Acquiring signal fluke

dac35

New Member
Original poster
Aug 15, 2007
4
0
RI
I have a 722 DVR and in the middle of watching a pre-recorded program, the acquiring signal screen pops up. If I hit the DVR button I can return to the pre-recorded program I was wathcing. This sometimes happens 10 or 15 times an evening. BUT here is the strange part...the DVR is recording in the background and there is no sign of a lost signal...it records the whole program. Two week ago Dish replaced the receiver...and now it is hapening again with the new recevier. Anyone else have this problem or have any suggestions?
 
Have you tried any rebooting methods?

1. power button reboot-hold power button down till the receiver reboots.
2. power plug reboot- pull the receiver plug and leave it unplugged for a minute and replug it back in.
3. smart card reboot- if there is a smart card, pull and then replace it in the slot.
 
First :welcome to satellite guys.

I'm going to guess you use an over the air antenna hooked up to your receiver? If so here are a few threads to let you know what's going on and some possible temporary fixes.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-technical-discussions/175017-622-bug-new-me.html

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...ons/164008-dish-network-vip622-mdu-q-box.html

It's a very strange issue because it seems to effect some people continuously while others never experience a problem. Swapping out the box has no effect. We had a customer in our area go through 5 receivers and still had the same problem creep back every time after a few days. I have not heard if this problem also effects the "k" models with the OTA module as I don't know enough people that use it.

If you don't use the OTA antenna then maybe you have a new bug I haven't seen yet. Keep us up to date.
 
Problem solved...but

Thanks for the info Fury. I disconnected the OTA antenna and cleared the channels from the 722's memory and voila no more "acquiring signal" screen. Unfortunately...the reason for getting the 722 was its OTA capability. Does anyone at Dish know about this problem?
 
Have you looked into getting a better OTA antenna with a stronger & more reliable signal? Or perhaps a better location for it? I have a great antenna, and it is located well for all but one of my channels - so if I'm on that channel I often get the loss of signal message.
 
I have a 722 DVR and in the middle of watching a pre-recorded program, the acquiring signal screen pops up. If I hit the DVR button I can return to the pre-recorded program I was wathcing. This sometimes happens 10 or 15 times an evening. BUT here is the strange part...the DVR is recording in the background and there is no sign of a lost signal...it records the whole program. Two week ago Dish replaced the receiver...and now it is hapening again with the new recevier. Anyone else have this problem or have any suggestions?

This is not a fluke or a software issue as the powers that be would like you to believe.

This is a combination of low satellite signal strength and improper grounding. The OTA antennae are injecting enough interference noise into the SYSTEM that your satellite signal quality is impaired.
Two problems. Signal strength and system noise. Signal-to-noise ratio.

The Fix:

Signal Strength increase:
1. Have your satellite peaked to maximize the signal strength (which overcomes noise influences) and increases SNR.


Noise reduction:
1. Check all fittings, connections, and wires for breaks, bends, corrosion, tightness and needle length. (Min. 1/16 inch beyond fitting). All these things can cause signal degradation, or decrease in signal quality.

2. Properly ground your dish system and properly ground your antenna. Grounds matter now, and not just to satisfy the law or to provide safety! The reason is to reduce noise which increases signal quality in reference to the same strength of signal.

HDTV is all about details. Attention to detail is required when installing these systems. At current signal levels and capabilities of Dish Network dishes and systems, EVERYONE using them has signal that ranges from somewhere just a tiny bit above the digital cliff, to, at or below the digital cliff. The majority of users are living "in" the signal range that defines the digital cliff. It isn't near as steep as you've been told.
 
If any one of the tuners loses signal, you'll get an error. You simply need to insure that you don't lose signal.
 
Noise reduction:
1. Check all fittings, connections, and wires for breaks, bends, corrosion, tightness and needle length. (Min. 1/16 inch beyond fitting). All these things can cause signal degradation, or decrease in signal quality.

2. Properly ground your dish system and properly ground your antenna. Grounds matter now, and not just to satisfy the law or to provide safety! The reason is to reduce noise which increases signal quality in reference to the same strength of signal.
Great post - thanks for the reminders.

What is the proper grounding for a Dish on my roof? I'd like to check and see if the installer did it right.

Also - if you are talking about properly grounding your OTA antenna, how would you go about doing that since most are quite simple? I bought a $30 one from an electronics store and it's basically a plastic box with a coax out and to adjustable antennas sticking out. I also built a coat-hangar antenna - with the V-shaped hangars along each side and a transformer in the middle to connect the coax. Not sure if I'm reading that right - but where would the grounding connect? I'm guessing the outside of the coax (braid), but not sure.
 
it's not a grounding issue, it's to do w/ multi path, etc... when mine does it, i hit the pip button & there's a dead OTA channel there. it's a usually strong channel, but w/ ducting, etc, the signal drops & i get the aquiring signal screen on sat or DVR... i then do a swap, set the pip source to another sat channel, turn pip off, & it never happens again until the pip gets left on an OTA...
 
it's not a grounding issue, it's to do w/ multi path, etc... when mine does it, i hit the pip button & there's a dead OTA channel there. it's a usually strong channel, but w/ ducting, etc, the signal drops & i get the aquiring signal screen on sat or DVR... i then do a swap, set the pip source to another sat channel, turn pip off, & it never happens again until the pip gets left on an OTA...

Yep, I stopped believing hideafjeff when he kept going on and on with people stating that if you had a higher signal strength you got a better HD picture. LOL... "see Mr. Customer you had a 50 on 110 and now you have a 70, it's so much clearer now!"
 
Never stop believing!

