I will try this tonight to see if I can improve my non 5.1 channel audio quality. However I have not really noticed a problem, but I was not expecting one either. You just left the RCA stereo cables dangling permanently?

Yes. Just plug them into the back of the H20 and as soon as you do you will notice the change in audio quality immediately. I tuned it to the XM 90's channel so I knew the source would be in stereo when I did this. I'm just planning to leave the RCA cables there dangling. Won't hurt anything.

Like you, I didn't know I had a problem until I read this on the satelliteguys forum last night. I tried it and it worked. Can't understand why.

that sucks, you would think i'd be able to disable it then if i am using an HDMI connection(which i am).

What's the big deal? Just turn Native to "off" and switch the resolution to 720p. All channels will then be outputted in 720p, which is what you are looking for.

1) Are there still rebates being offered on the H20? If so, can someone point me to more detailed info?

2) I've been out of the market on this stuff for a long while (I'm still using my Samsung SIR-TS160 that I purchased 3 years ago). From my few hours of research on this site, it seems like there are much fewer STBs being manufactured for DirecTV customers. So...are there any other *new* STBs to consider besides the H20?

Sorry for being such a newbie.

1) No. DirecTV went to an equipment leasing policy on March 1st.

2) DirecTV is the only company making STBs for DirecTV use.

1) Are there still rebates being offered on the H20? If so, can someone point me to more detailed info?

2) I've been out of the market on this stuff for a long while (I'm still using my Samsung SIR-TS160 that I purchased 3 years ago). From my few hours of research on this site, it seems like there are much fewer STBs being manufactured for DirecTV customers. So...are there any other *new* STBs to consider besides the H20?

Sorry for being such a newbie.

Well you should be sorry for being a newbie.... :D (Just kidding).

I have had many boxes in my years with Directv and even though the H20 has some minor annoyances (slow guide and some other things) It puts out the best SD/HD picture I have ever seen. Good OTA tuner (but no cable tuner).

If your a long time Directv HD customer, you should be able to call customer retention and get the H20, dish and installation for free...as long as your in the Mpeg4 locals area.

I think through updates, etc this box will end up being one of the top boxes out there. Keep in mind that PVR is coming this summer.

I finally got my H20 activated on Tuesday. The picture quality is a hair better on normal channels but is noticeably better on OTA channels -- and OTA reception is much better as well. Oh, compared to my Samsung TS-360.

Yes, the guide is slow and annoying to access. I have not had any problems setting up a Favorites list (no rebooting for me). Overall, the user interface sucks compared to the Sammy 360, but the picture quality is better and I finally get Fox and the local HDNET OTA now, so I guess it's worth it.

Thanks for answering my questions in regards to the H20, guys. My menu is pretty darn slow in the SIR-TS160 (and the OTA is shaky at best), so I don't imagine it can be any worse with the H20.

Like you guys mentioned, hopefully they will push down firmware/software updates that will speed up the menu, as well as improve the guide functionality.

I see that on the Circuit City and Best Buy websites, it's selling for $99. So if "customer retention" doesn't want to dish it out for free, I don't mind spending the cash. That's about 20% what I paid for the SIR-TS160 a few years ago!

(Edit for spelling)

Y'all.... deviating a bit.

If you are concerned that your H20 is too hot (100 - 110 degrees measured topside), then fans on the top will cool the receiver in a hurry.

Well, for $21.00 including shipping there's a fan unit for notebook computers that works perfectly. It has two fans, some purty blue LEDs to rice your H20 up and the cooling effect is immediate.

The intake for this fan system is on the top, so you just lay it on the H20's top, upside down. The exhaust will be toward the unit's front.

Voltage is simple... it plugs into the H20's USB port!

And the purty blue LEDs honestly sets it off! :cool:
http://www.hardwarecooling.com/product_info.php/cat/33/prod/514/Spire_PacificBreeze_Notebook_Cooler

http://www.hardwarecooling.com/images/CF300-neb.jpg

USB powered is goood. If only the fan didn't have those ugly lights.....

USB powered is goood. If only the fan didn't have those ugly lights.....
Oh, but they are so pretteeee. Seriously, if they bugged me too much, I'd just go in and clip the wire feeding them.

This thing really does a good job.

wilbywilson,
The H20 guide is considerably slower than the TS160. You'll hate it. But the OTA tuner is fantastic, and you can use the 1-line guide (Blue button on remote), which is very fast for quick look at a particular channel's guide.

Oh, but they are so pretteeee. Seriously, if they bugged me too much, I'd just go in and clip the wire feeding them.

This thing really does a good job.
How noisy is it?

How noisy is it?
Has two speeds, both are quiet unless you get right next to it.

Yes. Just plug them into the back of the H20 and as soon as you do you will notice the change in audio quality immediately. I tuned it to the XM 90's channel so I knew the source would be in stereo when I did this. I'm just planning to leave the RCA cables there dangling. Won't hurt anything.

Like you, I didn't know I had a problem until I read this on the satelliteguys forum last night. I tried it and it worked. Can't understand why.


It works! What the heck? Thank you for sharing this information, it so much nicer listening to my $30,000 system in stereo. :p

Evan

It works! What the heck? Thank you for sharing this information, it so much nicer listening to my $30,000 system in stereo. :p

Evan

I asked an electrical engineer at work what could cause this - and he had a couple of possible explanations, but there is no way I could begin to properly convey what he said. However, he did say this would not be correctable (in his opinion) through firmware updates.

Whats amazing is that there are thousands and thousands of these receivers out there and they all seem to have this problem. -- And 99% of the owners of these things will never know about the workaround.

1) Are there still rebates being offered on the H20? If so, can someone point me to more detailed info?


THERE IS a HD (or) DVR rebate valued @ $100.
in order to be eligible you have to be "New to leasing".

a CSR may tell you they are unsure or that there isn't, but ask them
to read carefully and check for the wording " new to leasing "

That means if you have any Leased Equipment Active
on your account, you are ineligible.

i hope this helped clear up any misconception.

-Brine

It works! What the heck? Thank you for sharing this information, it so much nicer listening to my $30,000 system in stereo. :p

Evan

When I first started listening to XM Radio on D* I am "sure" that it was in stereo. I remember being impressed by the sound. I haven't been as avid a listener lately but I had noticed that the sound seemed flat on some SD video channels. I thought it was just that particular show and didn't follow up. :o

I wonder if this issue was introduced by a recent firmware update.

Dana

Does the USB fan turn off when you turn off the H20?

BTW, here is another smaller USB fan (http://www.windywilly.com/id63.html) (no lights).
This one is about halfway down the page on that site:
http://www.windywilly.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/Fan-USB-New.jpg.w180h135.jpg

When I first started listening to XM Radio on D* I am "sure" that it was in stereo. I remember being impressed by the sound. I haven't been as avid a listener lately but I had noticed that the sound seemed flat on some SD video channels. I thought it was just that particular show and didn't follow up. :o

I wonder if this issue was introduced by a recent firmware update.

Dana


I hope so. When you were originally impressed with the XM Radio sound were you using the optical out - or did you change to that later? I'm curious because my Directv install was just last Saturday, so the F06 firmware is the only one I've known.

Optical out to my Panny HTIB from the get-go.

