[Metalface12]

Still unresolved. Following changed out:

LNB
Multi Switch (twice)
BBC's
Home runs to dish

7 tech visits as of today. Errors continue on 2 HR 20-100 HD DVR's and the new HR21 I picked up. (Only connected via 1 tuner)

Nothing fixes it. It comes and goes without any reason. Here are the satellite readings, perhaps someone can tell me what to do.


Satellite Reading: (771 Error message is appearing now, in Tuner 2)

Sat 101, Tuner 1:
1-8: 97 96 95 97 95 100 97 100
9-16: 96 97 96 99 96 100 96 100
17-24: 96 100 95 95 95 100 96 100
25-32: 96 98 97 38 98 100 96 100

Sat 101 Tuner 2:
1-8: 94 80 81 88 77 80 76 86
9-16: 85 74 95 98 95 100 96 100
17-24: 95 100 95 95 95 100 96 100
25-32: 96 97 97 37 97 100 96 100

Sat 110, Tuner 1
1-8: NA - 96
9-16: NA 88 NA 95 NA---

Sat 110 Tuner 2
1-8: 0
9-16: NA 0 NA 44

Sat 119 Tuner 1:
17-24: NA NA NA NA NA 100 0 97
25-32: 94 100 99 99 95 100 39 100

Sat 119, Tuner 2:
17-24: NA NA NA NA NA 90 0 85
25-32: 91 95 99 94 95 95 32 96

Sat 99 (c) Tuner 1:
1-8: 95 95 91 94 95 93 89 94
9-16: 93 91 89 92 95 95 NA NA

Sat 99 (c) Tuner 2:
1-8: 95 95 91 94 95 93 88 95
9-16: 94 92 89 92 95 95 NA NA

Sat 99 (s) Tuner 1:
1-8: 100 8 100 0 95 82 NA NA
9-16: NA NA NA NA NA NA 0 0
17-24: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Sat 99 (s) Tuner 2:
1-8: 100 15 100 0 95 83 NA NA
9-16: NA NA NA NA NA NA 0 0
17-24: 0 0 0 0

Sat 103 (s) Tuner 1
1-8: 0 0 0 0 56 0 NA
9-16: NA NA NA NA NA NA 97 98
17-24: 95 95 97 100 16 0 96 97

Sat 103 (s) Tuner 2:
1-8: 0 0 0 55 0 NA NA
9-16: NA NA NA NA NA NA 97 96
17-24: 95 93 97 97 0 0 97 95

Sat 103 (c) Tuner 1:
1-8: 92 95 89 93 91 92 87 92
9-16: 87 91 89 95 90 94 NA NA
17-24: 95 NA NA NA NA 95 NA NA

Sat 103 (c) Tuner 2
1-8: 94 91 88 90 88 89 86 89
9-16: 89 87 87 91 90 89 NA NA
17-24: 95 NA NA NA NA 89 NA NA

 

[NR4P]

One thing that looks wrong, is your 110 readings for Tuner 2. Should be nearly the same as Tuner 1 but are much lower.

When you get 771, what channels does it appear on?

 

[Redlinetire]

You might also check the power in your residence since it seems you've replaced everything else. Have you tried hooking up a UPS?

 

[Metalface12]

One thing that looks wrong, is your 110 readings for Tuner 2. Should be nearly the same as Tuner 1 but are much lower.

When you get 771, what channels does it appear on?

771 appears on 70, 71, 74, 78 and 79 most of the time. Rarely 501 and the 5XX equivalent of 71 (Showtime).

 

[Metalface12]

You might also check the power in your residence since it seems you've replaced everything else. Have you tried hooking up a UPS?

I would think that but its on 3 separate HD DVR's in 3 different areas of the house.

 

[NR4P]

771 appears on 70, 71, 74, 78 and 79 most of the time. Rarely 501 and the 5XX equivalent of 71 (Showtime).

If memory serves me, those are all fed by the 110 SAT. Therefore the Tuner2 low readings are why its an on/off again problem. If tuner 1 gets the SAT, you are probably OK.

As you have a 5LNB dish heres a test. You can bypass the multiswitch. In other words run two lines from the dish direct to the receiver(s). If the problem occurs on multiple HR20's, without the multiswitch in place, you have a bad LNB assembly.

