Have I ever mentioned I hate grounding problems???

[Pink Fairy]

Ok....so last week I had a technician come out because after 3 installations over 2 1/2 years, none of them grounded the dish. (The one who installed the 5 LNB insisted he did, and also tried to convince me it is not needed at the same time.)

Tech came out, and I was half asleep because he showed up 4 hours early...and it was like 20 degrees outside, so I just waited till he was done.

Now our H20 receiver pixelations ALL the time, even though the signal is perfect, and it does it on all channels, no matter which satellite it comes from.

I go out to look at the grounding, and Oh Em Gee, what a lazy job.

He ran the ground straight from the dish to our meter on side of the house (Dish is on the garage, so he trenched the cable underground to the side) straight and completely bypassed the multiswitch.

So, I am curious if everyone else thinks that the pixelating problem can stem from that?

I know it needs to be fixed, but honestly it is starting to make my head hurt. But I am not going to have an un grounded system with all this equipment I have now.

Plus, I have three great danes who are going to so easily dig up parts of that grounding cable because they like to dig.

*&^&*(^(^* is my thoughts at the moment.

[dettxw]

You need another HD box to try.

I saw no difference with my system grounded or ungrounded. I think it is more of a safety issue.

I got the original installer Premier Communications to come out and run a ground, but they only ran a wire from the multiswitch to the meter box. I guess I should have insisted on a cable grounding block but what I was really after was a dish alignment for 103 - had low readings due to my slimline being installed before the new satellite went active. The alignment took the tech no time at all and I gave him a nice tip (it was just before Christmas).

(Assuming that you being a dbstalk person have other bases covered like signal strengths.)

[Pink Fairy]

Well, I figured the problem could be related to the grounding as it did not start happening till that day. Signal is great across the board on all satellites.

[dettxw]

I'm confused (happens often). Have you ever had good HD without pixelation?

Is the problem after installing a multiswitch? If so, have you ever tried bypassing it?

(BTW, I know a lady engineer that raises Great Danes that works for an aerospace company - you don't don't drive down here from Tulsa do you?)

[Pink Fairy]

(Nope, and I am certainly not an engineer! Although my danes are my kids!)

Multiswitch was installed when the 5 LNB dish was installed. Worked fine and awesome (Had one service call to realign 103b when it was moved slightly) until I had the tech come out and ground the dish.

I have had plenty of pixel free HD! Until this last week!

Heh.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Going by the grounding requirements FAQ post:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=941620#post941620

In addition to grounding for the dish itself, the coax coming off the dish should be going through a ground block. Either the ground wire from the dish can go into the ground block, or they can both go separately to a common ground.

Edit to add: I'm no expert on this sort of thing, I'm going entirely off of what the stuff in that post says.

[dettxw]

(Nope, and I am certainly not an engineer! Although my danes are my kids!)

Multiswitch was installed when the 5 LNB dish was installed. Worked fine and awesome (Had one service call to realign 103b when it was moved slightly) until I had the tech come out and ground the dish.

I have had plenty of pixel free HD! Until this last week!

Heh.This is a bit strange on the surface because the grounding should not affect the picture.
My first thought would be that a cable was damaged, but that probably wouldn't affect all satellites.
What happens when you disconnect the new ground? Maybe it is bad and injecting a signal into the cable shield. RG6 is just a transmission line. Got an O-scope to use and see what's there?

(I don't have any dogs, not home enough, but I do have a grandpuppy - 1/2 Cairn terrier and 1/2 Yorkie. I get to watch her for 2 weeks in April during the kids honeymoon)

[Dknow]

I've seen it happen several times that when a circuit in a home is not grounded properly that circuit will ground through the coax cable and cause interference with the signal. I would disconnect the ground at the meter box temporarily to see if that's the issue before getting a new IRD.

[houskamp]

Can you reach an end of the wire to unhook it? atleast that would be a test.. If problem goes away, you may need an electriction to check the grounding on your house..

