Is it my dish or my DVR receiver??

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 09:35 AM**

For the last 1.5 years I've owned now three HD displays. All three have suffered from the same issue. Until now I had wrongly thought it was due to poor display, althought they were both 1080p DLP's.
But yesterday I got my first plasma and the issue is 'more apparent'.

My screen chsnges from a brighter, washed out image to a darker, more detailed, higher contrast image. Sometimes it will switch a handful of times in a few seconds, then nothing for a little bit and then more changing.

This only happens watching t.v., not during hd-dvd watching.

This has followed me from a 3LNB dish and standard HD receiver to a 5LNB dish and a HD-DVR receiver.

So is this an issue with my D* dish or my D* DVR receiver?

**rosco968** · **12-07-07, 10:31 AM**

It would have to be your dish itself or the service provider it seems. Have you checked all connections of the coax cables? I would be tempted to unscrew each and put a contact cleaner or improver on. Somthing like Pro-Gold maybe.

Very strange problem!

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 10:42 AM**

Ah man, I just ordered a new receiver, lol. So when you say service provider what do you mean? I have Direct tv.
I did check the dual coax's.
Contact cleaner/improver? And where would I put this?

Thanks rosco!

**Sonnie** · **12-07-07, 10:54 AM**

If this has followed you through several displays and receivers then it would make sense that it's the service provider.

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 11:05 AM**

Sonnie,
So what am I looking for or calling and asking about? I called and explained the issue to a c.s. rep and she is sending out a replacement receiver.
So what is my service provider doing or not doing or what am I looking for?

**mechman** · **12-07-07, 11:29 AM**

If it were the service provider's content, it would affect more people. I would suspect something at your location. Either the H20/HR20, the cabling, the signal, etc. Have all of the 3 HDTV's been hooked up to different IRDs and experiencing this problem? If so, that would limit it to the dish, RG6 and LNBs. And then there's the issue of it following you from the 3LNB dish to the 5LNB dish. Did they replace the RG6? If not, check the connectors and replace any bad ones. What kind of signal strength do you get? Are you certain that you have RG6 cable? There's no RG59?

mech

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 12:01 PM**

mechman

It followed me from a H20 to this HR20. Along with the HR20 came new lines.(there was a time gap between having them as provider, when I went back I got the HR20) The only new dish was put up at the same time I got my H20. No new one for the HR20. *So actually I can't remember if this happened on the 3LNB as I only had it for like a month and that was almost two years ago now.

RG6? Connectors? RG59?

Here's a strange one. When I deactivated earlier this year temporarily I was getting 60's-80's for signal strength on average. Since coming back on same dish but with the new HR20 I get 94-99.

I did the process of elimination thing and here's the results so far. It is not an HDMI cable issue--I tried connecting via component. It is not a HT receiver(Yamaha rx-v661) issue--I bypassed the receiver and went straight from HR20 to display with both HDMI, then component.
*I then tried taking the cable lines straight to the display as I didn't know if that would work, but my tv doesn't display anything?

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 12:43 PM**

Here a few exceptions I just found doing a signal strength test.
*I also must say that when I watch a recorded show or movie it doesn't flicker and also watching some of the ch.500+ HD movie channels I don't see it.....now I don't know if that means anything??

Sat99
1- 0
4- 57
5- 0

Sat101
28- 22

Sat103b
7- 0
8- 0
9- 0
10- 0

Sat119
31- 0

**mechman** · **12-07-07, 01:07 PM**

The 103b signals I might be concerned about. That is the new satellite and I thought the transponders were all CONUS.

The rest of those transponders are spot beams I think.

mech

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 01:19 PM**

Sorry mechman but what does that mean?
Thanks for the help!

1. Why can't I bypass the HR20 and take the two lines straight to the display?
2. RG6? Connectors? RG59?
3. Do I have to use the two B-Band Converters on the incoming cable lines? They put them on at install.

**mechman** · **12-07-07, 01:26 PM**

Matt,

1. You need the HR20 to decrypt the signal
2. Different variations of coaxial cable - if DirecTV did the install I'd hope they would have used proper cables and connectors.
3. Yes you need the B-band converters.

Those signals on 103b that are zeros should not be IIRC. I think everything on that satellite is CONUS (Continental US). You may want to tell the tech or customer service rep about no signal there.

mech

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 01:31 PM**

I did but they were in the middle of a 1-3 hour system update so they couldn't help me further.
Hope it's just a dish problem as that can be replaced rather easily.

Do you think it could be anything other than the dish itself?

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 03:07 PM**

Mech....called them back and you were right. They said there should be no zeros on that 103b, so they are coming out next wednesday.

**Only problem is it flickers on comedy central too and that is SD

**mechman** · **12-07-07, 03:17 PM**

To be honest, I'm not sure what it could be.

I stick to HD only now on my HDTVs. SD looks horrible compared to all of the HD channels. As to why you get zeros on those transponders only could be anything - switch, LNB, bad aim (doubtful since you get a signal on the rest), receiver, etc. We'll revisit the flicker once you get this problem fixed. Hopefully they're related.

mech

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-07-07, 03:19 PM**

I hope so too, but I am reading on avs that anyone with a particular board(1011) is having this issue. So I may need a board replaced as well.

**Prozakk** · **12-10-07, 12:26 PM**

I had a DVR out. I sent it in to Dish. They called me and said dust in it voided the warranty! I live in Texas, and it's a fan cooled product. Compressed air would only pack the dust, taking it appart would void warranty. Needless to say I'll never use them again!!!

:raped:

**Captain Crunch** · **12-10-07, 07:21 PM**

As for a the signal strength it can very between the receivers......it's there software! So take it with a grain of salt........The HD receivers will almost always reg ester lower than the standard receivers.......

Let us know if this fixes your problem when you get the new receiver....

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-10-07, 08:30 PM**

I will. They'll be here wednesday and are bringing both a new receiver and a new 5-lnb dish as they think it may be that. Which I would also think since the issue has followed me from the H20 to the HR20.
Then again, I keep reading of others with these sets having the flickering issue.

We'll see, I know my fingers are crossed.

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-12-07, 10:05 AM**

It was neither. The D* tech just left after installing both a new 5-LNB dish and a new HR20 HD-DVR receiver and the flicker is still going strong. Good thing I made an appointment with a Samsung tech. He pushed back my appt. until friday though as he had to order a logic board he said.
Brand new $1500 720p plasma and this!?!

**MatrixDweller** · **12-13-07, 01:10 PM**

This is a weird issue. The satellite signal is digital so if the signal was getting messed up it would cause block noise, not flickering.

The first guess would be a faulty connection/cable or receiver outputting to the TV, but you've ruled those out.

What do you have the TV plugged into? Perhaps there's a power issue when the DVR is on.

**E-A-G-L-E-S** · **12-13-07, 02:55 PM**

What do you have the TV plugged into? Perhaps there's a power issue when the DVR is on.

I had this when I had a non dvr- HD receiver as well though.

I am using some stupid Monster Cable power center. I wonder if that's the cause as I have had it since I was duped a couple years ago when buying my first HDTV. I'll check this evening and report back.
That would be great if true.

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