 

[litzdog911]

Have you tried resetting the DVR to see if that "fixes" the Tuner 2 satellite 110º readings?

 

[Metalface12]

Have you tried resetting the DVR to see if that "fixes" the Tuner 2 satellite 110º readings?

Many times. Usually it stays clear for an hour or so and then back to 771. Sometimes, like today, reset and 771 right off the bat.

May attempt the home run option detailed above tomorrow evening with the tech, he is due back for visit 8. Might need to start charging rent.

 

[rudeney]

I hope you have the PP and aren’t paying out of pocket for all these service calls! My guess is one of the receivers in your house has a bad tuner and it’s causing sort of a back-feed of interference that’s affecting other receivers in the house. I’d try unplugging all of them (power and sat feeds) and then adding them back one at a time to see if you can find the offending unit.

The old Ultimate TV DVR’s were notorious for bad tuners and occasionally, a bad tuner would cause problems on other receivers on the same dish or multiswitch.

 

[eakes]

Something to try: Install a 6 foot long piece of coax between the Tuner 2 input and BBC on one of your receivers and see if that helps.

 

[bwbolt]

771 appears on 70, 71, 74, 78 and 79 most of the time. Rarely 501 and the 5XX equivalent of 71 (Showtime).

I had the same problem and I would get the 771 message more often during the day than at night on HBO HD, Showtime HD, and ESPN HD. Towards the end, I could not watch any of those channels during the day. It turned out it was a bad LNB. Because I had the older model dish, they had to replace the entire thing and it works great now with no problems.

 

[Metalface12]

I had the same problem and I would get the 771 message more often during the day than at night on HBO HD, Showtime HD, and ESPN HD. Towards the end, I could not watch any of those channels during the day. It turned out it was a bad LNB. Because I had the older model dish, they had to replace the entire thing and it works great now with no problems.

Well, LNB has been replaced twice. Switch twice, BBC's replaced as well.

3 boxes, same issue.

I read something on the DTV forums on their site about some odd 110 sat issue that affects some people and really is without a true repair. Wonderful.

 

[eakes]

I assume all BBCs are located immediately behind the receivers. Have you tried removing the BBCs from one of the receivers. It would be interesting to see the signal strengths for 101, 110 and 119 without the BBCs in place.

Looking at the difference in signal readings between tuner 1 and tuner 2 on 101, 110 and 119 there seems to be some 'interference' affecting tuner 2. This could be caused by signal reflections at the tuner to BBC interface effectively reducing the signal strength on some transponders on tuner 2.

If that is the case, adding attenuation between the tuner 2 input and the BBC output could reduce or eliminate the problem. A handy attenuator would be the power passing port of a satellite splitter.

 

[1948GG]

Still unresolved. Following changed out:

LNB
Multi Switch (twice)
BBC's
Home runs to dish

7 tech visits as of today. Errors continue on 2 HR 20-100 HD DVR's and the new HR21 I picked up. (Only connected via 1 tuner)

Nowhere in the 'do this, try that' did you actually LIST the model #/s of the multiswitch.

I see threads like this ALL the time, and I had about 30 customers around my parts with virtually EXACTLY the same problems you're having. BAD WB68's, ALL OF THEM.

They were all swapped out almost 2 years ago with WB616's. ZERO problems with any of them since.

Long, flaky coax runs, probably the culprit. Too many F-F barrel connectors, you name it. All rendered immaterial by a POWERED multiswitch.

Now I'm sure I'll get a bunch of 'oh thats not it, save yourself the money' messages, but ... save yourself the continued aggravation and FIX the thing right.
The powered multiswitch will LOCK the LNB outputs to a steady state.

 

[grizzly]

Nowhere in the 'do this, try that' did you actually LIST the model #/s of the multiswitch.

I see threads like this ALL the time, and I had about 30 customers around my parts with virtually EXACTLY the same problems you're having. BAD WB68's, ALL OF THEM.

They were all swapped out almost 2 years ago with WB616's. ZERO problems with any of them since.

Long, flaky coax runs, probably the culprit. Too many F-F barrel connectors, you name it. All rendered immaterial by a POWERED multiswitch.

Now I'm sure I'll get a bunch of 'oh thats not it, save yourself the money' messages, but ... save yourself the continued aggravation and FIX the thing right.
The powered multiswitch will LOCK the LNB outputs to a steady state.

