Really p****d off at DISH

[KSA]

Hi new poster. My problem is as follows. This past July 2015 I had Dish installed with hopper one room in my house. I have had nothing but trouble. I have already had 12 trouble shoot calls here. I live in Michigan. All trouble calls came up on my big screen TV as complete signal loss. I have had techs re-point the satellite dish. I have had the antenna at base of dish replaced. I have had the node replaced where the co ax comes into the house. I have been told that the Hopper was over heating even though there is nothing on top or around it to block the vents.

So yesterday once again in the morning all day no tv complete signal loss. Today a tech is sent out. As he decided to just replace the hopper as this was a last resort to fix the problem. So after connecting through the HDMI on back of TV to the new hopper he goes through the calibration screens. At about 70% d/l I lose everything on my TV. Complete grey screen! This tech cant figure it out neither can I. The hopper completely blew out my HDMI port on back of TV.

So he decided to see if it would work with the old hopper, nothing same deal. He then connected the new hopper via component wires. I have 4 different inputs plus HDMI on tv. Only one Input #2 (component) works. And this only works at 480p. I have completely lost 1080p, 720p etc. Its gone. So now I can only watch at 480p and you can only imagine what picture quality looks like. The TV is only 2 years old. The Hopper did something.

Now Im screwed. What can I do? Do I sue DN? This is so frustrating and the Hopper junked my expensive tv.

Any ideas what to do?

Thanks for all replies.

 

[primestar31]

Have you ever had your house wiring checked for reverse polarity, AND/OR a missing main ground wire? I would highly suggest that as your next move...

Even if you do have a ground rod by your power meter, I have seen the ground wire get disconnected from the rod in the ground.

 

[KSA]

Have you ever had your house wiring checked for reverse polarity, AND/OR a missing main ground wire? I would highly suggest that as your next move...

Even if you do have a ground rod by your power meter, I have seen the ground wire get disconnected from the rod in the ground.

Yes and actually the tech checked it again here today out of that outlet. It was good.

 

[ChadT41]

Well suing them would be out. You have a binding arbitration clause that prevents that.

It does sound like something with the ground. I would see about having someone check the home electrical out and go from there. You can also contact the Damages Team and see what they say about it.

 

[KSA]

Well suing them would be out. You have a binding arbitration clause that prevents that.

It does sound like something with the ground. I would see about having someone check the home electrical out and go from there. You can also contact the Damages Team and see what they say about it.

Well its a good thing I signed the Dish Arbitration opt out a few months back

 

[primestar31]

Well its a good thing I signed the Dish Arbitration opt out a few months back

Document EVERYTHING. Your next move is to bring in an electrician, and prove OR disprove that it's a house wiring/grounding/electrical problem, and get the electrician to sign off on a statement. Dish's equipment (coax) should be bonded to the same ground wire as your electrical panel. If it is NOT, that can cause a voltage differential that can be problematical.

Without that first, you can't prove or win anything against Dish (or any other provider). They have lawyers on staff, and deep pockets. I'm assuming you don't.

Either way, you need to know if it's an electrical issue in general. Could be it has been a house issue, but something about the way the Dish equipment is installed brought it to the front.

 

[KAB]

Yep, your home wiring is certainly suspect.

 

[dangue]

Until the damage to the TV came up I wondering to myself if anyone ever bothered run new coax from the dish (you don't mention that having been tried). Last year I was having intermittent signal loss on one Hopper. Three tech visits (and a swapped out LNB and Hopper later) it was finally diagnosed as moisture intrusion in the coax. Swapped it out and everything was back to normal.

 

[ChadT41]

That was guess number two. The only reason, I think we all jumped on the grounding is because it blowing out like that. Signal loss, and symptoms around it would all play a part in the diagnosis.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Well suing them would be out. You have a binding arbitration clause that prevents that.

It does sound like something with the ground. I would see about having someone check the home electrical out and go from there. You can also contact the Damages Team and see what they say about it.

It doesn't matter you can sue them anyways.

 

[Tampa8]

Maybe you could sue DISH for him? You would enjoy it much more.

 

[bspei]

Are your outlets 3 prong or do you use an adapter to 3 prong?

 

[kwindrem]

I highly doubt the Hopper could "blow out" the TV in the way the OP describes. This is especially true since the original failure occurred when everything was hooked up and working.

It's more likely a configuration issue, cable or software in the TV that is confused.

The OP says only input 2 works. Is that the only analog component input? It's likely the others are composite (NTSC). These would ONLY accept a 480i signal. Even 480p would not produce a picture. At 480i, only the Y channel from the analog component output of Hopper would produce any picture on a composite input and it would be black and white.