Dana

BTW. I put into the analog out jacks, two Radio Shack y-plugs. one in each jack. No cords. Still upgrades the sound. So, apparently, it is the physical presence of plugs that "turns back on" the optical output in stereo.

Does the USB fan turn off when you turn off the H20?

BTW, here is another smaller USB fan (http://www.windywilly.com/id63.html) (no lights).


This is a really cool idea, and I might do it. But I was wondering if anyone had actually had a problem that they could attribute to the 110 degree temperature of the top of the H20?

Quick question: Is there anyway to test the H20 to ensure that the HDMI port is working? I just bought a new Samsung DLP set that has HDMI, but when I hook up the cable it doesn't show up as an option when I toggle between sources. I need to figure out if I have a bad cable, bad input on my TV, or bad output on my H20. Since I don't have another TV that has HDMI inputs I'm not sure how to figure this out. Don't want to go through the trouble of returning the TV if that's not the problem. Wasn't sure if there was a menu item that could help me out. Thanks.

Thought I'd pass on that it isn't the H20 that has the bad HDMI port, but rather the TV. I picked up a DVD player with HDMI and the TV didn't recognize that either. So I'll be exchanging the TV for a new one. Thanks for the suggestions.

This is a really cool idea, and I might do it. But I was wondering if anyone had actually had a problem that they could attribute to the 110 degree temperature of the top of the H20?

I honestly don't think there is a problem, although mine was registering 101 - 105. Shine a flashlight inside, and you'll see two CPU-type devices with heat sinks on them. The power supply takes up almost half of the case's space. There is a lot going on inside. Obviously, I think the designers could have vented all this heat to the back to get the heat transfer away from the case's top, but as was mentioned on another site, we would have probably been complaining about the back being too hot, is this bad for my cables, and will it fry the connectors... :rolleyes:

Does the USB fan turn off when you turn off the H20?...
It keeps running, which is good since the H20 is still cooking out some heat even when "turned off" which is really just standby. The unit isn't off.

My H20 is at times, very slow in switching between channels, say from a HD to a SD station, say roughly between 6-8 seconds. But then not too slow at all at some other times? Is it the H20 or is it my Akai plasma display? Does anyone notice this?

My H20 is at times, very slow in switching between channels, say from a HD to a SD station, say roughly between 6-8 seconds. But then not too slow at all at some other times? Is it the H20 or is it my Akai plasma display? Does anyone notice this?

It is because you are using Native mode as output of the H20. The h20 does a pretty good job of scaling. I just set it to output 720P and 480P and it is much quicker. I believe your plasama is 720P compatible

What's the big deal? Just turn Native to "off" and switch the resolution to 720p. All channels will then be outputted in 720p, which is what you are looking for.the big deal is that i only get a "justified(normal center, stretched on the sides)" picture on my SD channels if the resolution is 480i. btw, setting the format to 720p doesnt make SD channels HD.

Thought I'd pass on that it isn't the H20 that has the bad HDMI port, but rather the TV. I picked up a DVD player with HDMI and the TV didn't recognize that either. So I'll be exchanging the TV for a new one. Thanks for the suggestions.

Now you have another problem....if you have the extended warranty you may want a 1080P set instead? Depending on the price difference, I would check out that option.

... I was wondering if anyone had actually had a problem that they could attribute to the 110 degree temperature of the top of the H20?I haven't heard of any yet with this box, but it's kinda early to tell. Previously, the Hughes E86 and its clones were plagued by heat problems and many died an early death. I had 2 of 'em that died from heat stress.

Some H20s had a problem that made them too hot to touch on the top or bottom (I forget). D* is replacing those if you have one.

Anyone that's leasing an H20 may as well not bother adding a fan. If a leased box becomes defective, D* is supposed to replace it.

the big deal is that i only get a "justified(normal center, stretched on the sides)" picture on my SD channels if the resolution is 480i. btw, setting the format to 720p doesnt make SD channels HD.

I'm well aware that upscaling doesn't make SD channels HD!

Your display will scale everything to 720p anyway. You might as well let the H20 do that for you, which will speed up channel changing. By turning off Native and setting the output to 720p, all channels will be scaled to 720p. If you have an aspect ratio problem in this mode, you have the H20 configured incorrectly.

Depending on the scaler and native format, it's better to have the box do it for you...as long as your TV accepts 720P native then your box will send the signal straight on through.No "double conversion".

My tv...I have the SD output on the box set to 480I and let the tv upconvert it that way. makes for a really nice SD picture. Otherwise, everything else is upconverted to 1080I and passed through natively to the TV. Remember, the fewer upconversions, typically the better the picture.

It keeps running, which is good since the H20 is still cooking out some heat even when "turned off" which is really just standby. The unit isn't off.

That sucks. So the only way to turn them off is to unplug them from the USB?

the big deal is that i only get a "justified(normal center, stretched on the sides)" picture on my SD channels if the resolution is 480i...Some TVs will let you stretch, zoom, crop or otherwise distort the OAR image, regardless of what resolution you're feeding it. Others won't...

That sucks. So the only way to turn them off is to unplug them from the USB?That, or connect the H20 to a switchable outlet, which is not a good option.

Larry,

the H20 gives off a lot less heat when "off". Even though part of it is on, the mpeg decoder is not doing any work, so there's a lot less heat.

That sucks. So the only way to turn them off is to unplug them from the USB?
Well, so don't use fans at all. The H20 is hot either ON or OFF. If fans are important for those concerned about the heat, then the fans would be needed at all times. Such selective fan-cooling doesn't make sense, assuming the H20 is doing stuff, even when OFF, and is producing the objectionable heat.

I personally think the H20 is doing thermal cooling perfectly, drawing in air in the sides, and venting through the top. As far as the components are concerned, 100 - 105 degrees is not hot at all and fans aren't needed. But, the problem with this is that topside venting is objectionable to the user. DirecTV honestly should have installed back-side fans, similiar to what notebook computers use and no one would have even noticed the heat. But, thermal cooling is simple and works well.

...the H20 gives off a lot less heat when "off". Even though part of it is on, the mpeg decoder is not doing any work, so there's a lot less heat.
I put a thermometer on the top case and didn't get a major difference at all, on or off.
I get 100 - 105 degrees F either way.

Now you have another problem....if you have the extended warranty you may want a 1080P set instead? Depending on the price difference, I would check out that option.

I just bought the TV last week, so I'm returning it directly to the store for a new one, even exchange. Much as I like your suggestion, I had a hard enough time convincing the wife we needed this one, let alone one that's at least $1000 more.

Regarding the 0.001% of us who have the dreaded "caller ID" problem on the H20...

I finally got a spare hour to sit on the phone with tier 2 support and the HD department to resolve the issue. I finally convinced them that it works on most H20s and if they just send me another one it will probably work fine. I will get the new unit next week.

I also asked about the fact that my 4 receivers are listed as "not mirrored". The CS rep stated that on his screen they are definitely mirrored. He did not know what the access card level listed on my account means, however.

One more thing, apparently they could not tell that I bought the unit from them!?! I had to tell them twice that it came with the 5LNB install they did 2 months ago. It seems to me that anyone who bought the unit at CC or BB, etc, could easily convince them that they actually purchased it from D*. They don't seem to know for sure either way. That might come in handy for someone in the future.

