Piculation HR20-700 reconditioned

[CopyCat]

We received an HR20-700 upgrade 3 weeks ago along with a slimline dish installation. Almost all my signals are over 90 and based on the HR10-250 the OTA digitals are over 90. The problem is almost every other show we record is full of piculation and audio drop outs. This happens OTA as well as the older HD channels and the newer once like food network and now we are seeing it start on shows we are watching.

Is this a receiver problem that I should report and have replaced ?

[GTS]

You obviously have a problem. Call and let D* know the situation. You are still under warranty so, whether it's a receiver or install problem, you're covered. The sooner you let them know, the sooner you get to enjoy your system.

[Hansen]

As said by the previous poster, call DirecTV and have them fix it since you're under warranty still. If all signals, especially on sat 103(c), are in the 90's, then I'd suspect a cabling or connector issue or bad BBC or maybe a multi switch issue. Do you see this on just one of the tuners or both tuners? Did they put in all new cabling or use what existed? Is OTA diplexed in?

[hdtvfan0001]

You obviously have a problem. Call and let D* know the situation. You are still under warranty so, whether it's a receiver or install problem, you're covered. The sooner you let them know, the sooner you get to enjoy your system.
The best advice.

[CopyCat]

As said by the previous poster, call DirecTV and have them fix it since you're under warranty still. If all signals, especially on sat 103(c), are in the 90's, then I'd suspect a cabling or connector issue or bad BBC or maybe a multi switch issue. Do you see this on just one of the tuners or both tuners? Did they put in all new cabling or use what existed? Is OTA diplexed in?

I called DirecTV this morning and explained the problem, they had me reset the receiver which I had already done but I did it anyway. Then we tested and noted OTA Ant 1 was zero while OTA Ant 2 was 89. Nothing we did fixed that so I suspect the receiver is the root cause.

I reconnected everything yesterday from the LNB out to the switch to the back of the receiver. The house was pre-wired correctly (Smart House) and everything goes to the smart box in a closet. I went in and reconnected everything there also since I have one of the BBCs there ahead of a diplexer for OTA. Wish I had a SWM, but the installer didn't have any on the truck at the time.

I am now on the "wait list" for an appointment next Tuesday, 4/15/2008 between 4PM and 8PM.

I just reconnected my HR10-250 and everything works great once I removed the BBCs from the circuit. Funny they just sent me a HR20-100 to replace one I purchased on e-bay that turned out to be a lease that was never turned in and they wanted it back in the worse way, I may activate that and see if the problem continues.

UPDATE: I reinstalled the HR20-700 and the problem seems to have gone away until we went to playback some shows we had recorded previously that were good recordings. Now they are full of piculation and audio dropouts. I'll let the repair folks figure this one out, but I really suspect the reason this HR20-700 was a recon was for the same intermittent problems we are seeing. Nobodies fault if it was working on the bench as it worked here for a few weeks and now the problem comes and goes.

The tech arrived at 4PM (on time) and looked at the problem and said I needed a replacement HR20-700, but he didn't have one. So here we sit waiting for one to arrive in one of his orders as he claims that he can not specify what he gets and most are HR21s.

We have been using the replacement HR20-700 for a week now and there have been no missed recording, pixulation, etc. Obviously the original I was sent had a defect. Both OTA tuners read 98 and my signal strength on sat is anywhere from 90-100 with a few exceptions which I have read about here.