reception and menu problems (Merged Posts)

[CHARLES NELSON]

Is it common for the 811 unit to have very poor HD over-the-air reception sensitivity? I live about 60 miles from the main transmitter for digital in my area. Out of 10 HD channels, only two are consistently of good quality...two other channels seem to decrease and increase in quality over a one to two month period. I have the tallest, largest, and highest dB UHF antenna in the neighborhood. Four of my neighbors have built-in HD receivers in their TVs, they receive all ten channels without a problem, even though they have small outdoor antennas
I have talked with techs from several stations, they insist that their transmission power is identical with the 'good' stations and they broadcast from the same tower at about the same height.

I am also having problems with the Menu via the 811. When I turn on the unit,
I usually can only get the 'ALL' channel listing, pushing the remote button to get the 'Favorite' listings...just displays a 'No Information' on all channels and time columns. However, I can change the channels and the correct information is displayed on the Momentary Channel Information display.

I get the feeling that the 811 unit is slowly developing more and more glitches.

Are the above two problems typical of the 811?

[logray]

First of all, welcome to dbstalk!

Secondly, your issue with the "no info" showing on all channels is a well known bug. It has been corrected in the newest version of software 3.34 - which is currently being spooled to receivers. If your 811 hasn't received it yet make sure you leave it in standby and it will soon receive the update. According to reports of users who have received the new software, it has drastically reduced or eliminated the possibility of you seeing no info on all channels in the EPG.

As for the OTA reception, I too have noticed that the ATSC tuner in the 811 does not perform as well as the other set top boxes and PCI cards I have. It seems to be a little more sensitive and slower tuning than most, but it is pretty consistently about 5% lower signal than my other receivers. Other than that I don't have any complaints.

As for the some months working better than others this is usually due to poor weather conditions in the fall and winter and/or trees getting their leaves in the spring.

Even though your neighbors may have antennas with less gain, perhaps they are in a "hot spot" or have better line of sight than you do. When you're 60 miles out, it can be a hit and miss thing sometimes.

I'm nearly 70 miles away without line of sight and I can't reliably get any channel less than about 400kw. Sometimes adding a signal amp or a pre amp can help low signal situations. In other situations a second identical antenna stacked vertically or horizontally can help.

[Ron Barry]

:welcome_s Charles

Well it sounds like you have something to go by. I am by no means and OTA expert and logray made some good points.

OTA is an art and takes some patience sometimes. Couple things to try to see if you can improve matters.

1) Do you have a pre-amp? If not, you might try one and see if that improves things.

2) What is the signal strength of the channels you do get? Is the signal jumping around more than a few points?

3) The 811 is more sensitive to multi-pathing. Since your neighbors have different configuration You might be running into multi-pathing while they are not.

4) Do you get any signal if you manually try and add a channel that you cannot?

5) Have you checked all the connections to make sure they are clean? Any changing from RG-6 to RG-59 occuring.

6) Are you diplexing your anntenna or do you have a straight shot from antenna to your 811? If you are diplexing, can you test a straight connection to the antenna. You loose a lot of points.

7) Any neighbors have Dish and an antenna set up? if so, take the 811 over and do a swap if they will let you. This way you can see if the 811 picks the same channels with the same configuration. You could also take a tuner from the neighbors and try it on yours.

8) Might want to think about duplicating what your neighbors have.

9) Check out the avsforum local HD area. You might find some 811 related posts that might help.

[CHARLES NELSON]

Starting about a month ago, when I turned on the Program Guide, the guide menu would display...but all channels and info. shown would display "NO Data"...and the channel <- -> buttons would be disabled.
I then had to turn the unit off then back on...usually the lock-up would be gone.
But slowly the off/on would not reset the unit as time went on.
I down loaded the new software upgrade...and for a couple of days...the program guide worked correct...displaying the channels and info...along with the PiP display window.
But after three days, the new upgrade Program Guide is now totally locked up...the same old "No Data" is displayed and the only way to get out of the Program Guide is to shut the unit off then back on.
But the problem is now Worse than before...because the Favorites listing is no longer reachable...I have to either channel advance individually through ALL the many channels on the All List or punch in the channel number on the remote.

Is my 811 unit slowly falling apart electronically?
My retailer has told me that Dish will NOT fix or replace a unit that is under lease...
I am on a lease program rather than purchased the unit. I am thinking about switching to Direct TV.

[CHARLES NELSON]

I should have included additional info...
1) I have the highest antenna in the neighborhood with the best clear-straight line of sight to the transmission towers..of any house in the area, most of the others have some trees between their antennas and the tower(s)
2) my UHF antenna is a large 'bed-spring'-bow-tie type and larger than anything in the neighborhood...it has a dB rating two to three times anything else in the area (when I bought it, I was told that it was the highest dB pro-sumer model
available)
3) I have a high dB pre-amp installed
4) the transmission tower channels are mostly rated at 800KW each...

My neighbors have medium sized standard VHF-UHF roof antennas, but
all of their HDTVs have built-in OTA receivers...they all have good reception on all of the HDTV channels!...I get only three out of ten if I am lucky...
And two of the three are not consistently the same channels.

[Jason Nipp]

My retailer has told me that Dish will NOT fix or replace a unit that is under lease...That is not true.

This sounds like a variation of the No info Bug, please press Sys-info button and tell me what software version your 811 is running.

[RJRobb]

Program Guide is now totally locked up...the same old "No Data" is displayed and the only way to get out of the Program Guide is to shut the unit off then back on.
But the problem is now Worse than before...because the Favorites listing is no longer reachable...I have to either channel advance individually through ALL the many channels on the All List or punch in the channel number on the remote.


This sounds pretty close to the problem I'm seeing:
When the "no info" problem occurs using the EPG, I cannot change favorite lists using the guide button, or move through the program guide. I can manually change channels. This problem starts when using OTA channels or turning the receiver off with the last tuned channel being OTA. I tried letting the receiver sit on a Dish channel for over an hour but the EPG did not update, everything was "no info available". Have to soft-boot to correct.

I had seen the favorites problem a couple releases ago. P333 had the "no info" problem when tuned to OTA channels but would update when I went back to the Dish channels. The problem with the favorites and not being able to toggling through them with the guide button, was present in early software releases but not p333.

[Ron Barry]

Are you saying you are seeing this issue with 334 robb? what you described sounds like the no-info problem and it was in 333, just harder to get to trigger. Pre 333 it was a lot easier.

[CHARLES NELSON]

Yes, I upgraded to 334, and I now get the PiP display in the EPG, but
the EPG is totally locked in NO INFO.

I have unplugged the unit and let it sit for a day...no change.

I have left the unit 'on' ...still no change...

It is as if the unit were permanently locked out of the EPG...

This problem started in V 333 and still occurs in 334!

[olgeezer]

After the second soft reboot since 334 (last week) both the unit at home and work have been flawless. Have tried to watch a lot of OTA and switch during commercials (this is tough with an old man's bladder) then access guide, access guide immediately and anything I felt was normal operation including checking future programming with no problems. When I say something like this, it is usually the calm before the storm

[RJRobb]

Are you saying you are seeing this issue with 334 robb? what you described sounds like the no-info problem and it was in 333, just harder to get to trigger. Pre 333 it was a lot easier.

Yes, I've seen the "no info" problem in P333 but did not have the Favorites lock up. In P334 I see both, and when the Favorites lock up the only thing I can do is reboot.

Maybe they're not related, but I've always seen them occur together.

[Grampaw]

I get the same thing with updated software on the 811 (P334).

EPG locked on ALL CHAN, every time slot NO INFO. This is the third time today, after watching OTA Locals. Latest was after Super Bowl. The only way I found to correct the problem is re-boot the receiver. The Browse button, and the info button work normally, so I can see what's coming up on the current channel.

Have not seen this problem on the TV in the family room, but it has no antenna connected, so all locals are off the sat.

It's not a major problem, but is kind of annoying when I want to see what else is on.

I hope the ViP-211 doesn't have this problem.

Walt

[olgeezer]

The unit at home, again displayed the no info problem on Monday. Left it alone, turned the machine off that evening. When i turned it on Tuesday, had to do a soft reboot to get the guide. Information banner on program viewed works fine.

[olgeezer]

At work, getting severe video stutter on Discovery HD Theater. Had to soft reboot too remedy