This may NOT be a problem with your equipment or with DirecTV. Now that the new spot beam satellite is up and pumping data, various transponders from that satellite are unavailable in various areas. I live on the west coast, and the following transponders are MIA: 4, 12, 20, & 26. And that's as it should be, now. In other areas, different transponders are unavailable. Furthermore there have been reports of troubles with UltimateTV receivers since the spot beam satellite went operational. Some sort of software glitch. DirecTV and UltimateTV are aware of the problem and are working on it. Typically, CSRs are the last to know what's going on. I suspect a software update downloaded in the data stream from DirecTV will soon fix the problem. You were probably correct not to jump at the chance to pay for a service call. Just be patient (frustration is allowed, though).