[InterMurph]

So DirecTV called me on Friday. They said that my HR21 was reporting "Searching for Satellite" errors back to them during fair weather, and that they would like to take a look at my satellite signal strengths.

We went through them, and as the guy expected, most of them were good, but a few were very poor. He explained that when my dish was mounted (in January), one of the satellites wasn't active yet (D10 or D11?), and thus the installer was just guessing. Now that they have moved some HD channels to that satellite, they are discovering that some dishes aren't aimed very well.

So they're sending someone out in two weeks to re-aim it.

Pretty nice.

 

[CJTE]

Damn and I moved and aimed mine myself!

I should've waited 6 months for DirecTV to catch up

 

[InterMurph]

I don't think it was 6 months between the reception trouble and the call.

I just started noticing problems on some channels (like Comedy Central) less than a month ago.

I think this is good work by DirecTV, first in having the HR units report such problems, and second in proactively calling me to get it fixed before the big channel move/D11 light-up that is coming.

 

[CJTE]

Oh no... I mean, I was one of the people who had their dish installed before 103(c) really lit up, and my locals are on 99(s), so rather than going out and moving & re-aligning my dish myself, I could've just waited (and not watched HD content ) for atleast 6 months and DirecTV might've called me and done it for free.

Anyway, you arent the first one to get this call, and yes, most of us here agree that this is a very good thing that DirecTV is doing to reach out to their customers.

 

[HDTV_Duffus]

So how does this work? Do you need a phone line plugged in for two-way communication or do the new dishes uplink?

I ask because my phone line is not plugged in, but I would welcome any troubleshooting help with some horrible rainfade.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Doug Brott]

If you have a network connection or your phone line connected, then your HR2x will "phone home" if there are problems. This is a proactive measure to help make sure that you can successfully get the signals.

 

[InterMurph]

So the guy just left.

First problem: the satellite dish was loose. I am 100% certain that the previous installer tightened it, but this guy said it was very loose to the touch. So he re-aimed it, and everything looks good.

Second problem: E (236) and Comedy Central (249) were not coming in on my HR20, despite the 95+ signal strengths on that satellite. They came in just fine on my HR21. So the installer swapped out the B-band converters, and viola, everything is working great.

He said that BBCs went bad, especially the gray ones that I had, which they don't manufacture any more.

So I'm happy!

 

[johneli]

So DirecTV called me on Friday. They said that my HR21 was reporting "Searching for Satellite" errors back to them during fair weather, and that they would like to take a look at my satellite signal strengths.

We went through them, and as the guy expected, most of them were good, but a few were very poor. He explained that when my dish was mounted (in January), one of the satellites wasn't active yet (D10 or D11?), and thus the installer was just guessing. Now that they have moved some HD channels to that satellite, they are discovering that some dishes aren't aimed very well.

So they're sending someone out in two weeks to re-aim it.

Pretty nice.

I was among the first to get the 5 lnb dish. Since then I've had DTV out 3 times to re-aim my dish because of lack of reception of certain HD channels. FINALLY, on the fouth try a guy came out, took one look at my dish, and said,"I'm going to replace your dish with the newest one out. The one you have is difficult to aim and we have been having problems with it. This new one has a foolproof way to aim it. You can't screw it up!"

And he was right. Since the new dish was installed, I have a crisper picture and absolutely no hd reception problems in over a month. I would encourage any of you who signed up early (like me) to contact dtv, tell them you're having problems with hd reception of certain stations, that you heard there's a newer 5 lnb dish, and see what they tell you. This was done at no charge to me.

 

[InterMurph]

I would encourage any of you who signed up early (like me) to contact dtv

When did you sign up? I got my 5-LNB dish in January of 2008.