[GregM5]

We have 2 HR20-700's that have been having intermittent and severe MPEG4 pixelation issues that cause the lower 2/3rd of the screen to go solid grey or solid green. Sometimes the HR20 locks up when the pixelation is really bad. The audio breaks up or drops out completely when the pixelation is happening. It happens on both our HR20-700's, but only on the MPEG4 channels. It happens on live and recorded programs. OTA is fine, as are the MPEG2 channels. Our slimline dish has been re-aligned and the wires were replaced and grounded. The BBC's were replaced, and the WB68 Multiswitch was replaced. We do have external hard drives on both HR20's, but the pixelation occurred before the external drives were added.

We have been given the option of swapping out our 2 HR20-700's for HR21's (with AM21's) after a number of service calls failed to resolve the issue. At this point I don't which way to turn.

So...

Is there a chance that replacing the HR20's with HR 21's might fix this type of problem?

Will the external drives (Seagate DB35 750GB, Cavalry 750GB) work with the HR21?

Is there any benefit in changing from an HR20 to an HR21? Does the HR21 do a better job of pulling in the MPEG4 channels, or run quieter or cooler than the HR20-700?

 

[litzdog911]

1. Yes, chances are good that a replacement HR21 will solve this pixelation issue.

2. Yes.

3. In my experience, and reported by others here, the AM21 is a better OTA tuner than the tuners in the HR20.

4. Not much difference in noise or cooling in my experience.

 

[davring]

I would be very highly suspicious of both of your HR20's having exactly the same problem. The odds are against it. If your MPEG2 channels are OK, I would lean towards an alignment issue. What are your signal strengths on 99c/103c?

 

[GregM5]

I would be very highly suspicious of both of your HR20's having exactly the same problem. The odds are against it. If your MPEG2 channels are OK, I would lean towards an alignment issue. What are your signal strengths on 99c/103c?

On one of the service calls they re-aligned our dish and the signal strength is pretty good now, between 80-100 on 99c and 103c. The only odd thing is that we get 0's that pop up randomly if I watch the signal strength for any length of time. One DTV case manager told me that 0's shouldn't happen.

I have spoken to 4 case managers and have had 5 service calls for this issue. We've been very happy with DTV since 1995 but since we "upgraded" our HR10-250's to the HR20's we have had a lot of problems. I still have a HR10-250 hooked up that works great - too bad it doesn't do MPEG4.

The migration to the MPEG4 channels has been frustrating for us and we have gotten a lot of conflicting opinions as to what is causing the pixelation problems. The only bright side, if you could call it that, is that one case manager I spoke to told me that they have had a few other cases with the same issue, but they haven't been able to pin the problem down - so we are not alone.

 

[GregM5]

1. Yes, chances are good that a replacement HR21 will solve this pixelation issue.

2. Yes.

3. In my experience, and reported by others here, the AM21 is a better OTA tuner than the tuners in the HR20.

4. Not much difference in noise or cooling in my experience.

Sounds like we should try the HR21/AM21 combo. Have you directly compared them to the HR20? Are the MPEG tuners different than the ones in the HR20?

I'm assuming that we will lose all of our recordings if we switch to the HR21's. Is there a way to save them, since they are on e-SATA drives?

 

[litzdog911]

Sounds like we should try the HR21/AM21 combo. Have you directly compared them to the HR20? Are the MPEG tuners different than the ones in the HR20?

I'm assuming that we will lose all of our recordings if we switch to the HR21's. Is there a way to save them, since they are on e-SATA drives?

1. Yes, I have both an HR20-700 and and HR21-200 with AM21 connected to the same OTA antenna. The AM21 receives a few more weak local ATSC channels better than the HR20's tuners. The AM21 does have more modern tuner hardware.

2. Yes, there's no way to transfer your recordings from the HR20s to your HR21.

 

[davring]

Sounds like we should try the HR21/AM21 combo. Have you directly compared them to the HR20? Are the MPEG tuners different than the ones in the HR20?

