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found the problem with my setup

My problem turned out to be the S-video cable from the 522 to my TV. When I unhooked the S-video and plugged in the yellow RCA cable, the video was perfect. You can see every pixel. No more coming and going of diagonal lines according to the program or the color of the background. I've had problems with diagonal lines (herringbone pattern) before when the connection wasn't solid with coax or RCA cables. That's why they sell the more expensive gold plated connectors, to keep the connection from deteriorating. In this case, I used the S-video cable that came with the 522 and no amount of re-seating the connectors cleared it up. I'm not sure where the problem was. The S-video cable, my TV or the 522. When S-video is used, both the 522 and TV instructions state that the yellow RCA cable must be disconnected at both ends. This to keep from getting a transmission line stub which will create reflections and give diagonal lines. I did read on an S-video web site that the "ordinary S-video cables included in the box are of poor quality with inferior shielding and can result in poor picture quality". I'll try a new S-video cable with gold connectors and good shielding to see if it behaves any differently. In the mean time I am happy to see that there are no more diagonal lines when using RCA jacks. My setup has the 522 into one video input of my TV, my VCR into a second video input of the TV and the attic antenna into the TV coax input. The video quality is the best on the 522, a close second on the attic antenna and noticeably less good, but still OK, through the VCR.

Great picture with well shielded S-Video cable

After reading a few web sites I began to suspect that my poor picture and diagonal lines were due to the cheap S-Video cable supplied with the 522. I located a couple of likely good cables made by Velocity and Monster. They both use 75 ohm coax in them with an additional outer metal foil shield. I picked up a Monster 3.3 ft S-Video cable at Radio shack for $24.99. What a difference from the E* cable. The picture is wonderfully sharp and clear. If an S-Video connection is supposed to better than the RCA connection, why do they include a crappy cable that ruins it? When I called CRS, one time they told me to reboot the box and another time they wanted to swap out my 522. It would save a lot of time and frustration if they would just say the supplied S-Cable is poorly shielded and low-quality, and to go buy a good one.

Well, I'm back from vacation, and it's now officially 2 weeks since I sent my letter to Dish...... they ignored it. I'll be resending it before the weekend.

So much for tech support.

After 2 1/2 weeks they sent me the same damn cookie cutter response that they did a month ago. They didn't read my letter at all. Nice.

I just wrote to them again asking that they please read my email or have a supervisor read it.

After this, what's the next step? Sending a letter to corporate? I can't believe I've been paying for this horrible reception and horrendous service from Dish. I must be certifiably crazy by now.






Subject: RE: Technical Support,
Date: Tue Nov 9 14:41:12 2004
From: (Tech) tech@echostar.com
To: 'orangeneko

Dear Ms. ,

Thank you for your email correspondence. There is a few things that can cause this, electrical interference, your televisions scan rate may be different, the aspect ratio may be different or there could be so kind of local terrestrial interference such as power lines, airports, military bases, hospitals, police departments, fire stations or an in house motor just to mention a few.

Sincerely,

Mark H.

Technical Support

Dish Network

********** Original Message **********

Full Name:

Account Number:

Question: Hello,

I sent this to Dish Technical support on October 20th (luckily I emailed a

copy to myself as well!). On the 25th I left on a trip. I returned late

this past week and was dismayed to see that in two weeks there was no

response to my email.

This situation is still ongoing and I'm desperate to get it fixed.

Jennifer



Subject: dish

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 14:41:34 -0400

Hello,

I'm writing about an ongoing nightmare of a problem. I've exhausted every avenue I can to try and solve this and am at my wit's end!

About a month ago I had a dish and a Dish DVR 522 installed in my house. The DVR box is in my bedroom, and the secondary tv is in the living room. The moment the installer got a picture on screen, I noticed something funny. There were vertical (slightly diagonal) lines going across the screen whenever a solid colored background or fairly solid colored pattern was on screen. It was also noticable when changing channels during that black screen during the pause. (if you tape this to a videotape, the lines will be on the videotape no matter what tv you play it back on).

I asked the installation guy what was going on and if he could fix it. He claimed to have no idea about it and said I'd have to call Dish about it; he couldn't help me. I thought this to be odd, but I had no choice in the matter if he wasn't going to help.

So I called Dish and the DVR was reset...at least twice. Nothing helped. I had to make a service appointment for the next Saturday.

After this I went about researching this problem online. I discovered on a DISH forum that a few others have had this problem with the 522, but none could figure out what causes it.

After researching and posting about this, I tried playing around with a few simple things with my tv's setup, but nothing helped. I figured the problem was probably the receiver and there was nothing I could really do about this until the repairmen showed up the following weekend. Disappointing for a brand new service, but what could I do?

Before I go further, I'll explain my tv setup. I have a JVC 20 inch multisystem television (it will play any format -- PAL, NTSC or SECAM). This television is made for use within the United States and works as any regular tv would. The only quirk is that on this tv, channel 1 acts as channel 3 or 4 would on other tvs. This cannot be changed.

I also have a Samsung multisystem vcr attached to the tv and satellite receiver. The multisystem vcr is made for use within the United States, plays tapes in any format and automatically converts signals to NTSC. This is quite a popular model among multisystems.

Also hooked up to my (through the Samsung vcr) are another multisystem vcr (for dubbing tapes) and a DVD player. The setup runs perfectly and has for many years. I had DirecTV for 5 years with this setup and had no problem. I also had Cablevision for a month in between DirecTV and Dish Network and had no problem with that service either.

When my Saturday appointment came, the techs were over for at least two hours. These techs told me at first that I was imagining the lines across the screen! This took up nearly half the visit, and while I'm used to male techs talking down to me because I'm a female, this was ridiculous. It was only after they got rid of the lines with the quickie fix that they admitted to it -- they also started telling me about how I had lines before (oh, did I?) and acted as if they had discovered the problem. They were quite self congratulatory.

