[EJB]

All,

Looking for some help and suggestions. I have 2 receivers. One is an HR20-700 and the other is an old Tivo unit in the bedroom. This morning, the wife got up around 4:30am and noticed the blue lights were on (solid) on the HR20-700. I checked it when I got up and noticed that it was on the "Acquiring data..." screen and appeared to be stuck. Did a red button reset. No luck. Unplugged it for a while, no luck. Called support and walked through several things at which point I noticed that Tuner 2 had a signal and Tuner 1 didn't. I swapped the cables on the back and was able to reboot (guess the reboot depend on Tuner 1's cable). Even after the good reboot, Tuner 2 is still showing "Not Acquired" on the signal strength.

I then went into the attic and checked all the connections. Seemed fine. I ran a new wire from the wall to Tuner 2. No luck. I have a service call set for Friday, but was wondering if you guys thought it could be something wrong with the dish. The other weird thing is that we have been having some problems with the old Tivo unit in the bedroom. When watching anything on Sat 101, Transponder 10 (i.e. channels 202, 204, 206, 311, etc.) the picture cuts in and out. Makes me think it might be something with the dish and not the wires.

Thanks in advance!

EJB

 

[carl6]

Do you have a multiswitch, or are the two units wired directly to the dish? What connections are in the attic?

If you have a multiswitch, it could be defective. There could also be a problem with the wiring between the dish and the multiswitch.

Carl

 

[EJB]

Do you have a multiswitch, or are the two units wired directly to the dish? What connections are in the attic?

If you have a multiswitch, it could be defective. There could also be a problem with the wiring between the dish and the multiswitch.

Carl

Carl6,

Thanks for the reply! Don't think I have a multiswitch, but I could be wrong. I have 4 cables coming off the dish (2 black and 2 white). The 2 white wires go directly to the bedroom receiver. Those were the two new ones I had run when I added the HR20-700 since the old Tivo receiver in the bedroom could support 2 lines. The 2 black ones go through the attic and directly to the other TV.

I noticed this afternoon that the Tivo unit in the bedroom (the one having the pixelation and breakups on Sat 101 transponder 10) is now flashing "Searching for sat 2" every few minutes. Makes me think there is something wrong with the dish.

Any other thoughts??

Thanks again!

EJB

 

[Toyo]

I had this same problem last year. I simply used the process of elemination to figure out what was the defective item. It ended up being a wire.

 

[EJB]

All,

The tech came out yesterday to work on the problem, so I thought I would post an update and an additional question.

First, the tech tested the lines at the TV and sure enough, one of them was not getting a signal. He ran me a new line to replace that one and tested to make sure both lines were still good. They were. We hooked the lines to the back of the receiver, but I was still showing Tuner 2 as "not acquired" under the signal meters and "record" was not showing next to Tuner 2 in the info.

Here is where it gets weird. If we looked at the screen where you can see the green bar for both Tuners, it would show Tuner 1 at 92% and Tuner 2 at "not acquired". However, if we looked just at Tuner 2 and checked the numbers for each sat and each transponder, all the numbers looked good (80's and 90's). In one area of the meters, Tuner 2 was getting signal, but in the other area it wasn't and the receiver was not seeing it enough to let me watch/record 2 shows. Any idea what would cause this in the receiver????

The Tech concluded that the receiver was bad and that I would need a new one. He didn't have one like mine on his truck (HR20-700), so he said to call directv and they would ship me a replacement. He leaves. I call and Directv says the guy should have either given me one or placed the order for me. As a result, they have to escalate the case to some master technician area and I have to wait for them to make another service call on Monday so they can check the first guys work and make sure it is really the receiver. They said that guy would make sure he has a receiver with him in case it really needs to be replaced. The whole escalation thing seemed really weird considering I can swap the lines on the back and either line works fine in Tuner 1 and neither works in Tuner 2.

Anyone ever hear or run into this escalation process before??

Thanks!

EJB

 

[EricJRW]

Sorry, didn't see it mentioned, but do BBCs apply in this case? If so, rather than swapping cables, maybe swap BBCs.

Oops... I see the last post now and that a truck rolled... Nevermind.

 

[JDubbs413]

All,

The tech came out yesterday to work on the problem, so I thought I would post an update and an additional question.

First, the tech tested the lines at the TV and sure enough, one of them was not getting a signal. He ran me a new line to replace that one and tested to make sure both lines were still good. They were. We hooked the lines to the back of the receiver, but I was still showing Tuner 2 as "not acquired" under the signal meters and "record" was not showing next to Tuner 2 in the info.

Here is where it gets weird. If we looked at the screen where you can see the green bar for both Tuners, it would show Tuner 1 at 92% and Tuner 2 at "not acquired". However, if we looked just at Tuner 2 and checked the numbers for each sat and each transponder, all the numbers looked good (80's and 90's). In one area of the meters, Tuner 2 was getting signal, but in the other area it wasn't and the receiver was not seeing it enough to let me watch/record 2 shows. Any idea what would cause this in the receiver????

The Tech concluded that the receiver was bad and that I would need a new one. He didn't have one like mine on his truck (HR20-700), so he said to call directv and they would ship me a replacement. He leaves. I call and Directv says the guy should have either given me one or placed the order for me. As a result, they have to escalate the case to some master technician area and I have to wait for them to make another service call on Monday so they can check the first guys work and make sure it is really the receiver. They said that guy would make sure he has a receiver with him in case it really needs to be replaced. The whole escalation thing seemed really weird considering I can swap the lines on the back and either line works fine in Tuner 1 and neither works in Tuner 2.

