Shaw Direct Reinstallation issues

[sparksals]

We moved cross country from MN to VA in early 2020. My Shaw direct satellite worked perfectly. Had a new dual tuner LNBF and newish HD PVR.

Just had a guy come out and reinstall the dish and coordinated with Broker in Canada. Previous installations have always been seamless. Signal yesterday was 96, today 56 cloudy out and when it started to rain, the channel pixilated. The installer had a machine that detected the coordinates. Broker confirmed they were correct.

I only subscribed to the 25 channel plan so I can watch the Canadian election on Monday. Most of the channels don't work, I get channels that are not in the plan. The available channels change. Some say no signal, then the next day it works. Just 20 mins ago, CBC News Network worked, now it doesn't. Sometime all channels have no signal.

I am aware of the anik F. Earlier today, I had City TV Calgary, which is not part of Anik F. The whole situation is so topsy turvy. I am tech challenged with the satellite terminology, I didn't understand the advice in previous threads..

My broker had me reset the box, he spent almost all day with me troubleshooting with all the topsy turvy results.
Here are photos of option 4/7 and a pic of the satellite dish. Wondering if there is an obscure setting that needs to be changed. Also, the photo of the dish looks to me it is facing the trees which could be part of the problem? Is this showing an end to being able to use Shaw Direct in the US?

Can anyone help?

 

[mikekohl]

We moved cross country from MN to VA in early 2020. My Shaw direct satellite worked perfectly. Had a new dual tuner LNBF and newish HD PVR.

Just had a guy come out and reinstall the dish and coordinated with Broker in Canada. Previous installations have always been seamless. Signal yesterday was 96, today 56 cloudy out and when it started to rain, the channel pixilated. The installer had a machine that detected the coordinates. Broker confirmed they were correct.

I only subscribed to the 25 channel plan so I can watch the Canadian election on Monday. Most of the channels don't work, I get channels that are not in the plan. The available channels change. Some say no signal, then the next day it works. Just 20 mins ago, CBC News Network worked, now it doesn't. Sometime all channels have no signal.

I am aware of the anik F. Earlier today, I had City TV Calgary, which is not part of Anik F. The whole situation is so topsy turvy. I am tech challenged with the satellite terminology, I didn't understand the advice in previous threads..

My broker had me reset the box, he spent almost all day with me troubleshooting with all the topsy turvy results.
Here are photos of option 4/7 and a pic of the satellite dish. Wondering if there is an obscure setting that needs to be changed. Also, the photo of the dish looks to me it is facing the trees which could be part of the problem? Is this showing an end to being able to use Shaw Direct in the US?

Can anyone help?

The center of the problem is likely simulcast substitution. If you are looking at something from the Toronto or Vancouver markets, the majority (but not all) channels are on Anik F2, which comes in solid in any weather. IF you look at any other market, the majority of local channels are transmitted via Anik G1, which is not going to work reliably in Virginia when the weather is inclement. Adding to the problem is that certain channels are going to be preempted by other Canadian channels when SIMSUB channel substitution/overlay comes in to play, on a program by program basis. If any of the channels in your loop (the original channel that may be transmitting from Anik G1, but is substituted instead of the channel you selected because of SIMSUB, you will physically be receiving that Anik G1 signal, and if you have low signal levels, it will drop out or completely fail at times. No solution other than a perfect alignment, bigger dish, or finding another CDN channel that has same program, but with a stronger signal in your receive location.

In other words, try to source programming from Anik F2, because signal levels will be much more reliable. Otherwise it will be a crapshoot with the weather. Good luck!

 

[stecle]

We moved cross country from MN to VA in early 2020. My Shaw direct satellite worked perfectly. Had a new dual tuner LNBF and newish HD PVR.

Just had a guy come out and reinstall the dish and coordinated with Broker in Canada. Previous installations have always been seamless. Signal yesterday was 96, today 56 cloudy out and when it started to rain, the channel pixilated. The installer had a machine that detected the coordinates. Broker confirmed they were correct.

I only subscribed to the 25 channel plan so I can watch the Canadian election on Monday. Most of the channels don't work, I get channels that are not in the plan. The available channels change. Some say no signal, then the next day it works. Just 20 mins ago, CBC News Network worked, now it doesn't. Sometime all channels have no signal.

I am aware of the anik F. Earlier today, I had City TV Calgary, which is not part of Anik F. The whole situation is so topsy turvy. I am tech challenged with the satellite terminology, I didn't understand the advice in previous threads..

My broker had me reset the box, he spent almost all day with me troubleshooting with all the topsy turvy results.
Here are photos of option 4/7 and a pic of the satellite dish. Wondering if there is an obscure setting that needs to be changed. Also, the photo of the dish looks to me it is facing the trees which could be part of the problem? Is this showing an end to being able to use Shaw Direct in the US?

Can anyone help?

The first thing you should do is immediately remove the photo of your unit ID. If you had a signal of 96 at the beginning, I doubt the trees are your problem. The dish seems to have a lot of skew, but that could be just the way the photo was taken.

 

[sparksals]

The center of the problem is likely simulcast substitution. If you are looking at something from the Toronto or Vancouver markets, the majority (but not all) channels are on Anik F2, which comes in solid in any weather. IF you look at any other market, the majority of local channels are transmitted via Anik G1, which is not going to work reliably in Virginia when the weather is inclement. Adding to the problem is that certain channels are going to be preempted by other Canadian channels when SIMSUB channel substitution/overlay comes in to play, on a program by program basis. If any of the channels in your loop (the original channel that may be transmitting from Anik G1, but is substituted instead of the channel you selected because of SIMSUB, you will physically be receiving that Anik G1 signal, and if you have low signal levels, it will drop out or completely fail at times. No solution other than a perfect alignment, bigger dish, or finding another CDN channel that has same program, but with a stronger signal in your receive location.

In other words, try to source programming from Anik F2, because signal levels will be much more reliable. Otherwise it will be a crapshoot with the weather. Good luck!

Thankn you for your help Mike. The tech came back and it was pointed to G. Now at F and everything working..

 

[sparksals]

The first thing you should do is immediately remove the photo of your unit ID. If you had a signal of 96 at the beginning, I doubt the trees are your problem. The dish seems to have a lot of skew, but that could be just the way the photo was taken.

Thank you!!! Had to report the post and a mod deleted the photos. Couldn't edit it myself for some reason.

 

[c-spand]

found this. Shaw Direct Satellite TV Dishes