. You'll have to have a signal meter to know for sure -- that screen is an error rate indicator. (for example, I've seen it show 90+ with a 16dbm signal which it shouldn't be able to lock at all.)

Having dealt with DTV's repair guys more than once... I have zero confidence in their ability to do anything correctly. Even when they're told exactly what to do. If you have the means to work on this stuff yourself, or a friend who can be bribed, by all means, don't ask DTV to touch anything. That said, there are a number of things to check... dish alignment, condition of the dish, LNB(s), cables, multiswitch(s), crimps, and all the connections. Take a signal meter and measure at every point in the system from the LNB on the roof to the back of the Tivo. And make 100% certain the entire thing is grounded to an actual grounding rod -- as per National Electic Code, 8AWG solid aluminium or 10AWG solid copper wire.

[shibby191]

I DO NOT WANT TO REPLACE THE BOXES - not for the DIRECTV boxes at least. And I don't want to go away from directv either.

I was hoping to get the new DIRECTIVO HD box whenever it comes out this Sept or the first of next year - but I have some decisions I need to make.


I can't help with your problem but just to clarify this, Tivo has officially stated that it will release this "as early as possible in 2010" so this year is officially out.