[veryoldschool]

Not knowing what "he" did I'd:
I) check all of the connections he "touched" to see if any are loose.
2) email D* and ask them what to do [ :lol: :D ].

[erict]

My first post to chime in on. Great site.

Grounding anything in your home does not guarantee safety from lighting strikes. The purpose of grounding the dish and coax is for static discharge. During storms if there is a lot of lighting in the area it can sometimes be close enough to create static in electronic equipment. Planes even create this energy under normal flying conditions. This is why airplanes use static dis chargers on the aircraft for there on board electronics. This is why it's very important to ground your dish and coax. It gives the static buildup a path to discharge. To give you an example we are all familiar with is what happens when you drag your feet on the carpet and touch something, zap!! You just discharged all that static buildup. Last year one of my co-workers grab a different chair to sit on and within one week he had replaced his phone headset four times. We finally narrowed it down to his chair in which every time he sat in it he built up enough staic that when he picked up the phone he would get shocked and it blew the headset. This is the purpose of the grounding your satellite equipment. Dish and coax.

[John-MAVA]

gah what a lazy jerk

[swedishcancerboi]

is the ground running from the dish, or from the ground block?

switches don't have to be grounded if there is a ground block present.....

He TRENCHED the ground? sounds like a lot of work to me. would have been lazy to lay it across the ground between your house and garage or suspend it in the air.

I've seen LOTS of pixel. problems solved by removing the ground, either on the power cable of the receiver, or the 10gauge ground itself.

[Pink Fairy]

An update -

I was wrong about not going through the Multi Switch - he had.

However, as the grounding wire was only trenched about one inch below the ground, my dogs brought it to the surface simply by playing outside on Friday.

I was bringing them inside, and when they ran past the now loose wire, got twisted up in it and yanked it out of the ground all the way to the electrical box. So the pixelation was REALLY bad last night, and I called again. They escalated my account to Case Management, and now I have someone coming out on Friday.

Will have to wait till then to know anything!

[w6fxj]

Not to get too technical, but, if your signal strengths are above 90 on the 103b satellite transponders, and you have the DirecTV HD receiver connected with an HDMI cable, an AC ground loop can cause current flow through the HDMI cable shield that CAN cause digital pixelation.

The ground loop current can be strong enough to interfere with the transmission of data between the DirecTV HD receiver and your television set. If the technician grounded your dish to a defferent point than the household safety ground (the round pin on power plugs) it could be causing this. If any of your TV or audio equipment have three-prong AC plugs, or if you can anything else that is grounded, like a cable TV connection or another outside antenna, this can be the problem.

This gets hairy to correct as most people do not understand ground loops. Before I retired I made my living finding and correcting ground loops in tracking stations.

Bill

[MrCastle]

As a former professional installer, let me say that grounding a satellite system is an unecessary and time-consuming requirement that has been proven futile against high voltage. That being said, I did my best to professionally and properly ground each and every job I did because it was part of the installation code. In some cases, depending on what the system is grounded to, the very grounding itself can cause problems.

I'm not sure who placed the grounding requirements on Sat installations, but I have a feeling it was an individual or entity that thought such a requirement and factor would make home sats seem more official and proper instead of what they almost always are, which are poorly regulated, haphazardly manufactured, fly-by-night pieces of equipment.

[w6fxj]

Mr Castle

Most states in the USA adhere to the National Electric Code. Part of the code requires that outside equipment, including TV and Satellite dishes shall be installed with a safety ground attached to the same ground as the household electric distribution system. The primary reason for this requirement is to protect household residents from an accidental contact with overhead electrical transmission lines.

If during a severe storm nearby overhead electric lines fall down and contact the satellite dish, the chance of electrocution is reduced if the dish is properly grounded. The requirement is not for lightening protection as little will stop the levels of current and voltage encountered during a direct strike.

If there are no overhead electric transmission lines the need to ground the dish is lessened. However, local building inspectors and fire insurance adjusters will not look kindly at ungrounded antennas in case your house burns down. They might think it was the dish installers fault.