I am sorry that you have not been informed of MPEG's SVC extension that was adopted back in 2005. It is not your fault. Dish Network has concealed this information from every technician. (So has the industry concealed this information from all of us.)

Digital picture is completely and absolutely dependent upon signal strength.

Signal strength increase will ALWAYS result in improved picture quality(assuming that we stay below the point of linearity in digital receivers).

This proof (below and link) doesn't require that I explain the science, so I hope and believe, that we can settle this once and for all, so that no more people are denied the digital quality that they paid for because technicians are not properly trained or taught.

From: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS FOR VIDEO TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 17, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2007
"Overview of the Scalable Video Coding Extension of the H.264/AVC Standard"

The abstract should be enough, but I've included the link. Fascinating read!!!


Abstract—
With the introduction of the H.264/AVC video

coding standard, significant improvements have recently been
demonstrated in video compression capability. The Joint Video
Team of the ITU-T VCEG and the ISO/IEC MPEG has now also
standardized a Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of the
H.264/AVC standard. SVC enables the transmission and decoding
of partial bit streams to provide video services with lower temporal or spatial resolutions or reduced fidelity while retaining a reconstruction quality that is high relative to the rate of the partial bit streams. Hence, SVC provides functionalities such as graceful degradation in lossy transmission environments as well as bit rate, format, and power adaptation. These functionalities provide
enhancements to transmission and storage applications. SVC has
achieved significant improvements in coding efficiency with an
increased degree of supported scalability relative to the scalable
profiles of prior video coding standards. This paper provides an
overview of the basic concepts for extending H.264/AVC towards
SVC. Moreover, the basic tools for providing temporal, spatial,
and quality scalability are described in detail and experimentally
analyzed regarding their efficiency and complexity.
Index Terms—


H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, Scalable Video Coding
(SVC), standards, video.



And regarding this:​

"it's not a grounding issue, it's to do w/ multi path, etc... when mine does it, i hit the pip button & there's a dead OTA channel there. it's a usually strong channel, but w/ ducting, etc, the signal drops & i get the aquiring signal screen on sat or DVR... i then do a swap, set the pip source to another sat channel, turn pip off, & it never happens again until the pip gets left on an OTA... "​

Check your signal strengths and grounding.​
 
Great post - thanks for the reminders.

What is the proper grounding for a Dish on my roof? I'd like to check and see if the installer did it right.

Also - if you are talking about properly grounding your OTA antenna, how would you go about doing that since most are quite simple? I bought a $30 one from an electronics store and it's basically a plastic box with a coax out and to adjustable antennas sticking out. I also built a coat-hangar antenna - with the V-shaped hangars along each side and a transformer in the middle to connect the coax. Not sure if I'm reading that right - but where would the grounding connect? I'm guessing the outside of the coax (braid), but not sure.

Regarding dish grounding look here:

Grounding

And you would use a ground block which is designed to make the connection to ground while still passing signal through the copper conductor.

Be blessed!
 
Here we go again...lol.... you still never answered my question from way back. If better signal strength equals better digital picture then why does my guide work flawlessly with a barely locked signal? If the digital picture was degraded wouldn't the guide be degraded too?
 
Here we go again...lol.... you still never answered my question from way back. If better signal strength equals better digital picture then why does my guide work flawlessly with a barely locked signal? If the digital picture was degraded wouldn't the guide be degraded too?

I'm not going to answer that question again, Digi, until you have read the link. Really, it's not very technical.
 
I have a 722 DVR and in the middle of watching a pre-recorded program, the acquiring signal screen pops up. If I hit the DVR button I can return to the pre-recorded program I was wathcing. This sometimes happens 10 or 15 times an evening. BUT here is the strange part...the DVR is recording in the background and there is no sign of a lost signal...it records the whole program. Two week ago Dish replaced the receiver...and now it is hapening again with the new recevier. Anyone else have this problem or have any suggestions?

I have the same issues with my 622, but the odd part is that it's happens very sporadically. If you press guide/dvr/menu the picture come back instantly. You then can rewind/skip back to what you may have missed without issue. Rebooting or unplugging the receiver does not fix this issue.

THIS IS NOT A SAT STRENGTH SIGNAL ISSUE! (despite what the screen tells you)

My other receivers hooked up to same switch and dish never have had this problem nor do they ever have any major issues when bad weather comes bye. It also doesn't matter what sat you're pointing to, but it does seems it happens on only on certain channels or more often on those channels despite good signal strength. I also have mine hook up to a OTA antenna and this is the first I've heard that it may be a grounding issue with the antenna.

I can go months without having one issue, but when it does occur it usually happens a lot, but never on a OTA channel. Both tuners can be on sat and it will still happen.
 
Here is a problem that I see on my 722 every time I try to use the second TV. I always get a Searching for Signal screen unless I've turned on TV #1 (the receiver part) and tune to the channel I want to watch on the TV #2. Does this make sense? Do I need to adjust my dish? Signal strength looks fine... I'm a little new to the dish game though. I have Chicago locals over the dish. I do have an OTA antenna plugged in too BTW. What sats should I try to use to readjust my dish, if necessary? thanks in advance.
 
My 722k has an issue with the sat tuners. It'll just go to a searching for sat screen on a sat channel, then I either have to change to another sat channel to clear it or change to an OTA to fix it.
 
Here we go again...lol.... you still never answered my question from way back. If better signal strength equals better digital picture then why does my guide work flawlessly with a barely locked signal? If the digital picture was degraded wouldn't the guide be degraded too?

The answer to that would be, No.

The guide/menus etc; run off a different data table for the information that they display however they will load without having sat signal at all. As will your menu etc;:angel:
 

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