R10 locals pixelating

[tomkow]

Have an R10 with locals in the Minneapolis St. Paul area.

Locals and locals only have been pixelated for the last few days.
Swapped Sat 1 and Sat 2 cables. No difference.
Swapped LNB with a spare. No Difference.
After swapping Sat 1 and Sat 2 cables and putting the original LNB back, locals are now complete black and getting Searching for Satellite 2 sometimes both Satellite 1 and 2.

All other channels appear fine and it is successful recording one show while watching another.

Not sure what to try next.

All signal strengths are above 94 on all transponders, for both Sat 1 and Sat 2, except.

Transponder 4 shows zero on Sat 1 and Sat 2
Transponder 18 shows zero on Sat 1 and Sat 2
Transponder 26 shows 38 on Sat 1 and 40 on Sat 2
Transponder 28 shows zero on Sat 1 and Sat 2

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys tomkow!

Did you try rebooting the R10?

 

[tomkow]

Yes, and, resetting the access card.

 

[I WANT MORE]

My locals out of NY have been a freezing/pixillating bag of horse $hit for months.
I'm about done with D*.

 

[tomkow]

I tightened up all the nuts on the 18 inch dish (been a long winter) and repointed the dish as well.
Signal strength on transponder 20 now up to 41 to 44 from 32 to 34, now locals work and are not pixelated. A poster on dbstalk said transponder 20 is what my locals are on.
All other transponders are in the 98 strength range.
Transponder 26 is now better too, in the 44 to 50 range.
Will keep an eye on it.
What should the strength be on transponder 20 and 26?

 

[slice1900]

Depends on where you are located and what locals you are trying to receive. They are delivered on a spot beam, and your very low readings on transponder 20 indicate you are on the very edge of that beam. Someone who lives in the intended area for your locals would expect to see readings in the high 90s to 100 just like you see on the other transponders. When you say "Wisconsin" in your location do you really mean somewhere north of that?

 

[raoul5788]

I tightened up all the nuts on the 18 inch dish (been a long winter) and repointed the dish as well.
Signal strength on transponder 20 now up to 41 to 44 from 32 to 34, now locals work and are not pixelated. A poster on dbstalk said transponder 20 is what my locals are on.
All other transponders are in the 98 strength range.
Transponder 26 is now better too, in the 44 to 50 range.
Will keep an eye on it.
What should the strength be on transponder 20 and 26?

You won't have to worry about it much longer since your R10 will have to be replaced with an mpeg4 box. When that happens your dish will need to be replaced, too. You should talk to Directv about that now.

 

[slice1900]

You won't have to worry about it much longer since your R10 will have to be replaced with an mpeg4 box. When that happens your dish will need to be replaced, too. You should talk to Directv about that now.

And if you are on the edge of your local SD spotbeam, you almost certainly won't be able to receive HD locals from that market AT ALL. Depending on which local market that is, they will probably go away later this year, or early next year at the latest.

 

[raoul5788]

And if you are on the edge of your local SD spotbeam, you almost certainly won't be able to receive HD locals from that market AT ALL. Depending on which local market that is, they will probably go away later this year, or early next year at the latest.

Could be, the hd spot beams are smaller than the sd ones, but they may still cover to where tomkow lives. IOW all spot beams aren't centered in exactly the same place.

 

[slice1900]

Could be, the hd spot beams are smaller than the sd ones, but they may still cover to where tomkow lives. IOW all spot beams aren't centered in exactly the same place.

True, but if he's got readings that low for his 101 spots he's probably 400 miles off the center of the beam.

 

[raoul5788]

The spotbeam for Minneapolis easily covers his area. tomkow, your locals are on 20.

 

[tomkow]

Been over 24 hours since I tightened everything down and repointed the dish.
Strength still in the 45 range on transponder 20. No pixelation on the locals.
I am about 45 miles north of eau claire, wi.
Has DTV set any schedule on when the MPEG4 will be phased in?

 

[raoul5788]

Been over 24 hours since I tightened everything down and repointed the dish.
Strength still in the 45 range on transponder 20. No pixelation on the locals.
I am about 45 miles north of eau claire, wi.
Has DTV set any schedule on when the MPEG4 will be phased in?

Nothing public that I have seen.

 

[slice1900]

Been over 24 hours since I tightened everything down and repointed the dish.
Strength still in the 45 range on transponder 20. No pixelation on the locals.
I am about 45 miles north of eau claire, wi.
Has DTV set any schedule on when the MPEG4 will be phased in?

Originally it was going to happen by the end of this year, but it looks like that was pushed back a year (though there seems to be some dispute, at least from one dealer on the edgecutter site)

You should have already been contacted by Directv regarding losing your locals on a certain date (which varies by where you are located) since have MPEG2 only hardware. They have been making all those affected offers for free upgrades w/o commitment to MPEG4 capable hardware. Probably they'll offer to swap out your R10 and other SD only equipment you might have for a Genie & clients.

 

[tomkow]

Nothing received from DTV on when we would be losing locals.

 

[slice1900]

Maybe they hadn't got around to sending you the mail before they pushed back the schedule. Someone reported recently getting a second mailing with a new date nearly a year later than the first one. It sounds like they were trying to notify people 9-12 months in advance.