Slimline Dish Installation questions

[eaglesfan27]

For the last month we've been getting intermittent but worsening pixelation on our local HD channels. Not sure why I didn't call earlier, but a few nights ago I finally called DirecTV and after going through their trouble shooting, I was told by the CSR that they would send a tech out to re-align our dish.

Today, the tech came earlier than expected (was supposed to come 12PM-4 when I would have been home, but said he was told to come 8-12AM.) He talked to my wife and told her that the alignment was perfect when he arrived here. He checked all of the lines and couldn't find any issues. Therefore, he made a call to DirecTV and told my wife that he had arranged for me to get a new "Slimline dish installed" but that he couldn't get the "Slimline 5" because that was only for new installs. He also told her that the old dish might be dying and that this should clear up our pixelation issues. He said the slimline dish would be free because of our maintenance plan and this was a failure of the old dish.

Does all of that sound reasonable? I do see an order on the computer system for a free "5LNB Satelitte dish" on my account but it doesn't specify that it is a slimline on the computer. Is my understanding correct that the slimline dish will eliminate the need for broadband converters? Also, we have 2 HD-DVR's and a total of 8 lines right now. Will that cause any problems with the new dish?

Thanks for the insight. It has been awhile since I've been on the site and I'm out of touch with some of these terms.

[Mertzen]

Lazy tech really. If that was the problem then he should have installed it. He just shuffled it off to another tech.

[eaglesfan27]

Lazy tech really. If that was the problem then he should have installed it. He just shuffled it off to another tech.

He told her he didn't have any with him or he would have done it. No idea if that was the truth or not. He also said "be careful, the tech that comes on Saturday might not want to install it, but watch them and make sure they do."

[eaglesfan27]

I'm wondering if I posted this initially in the wrong forum, since I'm not the one doing the installation. If so, I apologize, but I have a few followup questions. The 2nd technician came today. He says he installed a slimline dish but not a SWM line. Is that the normal operating procedure? With the slimline dish, is it normal for 99(s) and 103(s) to be all 0's? Other than those 2, all of my signals look great - high 90's to 100, much better than what I was getting previously. Thanks for the help/info.

[miketorse]

I'm wondering if I posted this initially in the wrong forum, since I'm not the one doing the installation. If so, I apologize, but I have a few followup questions. The 2nd technician came today. He says he installed a slimline dish but not a SWM line. Is that the normal operating procedure? With the slimline dish, is it normal for 99(s) and 103(s) to be all 0's? Other than those 2, all of my signals look great - high 90's to 100, much better than what I was getting previously. Thanks for the help/info.

Is 99(s) and 103(s) really ALL zeros? It's normal for MOST of them to be zero, but not ALL. Do you get HD Locals?

[eaglesfan27]

Is 99(s) and 103(s) really ALL zeros? It's normal for MOST of them to be zero, but not ALL. Do you get HD Locals?

I do get HD Locals which are currently working well. I could have sworn they were all 0's before (but I'm probably wrong) but now most of them are 0's with a few of them being in the high 30's-low 40's, and 3 others in the high 90's on 99(s). On 103(s), I have a few in the low 20's and 1 that is 96.

Also, the tech left my old dish lying in the lawn (on the side of the house near where the dish is located) as well as the a box that has some wire connectors. Any thoughts on what I should do with that? Is DirecTV going to come looking for their old dish if I dispose of it?

[BattleZone]

It sounds like you had the old AT9 "sidecar" or "backboard" dish with the squarish reflector. They installed a Slimline dish for you, which is now the standard for all HD installs. The Slimline dish accepts 4 different LNBs, 2 of which have integrated SWM switches, and 2 are "legacy" versions, which is what you probably have. If you have any non-SWM-compatible receivers, a legacy LNB is your only option. In any case, you were already wired properly, so it doesn't matter.

As for the (s) transponders, those are Spotbeams, used for carrying local channels. It is normal to only have a couple of strong beams aimed at your area. The other transponders are zero, or a few with a bit of signal, because those beams are aimed at other areas of the country.

And you can toss your old dish; it's obsolete, and in any case, DirecTV *never* asks for a dish back.

[eaglesfan27]

Thanks. Now that you mention it, the tech did mention that my old dish was an AT9. One last question, I thought that the slimline dish eliminated the need for B-Band converters. However, the tech today said that isn't true only a SWM would do that. So, I'm assuming I should leave all of the converters connected?

[litzdog911]

Yes, you still need the BBC modules.