I had exactly the same issues.

I had DTV out like 8 times. Finally replaced 2 6x8s with the WB616 and I've been problem free for over a year (well until the 60+ hour winds knocked the dish out of alignment.

Kevin

 

[Metalface12]

Nowhere in the 'do this, try that' did you actually LIST the model #/s of the multiswitch.

I see threads like this ALL the time, and I had about 30 customers around my parts with virtually EXACTLY the same problems you're having. BAD WB68's, ALL OF THEM.

They were all swapped out almost 2 years ago with WB616's. ZERO problems with any of them since.

Long, flaky coax runs, probably the culprit. Too many F-F barrel connectors, you name it. All rendered immaterial by a POWERED multiswitch.

Now I'm sure I'll get a bunch of 'oh thats not it, save yourself the money' messages, but ... save yourself the continued aggravation and FIX the thing right.
The powered multiswitch will LOCK the LNB outputs to a steady state.

Well, I do not know the switch model number as it is on the roof. I have asked for the 6 X 16 switch and I am told it is special order via the contracted company DTV uses here. So that is pending.

There are no F barrel connectors or breaks along the coax run from switch to box. One run is 30' the other is about 40'.

All brand new at time of install.

Does the 16 port switch require power?

 

[1948GG]

Well, I do not know the switch model number as it is on the roof. I have asked for the 6 X 16 switch and I am told it is special order via the contracted company DTV uses here. So that is pending.

There are no F barrel connectors or breaks along the coax run from switch to box. One run is 30' the other is about 40'.

All brand new at time of install.

Does the 16 port switch require power?

You CANNOT rely on DirecTV or it's 'installation' people to know what they're doing; the threads of this back and forth, up and down, sideways and sideways trying to figure things out are HALF of what the message threads on this board are taken up with.

Has any of the people that showed up to 'troubleshoot' your system showed up with a TDR? Don't know what a TDR is? NOBODY who troubleshoots RF systems with cable in it (interesting, even the cableTV folks!) would show up without it (and most cabletv floks HAVE them these days). Was all your cable (may 'look' okay) swept 100%? That's what a TDR ITime-Domain Reflectometer) does.

Used to be a pretty expensive item, is pretty cheap these days. Used to be a 200lb box, now is handheld. But I doubt anyone showed up with either that or really any other 'real' test equipment, like a decent LNB tester (not just a signal meter) to run the LNB's through the wringer. Did they even show up with a 'known good' receiver/DVR?

We're talking basic troubleshooting methodology here. Something that, again on those 100's of threads here, is sorely lacking. So you have two or so paths to go down to fix your system right. First, do it yourself (because it should be very obvious at this point that DirecTV isn't going to), or second, get a REAL company in there to fix the system. You know, folks who make their living from fixing things right.

But first, go through the COMPLETE system and find out exactly what you have. Would you own a car and not know what the engine is? I think not. But again, you can find 100's of threads here where the original poster doesn't know what equipment they have, even though it's right in front of them. :grin:

So go through and INSPECT the entire system from the dish through everything, write it all down, and see exactly what kind of multiswitch's you have and inspect all the cable and such (look at the cable runs and type of cable, it's printed on the jacket), look for kinks and potential stables and that kind of thing. Draw a diagram (with lengths), and approximate complete layout. That's what all these 'experts' should have done first thing, btw. 'Lay of the Land'. Is it a Ford or Chevy kinda questions.

 

[bonscott87]

771 appears on 70, 71, 74, 78 and 79 most of the time. Rarely 501 and the 5XX equivalent of 71 (Showtime).

Well, good news is that you shouldn't be using those channels anymore anyway as they all now are in MPEG4 on the new sats and thus not on 110 which you are having problems on. For example use 206 for ESPN, not 71. So change any recordings you have to the new channel numbers and take the 70s right out of your guide, don't use them anymore.

I know that doesn't really "fix" the problem but you don't need 110 for anything anymore unless you get international channels or SD locals from it.

 

[K4SMX]

......7 tech visits as of today. Errors continue on 2 HR 20-100 HD DVR's and the new HR21 I picked up. (Only connected via 1 tuner)

Nothing fixes it. It comes and goes without any reason. Here are the satellite readings, perhaps someone can tell me what to do.