Yes, poor safety grounding can cause problems for people using modern technology to watch and listen to HDTV. AC ground ;loops also cause hum to be heard in audio equipment and cause rolling bars to appear in old fashioned NTSC TV screens. But, it can be corrected with the right equipment and techniques.

Bill

[MrCastle]

Mr Castle

Most states in the USA adhere to the National Electric Code. Part of the code requires that outside equipment, including TV and Satellite dishes shall be installed with a safety ground attached to the same ground as the household electric distribution system. The primary reason for this requirement is to protect household residents from an accidental contact with overhead electrical transmission lines.

If during a severe storm nearby overhead electric lines fall down and contact the satellite dish, the chance of electrocution is reduced if the dish is properly grounded. The requirement is not for lightening protection as little will stop the levels of current and voltage encountered during a direct strike.

If there are no overhead electric transmission lines the need to ground the dish is lessened. However, local building inspectors and fire insurance adjusters will not look kindly at ungrounded antennas in case your house burns down. They might think it was the dish installers fault.

Yes, poor safety grounding can cause problems for people using modern technology to watch and listen to HDTV. AC ground ;loops also cause hum to be heard in audio equipment and cause rolling bars to appear in old fashioned NTSC TV screens. But, it can be corrected with the right equipment and techniques.

Bill

I am indeed familiar with the NEC and the HSP's conviction to abide by it. I suppose I did fail to mention that I made it a point not to mount a dish where overhead lines posed a hazard.

Grounding can be a massive pain in the ass, especially when the office has given you 6 jobs for the day, totalling 14 hours worth of work and the very first house you land on is owned by some tard who is absolutely adamant that his dish needs to be mounted in a spot that just so happens to be about as far away from a decent grounding source as you can get.

I'm gonna be slinging dirt on both sides of the fence in the discussions to come, as I think both customers and HSP's alike pose their share of idiocy.

[SDizzle]

Not knowing what "he" did I'd:
I) check all of the connections he "touched" to see if any are loose.
2) email D* and ask them what to do [ :lol: :D ].

If she looked hard enough she could find an e-mail address.....or two:lol: :lol:

[Pink Fairy]

If she looked hard enough she could find an e-mail address.....or two:lol: :lol:

Heh. Well, I got it escalated to Case Management like I wanted, so I am happy at the moment. I know it will be fixed because they have to!

And MrCastle - I understand that you feel it is unecessary, but I do not. The installers all chose to install the dish far away from an easy grounding point even though there was not any LOS issues.

I want mine to be as it is supposed to be - it is required by law.

When they remove my dish from that requirement, the grounding can be removed.

[swedishcancerboi]

Why didn't you call Premier when the system started acting up? The tech would have been right back out there to remove the grounds off your IRD's or whatever else to fix the problem.

You do realize that we are required to return if a problem remains, don't you? Or did you think the guy was that lazy? They'll send someone else.

[Tom Robertson]

I am indeed familiar with the NEC and the HSP's conviction to abide by it. I suppose I did fail to mention that I made it a point not to mount a dish where overhead lines posed a hazard.

Grounding can be a massive pain in the ass, especially when the office has given you 6 jobs for the day, totalling 14 hours worth of work and the very first house you land on is owned by some tard who is absolutely adamant that his dish needs to be mounted in a spot that just so happens to be about as far away from a decent grounding source as you can get.

I'm gonna be slinging dirt on both sides of the fence in the discussions to come, as I think both customers and HSP's alike pose their share of idiocy.

There are many, many people who feel grounding is unnecessary simply "because it worked for them..." And many times it will work.

The thing is, for logical discussions, normally all it takes is one example to prove the case. And there have been many examples where proper grounding has worked solving problems. So, you may rightly think it is unnecessary some of the time, the risks are high enough that one should never skip that step.