Hopper does have a composite output (the yellow connection) that should work with the TV's other analog inputs. Of course they will only be SD. But if you can't get a picture from Hopper in any other way it might be a way to check receiver configurations especially when changing it's video output rate since the composite output will always be SD (480i).

Have you tried reseating the HDMI connection at the TV? A loose HDMI cable could easily cause strange pictures and could be intermittent. It could force Hopper into 480p mode even for the analog component output. For analog component connections, make sure the HDMI cable is disconnected.

Has a different HDMI cable been tried?

The OP tried the original Hopper and had similar results but plugging in another HD source (Blu-Ray player, Roku, Apple TV, game console, etc.) could help isolate this issue to the TV or Hopper(s).

It's possible the TV has gotten into a strange state that is preventing HD signals. If that's the case, a reset to factory defaults should restore functionality.

I'd try setting Hopper to 480i or 480p to see if the HDMI input works at that rate. If so, that confirms the TV is in a strange (SD only state).

You might try another TV?

Is the Dish receiver in 480p mode? That in itself would prevent the TV from receiving an HD picture.

 

[D. Manley]

The HDMI cable or the actual HDMI inputs on the monitor would be prime suspects. First thing I'd try if possible is to check on a different TV.

 

[Hall]

It's certainly possible that (higher than spec) voltage passed through the HDMI cable causing damage. Problem is proving that to Dish. He needs to

a) confirm that the HDMI inputs are damaged
b) confirm that the Hopper is passing voltage that's above spec
c) confirm that the cause of this higher voltage isn't from his home's electric

Suggesting hooking the Hopper up to another of his TVs is pretty daring, don't you think? I sure as hell wouldn't chance that !

 

[rvvaquero]

Suggesting hooking the Hopper up to another of his TVs is pretty daring, don't you think? I sure as hell wouldn't chance that !

At least then he could be pissed off at himself and at people here instead of just at DISH.

 

[DishSubLA]

Until the damage to the TV came up I wondering to myself if anyone ever bothered run new coax from the dish (you don't mention that having been tried). Last year I was having intermittent signal loss on one Hopper. Three tech visits (and a swapped out LNB and Hopper later) it was finally diagnosed as moisture intrusion in the coax. Swapped it out and everything was back to normal.

Moisture intrusion can be common for ALL services including telephone/cable/ISP, and yet it is often the very LAST thing techs think of that is checked/found to be the culprit.

 

[Nyteghost]

First thing I was gonna ask was about the cable as well. While yes water could have gotten into line, I run into it often, also make sure the coax line is 3ghz. The line to the hopper has to be 3ghz or the line will burn out. If you feel the hopper is the culprit for your TV messing up, call up dish and tell them you want to set up a damage claim.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I have seen water wick through coax like crazy.

I had one where a tech ran a line over a roof top and the friction with the cable running over the tip of the roof was enough to get the water into the cable and wick all the way to the receiver 50 feet away.

I had another one where I did a temp install at my house where I had the wire strung in the air through a big maple tree and the wire through a 1.5 inch hole in my basement.

Took me a few months to figure out why I had a puddle of water in my basement every time it rained

 

[dishcomm]

Hi new poster. My problem is as follows. This past July 2015 I had Dish installed with hopper one room in my house. I have had nothing but trouble. I have already had 12 trouble shoot calls here. I live in Michigan. All trouble calls came up on my big screen TV as complete signal loss. I have had techs re-point the satellite dish. I have had the antenna at base of dish replaced. I have had the node replaced where the co ax comes into the house. I have been told that the Hopper was over heating even though there is nothing on top or around it to block the vents.

So yesterday once again in the morning all day no tv complete signal loss. Today a tech is sent out. As he decided to just replace the hopper as this was a last resort to fix the problem. So after connecting through the HDMI on back of TV to the new hopper he goes through the calibration screens. At about 70% d/l I lose everything on my TV. Complete grey screen! This tech cant figure it out neither can I. The hopper completely blew out my HDMI port on back of TV.

So he decided to see if it would work with the old hopper, nothing same deal. He then connected the new hopper via component wires. I have 4 different inputs plus HDMI on tv. Only one Input #2 (component) works. And this only works at 480p. I have completely lost 1080p, 720p etc. Its gone. So now I can only watch at 480p and you can only imagine what picture quality looks like. The TV is only 2 years old. The Hopper did something.

Now Im screwed. What can I do? Do I sue DN? This is so frustrating and the Hopper junked my expensive tv.

Any ideas what to do?

Thanks for all replies.

How do you know that the TV itself is not defective?....You can file all the lawsuits you wish. You will have the burden of proof of showing evidence that the Dish equipment damaged your property. Simply "surmising" or "assuming" will not get you any mileage in court.