I posted this in the installation thread, I think I should have listed it here. I went to Best Buy in Portland, OR today and they were selling the H20 for $99.00. Are these just the advance sells since the locals won't be available until mid year at the earliest or did the timeframe move up. Any benfits by buying it now or waiting for the HD DVR. If it was bought now, would they do the new dish install now or will the dish install be at a later time. Thanks for any info.

I bought the H20 and installed it because the sensitivity and resistance to multipath OTA signals is much better than my old receiver. I used to get drop outs of picture and sound every time a plane landed at a nearby airport. Now, with the H20, I get an occasional pixel drop, but rarely a total dropout. The standard definition picture is also better.

Not sure if this bug has been previously posted but I've just found a somewhat major bummer in the H20. I came upon a weak reception PBS station OTA where I live, the H20 immediately went into a search mode then reset itself, acquiring new data from satellite, then came back doing the same thing over and over again until I realized the box is acting up strangely. How I got out of it is as soon as it came back from acquiring sat data I immediately press the channel button to change the station. Sure enough to avoid the recurrence I deleted the channel in my favorites.
Has any one seen or experienced this?

I posted this in the installation thread, I think I should have listed it here. I went to Best Buy in Portland, OR today and they were selling the H20 for $99.00. Are these just the advance sells since the locals won't be available until mid year at the earliest or did the timeframe move up. Any benfits by buying it now or waiting for the HD DVR. If it was bought now, would they do the new dish install now or will the dish install be at a later time. Thanks for any info.

Unless I completely misunderstood your question asking whether the TV stations in Portland, OR do not broadcast in digital format or ATSC until mid year. Granted I do not live there but I will be completely shocked to find out if they weren't.
Buy the box if you wished, take it home, set it up and activate it if you're existing DirecTV subscriber. Otherwise, buy the box, then call DirecTV or their affiliates and sign up for it. The local OTA DTV stations only work or will be activated when subscribed to some basic programming.

...
I put a thermometer on the top case and didn't get a major difference at all, on or off. I get 100 - 105 degrees F either way.
I didn't measure it, but mine were both noticeably cooler when off.

...Has any one seen or experienced this?
yes. search the thread for "reboot" It's happening all over the country and not necessarily on weak channels. happening on other channels besides pbs, too.

unplugging the box may help for a while. it stopped mine for a couple of weeks.

I didn't measure it, but mine were both noticeably cooler when off.
Give it a try with a thermometer, meat thermometer.... anything that will lay across the vents. Give a long duration on the sample so the results will be accurate. Move the thermometer around.

... I went to Best Buy in Portland, OR today and they were selling the H20 for $99.00. Are these just the advance sells
That's not a sell. It's a payment to receive a box for leasing. You won't own it. Anyway, the H20 is the only HD box they offer now, regardless of where you live. And the standard dish install for it is supposed to be the bigger 5LNB AT9, although some have reported that they still got the older 3LNB. If you want the 5LNB, you'll have to insist on it if they try to put in the smaller 3LNB (3LNB is much easier to install, that's why the installer may try to get out of putting in the bigger dish).

If you are using the optical audio output on the H20, try this experiment. A fellow on the Directv HDTV forum on satelliteguys discovered something crazy and two more of us confirmed his findings.

He noticed, when listening to the XM stations on his headphones, that there was no stereo separation in the signal. When he plugged in RCA cables to the L+R audio out jacks on the back of the H20 (but did not connect the other end to ANYTHING) the stereo separation returned. For some reason the optical out signal is corrected by doing this. As unbelievable as this sounds, I gave it a try and HE IS RIGHT! You don't have to turn anything off or reboot or anything. Just plug in the RCA cables - you can use the ones that came with the receiver - and leave the other end dangling. As soon as you plug them in, the stereo separation is immediately noticeable. What on earth could cause this?????

Since doing this, the sound quality on all the Directv non-5.1 channels is greatly improved. (There never seemed to be a problem with the DD 5.1 channels).

Please try this crazy experiment to see if you see the same thing. But, like I said, three of us did this and had the same result.


Do the analog audio jacks have to be left hanging or can they be connected to something for this trick to work? I have had mine connected to a VCR since I had the H20 installed. I have not noticed a problem with audio from the unit and removing the analog jacks from the unit does not seem to make any difference, but I wonder if I am just not hearing it or am not tuning to a channel that would make it apparent to me.

Thanks.

The analog plugs may be left hanging, or may be connected to another device (VCR, DVD recorder, analog stereo receiver, etc.). Doesn't matter, but they must be connected to the back of the H20 or non DD stations are mono.

Easy way to test this is on any XM satellite radio channel in the 800s. Unplug the analog audio cables from the back of the H20 (leaving digital audio cable connected). You'll get mono sound instead of stereo.

Thanks arxaw. Sounds like I'm in good shape then. It's amazing the stuff you learn on these forums!

I also asked about the fact that my 4 receivers are listed as "not mirrored". The CS rep stated that on his screen they are definitely mirrored. He did not know what the access card level listed on my account means, however.On March 4 they apparently "disconnected" and reinstalled each of my receivers in order to change the status to "not mirrored" and the access card level to $15. We'll see how the billing goes on my March 14 date. On the $15 change, my two receivers that are connected to a phone line were changed just the same as the others that are not connected. I don't use PPV, so it's not an issue.

Turned on my H20 today and it just kept rebooting. After going through this thread, I disconnected my OTA feed and got it to stay up. Seems that whenever I tune to NBC here in New York, the unit reboots. Reloaded the software, and it's still happening as soon as I go to NBC.

Anybody else seeing this?

Turned on my H20 today and it just kept rebooting. After going through this thread, I disconnected my OTA feed and got it to stay up. Seems that whenever I tune to NBC here in New York, the unit reboots. Reloaded the software, and it's still happening as soon as I go to NBC.

Anybody else seeing this?I am getting the same problem on NBC in Birmingham Al.

I'm well aware that upscaling doesn't make SD channels HD!

Your display will scale everything to 720p anyway. You might as well let the H20 do that for you, which will speed up channel changing. By turning off Native and setting the output to 720p, all channels will be scaled to 720p. If you have an aspect ratio problem in this mode, you have the H20 configured incorrectly.
possibly. any ideas?

The analog plugs may be left hanging, or may be connected to another device (VCR, DVD recorder, analog stereo receiver, etc.). Doesn't matter, but they must be connected to the back of the H20 or non DD stations are mono.

Easy way to test this is on any XM satellite radio channel in the 800s. Unplug the analog audio cables from the back of the H20 (leaving digital audio cable connected). You'll get mono sound instead of stereo.
so i noticed analog audio outs 1 & 2 on the back of my h20. do i plug into one, the other, either, or both?

Turned on my H20 today and it just kept rebooting. After going through this thread, I disconnected my OTA feed and got it to stay up. Seems that whenever I tune to NBC here in New York, the unit reboots. Reloaded the software, and it's still happening as soon as I go to NBC.

Anybody else seeing this?

Denver NBC also. Oddly, I can go to 9-2 and back up to 9-1 and watch the channel - but what a pain.

