721 w/Legacy Dish 500 help

[Pizzaman]

I have a Dish 500 Twin LNBF with one feed connected - no switches.

I recently replaced my 4900 receiver with a DishPVR 721.

I plan on running another cable from the second port on the LNBF to the 721 but for now I just have the one connected.  The 721 shows that I have a twin LNBF and "sees" both birds fine but on some channels I get a " lost lock" message.  Also, I get a "legacy matrices do not match" message (which is because of the unconnected port, I guess).

Anyway, I have a couple of questions.  Is the "lost lock" caused from not running the second cable?  Also, would I be better off upgrading to a DishPro LNBF?  My cable run is just a bit over 100 ft. and I do experience quite a bit of pixellization.  Signal strengths are in the 70-95 range.

 

[Pizzaman]

Hmmmm.....
After further investigation, I've found that the channels that are losing lock are all on the same transponder (119-06).
I checked the signal strength and sure enough it's around 15.
All other transponders on 119 show 75-90 strength.
OK so what gives? Did a tree down the street grow 10 feet since last year or what?

[boba]

Pizzaman you need the second cable attached to the PVR 721. The receiver will not work correctly with only one input it was not designed to work with only one input.

[Jacob S]

tech support told me that the 721 could be connected with just one coax. why couldnt it be if you did not use the second tuner for pip or recording two shows at once?

[HTguy]

Sounds like your PVR721 has a tuner problem. What happens when you use the other input?

Sometimes when a rcvr has a problem with one or some transponders (but not all) a reboot will fix it. But sometimes the tuner is dying & the unit needs to be RA'd. (That's what happened to my 501 last month.)

[Pizzaman]

boba -  Thank you.  I'll be running the second cable as soon as I get the time.

Jacob S. - My thoughts exactly.  I called tech support and they didn't sound like they really knew if it would work with just one cable attached.  That's why I posted here!     I think it should....

HTguy -  I'll get back to you as soon as I switch things around...

 

 

[Pizzaman]

Got everything connected as it should be.  Even tweaked the dish a bit and getting better signal strength numbers.  Also cleaned a wasp nest out of the lnb arm :eek2:

However the tuning problem is still there.  I get a "lost lock" message on some channels - all on input #1 and all on sat 119-6.

After playing with the 721 for about a week, I've decided that it's a keeper.

Thanks to the help I received here, the 721 will be returned.  Hopefully for one that completely works in a not-so-mangled box.

I'm considering a DishPro LNB to replace my legacy twin.  Is there any benefit to this upgrade?

[jtighe]

I have the same problem on 119 transponder # 6. I am not so sure it is a hardware problem... Too many people are having the same problems I also live in NE Ohio Mentor Area..

[Pizzaman]

I talked to Dish tech support and they agree it's a tuner problem.

They're sending out a new unit.  We'll see what happens!