Anyone ever hear or run into this escalation process before??

Thanks!

EJB

Pretty common from my estimations. Most of the installers don't carry anymore HR20's than they are using for installs minus maybe one replacement.

It does sound like a receiver issue though. I can't believe he actually took the time to run another line. Lines just don't go back like that unless a surge happened or a lightning strike. Not to say it wouldn't have been possible but the HR20-700 was not the best made machine on the planet. Most people have been through several.

 

[EJB]

Pretty common from my estimations. Most of the installers don't carry anymore HR20's than they are using for installs minus maybe one replacement.

JDubbs413,

So if it is common for them not to carry them on the truck, why did the Directv folks seem to freak out that he didn't order me one? He said he has tried that in the past and they don't let him. The woman on the phone acted like it was a big deal that he hadn't and she had to escalate it up the line. They were supposed to call me back within 2 hours and didn't so I called in again, explained once more everything he did and that it had to be a bad receiver given that I could swith lines on the back and Tuner 1 always worked and Tuner 2 didn't. She basically told me it was too late. It had been escalated to some higher level in directv and there was nothing she could do to pull it back and take care of it herself. I had to wait for the call which came a few hours after that. I now have a specialist or something like that assigned to it. She gave me a direct number to her using a special PIN and that she would be following up with me later next week to make sure it had been resolved.

I like to think I am an important, great customer for the last 13 years , but I sure don't get the reason behind all this attention. All I want is the problem fixed so I can watch and record 2 things at once. Never realized how much we use that 2nd Tuner. I tend to watch a lot of stuff we don't let the kids watch (MMA fights for example) while they watch their shows. Can't do that now.

EJB

 

[hdtvfan0001]

I like to think I am an important, great customer for the last 13 years , but I sure don't get the reason behind all this attention. All I want is the problem fixed so I can watch and record 2 things at once. Never realized how much we use that 2nd Tuner. I tend to watch a lot of stuff we don't let the kids watch (MMA fights for example) while they watch their shows. Can't do that now.

EJB

Your expectations are reasonable....however.....since the HR20 series of HD DVR's were replaced in production with the HR21 series, they are far more scarce. The HR21 series, along with the AM21 over-the-air (OTA) unit, is the current generation of HD DVR offered.

Perhaps you might want to call DirecTV and have them provide you with an HR21 HD DVR along with an AM21 OTA tuner to replace your defective HR20. Just a suggestion.

 

[EJB]

Another update ... we bought some new mini-blinds for the TV room, so I pulled the TV/receiver away from the wall so I could take the old ones down and install the new ones. I did NOT unhook any of the wires, just pulled everything away from the wall. When I was done, I turned the TV and receiver back on to make sure at least the first tuner was still working. Guess what? Both tuners are working now.

Guess we will wait to see if it holds before calling Directtv on Monday morning to see if they still want to visit and check things out. The next Tech visit is scheduled for Monday afternoon. Don't think I feel good about the fact that it is suddenly working since in theory it could go out again at any moment.

Very strange.

EJB

 

[EJB]

*sigh* Posting what I hope is the last update to this thread. My old receiver started working on Saturday and continued to work fine through the weekend. I called Directv this morning to see if they wanted me to keep the service call for this afternoon or wait a few days to see what happened. They said no ... we should keep the call in case there is a problem that can be found by the master tech to prevent this from happening again. He will check the lines, the ground, etc. I thought ... cool. Lets see what happens.

While on the phone with the escalation area, I mentioned the fact that I have an HR20-700 and use/record from the OTA. I explained that I heard the HR21 does not support OTA and that I would need an AM21 tuner as well. The person on the phone said this would not be an issue because he lives in Denver and has had an HR21 for 7 months and uses OTA with it all the time. I defintely don't need any other box and all should be fine for OTA.

I headed home from work at Noon and waited for the "Master Tech" to show up. He finally came around 4:00pm. He tested the two lines in the house using the same device the other tech used, traced the wires along the carpet edge to make sure no nails were hitting the wire (duh! it was new wires and could not be part of the original problem), shook the wires a few times on the back of the receiver, then replaced my receiver with an HR21. Wow! Wonder how long he had to go to training to learn those master skills?? He never looked at the dish on the roof and never went into the attic to check the lines.

When he was all done hooking up and activating the new receiver he said ... BTW, this one doesn't support OTA so I did not hook that up. I explained what the person at Directv said and he tells me nope. I need the AM21 tuner for that to work.

After he leaves, I call the escalation folks to complain that 1) I waited all afternoon for the guy to show up and all he does is meter the lines, shake the cables and then replace the receiver AND 2) why doesn't this support OTA like I was told? She explains to me taht no one really uses that feature and so it was not put in the HR21. They do have this USB AM21 device that will add OTA support, but it is $50 and I will need to buy it from them. I asked why I had to go through all this trouble when all he did was meter the lines and replace the receiver. She tries to tell me they did all of this for my good so we don't have this problem again in the future. :nono:

Geez ... what an overall bad experience. Wish I could say something nice about the whole thing, but I can't.

P.S. I tried to ask the Master Tech some questions about the HD channels and his personal experience with the box. He tells me sorry, I don't have Directv. I have Dish at home. :nono2:

Thanks for all the replies on my thread. Hopefully this problem is behind me and I can return to my regularly scheduled programming .....

EJB