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Losing a tuner with SWM8

600 Views 8 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  houskamp
I have 3 HR21's hooked up in my house all with one wire coming to them from an SWM8. One of them is in my roommate's room, and he hasn't complained about the problem I'm seeing. I've seen it twice on the box in my basement and once on the box in my room.

Basically one of the tuner's has no signal and when you look at signal strength the SWM option also has no signal. After a reboot all is back to normal. It's like the box forgets it's connected to an SWM after a while. This is a rare occurance. I don't know if it's after rain fade or what. The boxes haven't both done it at the same time.

I don't think it's the SWM or cabling because after you reboot it works great and for a long period of time. It seems to be an issue with the boxes.

It happened on the one in my room yesterday. It was tuner 2 that was out which would make sense if the box didn't realize it was on an SWM because a cable only goes into tuner 1 input.

However, I think the last time it happened in my basement it was tuner 1 that was out. I think. I can't remember for sure.

I do know in my basement it was the tuner that wasn't currently active for live TV that was out while in my bedroom it was the tuner that was currently active for live TV that was out.

That sucked in the basement because it records on the other tuner when it's only recording one thing and it missed a recording due to the lack of signal.

Any ideas? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks.
1 - 9 of 9 Posts
Any chance you can run one of the HR21's from the second SWM port rather than all three from one port?
No, I haven't had this with my three DVRs.
I would reboot the whole system.
Start by pulling the power [cords] to everything.
Let the SWM boot for a min or two.
Then boot each receiver one at a time.
It wouldn't hurt to make sure all of your cables are "snug".
Doug Brott said:
Any chance you can run one of the HR21's from the second SWM port rather than all three from one port?
"This shouldn't matter", but if there are any open ports [since there are "Three"] it would be good to terminate them.
Also do "we" have the 15' min between the SWM and PI?
Doug Brott said:
Any chance you can run one of the HR21's from the second SWM port rather than all three from one port?
Sorry I meant that each was connected to the SWM so only had one line connected to them. I believe one receiver gets a line to itself and the other two are a split of the other line.

I think the bedrooms have the split line and the basement is by itself.
veryoldschool said:
"This shouldn't matter", but if there are any open ports [since there are "Three"] it would be good to terminate them.
Also do "we" have the 15' min between the SWM and PI?
The unused port is terminated and all cable length specs have been followed.
StephenT said:
The unused port is terminated and all cable length specs have been followed.
Then I'd do the steps ^ and track "which did what". What is the splitter you're using?
veryoldschool said:
Then I'd do the steps ^ and track "which did what". What is the splitter you're using?
Can't remember the splitter. I'll post all that info when I get home.
I wouldn't be surprized it a shaky cable or splitter is to blame.. I have a line that runs upstairs that only shows 7 of 8 SWM channels (on directv engineering meter).. luckly I only have 3 dvr's so I'm not using the last 2 channels..
I'm not sure what order the SWM assigns channels, but I would guess it just counts up as the recievers startup.. This would explain the problem "moving"..
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