The analog plugs may be left hanging, or may be connected to another device (VCR, DVD recorder, analog stereo receiver, etc.). Doesn't matter, but they must be connected to the back of the H20 or non DD stations are mono.

Easy way to test this is on any XM satellite radio channel in the 800s. Unplug the analog audio cables from the back of the H20 (leaving digital audio cable connected). You'll get mono sound instead of stereo.

I want to thank you and I bow to your absolute genius on this matter.

Excellent and weird find.

so i noticed analog audio outs 1 & 2 on the back of my h20. do i plug into one, the other, either, or both?

I tried both audio outs and get the same result, so it really doesn't matter which ones that you use.

Kentuck1163, You got me curious about the audio RCA jacks on the back of the H-20. just pluging plugs into the jacks with no terminations on the other end, should not change anything, (such as resistance, impedence ect) on standard jacks. I took the cover off my H-20 and took a close look at the jacks. The video out jacks are standard 2 conductor jacks. However the audio jacks have a third conductor that acts as a switch. when you plug in a plug it opens one of the contacts that is shorted without the plug inserted. This is what is turning on the stereo. I have no idea why they did this without the schmatics. maybe someone else can figure that one out.

Grizzly One, you are bolder than I. I think it voids the warranty to open it up, doesn't it? Of course, its only a measly 90-day warranty.

This sounds like a case of bad engineering. Can't believe they didn't catch this.

Kentuck1163, Theres no warranty seals on the cover so theres no way for them to know it was opened. Having figured out how the jacks work though, I just went to Radio Shack and got a pair of RCA plugs with no wires attached and plugged them in. That way I don't have a bunch of spare wire flopping around. Stereo Optical Output works great. Thanks for the heads up on this It was a great tip.

Hope this is the correct thread for this questions(problem) My H20 displays all of the local OTA channels, recently our local NBC channel fails to display. Signal strength is between 80-90 on the meter. All other channels work fine. Any insight?

Hope this is the correct thread for this questions(problem) My H20 displays all of the local OTA channels, recently our local NBC channel fails to display. Signal strength is between 80-90 on the meter. All other channels work fine. Any insight?
Go to the setup menu and try rescanning for your OTA locals. If no help, try a hard reset. Disconnect the H20 power cord for a few seconds and plug back in. And wait..................................................

If the above doesn't help, I would contact the station engineers if possible.

Hope this is the correct thread for this questions(problem) My H20 displays all of the local OTA channels, recently our local NBC channel fails to display. Signal strength is between 80-90 on the meter. All other channels work fine. Any insight?
It is the local station. I had a similar situation with College Station (Channel 3) for nearly a full day. Some Aggie engineer probably forgot to flip the switch. :eek: I had nothing but a black screen and a high signal strength.

Funny is, local commercials would come on. After those commercials, the station would fade to the network content, which ended up being a fade-to-black. When the local late night newscast was due to come up, there was no problem. After the newscast, well, whadayaknow? The network feed came in as if nothing was wrong.

I really think that most of the local station and network content issues that we have is not with the H20 or DirecTV. It is with the local station supplying the content.

...Excellent and weird find.Someone else discovered this glaring hardware bug. I only posted a simple way to verify the problem.

It seems to be the stupidest design flaw yet on an HD receiver. Why in hell would they intentionally wire the jacks this way?

...It seems to be the stupidest design flaw yet on an HD receiver. Why in hell would they intentionally wire the jacks this way?
Probably not enough testing of the final design, not enough "what-if" checks, and even then, a design bug creeps in, undiscovered. Case in point: the Apple iPOD. The iPOD that first came out with the U-2 design (black faced, chrome back) had a similiar obscure design flaw.

If a headphone/bud was plugged in, and if part of the plug touched the outer part of the headphone jack, you would get a buzz that varied as the iPOD's hard drive accessed. The solution was to get a very cheap nylon washer that fit over the jack shaft. No buzz afterwards.

Not sure if Apple did anything about that or not on the existing models, but if you look at the first generation of iPOD headphones and the newer headphones, the jack for the newer has a slightly thicker jack base---no touchie, no buzz.

Anyway, this stuff happens. I don't like it, but it happens.

Here's an observation that I don't remember being mentioned before. Tonight I noticed that on the guide, either the large or mini, immediately below the top time/date line, that there is a small horizontal blue dash that changes position every minute. Sort of a linear minute hand. Clever.

Here's an observation that I don't remember being mentioned before. Tonight I noticed that on the guide, either the large or mini, immediately below the top time/date line, that there is a small horizontal blue dash that changes position every minute. Sort of a linear minute hand. Clever.
Well, I'll be. Yup---there it is. The things that get us geeks excited! Sad on me---I kept watching the guide, flipping back and forth between the large or mini and watched the silly thing. Now SURELY, I have better things to do. :p

Here's an observation that I don't remember being mentioned before. Tonight I noticed that on the guide, either the large or mini, immediately below the top time/date line, that there is a small horizontal blue dash that changes position every minute. Sort of a linear minute hand. Clever.
Samsung came up with that. It was/is on their 160/360 boxes.

Did you also notice they failed to put a realtime clock on the mini guide?

Spoke with level 2 tech support. re-booting issue has been escalated. No idea of how soon it will be fixed. They told me how to get around problem, which I already knew. Not happy with their response to the issue

On March 4 they apparently "disconnected" and reinstalled each of my receivers in order to change the status to "not mirrored" and the access card level to $15. We'll see how the billing goes on my March 14 date. On the $15 change, my two receivers that are connected to a phone line were changed just the same as the others that are not connected. I don't use PPV, so it's not an issue.

It's true that I haven't read the whole thread, but I'm curious what the advantage of having mirrored versus non-mirrored is? FWIW - none of my receivers are connected to a phone line. Haven't done that since 1997.

There are two areas to look at. My record under programming service shows Mirrored for all my receivers. My record under Receiving Equipment shows not mirrored on each receiver. Methinks they just don't have the software set up right.

There are two areas to look at. My record under programming service shows Mirrored for all my receivers. My record under Receiving Equipment shows not mirrored on each receiver. Methinks they just don't have the software set up right.

What's the difference between a mirrored and non-mirrored setup? What benefits/advantages are there to having it either one way or the other?

What's the difference between a mirrored and non-mirrored setup? What benefits/advantages are there to having it either one way or the other?
Mirror, mirror on the wall: "Which is the cheapest one of all?" :p

Paraphrasing D*:

"Your D* service is activated through an access card. This is your primary access card. Mirroring is when you duplicate those services to another (secondary) access card on the same account. Any time a service is installed or disconnected on the primary access card, the same action is reflected on the mirrored access card. Note: To receive sports subscription programming on mirrored, secondary access cards, please call Customer Service at 1-800-#######."

When I checked my account (four receivers) it shows one as primary and three as secondary --- with all listed as "unmirrored" BUT mirrored under programming --- just as GreyWolf reported.

The Total Choice Premier programming that I pay for is available on all four receivers (as it should be). I guess I don't care whether D* lists my receivers as mirrored or not, as long as they work correctly? However, I don't subscribe to any sports programming, so maybe that is the difference?