I'm assuming that we will lose all of our recordings if we switch to the HR21's. Is there a way to save them, since they are on e-SATA drives?

Not negating, in any way, others suggestions here, but I would look for a problem that is common between your receivers, a problem that affect MPEG4 only. Multi-switch or the LNB would be where I would start looking as either one of those could give you the intermittent symptoms. I have seen too many receivers changed, myself included, before the real problem was discovered. Again, I am not a gambler, but I would bet that both tuners are not having the exact same issues, unless caused by a shared component.

 

[GregM5]

1. Yes, I have both an HR20-700 and and HR21-200 with AM21 connected to the same OTA antenna. The AM21 receives a few more weak local ATSC channels better than the HR20's tuners. The AM21 does have more modern tuner hardware.

2. Yes, there's no way to transfer your recordings from the HR20s to your HR21.

Thanks for the info and your help. Is the MPEG4 reception is the same on both?

 

[GregM5]

Not negating, in any way, others suggestions here, but I would look for a problem that is common between your receivers, a problem that affect MPEG4 only. Multi-switch or the LNB would be where I would start looking as either one of those could give you the intermittent symptoms. I have seen too many receivers changed, myself included, before the real problem was discovered. Again, I am not a gambler, but I would bet that both tuners are not having the exact same issues, unless caused by a shared component.

Thanks Dave, I thought the same thing, but the multi-switch has been swapped out already. At this point I don't know if they replaced the LNB on one of the service calls or not. DTV has been very good about resolving the issue, it's just that we are running out of things to check/change. The 2 HR20-700's were installed at the same time and are probably from the same batch, so it might be possible that they have the same problem - I understand that it's a stretch. I am getting tired of waiting around for service people and swapping the boxes is something I (or a trained chimp) can do without a service call.

BTW, the case managers I have spoken to have told me some strange problems they have encountered that were tough to resolve. A street light was causing one problem when it was turned on, the radar at a nearby airfield caused an issue when it changed frequencies (or something like that). It's possible that our problem is caused by something other that our DTV equipment. Apparently the MPEG4 channels are more "sensitive" than OTA or MPEG2 for some reason.

Anyway, the idea of swapping out 2 boxes, saying bye-bye to all of our recordings, and resetting favorites isn't my idea of a good time, but I don't know what else to do. It would be a bit less painful if I felt that we were "upgrading" to better equipment but it sounds like the HR21 is a "side-grade". I suppose getting better OTA reception with the AM21 is a plus, but I am more interested in improving the MPEG4 issues.

 

[litzdog911]

Thanks for the info and your help. Is the MPEG4 reception is the same on both?

Yes.

 

[GregM5]

Yesterday I still had the pixelization problem, so it wasn't the WB68 multiswitch - unless both are bad - not likely.

The next step in the "process of elimination" is to replace the receivers. I called my DTV case manager and they are sent out 2 HR21 Pro's and 2 AM21's to swap out for my 2 HR20-700's. What is interesting is that I didn't ask for a particular model to replace the HR20's. When I asked why they are sending the"Pro" model, my case manager told me they are manufactured by a different company and the Pro models have a few more connection options and larger hard drives.

I really have to give a big thumbs up to DTV (and the case managers) for their effort in trying to resolve our issues!

 

[GregM5]

8/22 - After one day there have been no pixelization issues with the HR21-200 Pro's. Too soon to say the HR21-700's were the problem, but at this time it is starting to look that way...

 

[waynebtx]

Have they check for an LNB going bad.

 

[GregM5]

Have they check for an LNB going bad.

To be honest, I don't know at this point. We have had at least five service calls for the issue and I didn't keep track of everything that was repaired or replaced when they were on our roof. In hindsight, I wish I had, but I didn't start keeping track until the third time they came out for the problem. We have been with DTV since 1995 and have never had any real problems before this.

If the problem pops up again (and I really hope it doesn't) I will ask them to swap out the LNB, if it hasn't been done.