[davidyal]

Hi, I'm brand new to DirecTV and new to this forum.


I signed up for DTV 2 weeks ago, and it's been a harrowing experience to say the least. Thh house I moved into already had a basic dish (with 2 coax connections on it) and the installer replaced it with a new LB5 Slimline oval dish.

The tech left my house yesterday in a hurry, and told me to call DTV CSR to enable HD programming on my account. I did that today, but now I get error 271 (satteliete not found only when trying to view HD content (both local and HBO). Speaking with CSR, they guided me to reset the receiver but that didn't help. CSR believes it may be bad wiring or a faulty dish and are going to send someone else out.

I did notice something strange during the install that I'm hoping someone here may explain. The new Slimline dish seemed to have 4 coax connecttors on it, however the installer only connected two of those to the lines coming into my house. He claimed only 2 connections are needed becaused I am only servicing 2 rooms. Does this make sense? Are the 4 coax wores coming from the HD SLimline dish all the same signal?. or could it be because the other 2 weren't connecte dthat I am encountering error 271?

Thanks for al the tips.

David

 

[Teronzhul]

Depending on the exact situation it is quite possible that you don't need all of the dish's connections used.

For a standard receiver a single line from the dish to the receiver is all that is required.

The box sends a signal (and power) to the dish telling it which satellite it needs to receive info from, and the multiswitch in the dish lnb sends the corresponding info back to the receiver. The outputs on the dish are only hot if they are feeding an active receiver.

 

[litzdog911]

What brand/model DirecTV Receiver(s) do you have?

The four dish outputs are all the same, so if you only have two receivers then you only need two connections to the dish (one for each receiver). Check your signal readings on the 99, 103, 110 and 119-deg satellites (which beam the HDTV channels). Let us know what you find.

 

[davidyal]

I have the H20 receiver. All the Standard channels work just fine, just not the HD.

How do I check the sattelite signal strength?

Thanks again.

What brand/model DirecTV Receiver(s) do you have?

The four dish outputs are all the same, so if you only have two receivers then you only need two connections to the dish (one for each receiver). Check your signal readings on the 99, 103, 110 and 119-deg satellites (which beam the HDTV channels). Let us know what you find.

 

[O2BRich]

I have the H20 receiver. All the Standard channels work just fine, just not the HD.

How do I check the sattelite signal strength?

Thanks again.

In the setup menu there should be an option to show signal strenght. You may be under menu/setup/sat-ant.

 

[lwilli201]

Your HD LIL come from sat at 103. You may not have any active trasnsponders on 99 but that is ok.

Also check your antenna setup and make sure it is set for the 5 LNB dish.

 

[lwilli201]

Your HD LIL come from sat 103. It is possible that there will be no active trasponders on 99, but that is OK.

Since your tech bailed out so quick, check to see if your receiver is set up for the 5 LNB dish. Run the sat setup to check this out.

 

[davidyal]

I looked at the settings on my H20 for the first time.

The settings definitely identify my dish as 5LNB

SAT 100 shows 32 transponders found.
SAT 119 shows 11 found
SAT 110 shows 3 found

There is signal strength of ~79 coming shown for SATs 99, 119 and 110.

So, to recap, I am receiving STD channels fine. However, I am not able to recieve HD local or other HDs like HBO, ESPN, TNT etc..

Does anyone have any ideas how to correct this? Otherwise, the soonest a tech can come out will be Jan 17, leaving me very anxious

 

[bobnielsen]

1. Do you see any transponders on the 103 sat? If so, what signal strength are they?

2. Do you receive channels 490, 491. 492, 493 and 494 (these are test channels and should just show a message indicating what they are testing).

 

[AnonomissX]

Go back into Menu/Settings/Setup/Satellite and run the setup...look for the choice for "Autodetect" and run it.

 

[davidyal]

There is one transponder "0" for the 103 SAT. Signla strength is nil.

Regarding test channels:
490- OK. Shows 13 V
491- OK. Shows 18V
492- Black screen. Nothing.
493- Black screen. Shows code 771- looking for signal
494- Black screen. Nothing.

 

[bobnielsen]

Either something is wrong with the dish or receiver or the dish needs to be realigned. Since they are sending someone out to look at it, that tech should be able to find the problem.

 

[samrs]

The faults you discribe can be caused by a 3x4 multiswitch left from the previous install. That installer fella should have looked, especially when the IRD likely failed the 110/119 during setup. He might have been in a hurry though.

Follow the two lines from the dish, it can be on the side of the house, underneath or in the attic. If you find one take it out, install two barrel connectors between the satellite leads and the two active lines. Should clear up your problems.

 

[davidyal]

Samrs, you are right on in your diagnosis here.

I found the 3x4 multiswitch in the attic. There are 2 inputes (18V and 13V) and 2 outputs- 1 leading to my HD receiver downstairs and another leading to the STD receiver upstairs.

I unplugged the 18V from the multiswitch and connected it via a barrel connector to the downstairs HD receiver. This worked great! I now get signal on all 5 test channles and HD works great (including local)

However, since the upstairs is only receiving the 13V, I lost several channels, and only SAT A is being recongnized.

What is the difference between 13V and 18V? If I don't want to wait a week for the tech, what type of multiswitch do I need to install?

Thanks for all the info. This has been much more valuable than the 2 hours with CSR yesterday.

 

[JLucPicard]

All you should need to do with the second line is the same thing you did with the first - just add a barrel connector. Since you are only using one input for each room, a direct line from the dish to the input is all that is needed.

If you were going to put in a multi-switch, you MUST run all four lines from the dish to the switch. The switch you would need to use is the Zinwell WB68, which will give you capacity for eight inputs.

You can feed up to four inputs just by running four cables directly from the dish to each of the four inputs. Once you need to feed more than four inputs, that's when you would need to add the multi-switch.

To the best of my knowledge, you cannot run just two feeds from the dish to a switch. You must use all four feeds.