Can someone explain this to me, please?

[scots]

I have 4 TVs in my house:
- Den/Office: HR54
- Living Room: C61K
- Master Bedroom: H25
- Guest Bedroom: H25

Last night when I went to bed I turned on the TV in the master bedroom and it seemed to be working fine. It was on the last channel I had watched the previous night. Changed the channel, and it went out with a 771 error. Couldn't see the HR54 either - like the master bedroom HR25 was completely disconnected from everything. The C61K in the living room had been working fine all night up to just a minute before when I turned it off to go to bed. Nothing blocking the dish, and no big storms. Did a red button reset on the H25, and still had 771. Checked living room, and it was working fine. Didn't feel like messing with it since I was ready to go to bed, so just put on Netflix.

Today I check it, and still had 771. C61K in living room and HR54 in den are working fine. H25 in guest bedroom is not connected because I had taken EVERYTHING out of the room yesterday to start painting, clean the carpet, and get ready for new bedroom furniture that's coming. So I did a power cycle on the H25 in the master bedroom, and still 771. I carry the TV and H25 back in to the guest bedroom to connect things there and see if that H25 is working. All I did was connect the coax to the H25 in the guest bedroom (no power yet or TV), and I hear "IT'S WORKING!" from my other half. I go in and look, and the H25 in the master bedroom is indeed working. Change to a few different channels, and all looks good.

I go back to the guest bedroom and disconnect the coax from the H25 in the guest bedroom. Go back to the master, and it looks like it's still working. Change to a different channel and get 771 again. Go back to the guest bedroom and connect the coax to the H25 there (again, no power and no TV), then back to the master bedroom and it's working again.

So...why would disconnecting the H25 in the guest bedroom cause the H25 in the master bedroom not to work, and the HR54/C61K have no problems either way? I know the HR54/C61K is a client/server type thing, but I thought the H25s operated independently of each other.

 

[bmetelsky]

Was there a PI in the guest bedroom (power inserter)? If so, that may have been the reason everything else was failing.

 

[scots]

If there is, I have no idea where it's located. When I say I have EVERYTHING out of the room, I mean EVERYTHING. When I went to connect things in there to see if that room was working, all I carried back in there was the H25 and the TV - nothing else. And all I connected in there when things started working was the coax to the back of the H25. I didn't plug in the power or connect the TV. The HR54 & C61K were working the entire time. The H25 in the master bedroom is the only thing that doesn't work if the H25 in the guest bedroom doesn't have the coax connected to it.

 

[b52pooh]

The H25's are independant of each other. I would be interested to see if the same situation occurs in the opposite direction. Unplug the H25 in the MB and plug in the one in the guest BR. If it does the same thing, I would investigate cabling, specifically the splitters in use. Is there a spitter between the two BR units? Are all receivers being run from a single 4 way splitter? Etc?

 

[Zashel]

i've seen weird issues like that before. had a HR24 and a WVB on a 2 way splitter. disconnected the HR24 and the WVB suddenly started working again. bad splitter. if you only have one splitter in the house try replacing it.

 

[scots]

I just hooked up the TV & H25 in the guest bedroom to do a test. Disconnected the coax from the H25 in the master bedroom, and everything continued to work with no problems in the guest bedroom - so it appears that it's only the H25 in the master bedroom that's affected when the H25 in the guest bedroom is disconnected.

To the best of my knowledge, the only splitter is on the outside of the house (picture attached). The coax in the guest bedroom goes through a hole in the floor, across the crawl space, and out the opposite side of the house where the splitter is - right into the splitter. The coax in the master bedroom does the same, as far as I know - through a hole in the floor into the crawl space, and then out the side of the house to the splitter. The master bedroom is on the same side of the house as the splitter.

There was a power inserter at one time, when I had an HR34. It was in the den with the HR34. They removed the power inserter when they replaced the HR34 with the HR54. When they replaced the HR34 with the HR54 (and the H25 with the C61K in the living room) they went around and checked the TVs in the bedrooms to make sure they were working before they left. The one in the master bedroom wasn't working, but it was an authorization issue - not a wiring issue. They had to call and have that H25 reactivated because it had been deactivated by mistake when they called in to activate the HR54 & C61K.

I just find it odd that when the guest bedroom is disconnected, it's like the H25 in the master is completely disconnected as well. Not only do I get the 771 error, but it can't see the HR54 to play recordings either.

 

[Zashel]

try putting the master bed in the guest bed, and guest bed in the master bed to see if the same location or the same receiver has the issue. if the problem follows the receiver, its probably a bad (originally) master bed H25, if the problem stays in the master bed even with the guess bed receiver, its probably a bad splitter or line.

