Pixelating only in the evening

[greycat85]

We have a Dishnet DVR 625 receiver and the Dish outside is a Dish 1000. We get good reception until it gets to be anywhere between 4:30 pm and approximately 11:00 pm. Lately the pixelating seems to start a little later at around 5:30 pm or so. We had the DVR and Antenna installed in March of 2006 and had no problems until maybe October or November and at that time it happened very little. Now for the last month or so it had gotten much worse and happens every evening. I have checked the point dish and the signal from satellite 129 is very low around 10 and the other satellites, 110 and 119 are very good at around 50 or so. The picture seems to pixelate on the local channels but also on other channels too at this time in the evening. We never loose our picture but get pixelation and stuttering of the sound. I thought that it might be a temporary problem with them switching Satellites or whatever they are doing but now I realize that it might be something in our antenna or something. I have hesitated to call Dishnet since their customer support people are from India and they do not have a clue and I cannot understand them. Could you give me any advice on what to check or what the problem might be. I am located in Central Wisconsin and zip is 54449. Thank you.

[Ken Green]

We have a Dishnet DVR 625 receiver and the Dish outside is a Dish 1000. We get good reception until it gets to be anywhere between 4:30 pm and approximately 11:00 pm. Lately the pixelating seems to start a little later at around 5:30 pm or so. We had the DVR and Antenna installed in March of 2006 and had no problems until maybe October or November and at that time it happened very little. Now for the last month or so it had gotten much worse and happens every evening. I have checked the point dish and the signal from satellite 129 is very low around 10 and the other satellites, 110 and 119 are very good at around 50 or so. The picture seems to pixelate on the local channels but also on other channels too at this time in the evening. We never loose our picture but get pixelation and stuttering of the sound. I thought that it might be a temporary problem with them switching Satellites or whatever they are doing but now I realize that it might be something in our antenna or something. I have hesitated to call Dishnet since their customer support people are from India and they do not have a clue and I cannot understand them. Could you give me any advice on what to check or what the problem might be. I am located in Central Wisconsin and zip is 54449. Thank you.
10 on 129° is too low. 50 on 110° and 119° is acceptable, but not "very good." I average 50 on 129°, and 75-80 on 110° and 119°.

Most likely, your dish antenna needs to be re-aimed. It is possible of a bad cable, or cable end, or bad LNB, but the fact that it has progressively worsened, would indicate your dish has moved, and is continuing to. It doesn't take much to lose aim, so it may look normal to the naked eye.
I'd recommend a service call.

[greycat85]

10 on 129° is too low. 50 on 110° and 119° is acceptable, but not "very good." I average 50 on 129°, and 75-80 on 110° and 119°.

Most likely, your dish antenna needs to be re-aimed. It is possible of a bad cable, or cable end, or bad LNB, but the fact that it has progressively worsened, would indicate your dish has moved, and is continuing to. It doesn't take much to lose aim, so it may look normal to the naked eye.
I'd recommend a service call.


Hello, Thanks for your reply. I will have those things checked out. We had wondered if that was the problem. But we were wondering also why only happened in the evening after it gets dark and then goes away around 11:00 pm. We also happen to have older wiring going into our house with a couple sections joined together. When they came and put up the new antenna in March the old wiring was not replace and it may even be the wiring from our old Direct TV dish from quite a few years ago. Another question, our system is leased, do you know if will we be charged for a service call? And if it would be the LNB would we be charged for the replacement? I think our dish outside is an older Dish 1000 model. It was installed in March of 2007. Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it.

[jclewter79]

service calls are 99 dollars or 29 dollars with the dish home protection plan. the one time charge covers any and all equipment that might need to be changed. u can upgrade to the dish home protection plan and scedule the service call all in one phone call then cancel the protection plan as soon as the service call is done. that would make the total out of pocket cost 34.99 added to your bill as a one time charge. if you call the tech people are usally in the USA. If they decide it is the receiver that is bad it will be replace free but a one time two way shipping charge of 14.99 will be added to your bill. it will be shipped ups and will include return shipping for the old receiver.

[Ken Green]

Hello, Thanks for your reply. I will have those things checked out. We had wondered if that was the problem. But we were wondering also why only happened in the evening after it gets dark and then goes away around 11:00 pm. We also happen to have older wiring going into our house with a couple sections joined together. When they came and put up the new antenna in March the old wiring was not replace and it may even be the wiring from our old Direct TV dish from quite a few years ago. Another question, our system is leased, do you know if will we be charged for a service call? And if it would be the LNB would we be charged for the replacement? I think our dish outside is an older Dish 1000 model. It was installed in March of 2007. Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it.
The "nighttime" thing is a bit odd. Had you lived in other than Wisconsin, and maybe if it was during the warmer months, the added ambient moisture, coupled with the older cabling may have presented an issue. That not being the case, is it possible the majority of your TV viewing time is during that 4-11PM time? Although you may view some TV during the other hours, possibly not enough to see the constant pattern of the issue?

[jsk]

I just had a tech over to fix a problem with occasional pixelation and they replaced my switch and it improved the signal strengths. I was also occasionally getting a message about the switch being bad when I turned on my receiver.

