Dad needs help

[MatthewB]

Okay my father has been having issues with his Dish provider. It all started about six months ago when my father would get a picture and no sound from his RPTV hooked up via HDMI to the TV and optical to his receiver. He'd get sound to the TV but none to the receiver (old Kenwood no HDMI connections). So he bought an entry level Denon which solved the audio but then he would get audio and no picture so he bought a 60" LG Plasma and was happy for a few weeks then he'd get the hand shake issue where he got audio through the Denon but no picture so he switched HDMI cables no change. Then had Dish send a new box still issues. I asked him to run a signal strength test and he got 50 on the first test and 71 on the second, so he called Dish to check the signal. So he's changed the TV, the receiver, the Dish box and the HDMI cables and still has issues and today sent me this email about his weekend visit from the Dish tech and I still say the signal is weak but Dish says anything above 38 is fine. My Directv has to be above 90 to be considered good anyway what say you guys cause I am lost. Here's my dads email.....

The Dish tech was here Saturday. Here is a summary of the results:

1. He says any signal strength above 38 when viewing HD is good. Our signal strength of 50 is great.
2. In an attempt to fix our problem where the TV fails to shake hands with the Dish Receiver, he wound up
installing yet a third Dish Receiver. Still have the problem. He called his boss who asked, what brand is their
audio receiver ... Denon. The boss checked with HQ and said Dish and Denon receivers do not play well together.
3. The tech thought he had a fix: run the HDMI cable straight to the TV and get the sound from the Dish receiver to
the Denon via a $19 optics cable. He tried two different cables before decreeing that the optical part of our Denon
was inoperative. (Note: The last tech said the fault lay in our TV; now it is in the Denon receiver.)
4. We currently are using a Dish receiver/DVR that runs two TVs at one time. I intend to check with Dish to see if
single-function receivers like we used to have would fix the problem. More later.
Dad

 

[Towen7]

A few questions...
How many Dish receivers are in the house? If its more than one, has anyone tried moving the components to another room? What about the LNB, has anyone swapped it, or at least swapped the coax to another output?

The tech should have taken a reading at the dish, at the diplexer or splitters, and at the receiver(s) to check for loss. He shold also perform a test to check for foreign noise on the coax to verify the integrity of the shielding. All coax connections should be high quality compression fittings. The barrel on wall plates should be checked or replaced.

 

[MatthewB]

Tom they have two receivers the main one controls the living room and master bedroom and the second one is in the guest house as for the other info I don't know and I'd email my dad but he would have no idea what your talking about. He needs help to turn on the Bluray player.

He hasn't moved the components to another room because they only watch the main system the master bedroom and guest house never get used.

 

[Rope]

Connect the STB direct to the TV. If video/audio work, the Denon is not passing the signal via HDMI. If thats the case, settings need to be reviewed on the Denon.

Rope

 

[MatthewB]

Rope I'm the one who set up the Denon so I know they are correct. I should mention though that when my father first turns on the system he gets the "no signal present" so my father would hit the Dish reset button and then the signal would connect and no issues till my dad turned off the system and turns it back on the next day and he once again would have to hit the reset button on the STB. My folks are having no issues whatsoever with the HD-DVD or Bluray players they work perfectly through the Denon and TV only Dish has issues.

 

[Rope]

Rope I'm the one who set up the Denon so I know they are correct. I should mention though that when my father first turns on the system he gets the "no signal present" so my father would hit the Dish reset button and then the signal would connect and no issues till my dad turned off the system and turns it back on the next day and he once again would have to hit the reset button on the STB. My folks are having no issues whatsoever with the HD-DVD or Bluray players they work perfectly through the Denon and TV only Dish has issues.

Has anyone dicked with the Denon settings? If he's like my dad, something doesn't work the way he thinks it should, he'll push every button available until it's so jimmied up it takes a good half hour to unscrew things.

The process of elimination may make trouble shooting easier by eliminating one, two pieces of gear from the equation.

Rope

PS service providers are wizards at finger pointing.

 

[MatthewB]

Rope I asked my father that very question and he says he didn't. Now the fact he gets audio and video only after he hits the reset button tells me it's a Dish problem but him going through three STB and he still has an issue has me perplexed. I will say that I have no faith in Dish techs ever since they hooked up his first HD box using S-video and telling him it was HD

I'm about to tell the old man to just leave the sat box on 24/7 negating him having to go through a reset Everytime he turns on the TV. But considering he was having Sat issues with the old TV and Kenwood receiver and still has issues with a new receiver and TV just leaves the Dish and considering the tech had to call his boss for guidance doesn't fill me with confidence. I've suggested my dad switch to Directv but my mother loves the free blockbuster movie channels.

Does anyone know if the tech is correct in saying that a signal of 38 is good for HD?

Since the TV and receiver work great with the disc players I'm left thinking its a Dish issue but the techs are too stupid and/or lazy to fix the problem.

 

[Batman]

I'll try and give a shout out to Tee, his close friend Mario is an installer for Dish and I think directv also...maybe they can shed some light onto some of your technical questions regarding Dish equipment.

 

[MatthewB]

Thanks Chris I did some research my father says he is getting a signal of 50 on one sat and 71 on the other. According to the research I've done the benchmark for Dish is a strength of 70 with one being 50 he may need one of the LNB's to be realigned and this may be the cause of his issues. I told the old man to call Dish and make sure they don't send a crack smoking hippie and send a tech with a signal meter who will go on the roof and check the signal alignment strength, the cables and make sure the cable isn't hooked into Ant In but LNB in (common mistake). It pisses me off that I have to do the damn techs job. Seriously Everytime my dad calls Dish I wind up having to make a special trip to Tucson and fix their damn mistakes. :angry-cussingblack: