811, switch and lost satelites.

[Zvi]

Hi All,

May be someone heard or had this problem...
Equipment is 811 + Samsung DLP via HDMI/DVI
Basically the story goes like this. For a while, after turning on the receiver it'd display satelite signal lost message, then after some time it'd go to normal. Since I am not really watching much of TV I never really bothered with this problem since it was intermitent.

Week ago, while I was watching something I tried to switch to 107, got the msg. Satelite signal lost, satelite 110, teansponder etc.. Eventually it said unable to acquire signal, call tech support.
I went to Menu/6/1/1 where it showed 2 satelites 110 and 119. However 110 was unable to lock the signal. I did test switch thingy. Interestingly enough now 119 got lost, 110 came back.
Since I had voom channels installation scheduled in 2 days, I decided to wait for the guy.

The installer comes in(last week, thursday), installs the new dish, I told him about the problem, but after installation all was ok. I had 3 satelites, 110, 119 and 129, I mean in the point dish menu. Ok, cool. It worked for 1 day. Saturday, during the day I turn on the system, blah... 129 is lost. So is 119. I do check switch. 110 shows twice on 2 differnt switch slots in the menu. Polarity - even.

I call tech sup again. Guy came in on tuesday. Checked things out, replaces cable connectors, explaining that those were for cable TV, and since satelite used higher frequencies the symptoms I observed were a known problem. We tested the whole thing few times. All fine, I have my 3 satelites in point dish menu screen, 110, 119, 129. Today, which is wednesday evening, the same thing all over. I turn on the system, all seems to be fine, while browsing the channels on one of them I got the error screen, 110 is lost...

I do switch test, 119, 129 are lost... 110 shows in 1st and 3rd slots in the switch screen menu, middle slot is empty alltogether.

The tech. rep mentioned that if the problem persisted it was probably because of my bad cabling? I've had direct TV before, and VOOM after that for a while. Never had anything like this. So, I am having hard time believing it is the cable that is causing all this. Especially with this weird switch behavior. Cable from the dishes to the huose is new, installed by Dish ppl. From the outer wall to the TV it's the original cable, but I really doubt there's special cable for Dish satelites, at least I've never seen anything like that. Just rca cable imho.

Am I wrong here?
Does anyone know what can be the reason for all this? Dishes? Receiver itself?
I have ViP 622 installation scheduled for 02/25, but the thing is I have to commit for 18 month to dish. Wouldn't be a problem in general but at this point...

P.S. And the latest experiments... Called support. I was asked to disconnect cale from receiver, connect, run the test. After the test 110 got lost, 119 came in. And in the setup screen 119 shows in 3 slots 1,2,4 and 3rd one has an X in it. Exit the setup menu, got the same 015 error screen, trying to acquire satelite signal for 119. Once tests are done the box goes into off air mode? That's the first time I saw that reaction.

[logray]

Well you definately have something strange happening with your hardware. It sounds like it's going to be tough to narrow down.

I would bet you have a switch going bad, or perhaps a cable that is shorting out somewhere. There is also a possibility that one of the LNB's are on their way out. IMHO, replacing the connector as the installer did is not going to solve this type of problem unless one was improperly terminated (and was causing a short).

Something sounds a little funny though with your installation. You say you see polarity even? When the check switch screen was working normally did you see something like this:

110 110 119 119 129 129
even odd even odd even odd

And then you are saying you saw something like this later?:

119 119 X 119 129 129
even odd ? ? even odd

This would indicate a broken switch or perhaps incompatible LNB's used together - such as DP or DPP being used together with legacy equipment.

[Zvi]

Thanks for help :)

When all is ok swithched are like this

110 119 129
Don't remember polarity honestly.

For now they're like this

119 119 X 119
even even X Odd

I think tha tit's the switch too. Considering that the guys said that the switch is integrated with the dish I figure the best bet is to replace the dish, no?

P.S. What are LBN's, DP and DPP? Or is ther a faw where I can loo all that up? I'd rather be more educated by the time technicians come in.

[logray]

Thanks for help :)

When all is ok swithched are like this

110 119 129
Don't remember polarity honestly.

For now they're like this

119 119 X 119
even even X Odd

I think tha tit's the switch too. Considering that the guys said that the switch is integrated with the dish I figure the best bet is to replace the dish, no?

P.S. What are LBN's, DP and DPP? Or is ther a faw where I can loo all that up? I'd rather be more educated by the time technicians come in.

Yeah sounds like a bad switch in the LNB. LNBF stands for low noise blockdown filter or something like that. It's the acutal "antenna" portion of the dish that picks up the radio waves from space. You probably have a dish pro (DP) setup, since starting with DP they integrated a multiswitch into the LNB, allowing you to run one cable to a receiver and get more than one satellite (such as with a DP Twin). Dish pro plus (DPP) takes it even further by allowing you to run two tuners off the same cable.

Basically I would demand that the service tech replace the DP Twin on your Dish 500 and the multiswitch that muxes in the dish for 129, assuming that's the setup you have. Also, not 100% sure on this but IIRC you shouldn't be seeing polarity on a DP Twin, which kinda smells like you have legacy and DP mixed which will not work and could cause what you are describing (possibly legacy for 110 & 119 and DP for 129?). The way to find out would be to see what type of switch is listed in your check switch screen. Is it SW21, DP21, DP34, ...?

[Zvi]

Ok, I checked. When I turned the system on it was "broken" as yesterday. So the switch readings were

Switch SW42

Input 1 1 2 2
Satelite 119 119 X 119
Polarity even even X Odd

I run the test one more time, and now it fixed all.
Switch SW42 disappeared, instead it showed:

LNBs DPP-Twin-1 LNB(Ext) DP Feed

Input 1 1 3
Satelite 119 110 129
Polarity All All Dual

I run another check immediatelly, now I got switch SW-64
3 pairs of inputs 1 1 2A 2B 3A 3B
And 129 was lost. 110, 119 were even and odd on 1 , 1A and 2 2B respectively.
In shor tthe thing is royally mesed up.

Is that the wrong mix you mentioned in your message? From what it looks like 129 (the latest installation) is DP Feed and earlier stuff is DPP.