Satellite Reading: (771 Error message is appearing now, in Tuner 2)

Sat 110, Tuner 1
1-8: NA - 96
9-16: NA 88 NA 95 NA---

Sat 110 Tuner 2
1-8: 0
9-16: NA 0 NA 44

Sat 119 Tuner 1:
17-24: NA NA NA NA NA 100 0 97
25-32: 94 100 99 99 95 100 39 100

Sat 119, Tuner 2:
17-24: NA NA NA NA NA 90 0 85
25-32: 91 95 99 94 95 95 32 96

This is a known issue with the HR20-100, and it is particularly prevalent in HR20-100-R's (refurb's). I assume you have no such problems with your HR21, which is in single-tuner mode. If you remove the BBC from the tuner 2 input, you will probably find that the 110 signals are normal. The problem occurs after reboot after the first time tuner 2 is tuned to a 103(c) tp. After that, 110 tuner 2 is severely degraded until the next reboot. DirecTV has got to be aware of this problem by now, since it's been going on for months. A lot of theories about the cause of this problem have been discussed elsewhere, chiefly involving an impedance mismatch between the tuner and the BBC on 110. I presume if it could be corrected through software updates, it would have by now. The only "fix" anyone has come up with is to insert a standard 3' patch cord (and double-female "barrel" adapter) between the BBC and the receiver. It doesn't always work.

771 appears on 70, 71, 74, 78 and 79 most of the time. Rarely 501 and the 5XX equivalent of 71 (Showtime).

You should not be seeing a problem on CH 79, since it is a 119 channel and you have good 119 signals.

Well, good news is that you shouldn't be using those channels anymore anyway as they all now are in MPEG4 on the new sats and thus not on 110 which you are having problems on. For example use 206 for ESPN, not 71. So change any recordings you have to the new channel numbers and take the 70s right out of your guide, don't use them anymore.

I know that doesn't really "fix" the problem but you don't need 110 for anything anymore unless you get international channels or SD locals from it.

This is the "solution" to your problem. These channels (70-79) are now broadcast from DirecTV11, and your signals from that satellite (99(c)) on both tuners are excellent. See the new channel numbers which replace your CH's 70-79 here.

 

[Metalface12]

You CANNOT rely on DirecTV or it's 'installation' people to know what they're doing; the threads of this back and forth, up and down, sideways and sideways trying to figure things out are HALF of what the message threads on this board are taken up with.

Has any of the people that showed up to 'troubleshoot' your system showed up with a TDR? Don't know what a TDR is? NOBODY who troubleshoots RF systems with cable in it (interesting, even the cableTV folks!) would show up without it (and most cabletv floks HAVE them these days). Was all your cable (may 'look' okay) swept 100%? That's what a TDR ITime-Domain Reflectometer) does.

Used to be a pretty expensive item, is pretty cheap these days. Used to be a 200lb box, now is handheld. But I doubt anyone showed up with either that or really any other 'real' test equipment, like a decent LNB tester (not just a signal meter) to run the LNB's through the wringer. Did they even show up with a 'known good' receiver/DVR?

We're talking basic troubleshooting methodology here. Something that, again on those 100's of threads here, is sorely lacking. So you have two or so paths to go down to fix your system right. First, do it yourself (because it should be very obvious at this point that DirecTV isn't going to), or second, get a REAL company in there to fix the system. You know, folks who make their living from fixing things right.

But first, go through the COMPLETE system and find out exactly what you have. Would you own a car and not know what the engine is? I think not. But again, you can find 100's of threads here where the original poster doesn't know what equipment they have, even though it's right in front of them. :grin:

So go through and INSPECT the entire system from the dish through everything, write it all down, and see exactly what kind of multiswitch's you have and inspect all the cable and such (look at the cable runs and type of cable, it's printed on the jacket), look for kinks and potential stables and that kind of thing. Draw a diagram (with lengths), and approximate complete layout. That's what all these 'experts' should have done first thing, btw. 'Lay of the Land'. Is it a Ford or Chevy kinda questions.

To be clear, I checked it all top to bottom. I am a tech in a somewhat related field and have run coax for ages. It is clean all the way. All I need to check is the switch, which has been replaced twice in 9 months. The tech is due to swing by and put up a WB616 for me. I could do it myself but I let them do their thing, since it is their issue to fix.