As Greywolf says, it's probably just a software glitch. The cause for worry is that every non-mirrored receiver could be charged the full total price of all programming on the account instead of the usual $4.99 mirroring fee.

Here's an interesting response I got from DirecTV today about the H20.
My question was: I was considering upgrading my recievers to the H20, but I have two questions:
What future functionality is planned for the USB port on the H20?
Are there additional channels I will receive immediately upon converting to the MPEG4 capable receiver?
Here's the reponse
*****************************************************
Thanks for asking about HD equipment. I understand your concern about how our transition to MPEG-4 transmission will affect any MPEG-2 equipment you may have. Let me reassure you that most customers will be able to use their MPEG-2 equipment for quite some time.

At this time, our current HD programming will continue to be broadcast using the MPEG-2 standard; MPEG-4 technology will be used only to provide local HD programming in select cities.

Once local HD programming launches in your city, you will be eligible for an MPEG-4-capable receiver replacement. If you want to replace your HD DVR, you may need to wait a bit longer. Our new MPEG-4-capable DIRECTV HD DVR is expected to be available sometime later this year.

More details will be available when we launch the local HD service in your area, so watch your local TV, radio or mailbox for upcoming announcements or visit DIRECTV.com/HD for the latest news.

About the USB ports on our current HD models are not available for networking, the TiVo Home Media Option or TiVo ToGo.

However, as you may have heard, we're preparing to launch a new advanced technology system called the DIRECTV Home Media Center. Our new Home Media Center will allow you to share, move and view content from room to room, throughout the house. It will also have DVR functionality and the capability to support both standard-and high-definition signals. We expect to have more information about this new advanced receiver soon, so please stay tuned to DIRECTV.com for the latest updates.

Our goal is to continue to expand our programming and technology offerings, in order to bring you the best television entertainment experience available. Thanks again for writing to us.

Sincerely,

Andrei
DIRECTV Customer Service

Ok, I think this will be a simple question for some of you.

I currently have a Media Center PC running MCE 2005. I do not have the correct Hardware to record HD. I currently have th H10 connected to it. I'm upgrading to the H20 tomorrow. Will I have any trouble still recording SD channels on my Media Center.

Thanks in advance for the help.

... I'm upgrading to the H20 tomorrow. Will I have any trouble still recording SD channels on my Media Center.
Don't know about recording digital SD channels but if you plan on watching or recording any analog OTA channels received with an antenna, it's not possible because D* eliminated the analog OTA tuner on the H20.

Does American Idol look bad to anyone with the H20? It looks so bad to me.

Looked great on my H20. Am getting Fox through DirecTV, via the Houston Fox station. I still think one's local station's feed can impact the quality of the content we get at our receiver.

Don't know about recording digital SD channels but if you plan on watching or recording any analog OTA channels received with an antenna, it's not possible because D* eliminated the analog OTA tuner on the H20.

Does that mean the H20 User's Guide on the DirecTV website is incorrect:

DIRECTV HD Receiver Rear Panel
1) OFF-AIR IN – Used to receive local, off -air digital broadcast channels.

Does that mean the H20 User's Guide on the DirecTV website is incorrect:

DIRECTV HD Receiver Rear Panel
1) OFF-AIR IN – Used to receive local, off -air digital broadcast channels.
Don't know about recording digital SD channels but if you plan on watching or recording any analog OTA channels received with an antenna, it's not possible because D* eliminated the analog OTA tuner on the H20.
Notice the bold in your quote. And the bold in his quote.

I did a search on "closed caption" bu t came up empty? It's unbelievable that I cannot find any cc key on my remote. Anyone notice that?

Does American Idol look bad to anyone with the H20? It looks so bad to me.

I was going to say that it would look bad no matter what receiver you're using, but that would be just too easy. :D

For those who've been following my soap opera, at the end of the last chapter the equip. had been installed for about two weeks, was working terribly, the installer came back out made adjustments and all was well until we had snow in Chicago which again knocked the whole thing out of whack. (total loss of signal, followed by resumption of service but at 10-15 points less than before the snow).

Well, the people came back this morning and Mrs. Milepig was filling in for me, so this is second hand. Besides the snow-related loss, our two complaints were just generally bad reception and intermittent pixelation/drop out.

He declared the dish to be picking up at 71 which "was about the best we could expect". Now, my question, of course, is "is 71 the max, the bottom or an average". Surely every channel won't be the exact same number. In any case, he got it up to about 75 and declared himself done. I'll check it when I'm home tonight, but expect to find the same mix of 63-73.

Now, as the the problem with drop out. Our symptoms were momentary pixelation or complete drop out, followed by several seconds of no sound even after the picture was back. This is across all channels, HD or not. He declared this to be a defect in the H20 and had us order up a replacement. I'm not convinced, but we'll see. Meanwhile, if anyone else is having similar problems you might want to see if you can get the H20 replaced.

Stay tuned to this channel for the next chapter.

I did a search on "closed caption" bu t came up empty? It's unbelievable that I cannot find any cc key on my remote. Anyone notice that?
There's no CC key.

Just go to QUICKMENU / SETUP / DISPLAY.

Select the CAPTION tab.

For what it is worth, my SONY television requires similar hoop-jumping through menus upon submenus on its remote. No CC key on its remote, either.

I was going to say that it would look bad no matter what receiver you're using, but that would be just too easy. :D

+1

I have been upgraded for over a month now, and I have 2 H20's for the Washington DC locals. I kept my HR250-HD also. Here is what I have found.

H20 picture is superior, which really shows up for the SD stations.
Some of the MPEG4 channels are slow to come on - 6 to 10 seconds at times
ABC7 in DC has audio sync problems most of the time
Signal strength on the H20 repots 10 to 20 points lower than HR-250 (for same feed from the same dish)
I have had periods that last for several seconds of blackouts on HD channels. It happened last night several times while watching HDNET Movies.

On my H20, I have native mode turned off and the I am using the 720P pillar mode.

I have the latest software upgrade.

Anyone else experiencing these problems with DC? How about the other areas? My assumption is these are software issues with the H20.

Anyone else experiencing these problems with DC? How about the other areas? My assumption is these are software issues with the H20.

I have had my H20 since early December in an mpeg4 market (DFW). Not a single dropout, pixelization, or rain fade on D* or OTA in three months or so. There are a couple of audio sync problems but I have only seen it on HDNET and HDNET movies. Never on major network OTA or D* feeds. Yet.

I have had periods that last for several seconds of blackouts on HD channels. It happened last night several times while watching HDNET Movies.

On my H20, I have native mode turned off and the I am using the 720P pillar mode.

I have the latest software upgrade.

Anyone else experiencing these problems with DC? How about the other areas? My assumption is these are software issues with the H20.

YES!

What connection are you using? HDMI?

I just set up a new H20 connected to a new Panasonic TH42PX50U via HDMI. Just a simple connection, no special audio, etc.

I have only watched about 6 programs in HD so I don't have a lot of time to compare to. But 2 nights ago I was watching "White Noise" and the screen went black momentarily about 4 times. I thought it was part of the movie (and maybe it was), except one time, a small menu box came up on the screen that said "HDMI" so I figured I had lost the signal entirely. I still don't know if it was in the movie or not.

