Problem with DirecTV signal?

[Doomster]

I'm having problems with a particular DirecTV receiver. It's actually a DirecTivo (DTV) receiver and requires two input cables from the satellite.

I have a couple of these DTV receivers in different rooms. None of them have any problems except this one. The problematic one is located in my office, which is furthest away from a Terk 6X16 switch I use to split the signal coming from my satellite.

I have a normal round DirecTV satellite with two LNB output cables. Both cables come into my house and to the Terk 6x16 switch. The switch is powered. Two cables then go under the floor into a basement. It's not really a basement but a crawlspace between the foundation and the floor.

The office is too far from the switch (about 40 ft) so I had the two cables come back up thru the floor into bedroom. Then I put a Terk 5x8 switch in the room. This Terk switch is also powered. The two cables from under the floor are the two input cables for this switch. I then run two more coaxial cables thru the wall to the next room, which is the office. The cables run along the wall into the DTV receiver.

All cables are RG6 cables.

The problem is that when the receiver is showing a live TV, it will stop, freeze the frame, then after a 1/2 second, continue, then a second later, freeze again for 1/2 a second and continue, etc. in this pattern. I checked the connections and all are fine. I crawled under the basement to check the cable. It's good - no rats chewed thru the insulation or anything.

I also checked the coaxial jacks. Again all are good.

I checked the satellite signal strength thru the DTV receiver (it has a utility that shows you the satelliter signal per transponder). The satellite signals vary a lot, going from 81 to 93 per input. Usually the signals fluctuate by 1 or 2 but not by 10+.

It looks like a reception problem. It doesn't look like the problem is with the Terk 6X16 switch because DTV receivers connected directly to that switch don't have a problem (I checked the satellite signal on a transponder on a DTV receiver connected to the 6X16 switch).

I don't have a TV in the room that has the 5x8 switch and all my TVs are big ones so it would be a big hassle for me to move the TV and a DTV receiver to test the signal of the cables coming from the Terk 6X18 switch (this is a last resort though). I am also going to take the problematic DTV receiver and connect it directly to the Terk 6X18 switch.

Q1) Is the problem I described a reception problem and not a problem with the HD on the receiver?

Q2) The Terk 5X8 switches use a power converter and then connect to the switch thru a coaxial cable. I used RG59 cables to connect the converter to the switch. Would this make any difference?

 

[Jimbo]

Sounds to me like , if your Signal is between 80 and 100, it's NOT a signal strength problem.

The recvrs your talking about are getting old, maybe time to upgrade, they don't do the mpeg4 stuff, iirc.

also, it's possibly that one port of the switch is going bad.

also, the 40 foot that you mentioned, is that your total length for that particular cable, because thats not very long, if your thinking it's too far away.

They are estimated to run 125 ft with no problems and thats a pretty low number as many of us have ran over 200 ft if needed without trouble.

 

[talos4]

I had an old Directivo in another bedroom used by one the kids. It had to be at least 5 yrs old.

Same symptoms almost exactly. My first thought was dying hardrive.

Instead of moving TV's move receivers. I swapped another receiver into the room tried both cables and the problem disappeared.

Directivos hardrives are very active and after that amount of time and activity they do fail.

I really think the HD is giving it up. I just replaced of the Directivo instead of trying to replace the drive, downloading the Tivo software trying to transfer data etc, etc.

 

[texasbrit]

This looks like a hard disk failure. You should try moving the TiVo into another room just to make sure. If the disk is failing, you have a couple of choices. Replace the disk using a new drive from someone like weaknees, or get DireCTV to replace the DVR, in which case it won't be a TiVo, it will be an R15 or R16.
If you go to the TiVo community forum there's lots of info there about your disk replacement options.

 

[boba]

Go to TiVo Superstore | Upgraded TiVo DVRs, Remotes, Parts, Repairs and read about problems w/TiVo receivers. Your problem sounds like a hard drive failing.

You might also think about removing that 5X8 switch and replacing with barrel connectors.

 

[Doomster]

This looks like a hard disk failure. You should try moving the TiVo into another room just to make sure. If the disk is failing, you have a couple of choices. Replace the disk using a new drive from someone like weaknees, or get DireCTV to replace the DVR, in which case it won't be a TiVo, it will be an R15 or R16.
If you go to the TiVo community forum there's lots of info there about your disk replacement options.

If it's a hard drive problem, then there's no problem there. I have new HDs and an InstantCake CD that I can format a new HD for the receiver.