Navy Chief Navy Pride Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 I recently moved to Hilliard OH, (suburb of Columbus) from Dothan AL. When I was in Dothan we would get hurricane spin off, tornadoes, hail, strong wind, etc. I never lost signal there no matter what the weather was doing. Now I have transferred my service and it seems like if a cloud goes over the house or my dog farts near the dish I lose signal immediatly. I know some here have had DTV for some time and that Fez is the expert. What could be causing this to happen? I am about 1 more interupted TV show away from cancelling all together as this has been an ongoing issue over the last month that I have been in the new house Any and all advice is much appreciated...Thx Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realtruelove Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 I recently moved to Hilliard OH, (suburb of Columbus) from Dothan AL. When I was in Dothan we would get hurricane spin off, tornadoes, hail, strong wind, etc. I never lost signal there no matter what the weather was doing. Now I have transferred my service and it seems like if a cloud goes over the house or my dog farts near the dish I lose signal immediatly. I know some here have had DTV for some time and that Fez is the expert. What could be causing this to happen? I am about 1 more interupted TV show away from cancelling all together as this has been an ongoing issue over the last month that I have been in the new house Any and all advice is much appreciated...Thx Steve Who installed your dish at your new home? Sounds like your dish is not aligned perfectly so you have a marginal signal, hence losing your picture every time your dog farts. Press menu button on your remote and scroll through the options to check your signal strength. If you have a friend that's a geek, perhaps he/she could help you adjust your dish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike In Illinois Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 If you have the receiver(s) connected to a phone line the information will be available to Tech Support and calling them they can help determine the problem. As far as the difficulty of adjusting the signal on your own I can attest that it is possible to do. After some strong winds (borderline tornado) blew through my neighborhood it knocked the receiver off its setting and I lost all HD channels. With the help of a few friends I was able to align the dish and make the signal better than was installed. My dish was on top of the roof so I had two people hold the ladder and a third person using a walkie-talkie to read the numbers while I used a wrench to adjust the pan/tilt on the dish. Here's the thread I used to learn how to adjust the alignment myself. Hope this helps give you some answers/options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UConn James Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Is it properly grounded? I only say that b/c back when I was young, we had a satellite service (OTA-only now and happier for it!), problems arose frequently. Bad weather or not (but in bad weather it was unwatchable). Come to find out years later that the tech grounded it to the copper house water pipes. Unfortunately, these pipes switched to plastic before they went outside. No real ground. It was just an assumption made during the install that I think is what screwed it the whole time we had it. They kept blaming trees that were 200' away, when it would have been best to go over the install thoroughly and ask questions. Other than that, it may be a matter like Mike above of aligning the dish better, or troll the sat forums for your specific problem. G' luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dib Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 did they install new coax or did they use existing coax? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Some very good suggestions already in the thread. First thought is that the installation isn't very good -- you might get a good signal when the weather is good, but if the dish isn't bolted down properly, it may sway in the wind. Have someone come out (or check yourself) whether everything is bolted down properly. Make sure that you have a strong signal in good weather -- the strength of most transponders should be in the low-to-mid 90s on a clear day. You should have new coax runs. Don't re-use the cable TV coax as that's generally not quad-shielded (RG6-QS). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Wait..I thought nobody knew anybody who ever had any reception problems with DIRECT TV... I have read that dozens, and dozens of times here over the years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Wait..I thought nobody knew anybody who ever had any reception problems with DIRECT TV... I have read that dozens, and dozens of times here over the years... Yeah, did you read his original post...? "When I was in Dothan we would get hurricane spin off, tornadoes, hail, strong wind, etc. I never lost signal there no matter what the weather was doing." Something is obviously setup wrong with the new installation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Chief Navy Pride Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 First off thanks for all the replies... I have a signal strength of 97...(after I had a tech come back out a week after install) The cables are all new to the house and the basement cables are new but I think the cables inside the house are existing. Maybe an issue but I'm not sure. What do you think Fez? The main issue is with the TV in the master. What I don't understand is how can 4 other TV sets work fine and just one seem to lose signal the most? Could this be something that I can run a new line on or does it have to be a DTV Tech? Also the dish is on a pole in the back yard. I had a roof mount in Alabama. But the roof was put on 2 weeks before I moved in and I was told by my realtor that if I put the dish on the roof then the warranty will get voided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Philster Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 sounds like it could be the cables inside the house. I had some problems with my reception last year (though not enough to lose signal) and once I replaced an older cable, it cleared right up. If only one set is having a problem and your signal strength is in the 90s, it's definitely not the dish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 First off thanks for all the replies... I have a signal strength of 97...(after I had a tech come back out a week after install) The cables are all new to the house and the basement cables are new but I think the cables inside the house are existing. Maybe an issue but I'm not sure. What do you think Fez? The main issue is with the TV in the master. What I don't understand is how can 4 other TV sets work fine and just one seem to lose signal the most? Could this be something that I can run a new line on or does it have to be a DTV Tech? Also the dish is on a pole in the back yard. I had a roof mount in Alabama. But the roof was put on 2 weeks before I moved in and I was told by my realtor that if I put the dish on the roof then the warranty will get voided. You should have them come out and measure the loss on that run. Perhaps there is a distance issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 First off thanks for all the replies... I have a signal strength of 97...(after I had a tech come back out a week after install) The cables are all new to the house and the basement cables are new but I think the cables inside the house are existing. Maybe an issue but I'm not sure. What do you think Fez? The main issue is with the TV in the master. What I don't understand is how can 4 other TV sets work fine and just one seem to lose signal the most? Could this be something that I can run a new line on or does it have to be a DTV Tech? Also the dish is on a pole in the back yard. I had a roof mount in Alabama. But the roof was put on 2 weeks before I moved in and I was told by my realtor that if I put the dish on the roof then the warranty will get voided. If it's only affecting a single receiver, then it's almost definitely a cable run issue. I'd have them run a new cable to eliminate that as the issue. Or, if you feel comfortable, you can do it yourself as well. How do you have it setup? Do the cables run directly from the dish into the receiver? Or do they go through a multiswitch? You could try swapping cables at the dish or multiswitch (dish has a built in multiswitch) to see if the problem still follows the cable or if it follows the port on the multiswitch. If your master is plugged into port 1, and the living room is plugged into port 2 (at the dish/multiswitch), swap them and see what happens. I'd agree with Darin and have them come out and test the signal strength along the cable as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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