 

[csloan1981]

By looking at ur picture of the splitter u have one going to the 54 one going to the 61 and one going into another splitter feeding both h25's. If I was u I would have them run another line all the way to the splitter. Using two splitters is called the splitter trick and sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it does.


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[twizt3dsist3r]

By looking at ur picture of the splitter u have one going to the 54 one going to the 61 and one going into another splitter feeding both h25's. If I was u I would have them run another line all the way to the splitter. Using two splitters is called the splitter trick and sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it does.


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It will always work if done correctly using proper splitters. Not saying you should do this but it will work. My bet is unapproved or faulty splitter inside. If you have 4 tvs and only 3 lines outside basic math says you have at least one more splitter somewhere.

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[scots]

I'll go under the house and look...probably over the weekend some time. I don't really like going under there because we have a lot of black widows around here. I've had service at this house since I first bought it - a little over 3 years now. DTV ran all new coax when they came to do the install. I don't know if it's been like this from the get-go, or if it's something new that happened a couple months ago when they came to install the HR54 & C61K. This is the first time I've ever disconnected the H25 in the guest bedroom for any reason. He did go under the house during the HR54/C61K install, but I don't know what he did under there - if anything. He wasn't under there for very long. I previously had an HR34 in the den/office and an H25 in the living room.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

I can tell you that 4 is a new manufacturer, it has only been there a month or two at most... so they looked over the system well from what you posted, but someone missed something... do you have an external power inserter or are you using the 54 to do that?

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[scots]

I can tell you that 4 is a new manufacturer, it has only been there a month or two at most... so they looked over the system well from what you posted, but someone missed something... do you have an external power inserter or are you using the 54 to do that?

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I'm guessing the 54 is being used to do that. There was a power inserter in the den with the HR34, but that disappeared when they installed the 54 - so I'm assuming they removed it.

 

[scots]

OK...after almost a solid week of rain and some other non-weather related things going on I FINALLY made it into the crawl space. I found one more splitter (picture attached). From what I could tell, the top single coax connection appears to go outside to the other splitter (pictured in an earlier post by me), and the bottom double coax connection appears to have one going to the HR54 in the den and the other going to the H25 in the guest bedroom. This splitter is located directly below the guest bedroom. The den and the guest bedroom are on the same side of the house, guest bedroom in the front and den in the back with a bathroom between the two. The other splitter is on the opposite side of the house on the outside. The H25 in the master bedroom and the C61K both appear to go out to the splitter that's on the outside of the house.

I've noticed "stuttering" of sound on the C61K. The picture has a little "stutter" to it occurring at the same time as the sound, although the picture stutter is *almost* not noticeable. This has been going on since they installed the C61K and HR54, but it was rarely happening at first. The last couple days it's been happening a lot more.

 

[alnielsen]

See that "DC Power Pass" on that splitter? The HR54 needs to be connected to that side on every splitter in the chain.

 

[scots]

The "In" side (unless I looked at things wrong) goes over to the other side of the house and out to the other splitter that's outside attached to the side of the house. The two "Out" connections go to the HR54 and the H25, although I didn't pay attention to which one goes to the HR54 and which one goes to the H25 in the guest bedroom.


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[raoul5788]

The "In" side (unless I looked at things wrong) goes over to the other side of the house and out to the other splitter that's outside attached to the side of the house. The two "Out" connections go to the HR54 and the H25, although I didn't pay attention to which one goes to the HR54 and which one goes to the H25 in the guest bedroom.


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It matters, like alnielsen said. The power passing port must be the one going to the HR54.

 

[scots]

So...the HR54 should be connected to the "In" port instead (since it has an internal power inserter)? Or it needs to be connected to the "Out" port that's for the DC Power Pass? Sorry for the questions. I don't really know much about how this stuff should be wired up. I have no idea if that splitter inside the crawlspace has always been there, or if they put it in when they replaced the HR34 with the HR54. I know there used to be a separate power inserter in the den with the HR34, and they took that away when they installed the HR54. I also don't know if the splitter on the outside of the house is the one that's always been there, or if they put in a new one during the HR54 install. I never really paid a whole lot of attention to it before. I bought this house as new construction, and the builder only had one coax cable installed - to the living room above the fireplace. All other coax, splitters, etc was installed new by DIRECTV when I moved in, which was a little over 3 years ago.

It'll be difficult trying to figure out what's connected to what port on the outside splitter. It's just a bunch of wires all coming out of the same hole drilled in the side of the house (with some clear caulk in the hole as well).

 

[alnielsen]

No, all receivers get connected to the out ports. All Directv splitters have one dedicated to passing thru DC current. That is the output that the HR54's coax needs to be connected to. The only exception, which doesn't apply in your case, is when you have a external power inserter used in the line. In your case the HR54's internal power is being used to power the SWM LNB. In order for the power to get there it has to go through the power pass thru ports.