ViP 722 will not record OTA channel 8

[smitbret]

Asked this question over at AVSForum and best anyone could come up with was dying HDD. One of them sent me this way figuring if you guys didn't know, no one would.

My equipment:
ViP 722, Antennacraft HBU22 antenna, Winegard HDP269 pre-amp. Satellite and OTA signals are coming into the house via one diplexed RG6 coax line.

Anyway, I can directly view the channel just fine. Never had a drop out, blocking or pixellation due to bad signal. However, the DVR struggles with any DVR related activity ONLY on this one channel. Recordings from timer, manual recordings, rewind, fast forward, etc., etc. Trying to do any of this causes horrific blocking, audio dropouts and in the case of DVR recordings, the recorded event will cease playing back about two minutes into the recording. In acts almost exactly like there is a poor signal getting to the box. Signal strength according to the 722 is 81-85, the highest of any of the channels I pick up. I do not have the same trouble with any of the other OTA network broadcasts or any of the satellite broadcasts.

I originally thought it may be a HDD or bandwidth issue, but the local CBS affiliate is not giving me the same problem and has higher bandwidth, judging by consistently larger DVR file sizes of saved programs of similar length. I have reset the 722, unplugged it and received no errors on reboot.

Next I thought it may have been signal overload. I can receive channel 8 on from two different transmitters. One (channel 21) is only about 7 miles away and gives a slightly better signal. Thinking the pre-amp may be overloading the signal since I was so close, I deleted channel 8 via 21 and manually added it using the transmitter that is 40+ miles away (main channel 8). My signal strength dropped about ten points to 74-76, but the DVR results are the same.

The type of broadcast makes no difference, either; Saturday morning college football in HD, weekday afternoon Ellen in SD, late night Jimmy Kimmel in HD.... makes no difference.

I have had a couple of online chats with the Dish tech support and all they have come up with so far is that they can't guarantee the OTA performance with their DVR.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear it. Short of getting a new box from Dish, I don't know what else to do. Thanks.

 

[smitbret]

Well, it's not the antenna setup, wiring or signal strength. I unhooked the entire feed line between the dish/antenna and the 722 and connected a single indoor antenna via 3 feet of RG-6 to the OTA tuner. Pointed the antenna directly at the transmitter (Virt-8 Real-21) and got unamplified signal strength of 88-89. Same results with The View and a syndicated episode of Friends. It's got to be something in the receiver/tuner. Guess I'll chit chat with Dish again.


How hard is it to replace the HDD in one of these?

 

[garys]

Not too hard, but I doubt the hard drive is the problem. Sounds like a software glitch. Also note, that if the receiver is leased and Dish discovers you changed the hard drive, they will probably charge you full price for the receiver.

 

[KAB]

Strange coincidence in that The Mentalist on our CH. 8/CBS recorded nothing but black, and no audio...for the entire allotted time.

 

[smitbret]

Not too hard, but I doubt the hard drive is the problem. Sounds like a software glitch. Also note, that if the receiver is leased and Dish discovers you changed the hard drive, they will probably charge you full price for the receiver.

So is there anyway to upgrade/downgrade the software package?

 

[KAB]

So is there anyway to upgrade/downgrade the software package?

No.

 

[cditty]

Do you ever get out of the ordinary 'The Satellite Signal Has Been Lost' boxes when watching regular TV?

 

[smitbret]

Do you ever get out of the ordinary 'The Satellite Signal Has Been Lost' boxes when watching regular TV?

Nope.

While watching a DVR'd game last night, I did get a very brief "skip" a couple of times over the course of a 4 hour broadcast that would be similar to losing OTA signal. Happened on channel 23 (real). Did it without warning though and there was no blocking or audio dropout before or after that would indicate a struggle to hold signal. Seemed more like a behavior generated on the transmission end.

The only other thing I've noticed happening on a rare occasion is some blocking on a few SD sat channels. Sat signals are still as strong as they ever were and it doesn't happen often enough that it is the least bit bothersome.