Remember, the code is not written by ignerts who put grounding in just for the fun of it. Series electrical engineering goes into the code. My own EE training screams "ground faults" and "floating grounds" whenever someone says "grounding is not needed." Floating grounds are bad, I don't need to know anything more. :)

Tho I do have one more tidbit. The local Ironwood supervisor came to my house one day for an install. We spent a long time chatting about war stories of installing. (He has started to send all his newbies to do my installs and tells them to ask me all the questions they have--that I'll know the right answer and be the most knowledgeble install they'll likely ever have.) :)

Anyway, we talked about grounding, its need, how it helps, etc. One of the key factors, especially with the larger dishes is wind driven static potential. The large surface loves to build static charge when the wind is just right. Static charge that can discharge to ground if the system is grounded or to the receiver if the system is not properly grounded. If it discharges to the receiver, you could see an $450 (DIRECTV cost) receiver die.

Yes, installers are frequently given nearly impossible install schedules. But that doesn't mean you should skip the legal and the technically correct steps.

Cheers,
Tom

[Annihilator31]

I am indeed familiar with the NEC and the HSP's conviction to abide by it. I suppose I did fail to mention that I made it a point not to mount a dish where overhead lines posed a hazard.

Grounding can be a massive pain in the ass, especially when the office has given you 6 jobs for the day, totalling 14 hours worth of work and the very first house you land on is owned by some tard who is absolutely adamant that his dish needs to be mounted in a spot that just so happens to be about as far away from a decent grounding source as you can get.

I'm gonna be slinging dirt on both sides of the fence in the discussions to come, as I think both customers and HSP's alike pose their share of idiocy. I believe that it's required purely for "Protect Your Ass from Law Suites" purposes only! Besides, the best protection is a good indoor surge protector!

[veryoldschool]

Besides, the best protection is a good indoor surge protector!
!rolling

[joe diamond]

About the static buildup.

A story I got from from a knowledgeable source while he was on his first Scotch is that the idea of grounding dish antennae came from the early DEW LINE radar program. Really large ( many yards not meters wide) steel radar disks were exposed to high winds for months at a time. When techs arrived to service them they got a nasty...wait for it...a nasty shock. After they improved the ground system for the large steel rotating dish the techs stopped being shocked.

And so, boys and girls, that is why we ground the little dish antennae you see around the planet. It is to remind up of what was necessary to keep the godless commies on the other side of the DEW LINE.

Who's an old fart?.....What was the question...?

Joe

[Pink Fairy]

Why didn't you call Premier when the system started acting up? The tech would have been right back out there to remove the grounds off your IRD's or whatever else to fix the problem.

You do realize that we are required to return if a problem remains, don't you? Or did you think the guy was that lazy? They'll send someone else.

Because "Our systems are currently updating" and they could not send someone else back out. So I waited a bit before calling back.

And honestly, I am very bad about confrontation, in person. Here, I will tell you exactly what I think!

But in person, I just dont have the fillintheblank to argue. My husband will be home Friday though, so he can take it up with the guy if need be.

Hmm wonder if you have been to my house at some point! ( I have three great danes if that helps!)

[swedishcancerboi]

Because "Our systems are currently updating" and they could not send someone else back out. So I waited a bit before calling back.

And honestly, I am very bad about confrontation, in person. Here, I will tell you exactly what I think!

But in person, I just dont have the fillintheblank to argue. My husband will be home Friday though, so he can take it up with the guy if need be.

Hmm wonder if you have been to my house at some point! ( I have three great danes if that helps!)


You shouldn't have asked......................

Your dish is mounted on your detached little garage, you have overhead powerlines, your switch is located on your house. The ground wire is dropped straight down from the dish (honestly don't remember if it was a ground block the wire is attached to or the J-Pipe itself, it was a BAD day.....don't ask) to where it is trenched across the gate, around the chimney and then trenched to the house ground. Your only other option to trenching the ground was to run the ground along with your coax, and honestly, I'm not a big fan of running a ground wire through the air.

