Very weird signal issue.

[c9house]

I have been having some issues getting my local channels. Some pixelation/searching for Sat messages and reboots of my Tivo Series 2. Non HD.

So I had the Direct TV service come out. They moved the dish and replaced my switch. That helped for a day and then it started happening again.

For a little background I have two dishes, one for local and one for national. The local dish is the one they moved.


I got home from work yesterday and the local channels were out. It was saying searching for signal on Sat. 2. I called Direct TV and the CSR wasn't sure what was going on. The signal has been great after the service guy left on Monday. So the CSR had me go check the switch and make sure everything was plugged in, it was fine.

Next thing was he wanted me try another receiver. The first receiver I was trying was a Direct TV Tivo receiver. Any way, so I go turn on the other receiver and change the channel to a local station. As soon as I do that the Tivo starts receiving local channels.

The service guy is coming back out Monday.

It also happened last night. Except it said no signal from Sat.1 not Sat. 2. Weird. I tested it again with the other receiver. It started working again. What the hell?

I don't know what to think. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[raoul5788]

I have been having some issues getting my local channels. Some pixelation/searching for Sat messages and reboots of my Tivo Series 2. Non HD.

So I had the Direct TV service come out. They moved the dish and replaced my switch. That helped for a day and then it started happening again.

For a little background I have two dishes, one for local and one for national. The local dish is the one they moved.


I got home from work yesterday and the local channels were out. It was saying searching for signal on Sat. 2. I called Direct TV and the CSR wasn't sure what was going on. The signal has been great after the service guy left on Monday. So the CSR had me go check the switch and make sure everything was plugged in, it was fine.

Next thing was he wanted me try another receiver. The first receiver I was trying was a Direct TV Tivo receiver. Any way, so I go turn on the other receiver and change the channel to a local station. As soon as I do that the Tivo starts receiving local channels.

The service guy is coming back out Monday.

It also happened last night. Except it said no signal from Sat.1 not Sat. 2. Weird. I tested it again with the other receiver. It started working again. What the hell?

I don't know what to think. Anyone have any ideas?

My best guess is a bad switch. I know, you replaced the first one, but they can both be bad. There may be a loose connection somewhere, also.

 

[iwc5893]

Double check your cable runs to all receivers, because it is acting like there is a splitter in line somewhere.

 

[Bill Briggs]

I have the same setup you do, and often experience the dropping of local channels. In our setup the system looks for the national satellite signal (101) and then the local(72). If it has trouble with the 101 it won't try to find the locals. In my location, we have an excellent shot at the 72 satellite, but the 101 may be marginal. So very often the system is just not smart enough to try to find the locals even though if it looked for them, they would be fine.

And the system does this looking on its own. We have been having problems with the dial in number and if it does not answer, the system cannot find the local channels either. But then it often does on its own, while dormant.



It is highly frustrating, and the DTV techs do not seem to understand it half as well as I do, and I am not very good.

 

[c9house]

Why would it just start though? I've had it for two years at this house no problems.

 

[shmeff]

in my location the 2nd dish is not used for locals, but it sounds like it could be a voltage issue with the tivo, its cables to the mult-switch, Corrosion within connectors or as raoul said another bad switch. seems like the 2nd reciver is providing the volts to cause the locals to work on tivo.

 

[c9house]

I keep coming back to the tivo. Yesterday I was watching the Cubs/Card and everything just went out in the whole house. I disconnected the coax from the back of the TIVO and plugged them back in and it started working.

 

[c9house]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the help.

It turns out I may have had two issues. The first may have been a little tree interference. After they moved the dish and ran new cable to do it, when he made the cable a little piece of metal had wrapped around the copper in the cable. It was causing an arcing issue. After the end of the cable was clipped off and reattached I haven't had a problem. It has now been two days.

Yippie!