In addition, out of the six or so times I have turned on the TV to watch something in HD I have had no audio twice. The first time I turned off the H20 and turned it back on and the audio came on. The second time that didn't work so I changed channels and when that didn't work I turned the H20 off again and then the audio came on when I turned it on again.

I believe it is the H20, however, it could be the TV or the cable, but I really think it is the H20.

Upper level support at D* told me I should push the red reset button instead of turning it off next time, if it happens. He said it was possible for the box to act that way and if it continued, they would replace it.

As many have said before, there are a lot of variables that could go wrong and its difficult to narrow problems down. It could be the box or the originating signal (or the cable or the TV). I'll just have to wait and see if it happens again.

I have been upgraded for over a month now, and I have 2 H20's for the Washington DC locals. I kept my HR250-HD also. Here is what I have found.

H20 picture is superior, which really shows up for the SD stations.
Some of the MPEG4 channels are slow to come on - 6 to 10 seconds at times
ABC7 in DC has audio sync problems most of the time
Signal strength on the H20 repots 10 to 20 points lower than HR-250 (for same feed from the same dish)
I have had periods that last for several seconds of blackouts on HD channels. It happened last night several times while watching HDNET Movies.

On my H20, I have native mode turned off and the I am using the 720P pillar mode.

I have the latest software upgrade.

Anyone else experiencing these problems with DC? How about the other areas? My assumption is these are software issues with the H20.


I am in the DC area and experience everything you do. The 6 to 10 second delay is a pain. There are times the picture never comes in. I have to switch to another channel then switch back to get a picture.

Has anyone experienced the info banner not disappearing at all (I have it set at 4 sec.) until you press Exit? Any remedy for this?

YES!

What connection are you using? HDMI?




I am using HDMI out to a DVI in on both HD TV's. Samsung HLN5067 and a Dell 26" LCD.

There's no CC key.

Just go to QUICKMENU / SETUP / DISPLAY.

Select the CAPTION tab.

For what it is worth, my SONY television requires similar hoop-jumping through menus upon submenus on its remote. No CC key on its remote, either.

What a painful way to do it...Thanks for the tip, anyway

I am trying to program an MX-500 for the H20. I have not found a code. Has anyone found one or does one need to learn all of the keys?

Thanks
Rick

I had to get a defective H20 replaced under warranty. D* sent me an H20 with model number H20-100 instead of -600. Does anyone know who makes this model? It's made in Mexico (Mfg date 03/02/06), instead of Korea and has several improvements but a step backward in the tuner department.

1. The guide slowness has been solved. It's as fast or faster than any other previous brands..
2. Channel changes seem to be a bit faster, but not by much.
3. Initial Setup seems slightly different than the previous H20 I had.
4. The unit runs very cool. So cool, you can barely tell it's on when you put your hand on top.
5. It has taller rubber "feet" on the bottom to allow more airflow through it. Also, more air slots on the top than before, and slots on the bottom shaped in the size of a fan. There is room for a fan inside the box, but doesn't seem to need one. It appears to only have one chip inside (labeled "Broadcom"), where -600 models had 2. There is no heat sink on the chip, unlike -600 models that had 2 heat sinks.
6. The power and resolution idiot lights are now blue and not as bright as previous ones.
7. 480p can be disabled in the resolutions menu.
8. The board appears to have been downsized, and the box weighs less than my previous one. Looking through the vent covers I can see that the one visible chip says "Broadcom" on it.
9. The OTA signal strength meter now has an audible beep tone. Both satellite & OTA ss meters appear to have slightly higher relative ss readings.

Minuses:
1. Hitting the ss meter on an OTA channel will not take you directly to the reading for that channel. You have to hit the + & - buttons to find the channel you were on.
2. OTA reception seems to be worse with the H20-100 than the H20-600 models. With this H20-100, I have completely lost one marginal channel that I could usually receive with the H20-600 I previously had. This is probably due to the different chipset being used.

Bottom line, the -100 model appears to have been cheapened slightly. Menu & OTA channel changes inproved, heat problem eliminated, but slightly worse OTA performance. Your OTA reception results may be different than mine.....

I think manufacturer #100 is RCA/Thompson. My experience with RCA D* receivers has been good. The #600 manufacturer is LG. Hopefully software updates will speed up guide and channel changes. Otherwise, my H20-600 has good PQ, and I am satisfied so far.

Thanks for the info. I just got a H20-600 replaced with another H20-600 to try to fix the caller ID problem. Same problem with the new one. Apparently my FIOS CO cannot work with a -600. I would call and ask for a -100 model but I am in an marginal OTA area and cannot afford the sensitivity decrease. Anyone else have a -100 they can comment on?

I wonder if I could now successfully input the H20's HDMI signal into my Denon AVR-4306 receiver with this "new" H20-100?

The H20-600 apparently has some kind of fatal issue when connecting it through my A/V receiver: the H20 repeatedly goes into an endless rebooting cycle. Something to do with the way that the Denon passes the HDMI signals???

It would be fantastic to be able to use the Denon to switch my video inputs and free-up one of my monitor's inputs! Also, the H20's heat issue sounds much improved and I don't even use OTA. Win - Win? Of course I would have to go back to frying my eggs in the kitchen again. ;)

EDIT: Oh yeah, maybe it would also fix my Caller-ID problem? The first call after the installation displayed the calling ID properly but now it just pops up and says to call my phone company.

Should I just call D* and ask them to replace my (less than a month) "old" H20? Would they have to schedule another installation?

Maybe I should be asking them these questions? Anyways, thanks for the great info arxw!

If you don't use OTA, I would call for a replacement. Tell them your box is in a rebooting loop and/or is too hot to touch on top. Who knows which replacement model they'll send though.

I can't comment on this newest model's caller ID, because I don't have my receivers plugged into the phone line. But the heat & slow guide problems have been eliminated in the H20-100. GUI still sucks though (still have to hit Guide button twice to get to the guide).

"If you don't use OTA, I would call for a replacement. Tell them your box is in a rebooting loop and/or is too hot to touch on top. Who knows which replacement model they'll send though."
This forum should be on the required reading list for all D* customer service representatives.

I'll wager that if I call D* and request one of the "new" H20-100 units, they won't have a clue in the world about what I am referring to...

Do they send the replacement unit to you or does an installer have to be scheduled? If they ship it to me, what do I do, send the defective unit back to them via UPS?

I think I'll wait a week or so before calling D*. Maybe by then all replacement units will be the 100 instead of the 600 models.

Thanks again!

You can't pick the replacement model and the CSR has no way to know which one will be sent. D* ships whatever is in the warehouse for your area (mine was shipped from a place in Georgia - YMMV). If you want to replace it yourself, they send it FedEx with a prepaid return shipping label and a 1 sheet pictoral guide for swapping it out.

If you wanted a tech to replace an ailing box, you'd have to discuss it with D*and schedule an appointment. The tech would probably bring the replacement receiver, but not sure. I've always done my own installs and box replacements.

IAnyone else experiencing these problems with DC? How about the other areas? My assumption is these are software issues with the H20.


Yes! I am in the Rockville area and have been experiencing exactly the same thing as you describe. Luckily I have an OTA connection that allows me to get the Baltimore and DC locals but would like to eliminate that in the future when/if D* gets this audio/pixilation problem resolved. Have you called D* tech support yet? I have not but will do so early next week.