I'm sorry it seems shotty to you.......you have some tough ground to trench and I did what I could. You gotta understand......some days are good and some are bad. I'll admit, yours could definately be better, but the ground is ran as well as it could without completely redoing your install and you are not gonna find anyone that will WILLINGLY redo an entire install, especially like yours, for the price of a service call. Let's be honest, it just doesn't pay and it's all about time and money. I told you, if you would have just called again, after systems were back up and running, I would have come back out and we would do it the way you want. You definately caught me on a bad day......

If you really want someone to reinstall the system, setup a mover's connection and any tech would be more than willing to move the dish, straighten everything up, and whatever else you need.

It's a small world.........Let me know and we'll set it straight. Without any "confrontation." No need to argue, just a matter of COMMUNICATING about what you would like done and what we can do to satisfy those needs.

[Pink Fairy]

I had to take a moment before responding because now I am sorry that I asked.

I will just say that I am sorry you were having a bad day, and if you feel I was attacking you personally.

I am going to just go away now, because otherwise I will just end up getting more upset.

[veryoldschool]

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[Pink Fairy]

The only reason I even care about this is because it was suggested as a trouble shooting step for my pixelation issues. So I tried to get it fixed because grounding is definately something I do not know enough about to attempt.

Honestly, if my dogs had not dug up the cable so easily, I would not have cared. But they did, and got tangled in it.

I mentioned the relocation only because previous techncians have stated that it needed to be. But all have said it would be too much work.

So, that leaves me in the middle, with still an even bigger pixelation problem than before the dish was grounded, and I am not supposed to be mad?

You have my respect for doing the job you do, seriously. But I spared bitching at you when you were there about the problem simply because I figured it would be easy and you would be out of there quickly. Which you were - like 15 minutes.

[jimmyj]

I am indeed familiar with the NEC and the HSP's conviction to abide by it. I suppose I did fail to mention that I made it a point not to mount a dish where overhead lines posed a hazard.

Grounding can be a massive pain in the ass, especially when the office has given you 6 jobs for the day, totalling 14 hours worth of work and the very first house you land on is owned by some tard who is absolutely adamant that his dish needs to be mounted in a spot that just so happens to be about as far away from a decent grounding source as you can get.

I'm gonna be slinging dirt on both sides of the fence in the discussions to come, as I think both customers and HSP's alike pose their share of idiocy.

i with you that is why i have left the biz and am sell everything !:hurah:

[jimmyj]

sounds like a charge back issue to me ! calldtv and complain some more you will get what you want and the installer will get scr-wed !

[Pink Fairy]

That is not my intention, nor is it good karma to do something like that.

I have not filed any type of complaint - and I do not plan to.

[jimmyj]

most co is does not matter it a charge back issue for the installer just calling in set it in motion unless you call the installer direct !first

[swedishcancerboi]

Pink, as I mentioned before, I would highly recommend setting up a mover's connection, that will pay what ever tech arrives plenty of cash to relocate/rewire that dish.

Don't worry about upsetting me, I have recently decided that I don't give two s**ts about Premier and honestly, you have all the right in the world to be upset. You have officially been screwed by the system (whether that was anyone's intention or not) and wish you best of luck in resolving this matter. I'm still trying to figure out why your dish was put where it was in the first place. That's when you got screwed.

Don't worry about hurting my feelings, I can guarantee, out of the 200+ customers I deal with every month, I'm sure at least a handful have some type of complaint about me. After all, no one is perfect.

But enough BS, Back to your problem......

Have you tried removing the ground from the IRD power cords? You would be surprised. That might help you. Also, go ahead and try removing the ground from the house ground outside. If that does help, perhaps we could get by with using a different ground on the house (even though the one that it is currently attached is the best.........).

Let us know!

