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What is considered unreliable?

1723 Views 14 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  whatchel1
I had my HD since the 21st making it almost a full week as I type. I have my HD hooked up to 2 hdtvs and each day for both tvs I've had some sort of failure from freezes to no picture. Each time all I had to do is turn the 622 or 211 on and off again to get it to work. Is this the norm here for HD service or should I wait it out more to see if the problems go away.

For important recordings I've had to go to another room and tape the show on the vcr on my basic cable ( still need it ). I just dont the trust dish service enough not to do this.

Or is the problem where I am at? I've read the West isnt the best signal
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calgary2800 said:
I had my HD since the 21st making it almost a full week as I type. I have my HD hooked up to 2 hdtvs and each day for both tvs I've had some sort of failure from freezes to no picture. Each time all I had to do is turn the 622 or 211 on and off again to get it to work. Is this the norm here for HD service or should I wait it out more to see if the problems go away.

For important recordings I've had to go to another room and tape the on the vcr on my basic cable ( still need it ). I just dont the dish service enough not to do this.

Or is the problem where I am at? I've read the West isnt the best signal
Identify the dish they gave you. Most in seattle have had to go beyond just the DISH 1000. Dish is suppose to be rolling out larger dishs and seperate dishs for 129 in that area.
I have 2 dishes, the 500 and a slightly bigger non marked one for the HD service.
calgary2800,

If you are having to reboot your boxes on a daily bases, I would consider it unreliable. With my two 622s, I never have to reboot on a daily basis. The fact it is both a 622 and a 211 would make me lean towards an external source as causing both boxes some grief. Some poking around will be in order.

Do you have OTA on these boxes?
What Sats are you pointing to? What strength ranges are you seeing for your sats?
Anything you can mention about your configuration might help.
If you just had them installed, might want to have the guy out again to see if he can trouble shoot the issue.
Does it seem to happen at a particular time? Particular CHannel?

As for what I consider unreliable. If the boxes is rebooting or locking up more than once ever few weeks I would consider the system unreliable. Heck reboots and freezing should be a rare occurrence.
Ron, I didn't get that he's rebooting, just turning his receivers "on and off again."

Calgary, are you putting the receivers into standby (using the remote to "turn them off") each night or leaving them on? I "turn mine off" each night, and I've had no problems with my 622. Not sure why you would have to do what you are anyway, but one less thing to question.

Good luck.
Good catch Charise. Since I saw freeze and off and on I jumped to the conclusion that he was doing a hard reboot. Need to get clarification on that point for sure.
For both the 211 and 622 I have left them on all the time. I will do all the suggestions above and give it some more time. From the onboard diagnostics the signals is fine all the time. I do not have a ota antenna hooked up to either tv.

Thanks for the help. Daily freezes or no picture is not acceptable from what has been posted and if its continues I will gave dish a call. I got that protection plan for 5.99 a month to cover equipment problems.
But when you get the freeze calgary.. are you just placing the unit in and out of standby to unfreeze or do you have to do a soft or hard reboot?
calgary2800 said:
From the onboard diagnostics the signals is fine all the time.
You need to delve deeper in order to see if you have signal problems on certain transponders. The diagnostics screen will only indicate that your dish or dishes is getting a signal from each sat. You need to go into the Installation menu, then Point dish menu and scroll through the different sats and transponders to see if you have any signal level issues. Being in Seattle, my guess would be that you're having problems with channels that are on the 129 satellite. The levels for transponders on that sat are probably in the low 50's or even less. Any kind of weather problems (rain or even just heavy cloud cover) will cause channels that are on transponders with very low signal levels to freeze up or pixelate. Dish Network has come up with a larger dish to be used for those in the Northwest for just this problem. Until Dish decides to replace the 129 sat, this is the only solution. It seems, from what you've stated, that they did install this larger dish. It may have to be tweaked a little to bring in the best possible levels.
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DougRuss said:
All of Dishnetworks Receivers !! :D
Wow! Thanks for the useless comment.:rolleyes:
AT 1130pm Pacific time on a clear and not windy night

Transponder-11
Satellite-129

Locked-echostar 129 west
Signal strength 82

Is that awful? Is there reason to make a service call? Its gone out 2 times today.
calgary2800 said:
AT 1130pm Pacific time on a clear and not windy night

Transponder-11
Satellite-129

Locked-echostar 129 west
Signal strength 82

Is that awful? Is there reason to make a service call? Its gone out 2 times today.
82 signal strength is very good. You only need to be concerned if the signal strength is in the 50's or less. With signals that low, any slight weather problem will cause the channels on those transponders to go bad.

Here's an invaluable site you should visit to find out what channels are on what satellites and transponders:

http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/america.html

On this site, you'll only be concerned with the Dish Network sats 110, 119, and 129. Click on the "SID" link listed with each satellite. That will take you to a page that lists all the channels on that particular sat and what transponder they're located on. The next time you have any problems with picture freezes or blank channels, make a note of the channel you're on and go to that site, find the sat and transponder location of that channel, and then check it out on your receiver. You'll know right away if the problem is being caused by low signal levels. The more info you have about what is causing your problem, the better chance you have of getting it resolved quickly and correctly the first time. Saves a lot of hassles. Good luck.
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The problem continues. I got HD service on 2 tvs on the 14th. As I type it is now day 16 and each day each TV has gone out with no signal. Dish is finally going to send someone out here to check their work in a few days.
The switch in the setup outside may be bad. In a D1000 it is my understanding that the 129 LNB is input into a switch that is w/in the 110/119 LNB setup. If that switch were to be bad it might switch on and off giving an intermittent problem.
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