522 signal quality?

feffer777

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Original poster
Oct 7, 2004
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Got my 522 about 3 months ago, but have a question about signal quality. I get about 60 on both TV one and two. TV-1 is a HD Panasonic and shows some compression artifacts especially when watching football. When I asked about the low signal number, I was told that because the unit spit the signal for 2 TVs that was a normal number. Is that true? Sounded fishy to me, so I asked for a technician to come out. Before he gets here, I'd like to get the real scoop on the signal number. Shouldn't I be getting higher numbers on both TVs? Thanks!
 
In Menu 6-1-1 Dish pointing.

TV1 and TV2 should mirror the same signal strength.

Here in North ARk with no trees or visible obstructions, clear sky.

TP-8 on 61.5 @ 101 sig strength
TP19 on 110 @ 96 sig strength
TP19 on 119 @ 107 sig strength

If you are getting 60 on a bright sunny day or clear night, then you need your dish re-pointed. With any clouds or rain, your signal will drop to a level that you get artifacts or lose signal altogether.

Splitting the signal has NOTHING to do with anything. The CSR was just trying to pacify you. Fishy would be an understatment.
 
60 might be ok if the satellite is either 105 or 121 but not the others, mine is above 100 on all three of those in south Alabama. If you've got a SuperDish and were watching a local channel just before checking the strength, that might be why you got the low number.

If you are getting 60 on 119 or 110 with a clear sky then you will probably lose signal any time it rains or even is heavily cloudy.

The compression artifacts are on both of your TV's, they're just a whole lot easier to notice on a big HD set than a little one.
 
Thanks for the info on signal quality. Being new to Dish and relatively new to HDTV, I really don't know the standard yet. Does pointing the Dish require 2 people or can one do it? Last time only one guy came out and he didn't really do anything, just checked the signal quality and told me 60 was OK.

One thing I forgot to mention in the first post is that I have 2 Dishes. The main one accesses most of the channels, but a second one was required (pointing in a slightly different direction) to get about 10 channels that were part of the package, but not accessable by the main Dish. Does this make a difference in the signal strength? If so is there a way around this, different wiring or something?

I'm also concerned with the wiring under the house. On the install, new RG-6? was run from the Dish, but connected to existing cable in the crawl space. I think the cable running to TV-1 was newer RG-6 type, but the cable running from TV-1 to TV-2 is the older RG-59? type. Can the cable quality be checked adequately by the technician's electronic equipment (attached to both ends) or is it just better to pull out all the old cable and just run new stuff under the house? I'm not really sure about the cable designations, just going from memory...hope this explanation is clear enough. Thanks
 
If your 522 was hooked up the normal way then you only have 1 receiver at TV1 and use the UHF remote at TV2, correct? If so, I'm pretty sure that the coax coming from the receiver to the TV does not have to be RG6 simply because it is the traditional 75ohm(?) signal going to the coax jack on your TV2.

If you've got 2 receivers and thus have a receiver at TV2, then the RG6 would be necessary

A 60 signal strength on a clear day with no blockage is definitely not a good signal. The dish can be pointed by one person, they are supposed to either hook up a test unit or put the dish the pointing mode and try to get the best signal possible. If he didn't attempt to adjust the direction at all and he didn't use any kind of equipment to validate that the dish was exactly pointed in the correct direction than he likely didn't do his job properly.
 
The 522 has two satellite inputs. These are what the signal number is looking at. The RG59 to TV2 can degrade the signal, if bad, but will not touch the signal level number. Dish uses such a high level on the UHF feed to TV2, that you should see a signal very similiar to TV1, depending on the hookup to that TV.
 

2nd dish

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