Hey gang,

For the last 2 weeks or so, I've been struggling to receive/retain the HD local channels in my market (Washington DC). Either the channels don't come in, or if they do, the audio/video is often so choppy it is totally unwatchable. It can be fine for 30-60 minutes, and then totally unwatchable/blank screen for the next 30-60 minutes. It's very unpredictable, and it's happening on both my H20 an HR21, so I don't think it's related to a specific receiver in the house.

The strange thing is, all of my other HD channels (I have the premier package, so I have a number of other HD channels) come in just fine all of the time. Are the HD locals on their own satellite in the sky? I called DirecTV, and a tech came out and said he replaced a waterlogged connector on the outside of the house. The HD locals were then fine for a couple days, but it's acting up again. Same symptoms as before. Any advice from the forum? The SuperBowl is tomorrow, and I'd really like to have solid HD reception of NBC.

Lastly, I have an off-air antenna on the roof, but it hasn't been in use for quite a while. I thought about hooking it back up, but I don't think I can since it doesn't have a separate cable run. I believe that as soon as the B-Band converter was installed on my H20, I lost the ability to have off-air locals. (Before the B-Band converter, I had 1 line running towards the H20, which diplexed into off-air and sat-in...worked great. After the B-Band and HD Locals came around, the installer said I could no longer get off-air channels and DirecTV on the same coax line. True?

Hey gang,

For the last 2 weeks or so, I've been struggling to receive/retain the HD local channels in my market (Washington DC). Either the channels don't come in, or if they do, the audio/video is often so choppy it is totally unwatchable. It can be fine for 30-60 minutes, and then totally unwatchable/blank screen for the next 30-60 minutes. It's very unpredictable, and it's happening on both my H20 an HR21, so I don't think it's related to a specific receiver in the house.

The strange thing is, all of my other HD channels (I have the premier package, so I have a number of other HD channels) come in just fine all of the time. Are the HD locals on their own satellite in the sky? I called DirecTV, and a tech came out and said he replaced a waterlogged connector on the outside of the house. The HD locals were then fine for a couple days, but it's acting up again. Same symptoms as before. Any advice from the forum? The SuperBowl is tomorrow, and I'd really like to have solid HD reception of NBC.

Lastly, I have an off-air antenna on the roof, but it hasn't been in use for quite a while. I thought about hooking it back up, but I don't think I can since it doesn't have a separate cable run. I believe that as soon as the B-Band converter was installed on my H20, I lost the ability to have off-air locals. (Before the B-Band converter, I had 1 line running towards the H20, which diplexed into off-air and sat-in...worked great. After the B-Band and HD Locals came around, the installer said I could no longer get off-air channels and DirecTV on the same coax line. True?


1) Yes the HD Locals do have their own satellite, but I have not heard of one having issues with this the rest of the HD channels come in fine. The question would be what are you signal strengths reading on both the 99W and 103W satellites. Perhaps your dish needs tweaking.

2) You are aware the HR21 does not have an OTA Tuner in it?

3) It is possible that the locals are getting ready for the Feb Switch and doing work on their transmitter sites currently which could add to your issues.

1) Thanks for the reply BeachComber. The signal strengths on 99W and 103W do show up very strong, so I'm at a loss as to why the HD locals kept dropping out. Over the past 6 days it's been much better; I've only noticed a momentary dropout here and there, but the channels are perfectly watchable now. The only thing that's changed is the weather has been much warmer/calmer, though that could be pure coincidence.

2) Right, I'm considering re-attaching the coax cable to the OTA Tuner on my H20, not the HR21. I still don't know whether that cable run needs to be on it's own coax line, if it can pass through a switch before hooking into the OTA Tuner, etc. If anyone can expand on that, I would be grateful.