[richlife]

Instead of dumping all your crap on the OP (who you admit to screwing over because time is money), why don't you call and just go fix the job? As it stands, you are apparently one of those installers who takes advantage of your customer who can't do for themselves and don't fully understand what you do to them. I mostly do my own work, I do fully understand all this, and I have seen good and bad installers. Some I make sure they do it right, I provide information needed to those who don't know it, and a few I have just thrown out or got them out of my house a soon as possible because they respond as you have -- don't care and give me the money.

Pink, as I mentioned before, I would highly recommend setting up a mover's connection, that will pay what ever tech arrives plenty of cash to relocate/rewire that dish.

Don't worry about upsetting me, I have recently decided that I don't give two s**ts about Premier and honestly, you have all the right in the world to be upset. You have officially been screwed by the system (whether that was anyone's intention or not) and wish you best of luck in resolving this matter. I'm still trying to figure out why your dish was put where it was in the first place. That's when you got screwed.

Don't worry about hurting my feelings, I can guarantee, out of the 200+ customers I deal with every month, I'm sure at least a handful have some type of complaint about me. After all, no one is perfect.

But enough BS, Back to your problem......

Have you tried removing the ground from the IRD power cords? You would be surprised. That might help you. Also, go ahead and try removing the ground from the house ground outside. If that does help, perhaps we could get by with using a different ground on the house (even though the one that it is currently attached is the best.........).

Let us know!

[Pink Fairy]

I was thinking about just having the tech remove the ground Friday. My goal is to fix the pixelation.

And I agree! I don't get why the dish was placed that either! And when I got the 5 LNB dish, the guy was putting the mount up and told me that it needed to be relocated, but he was already up there.

I was like *)&*(&(*.

And I will let you know.

[glennb]

gah what a lazy jerk

You were so lazy you couldn't even bother to capitalize the first word in the sentence or put a period at the end.
:)

[swedishcancerboi]

Instead of dumping all your crap on the OP (who you admit to screwing over because time is money), why don't you call and just go fix the job? As it stands, you are apparently one of those installers who takes advantage of your customer who can't do for themselves and don't fully understand what you do to them. I mostly do my own work, I do fully understand all this, and I have seen good and bad installers. Some I make sure they do it right, I provide information needed to those who don't know it, and a few I have just thrown out or got them out of my house a soon as possible because they respond as you have -- don't care and give me the money.



Hey now, calm down. I am more than willing to fix her system. (Hence the posts of "Why didn't you call back, he'll return") When I arrived, she simply told me that she just wanted it grounded. She had mentioned that several techs stated it needed to be relocated. The dish is fine where it is, there is no LOS issues, the mount is sturdy, the only problem is the ground is not nearby. If I remember correctly, she never asked me to relocate the dish, she just wanted it grounded (correct me if I'm wrong Pink). In turn, I did what was asked.

Don't come attacking me when you don't know the situation. I didn't screw her over, she (admittingly) got screwed over by the original installation, not by me running a ground wire (which was all that was asked).

Of course it's all about the money, it's my job. This is not a hobby of mine to drive around fixin' problems all day. If someone paid you $20 to go to someone's house and then you found out that you would spend at least that in material......would you be happy?

I'm just gonna leave it at that before we turn this into a fire fight. I know that my customers appreciate the work I do, (I have been doing this for a while) and you need to understand that it is not a perfect world, everyone is allowed to have a bad day. I can give everyone good service, but unfortunately not everyone will get "100%."

[richlife]

Hey now, calm down. I am more than willing to fix her system. ...Don't come attacking me when you don't know the situation.

You're right -- I don't know the complete situation. To me, your posts are contradictory and you pushed responsibility for what you did back on Pink. Bad days suck, but you own the work (or should). Hot buttons you pushed: excuses, inadequate work, failure to communicate (after the fact is too late), you left a situation that was dangerous to her dogs (ever see a dog's leg amputated by a wire wrapped around it? how about a strangled dog?). You own the work, you own the responsibility. Being paid for your work is important, I agree -- "bad days" are just an excuse.

Were it me, I would be willing, based on your posts, to let you come back assuming we talked through what your solutions would be. If you think my reaction is overboard, then I'll fall back on the "excuse" that I don't know the situation.