A strange happening this morning...and it has happened on both of my h-20 tuners. The tuners began to' acguire sat info' out of the blue. And this acquiring info mode would not stop. It would go thru complete cycle and, then, keep repeating this cycle. You could not get anything else on the tuner (screen). I done everything i could think of...and still this cycle continued..for 30 minutes...more...I just happen to unconnect the antenna for local programming and the tuners are now OK..without the antenna from OTA antenna screwed into backside of h-20. I suppose the next logical step is to attach the OTA antenna and see what happens. Very Strange. I called Directv and they are willing to send new equipment my way. But would like to get this equipment back to working correctly.

Anybody experiencing rebooting when tuning to NBC? I am in NYC and this happened last Saturday also. I have to disconnect the OTA feed to get the box to come up. Tune back to NBC and it goes into a rebooting loop again. I beleive I have the H20-600 model (made in Korea).

Could this be from some broadcast flag off NBC that causes the box to choke?

I wonder if I could now successfully input the H20's HDMI signal into my Denon AVR-4306 receiver with this "new" H20-100?

The H20-600 apparently has some kind of fatal issue when connecting it through my A/V receiver: the H20 repeatedly goes into an endless rebooting cycle. Something to do with the way that the Denon passes the HDMI signals???

It would be fantastic to be able to use the Denon to switch my video inputs and free-up one of my monitor's inputs! Also, the H20's heat issue sounds much improved and I don't even use OTA. Win - Win? Of course I would have to go back to frying my eggs in the kitchen again. ;)

EDIT: Oh yeah, maybe it would also fix my Caller-ID problem? The first call after the installation displayed the calling ID properly but now it just pops up and says to call my phone company.

Should I just call D* and ask them to replace my (less than a month) "old" H20? Would they have to schedule another installation?

Maybe I should be asking them these questions? Anyways, thanks for the great info arxw!
My H20 went into a endless rebooting cycle when I called D* they had me unhook the ota cable and take out a channel. The channel was 3-1 wich is my local nbc digital channel. They said they are aware of the issue and it has something to do with the box reading the OTA channels. They said they would call when fixed. Who knows when that will be.

bonscott: If you read my message above, it seems our problem is somewhat the same. A certain local station doing something to affect the correct operation of the H-20 tuner. It my case, the tuner just kept 'acquiring info from sat'. I unplugged the OTA antenna, then, plugged same back in..for time being, all is ok again.

bonscott: If you read my message above, it seems our problem is somewhat the same. A certain local station doing something to affect the correct operation of the H-20 tuner. It my case, the tuner just kept 'acquiring info from sat'. I unplugged the OTA antenna, then, plugged same back in..for time being, all is ok again.
Yes they told me to remove the channel from the guide wich is NBC and not use the channel until they fix the problem so no HD on NBC until they fix it.

bonscott: As I said, I did above..then, plugged OTA antenna back into h-20 with ALL stations scanned. So far, all is ok. Want to try the same?

bonscott: As I said, I did above..then, plugged OTA antenna back into h-20 with ALL stations scanned. So far, all is ok. Want to try the same?
Just tryed it. I turned the channel to 3-1 and the box started to reboot and would not stop. I unplugged the OTA cable and it booted up ok. All the other OTA channels work. It looks like that channel is messing up the box.

Maybe try same thing Sunday; see what happens. So far, my h-20 is OK

Just tryed it. I turned the channel to 3-1 and the box started to reboot and would not stop. I unplugged the OTA cable and it booted up ok. All the other OTA channels work. It looks like that channel is messing up the box.
D* needs to check the psip they use on NBC on Sat. AM. I Do not think the NBC locals are sending anything different. The H-20 does not use the Station psip for all the information.

I am trying to program an MX-500 for the H20. I have not found a code. Has anyone found one or does one need to learn all of the keys?

Thanks
Rick

I'm using the H10 codes (Sat 173) for my MX-850. Seems to work just fine.

=======
bep

The replacement for my H20-600 came today. It is a H20-100. The case is certainly slightly different, so definately a different manufacturer/model. My problem with the 600 was signal dropout and pixelation. So far no problems with the 100, and they would have normally shown up by now. The guy I called on the phone to get set up was very amused when I pointed out the 600 vs. 100, the trick about dangling RCA wires, etc. He in turn pointed out that the installers never check that the audio is on "dolby" and that this has been a source of many phone calls. The only problem I'm having is that even after several attempts at programming, my new remote doesn't reliably turn off the Sony TV - the old remote was perfect every time.

The replacement for my H20-600 came today. It is a H20-100. The case is certainly slightly different, so definately a different manufacturer/model. My problem with the 600 was signal dropout and pixelation. So far no problems with the 100, and they would have normally shown up by now. The guy I called on the phone to get set up was very amused when I pointed out the 600 vs. 100, the trick about dangling RCA wires, etc. He in turn pointed out that the installers never check that the audio is on "dolby" and that this has been a source of many phone calls. The only problem I'm having is that even after several attempts at programming, my new remote doesn't reliably turn off the Sony TV - the old remote was perfect every time.

Interesting that you're getting better OTA reception with less dropouts, but I'm getting worse reception with the new H20-100 vs an H20-600. I've actually completely lost one channel with the 100 that came in pretty good with the 600.

Do you still have to plug something into the RCA analog jacks to turn on stereo through the optical cable? I use those jacks anyway, so I haven't tested for that bug......

WRT remote, I just kept my old remote since it was already programmed for my TV etc. I returned the one they sent, since they look identical on the outside. It sounds like your replacement remote may be weaker than your older one.

Thanks for the info. I just got a H20-600 replaced with another H20-600 to try to fix the caller ID problem. Same problem with the new one. Apparently my FIOS CO cannot work with a -600. I would call and ask for a -100 model but I am in an marginal OTA area and cannot afford the sensitivity decrease. Anyone else have a -100 they can comment on?

I have the H20-600 and FIOS Internet and the Caller ID works just fine on my H20.

I live in the Washington DC area and have experienced the same problems you describe. In fact I made a post on the topic about a month ago. I have the latest firmware revision but have not called customer support yet.....waiting to see what shakes out in the near term. One other thing I noticed last night was that the NCAA basketball game being shown on my D* local channel (channel 9 out of DC) was a different game than what was being shown on channel 9 OTA. In fact this is happening a lot and we are not getting the best regional game for our location on the D* local channel.

One other thing I noticed last night was that the NCAA basketball game being shown on my D* local channel (channel 9 out of DC) was a different game than what was being shown on channel 9 OTA. In fact this is happening a lot and we are not getting the best regional game for our location on the D* local channel.

We have a similar situation in DFW. The local CBS affiliate will preemt games on the OTA digital channel with games of plausibly greater local interest. The OTA analog channel is showing the network chosen game for this area during that time. The MPEG4 CBS feed follows the network decision, not the local preemptive decision. I kind of like the choice, personally.

