DirecTV Issue

[TitanThunder]

I currently have DirecTV but I'm very disappointed with recording quality. I have a two room HD DVR set-up, with a SD DVR, and another HD receiver in the guest room.

I am having issues with both HD DVR's in terms of audio. I'll spend $5 on a HD PPV and the movie will have a buzzing noise all the way through it, kinda like feedback? This is also happening with regular recordings now straight from the network stations.

This has been going on for a year now. They exchanged both boxes but it still happens on both HD DVR's. I've requested that a supervisor on the installation side come out but have gotten the same regular install guy each time.

Will going to Dish Network solve my problems and will they have to do much from my current installation set-up?

 

[boba]

Have you tried a service call from D*?

 

[charper1]

Given this bit of fact: "This has been going on for a year now. They exchanged both boxes but it still happens on both HD DVR's"

It might be something in your connection, your setup or something in your home causing this .

 

[iwc5893]

Given this bit of fact: "This has been going on for a year now. They exchanged both boxes but it still happens on both HD DVR's"

It might be something in your connection, your setup or something in your home causing this .

That's what I was thinking. Since the OP didn't tell us how his system is connected to the TV, and the make/models of the TV's/Receviers/Audio System (if any) it's kinda hard to say. It could also be a power issue

 

[ChrisK114]

I currently have DirecTV but I'm very disappointed with recording quality. I have a two room HD DVR set-up, with a SD DVR, and another HD receiver in the guest room.

I am having issues with both HD DVR's in terms of audio. I'll spend $5 on a HD PPV and the movie will have a buzzing noise all the way through it, kinda like feedback? This is also happening with regular recordings now straight from the network stations.

This has been going on for a year now. They exchanged both boxes but it still happens on both HD DVR's. I've requested that a supervisor on the installation side come out but have gotten the same regular install guy each time.

Will going to Dish Network solve my problems and will they have to do much from my current installation set-up?

I didn't think that D* had a two room HD-DVR? I know it is possible to do it, but maybe thats your problem. May have a bad wire or some kind of interference with the lines.

 

[cartwrig]

You may be experiencing "ground loop hums". I have a customer where I installed a home theater system and all the key components are hooked to the $1600 amp with HDMI (Blu-Ray/DirecTV). Yet, I'm getting hum in the speakers.

When I disconnect the two coaxes feeding the HR21 DirecTV Receiver, the hum goes away in the speakers, even for when the Blu-Ray is playing.

I've often had "ground loop hum" issues with long interconnections (like where the PC/IPOD on the main floor is hooked over shielded audio wires, down to the basement, in homes likes this). This type of thing has long been an issue in radio studio things I've worked on in my past.

RadioShack sells a "ground loop eliminator" which has right and left audio RCA plugs on both ends, and and "isolation transformer" in the middle of the cable, for $20.

If your issues are analog audio related, try that.

In my case, the DirecTV coaxes go back to a whole house low-voltage distribution panel; where, I had installed a 6x16 "Zinwell Satellite Switch". That Switch has it's own power supply. I've not yet solved the whole issue; but, I believe that is what is causing the second "reference to ground" on opposite ends of the home....thus causing "ground loop hum".

I've ordered a 120VAC Isolation Transformer from Smarthome.com. But, I haven't had a chance to try it, in this situation. It's definitely the solution used in the past for radio studio issues, etc.

Next I'll have to see if the grounding blocks where the DirecTV Dish wires enter the home are the culprit.

Be sure to look up "ground loop hum" in Google and at Wikipedia.org. There is a lot of info on the internet about this type of phenomenon.

Good luck....and...it's not an easy thing to eliminate.
- Rob

PS: What threw me...heck, still throws me, in my situation; is that, I'm playing audio that is being generated by the Home Theater AV Receiver's internal Digital Signal Processor (DSP), directly from digital data coming over the HDMI cable. So, I was really surprised to be experiencing this. If the inputs were analog audio, coming for example from a CD Player, I could much better understand this.

As I said....it can be hard to eliminate. Try unplugging each of your audio/video sources, one at a time. Then try unplugging all of them consecutively, until the hum goes away...and that'll often identify the culprit.