[Pink Fairy]

Well, it won't be necessary for Swedish to come back today.

A tech called - showed up - And I am not feeling well, so I was sitting in the living room wrapped in a blanket - And he came in from looking at the dish and goes "Why is it installed on your garage?" I was like - I have NO CLUE!!

He called his sup and talked for about 30 minutes - I don't know what they worked out, but the tech is currently relocating the dish and re doing the wires.

Made a pot of coffee for him because it is rather chilly - but I am off to shop for a camera! Will update you all later!

[richlife]

:)

Well, it won't be necessary for Swedish to come back today.

A tech called - showed up - And I am not feeling well, so I was sitting in the living room wrapped in a blanket - And he came in from looking at the dish and goes "Why is it installed on your garage?" I was like - I have NO CLUE!!

He called his sup and talked for about 30 minutes - I don't know what they worked out, but the tech is currently relocating the dish and re doing the wires.

Made a pot of coffee for him because it is rather chilly - but I am off to shop for a camera! Will update you all later!

[Pink Fairy]

Well, let's see if I can get the pics to insert right, and we will be good! Played with the camera some - The shots of just the mast - that is where the dish used to be.

Then there are pics of the dish, ground, and multiswitch as it is now.

[w6fxj]

Pink - Did the relocation fix the problem? Just curious. Bill

[Pink Fairy]

Unfortunately, no it did not.

So we talked to Case Management again - who said to try a different HDMI cable - no problem, we have the one from the PS3 to try.

Same problem. So we tried component and our receiver went psychotic. It would stay on the picture for about 30 seconds, pixelate and then go to the lovely blue screen with the TV indicating it was not receiving a signal.

So we called Case back this morning, and they are sending another tech out, even though I would think that everything now points to the receiver being the problem, but whatever....

[w6fxj]

Pink - I think you still have an AC ground loop then. Especially if things acted up worse when you connected to the TV with component cables. The AC current flows through the shields interferring with the signal.

Do you have a cable TV line connected or an outside TV antenna connected to the TV? If so disconnect them to see it that is where the AC current is coming from. Also check to see if any thing that is connected to the TV, DirecTV receiver, or a AV receiver if you listen to Dolby digital, that have three prong AC plugs.

Ones that have a round pin in addition to the two flat prongs. If so disconnect the power plug and try things again. If you have to have that power plug to watch TV see if you can find a three prong to two prong adapter that is used to connect a new three-prong AC plug to an old-fashioned two-prong AC socket. The adapter has a green wire that normally would be connected to a screw on the outlet. Leave that loose to see if that AC plug is causing the ground loop.

Try to connect just the DirecTV receiver direct to the HDTV and make sure there is nothing else connected to either device. If the problem clears connect things back up one at a time to isolate what is caiusing the ground loop. Let us know because there are a number of things that can fix pesky ground loops.

Bill

[Pink Fairy]

Yeah, the general manager for Premier came out today. Nice guy.

Had some little doohickey that said our house has an open ground - and that is what is causing the problem.

He said he left the ground on the dish because of liability - fine with me to be honest.

Husband will just have to deal with pixelation when the microwave is on!


At least, until we contact an electrician - and honestly do not know when that will be.

[Tom Robertson]

Yeah, the general manager for Premier came out today. Nice guy.

Had some little doohickey that said our house has an open ground - and that is what is causing the problem.

He said he left the ground on the dish because of liability - fine with me to be honest.

Husband will just have to deal with pixelation when the microwave is on!


At least, until we contact an electrician - and honestly do not know when that will be.

You might be able to have some friendly and handy person track that down for you. Perhaps for a 6 pack and/or Pizza. :)

(I'd be there in a heartbeat, except the drive is MANY heartbeats away.) :)

[Pink Fairy]

~laugh~ Salt Lake is a little too far of a drive to Tulsa, or I would glady take you up on that offer!

And if I find that person I will offer that!