[greycat85]

service calls are 99 dollars or 29 dollars with the dish home protection plan. the one time charge covers any and all equipment that might need to be changed. u can upgrade to the dish home protection plan and scedule the service call all in one phone call then cancel the protection plan as soon as the service call is done. that would make the total out of pocket cost 34.99 added to your bill as a one time charge. if you call the tech people are usally in the USA. If they decide it is the receiver that is bad it will be replace free but a one time two way shipping charge of 14.99 will be added to your bill. it will be shipped ups and will include return shipping for the old receiver.

Hello, Thanks for your reply and the advice about the dish home protection plan and the fact that the tech people are in the USA. I don't think it is the reciever but the fact that you only have to pay for the shipping is good if it ends up being that. The only thing then is that I would have to put the programs that I have on my DVR that I don't want to loose on DVD's which I know how to do. Thanks again for the information.

[greycat85]

The "nighttime" thing is a bit odd. Had you lived in other than Wisconsin, and maybe if it was during the warmer months, the added ambient moisture, coupled with the older cabling may have presented an issue. That not being the case, is it possible the majority of your TV viewing time is during that 4-11PM time? Although you may view some TV during the other hours, possibly not enough to see the constant pattern of the issue?

Hello, I had thought of the temperature getting colder being the problem but the fact that the problem goes away later at night when the temperature is lower kind of cancelled that out. Also in the morning when it is even colder the problem does not happen. My husband has been off work since December and watches TV all day long we know that it only occurs during that time. We also wondered if our dusk to dawn yard light coming on that is close to the dish was the problem but that light is on all night long and early morning so that seems to not be the problem and it never has caused problems before. Now last evening and the evening before it was not as bad at all with only a couple of times that it pixelated. Kind of strange now again since the outside temperature has been warmer lately. So it still is a mystery. I see in another answer that I got that the person mentioned that the switch might be the problem. We have on a very rare occasion have the message come on that there is a problem with the switch but then the message goes away immediately and everything is fine. This has happened maybe 3 times. I have done the "check switch thing at that time and many times when it is pixelating and it is aways ok. Thanks again for your advice and ideas.

[greycat85]

I just had a tech over to fix a problem with occasional pixelation and they replaced my switch and it improved the signal strengths. I was also occasionally getting a message about the switch being bad when I turned on my receiver.

Hello, Thanks for your answer. We have had that message come on that there is a problem with your switch very rarely. Maybe only 3 times and it only happens for a second and goes away and I have run the check switch thing and it is always ok. Thanks again for your reply. The switch could be a problem too. Thanks.

[jclewter79]

I forgot about that. I had the swith thing too. Never had the pixilating thing thought. Anyways, the swith thigh started getting more and more frequent until I finally lost one of the sats alltogheter. Very annoying when you can only watch half of your channels until a tech can make it out. Also, I have had my 625 replaced once and the only way to save anything off the hard drive is to record it to a VCR or DVD recorder and then you have to do it in real time no quick transfer. After you do that their is no way to transfer back to the new one. I hated to lose all of my recorded thing but not bad enough that I would have pulled out a DVD to watch any of it. The HD DVRs have the external hard drive capability but they are the only ones. Hope this helps

[greycat85]

I forgot about that. I had the swith thing too. Never had the pixilating thing thought. Anyways, the swith thigh started getting more and more frequent until I finally lost one of the sats alltogheter. Very annoying when you can only watch half of your channels until a tech can make it out. Also, I have had my 625 replaced once and the only way to save anything off the hard drive is to record it to a VCR or DVD recorder and then you have to do it in real time no quick transfer. After you do that their is no way to transfer back to the new one. I hated to lose all of my recorded thing but not bad enough that I would have pulled out a DVD to watch any of it. The HD DVRs have the external hard drive capability but they are the only ones. Hope this helps

Hello, Thanks for your reply. I am going to have to record the programs off the DVR to a DVD recorder and my husband had quite a few so it will take some time. I want to do that before I call a Tech so I can be sure that I have it done in case I have to get a different 625. It is annoying that I have to do it in real time. But I suppose we can watch one channel while I record the stuff off of the DVR. I suppose sooner or later I will get a HD tv and will then upgrade to the HD DVR. Thanks again for your rely.

[jclewter79]

no problem

[Mertzen]

Probably a voltage problem where bad power creeps into the switch or LNB. Disconnect everything and then plug in one component at a time. Once it starts pixelating you'll have the bad component.

[SpencerKat]

I had exactly the same problem several years ago, with the pixelation occurring only in the evening. After reading many suggestions, I simply installed a new LNB, and the problem went away.

Richard

[greycat85]

I had exactly the same problem several years ago, with the pixelation occurring only in the evening. After reading many suggestions, I simply installed a new LNB, and the problem went away.

Richard
Hello, Thanks for the suggestions. I will check that out. Just wondering. Did you ever figure out why it occured just in the evening hours? I am just curious. It seems so strange. Thanks again.

[greycat85]

Probably a voltage problem where bad power creeps into the switch or LNB. Disconnect everything and then plug in one component at a time. Once it starts pixelating you'll have the bad component.

Hello, Thanks also for the suggestion. We will do that. Thank you.