Back to the problem, however... The quickie fix they came up with was just that! They "fixed" the picture quality by attaching an RCA cable from the back fo the DVR box directly to the front of my tv set. Then they set the tv to "video". This gives me a clear picture...but it makes using the vcr or anything else impossible! In order to view a videotape or TAPE ANYTHING FROM TV, I need to remove this RCA cable...thus bringing me back to the picture with the lines going across it. The only reason I have satellite tv is for the picture quality so if I want to tape something to keep, I can have a clear copy.

At one point they put another model receiver in -- a 700something model I believe -- and that one also had the lines over solid colors on screen.

Because they couldn't fix the problem, they told me to call Dish later on. I called Dish later, and to my shock, was told that the techs closed out the service call as "solved". I was shocked. I hung up and tried several things. I'll get into this in a moment.

After trying and failing to get a clear picture on my own, I called Dish back again. I was eventually told by a tech over the phone that since I was able to get a clear picture when they put the cables in the front of my tv (very attractive, btw!), that it was considered fixed...then I was told in so many words that it was "tough luck" that my vcr is unusable with the Dish Network service. As vcrs have been a basic component with tvs and cable systems for years (antennas are hooked right into them!), I was shocked by this. Upon hanging up, out of sheer frustration from having spent the ENTIRE day on this, I began to sob. When I say entire day, I mean that my Dish Network odessey that Saturday lasted from 2pm when the techs showed up until 12:30 at night. This isn't even counting about 4 hours spent the next day.

In a nutshell, what I did during those two days is this -- none of these things helped get rid of the lines:

I unhooked everything and replaced ALL cables with new, high quality ones (I only use gold plated RCA cables). I still had the line problem.

I brought a regular (non multisystem) Sony tv into my room and hooked the Dish "antenna" cable into it -- I still had the line problem.

I brought a regular (non multisystem) Samsung tv into my room and hooked the Dish "antenna" cable into it -- I still had the line problem.

I brought a regular (non multisystem) vcr into my room and hooked it into both my JVC multisystem tv and also tried it with both other "regular" tvs -- I still had the line problem.

I tried every button/option/hookup....everything! combination with all these tvs and vcrs, and I still had the line problem. I've tried things that are logical and I've tried things that are crazy...all out of hopes that it'd somehow get rid of the lines. But no dice.

I wrote to Dish tech support but when I received a reply later on, they told me to check something on my equipment (tv and vcr). The scan rate or something like that. Unfortunately, since I'd tried all these hookups and different pieces of equipment before they responded to me, I knew that the problem was not to do with my equipment. And if it was, then neither DirecTV or Cablevision would have ever worked properly.

Something else that's been a result of this problem is that the living room reception is horrible as well. That's understandable, as that's the secondary tv controlled by the 522 receiver. Every channel on the secondary tv looks grainy and horrible. This was noted but not checked into or fixed by the techs who were over that Saturday afternoon.

At this point since it's known that any of my equipment that has the problem (since the lines show up on EVERYTHING and I never had this problem with any other satellite or cable service), the only logical thing to assume is that this is a Dish problem. And since the 700something model Dish Receiver that the tech hooked up also had the lines, the logical place to look next is to question whether or not there is something wrong with the dish itself or the installation.

I'm at my wit's end. I enjoy the Dish service, but not being able to use a vcr with it defeats the purpose of having it for me! The options I've been left with are: having tv reception and a DVR ONLY, or having poor tv reception and a DVR (fun, but not a necessity!) and all my other equipment be unusable. Neither are acceptable. I expect clear reception and to have all my equipment hooked up as it has been for years.

I have left this problem alone for the past 2 weeks out of sheer frustration. It's always in the back of my mind, however, nudging at me! However, I needed some "distance" from this frustration!!! I'm also due to leave on a trip this coming Monday, so I've been preparing for that and trying not to think about the ongoing Dish saga.

However, this has gone on long enough, and something needs to be done. If this problem can't be fixed, then I have to think about going back to cable tv, as much as I do not want to. At least most of the channels there are clear, and there are no constant lines going across the screen. My tv stand is STILL in the same position the techs and myself left it in that Saturday about 3 weeks ago, and I've also still got everything unhooked from the setup except for the one vcr. It's a mess (in every way!). I need it fixed...somehow!

IT'S FIXED!!!! IT'S FIXED!!!!!!!!!!

And it wasn't Dish that did a damn thing to fix it (in fact, I've yet to hear back from them again...what great tech support they've got...).

It was me that fixed it -- grasping at straws and brainstorming. I will definitely be writing Dish's Corporate office after all -- mainly to tell them how horrible their techs are.

I had been thinking about all the things I tried already to fix the quality/vcr problem, and what I theorized is that since both the vcr and the Dish receiver had RCA cables that HAD to be input into the tv, that perhaps both cables were causing some sort of conflict (which blocked the vcr from working).

So, as a last ditch effort, I bought a $50 switchbox at Radio Shack, hoping that I could allow the box to handle the signals into the tv and I could "fool" the tv into thinking there was no conflict.

At first, I failed to get anything working right. That was a technical issue all of it's own and was my fault. But the next evening I went at it again, and this time I got everything working....and it works perfectly. The only weird part of the setup is that with all the other components, the switchbox works automatically and senses what I've switched to. But if I want to play a tape on the vcr, I have to hit a button on the switchbox to view the vcr. It's a minor thing -- and I'd much rather have to be hitting a button here and there than not be able to tape anything off of the damn tv.

The more I think about this, the more angry I become that the Dish techs didn't suggest anything like this. Especially the Laurel and Hardy team that was over here that one weekend from hell.