[Giffen]

I just got a new Slimline 5 LNB dish installed and I'm not sure if the installers did the proper job or not. On initial setup only 3 sats were detected 95 degree and 103 degree (I think) were not. The installer said this was normal. Anyway, at first I was able to get local HD channels to show up in the guide and view them.

I reran the dish setup (since the installer erroneously chose to install for both ant and sat when I have not ant). Now it detects 4 sats...(no idea why) the only one not detected is 95 degree. But now for local HD all im seeing are weird call letters like WRTDC-1 WRTDC-2 or somethign...and if I select them only a black screen comes up with no message. Before I was seeing some hd locals that I know were correct for the DC Metro.

So my question is 1) should the setup NOT fail on 1 or more sats ? Doesn't that indicate non proper dish alignment? 2) Why did I pick up 3 sats before and now 4 but the channels reduce that I can see? 3) should I contact dtv and have them send ANOTHER installer that might reposition the dish or adjust it?

By the way my signal strenghts were from 60 to 90...not sure what is normal.


A friend of mine in the south has the same setup but he gets signal on all 5 sats...so I think there is a problem with my setup. But again not sure why the hd locals WERE working and now aren't.


Anyway help for the DC Metro area on this info? Is it normal for the locale?

 

[bobnielsen]

It sounds like you need to rerun the setup. 95 is not part of the 5 LNB. Did you mean 99? if you have a H20 receiver, 99 will fail seti[ (software bug), but it won't affect reception.

The channels with a -1 are OTA locals, not those via the satellite. It might be a good idea to do a reset before running setup again.

Those signal strengths are normal for a H20.

If you still have problems, Directv can send an installer again. If it is within 90 days, there shouldn't be a charge.

 

[Giffen]

Thanks. This was installed in my new place and I'm not there currently, so I couldn't remember which satellite it was that wasnt showing...

I have done the reset via the red button and the setup several times, for some reason the over the air HD channels are showing up even though I ran the setup for NO ant. However, when the DTV installer first ran the setup WITH ant they were showing up, but so were the OTA channels which I don't want to show since I can't receive them.

But the difference this run down is now 4 sats are showing while only 3 showed up when the installer ran it...

I guess I will keep playing around with it, see if it can find the local DC metro NON-OTA channels.

Also maybe the guide will need to update again over time, I'm not sure.

 

[Larry H]

Here's the scoop. The 95 sat is for international programming and should not be chosen in the set up if you don't have the international dish installed. Same for the 72.5. Your 5 lnb's are looking at the 99, 101, 103, 110, and 119 sats. You will fail on the 99 and most likely the 103 as there isn't any programming being transmitted at this time. 103 is active off an on. If you are using an H20 you may be seeing signal strength in the high 60's to low 70's. This is acceptable signal for the H20 as its scaling is showing lower than it really is. Hope that helps.

 

[texasbrit]

Here's the scoop. The 95 sat is for international programming and should not be chosen in the set up if you don't have the international dish installed. Same for the 72.5. Your 5 lnb's are looking at the 99, 101, 103, 110, and 119 sats. You will fail on the 99 and most likely the 103 as there isn't any programming being transmitted at this time. 103 is active off an on. If you are using an H20 you may be seeing signal strength in the high 60's to low 70's. This is acceptable signal for the H20 as its scaling is showing lower than it really is. Hope that helps.

Both the 99 and 103 satellites are transmitting but all the transponders are on spot beams directed at different locations, so you will not see them all. In fact some people may only see signals on their "own" transponder(s) - your HD locals will come from one or two transponders on only one of the satellites, 99 or 103. The DC locals are in fact on the 99 satellite. If you see signals on other transponders these are from adjacent spotbeams, pointing at other cities, which is why they will often be lower. The H20 has a software bug which prevents it reporting on the 99 satellite, even though it may be getting good signals.

As oner of the other posts said, the stations with the -1 and -2 are the OTA digital stations. If you do not have an antenna connected you will not receive these stations, but whoever installed your H20 must have input a local zip code in the antenna setup and so the stations appear in your guide. I think the only way to get rid of them is to do a reset thru the system setup menu (not a red button reset, that does not reset everything) - this will return all the settings to the defaults, and you will have to do setup over again without putting in a zip code for OTA this time!!

If you do not see your DirecTV HD locals in the guide AFTER you have done a complete reset and setup then you need to call DirecTV and ask them to "re-hit" your receiver with the authorization for the HD locals. You can also do this through the DirecTV web site but I do not have the directions to hand right now.

 

[awcm]

To remove the "extra" OTA channels you are seeing follow these steps:
From the remote select the "Menu" button, then select "Settings" from the options you see on the screen, next select "Setup" then "Sat & Ant" then "Antenna Setup". Look for "Edit Off Air Channels" and then select "Remove All", then "Done".
This should clear the extra channels you are seeing. Hope this helps out.