Dish Network

For the last 3 years we have had great success using Dish Network. We have an Intellian I4 antenna which was installed 3 years ago as well. For the last 3 or 4 weeks, when we would change a channel we would get a screen saying "complete signal loss." After ten minutes or so, it would change to "partial signal loss," and then after a few more minutes the picture would appear and would stay rock solid until we would change channels and the scenario would repeat itself. During this loss of signal, the Intellian control unit would indicate "searching," then "tracking," then cycle again over and over. This was most annoying as we are live aboards and like access to TV.

I called Dish and after walking me through a series of diagnostic procedures assured me that the problem was on my end and not them. They offered to send out a technician at my expense. I declined their "generous" offer.

I called a good friend of mine who is an electronics technician and he stopped by to inspect my system. He checked all connections, climbed onto the electronics arch and inspected the connections on the Intellian antenna; all good he said. He told me that the problem was with Dish and they were giving me their usual line of BS. Later that day, he forwarded to me an email he had received from Direct TV (yes, Direct, not Dish) saying that they were having a satellite issue that they were working on.

Now, 3 weeks later, amazingly, everything is back to normal. Instant channel changes and rock solid pictures.

What really ticks me off is that the cable box is their property, I pay a fee each month to rent the box and if it doesn't work properly they charge a fee to come out and fix what belongs to them. Does this strike anyone as strange?

Howard

Nope...my girlfriend is a pit bull when dealing with companies who claim it isn't their problem but the provided service wasn't there. She almost always gets a credit after going up the chain of command at least once.

I have witnessed on it with cel phones, phone hotspots, internet TV, etc....


I suspect they know the issues and don't want too many people posting about it because if they do...it could trigger an investigation by someone with witnesses that could spell class action suit.

Interesting as I have Direct TV and have had the same EXACT issues for the past few weeks as recent as last night.

I have Dish, with a KVH M7. Whenever I change channels, if the new channel is not transmitted from the same satellite that was transmitting the old channel, my KVH must repoint my antenna, and for 10 seconds or so I get the "complete signal loss message". However, Dish puts most of the HD channels on the same satellite (there are three total), so usually when I change channels, there is no need for my KVH to repoint itself, and consequently there is no signal loss or delay.

If you were getting the signal loss message every time you changed the channel, I would suspect that the problem was at your end, since your antenna must have been re-positioning unnecessarily. As I understand it, that can happen if your antenna is using "old" data to know which satellite is transmitting which channels. Your satellite should automatically update that info, and it sounds like it now has, and that your problem is now solved. Perhaps your antenna was just slow to update?

If you were only getting the message when switching to a channel transmitted by a different satellite, that also sounds like a problem at your end, since once you acquired the signal it continued to receive without further error.

The only way I would suspect a problem at Dish's end would be if you got the loss of signal message without changing channels.

MYTraveler,

Except that the trouble shooting run by Dish, including switch check indicated perfect results including signal strength on all 3 satellites. Software version and program guide were up to date.

hmason said:

MYTraveler,

Except that the trouble shooting run by Dish, including switch check indicated perfect results including signal strength on all 3 satellites. Software version and program guide were up to date.

Click to expand...

I don't have HD with DirectTV so I only pull my programing off of one sat....

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

I don't have HD with DirectTV so I only pull my programing off of one sat....

Click to expand...

I switched from Direct because I wanted HD, but as I recall, Direct has three sats for North America, one of which handles HD, and two of which handle SD, unless things have changed.

I am on just one sat. 119 I think

I am on two 110 and 119. We just had a similar problem and they told me to remove the card from the receiver and wait five minutes before reinserting and rebooting. All good for the last couple weeks.

I have the same exact problem. This was as of last weekend.
I have Dish Network and had the problem with the 110 satellite.
The others (119 and 129) were fine.

I'll check again today, with the hope that its been corrected on their end as noted above.

We use 110, 119 & 129. We have hi def. Now they are working perfectly again.

Checked it today - all works fine now.
Clearly an issue with the satellites that somehow got resolved.

Patemey said:

Checked it today - all works fine now.
Clearly an issue with the satellites that somehow got resolved.

Click to expand...

I asked a satellite guru friend about this. It seems that the satellites periodically, but not on a fixed schedule, download channel configuration data (when there are changes), which receivers store in look-up tables for future use. When a receiver is not on when the download is pushed, the receiver has old data that may prevent it from correctly changing channels, among other things (including programming scheduling). He isn't surprised that "weekend" boaters have problems that self-resolve over time.