HD Fails - Replacing receiver

[Rockermann]

Hey Folks,

I spent about an hour on the phone yesterday with DirecTV tech support. Seems for some reason many of my HD channels are not working all of a sudden. The problem is only on ONE of my receivers. NONE of the MLB EI HD channels seem to work. I get only a black screen. No error message, no black-out message or anything. There are a couple of the channels that do get audio only. It's very strange. Some of my other HD channels work, like HBO HD (509), but others do not, including the locals. The tech on the phone tried everything he knew to do, but wit no success. As a last resort, he sent out a replacement receiver and new B-Band converters.

Now, I'm curious as to which box is getting sent out? It's the HR21 shipping now, right? I must confess, I'm not kept up recently with what is current. But I do know if I'm getting the HR21, I'm going to lose my OTA tuner. This is not good as here in Milwaukee, we still have one station (CBS) that is not available in HD over D* (no contract). So, if it is the HR21, what's the scoop on the other add-on device that will give me back OTA capabilities?

Any other thoughts as to what might be the problem? It seems to me it has to be the receiver?

Thanks for any insight.

[Stuart Sweet]

There's no saying what receiver you'll get, as it will probably be a refurb and there are a lot of HR20 refurbs in the pipeline as well as HR21s. If you do lose your OTA, I would expect that to be pretty temporary. The AM21 antenna module isn't far off, I suspect.

As far as your issue, you're right it most likely is the receiver, but it could also be wiring. Have you tried to move one of the other receivers to that spot and seeing if that works?

[Rockermann]

There's no saying what receiver you'll get, as it will probably be a refurb and there are a lot of HR20 refurbs in the pipeline as well as HR21s. If you do lose your OTA, I would expect that to be pretty temporary. The AM21 antenna module isn't far off, I suspect.

Excellent... that's good news anyway. It would be good to get a black receiver. I'll give up my OTA temporarily for that. :)

As far as your issue, you're right it most likely is the receiver, but it could also be wiring. Have you tried to move one of the other receivers to that spot and seeing if that works?

No, I haven't tried that yet. I thought about doing that yesterday but didn't get to it. I'm going to do that this evening as test. That should certainly confirm the problem one way or another.

Thanks for the reply!