Hi all,
Posted this in a different forum and was pointed here...I just got the H20 receiver installed last week and am running through HDMI. Is it normal for the screen to "refresh" for 2-3 seconds when changing channels? When I had it hooked up through component cables, I didn't notice this. It refreshes and my TV shows "digital in" popup quickly then its fine. Have it set in 16:9 mode with all resolutions checked. Is this lag due to switching between resoloutions?

Let me know if anyone else is experiencing this and what I can do to fix?

Hi all,
Posted this in a different forum and was pointed here...I just got the H20 receiver installed last week and am running through HDMI. Is it normal for the screen to "refresh" for 2-3 seconds when changing channels? When I had it hooked up through component cables, I didn't notice this. It refreshes and my TV shows "digital in" popup quickly then its fine. Have it set in 16:9 mode with all resolutions checked. Is this lag due to switching between resoloutions?

Let me know if anyone else is experiencing this and what I can do to fix?
Most likely it is the changing resolutions that are causing the lag. The best way to overcome this is to set the H20 to only output one resolution. Try the different resolutions and pick the one that you feel looks best and turn the rest off.

Hope y'all don't mind a bit of humor...

On HBO, the movie WHITE NOISE is showing. I have never seen it before and was wrapped up in it, via a SONY HDTV monitor that is new. High-def is new for me. So, I'm caught up in the movie. The audio in the sound system is doing its thing, which is very important in this movie.

Michael Keaton, the main protagonist, was leaning forward toward a monitor and just as he touched the screen, at that very moment, a lady screamed, I jumped, and instantly, I lost satellite signal!!!! I'm NOT kidding!

And then the signal returned. Now look, I'm getting up in the years and usually I can academically watch something, but all these events and this movie's content, utterly freaked me.

OK...., what caused the satellite loss? Well, outside, a bunch of black birds are all over the place flying all over our neighborhood. Those noisy things. They have left their evidence on my dish and I gotta get an owl statue placed next to it. This happened a couple of times last year with my old dish.

But, the timing couldn't have occured more perfectly. Sheesh!

Hi all,
Posted this in a different forum and was pointed here...I just got the H20 receiver installed last week and am running through HDMI. Is it normal for the screen to "refresh" for 2-3 seconds when changing channels? When I had it hooked up through component cables, I didn't notice this. It refreshes and my TV shows "digital in" popup quickly then its fine. Have it set in 16:9 mode with all resolutions checked. Is this lag due to switching between resoloutions?

Let me know if anyone else is experiencing this and what I can do to fix?As 66stang said, select whichever resolution looks best on your TV (1080i or 720p), then uncheck all the other resolutions in setup and turn off native. Channel changes will be faster and you won't get all the flashing during resolution change.

After buying a $1,500 Denon AVR-4306 and expecting to be able to connect my new H20 (and also my DVD and a mpeg4 HD-DVR if/when it is available) using the HDMI outputs, I was distressed to discover that the H20 stops working if I pass the signal through the Denon receiver. The H20 goes into a rebooting loop and only recovers after unplugging the power from it.

My DVD doesn't have any problem when connected through the receiver to the monitor.

I don't know why the H20 does this. Could it be an isolated problem involving a defective H20? Or a defective Denon receiver? Or is it something I will just have to live with? No hope?

Does anyone have an A/V receiver made by another manufacturer that does successfully pass (switch) the H20's HDMI signals and not experience this rebooting issue?

I'm hoping that this is a correctable issue. :confused:

Thanks for any relevant info.

Hi...fairly new to this particular forum so I may have missed some earlier discussion, but is anyone familiar with this apparent situation where even though you are "scanning" for OTA channels to add, that the H20 has already predetermined which ones you're going to be limited to regardless of your antenna's abilities to obtain a signal from any others ?!?!

My dad is using new 4228 antenna from Niagara Falls NY (Grand Island actually) and even though he should be able to obtain some of the Canadian channels from CN Tower in Toronto, they do NOT appear upon completion of the scan...similarly, I suspect Rochester falls into the same category.

It appears to be very much ZIP CODE related (I wasn't there for initial setup of the H20,, so I don't know if ZIP was inputted as part of that process or what....but I'm betting if it is/was, that if you were to change it, that your OTA scan results would contain an entirely different list of channels, regardless of there was any signal strength that was determined while scanning !!

We are quite upset about this but even if they could remedy by firmware, I can't see them making it any kind of priority, particularly for the Canadian stations.....why oh why wouldn't they just allow you to add stations manually !?!?!

Anybody have any firsthand knowledge about this (I think he has H20-600) ??

much appreciated....moo

You can NOT manually add stations to the channel list with the H20. All OTA channel acquisition is based on local guide info from the (up to) 2 zip codes you enter during setup. Redo the setup menu for local OTA channels if you wish to change these zip code(s).

If a channel is not in the D* guide for the zip code(s) you entered in the setup menu, you can't receive it with this box. Only fix is to use an older D* HD receiver that's not reliant on zip codes or use the TV's digital tuner or a standalone set top box.

You can NOT manually add stations to the channel list with the H20. All OTA channel acquisition is based on local guide info from the (up to) 2 zip codes you enter during setup. Redo the setup menu for local OTA channels if you wish to change these zip code(s).

If a channel is not in the D* guide for the zip code(s) you entered in the setup menu, you can't receive it with this box. Only fix is to use an older D* HD receiver that's not reliant on zip codes or use the TV's digital tuner or a standalone set top box.


thanks for clearing that up (can't say I'm the least bit happy about it though !!)
if nothing else, I'll maybe get him to go back and add a Rochester zip to see if he can pull from there.

Still possible that the H20, HD programming and all may go back though based on this selective inability to include the Canadian channels...that IS the whole point of getting the antenna for him and the H20 was merely a convenience to integrate the existing D* service.....so messed up !

PS: I'll drop my 2 cents worth on experience with this receiver thus far and say that I don't think I've used anything as slow or as illogically laid out and non-friendly since all the way back to the A-B series of receivers from back in the day !

This is what a lack of competition produces.

Quote: milepig
"The replacement for my H20-600 came today. It is a H20-100. The case is certainly slightly different, so definately a different manufacturer/model. My problem with the 600 was signal dropout and pixelation. So far no problems with the 100, and they would have normally shown up by now. The guy I called on the phone to get set up was very amused when I pointed out the 600 vs. 100, the trick about dangling RCA wires, etc. He in turn pointed out that the installers never check that the audio is on "dolby" and that this has been a source of many phone calls. The only problem I'm having is that even after several attempts at programming, my new remote doesn't reliably turn off the Sony TV - the old remote was perfect every time."

Need to check my model number, because mine unit starts to pixelate on certain channels, ironically my HD/DVR Tivo unit in the basement is fine, so this leads me to believe that it could just be the receiver.

... Need to check my model number, because mine unit starts to pixelate on certain channels, ironically my HD/DVR Tivo unit in the basement is fine, so this leads me to believe that it could just be the receiver.Does it pixelate on OTA channels or satellite channels?

Hi all,
Thanks for the info regarding the HDMI...I removed the two resolutions and am just keeping 1080i. So, my next issue...last night scrolling through OTA channels here in Cincinnati and get to channel 12-1. Reboot...over and over. I was able to end the cycle by canceling out of channel acquisition and changing to a different OTA channel. It seems to be just this channel...but I was watching the NCAA tourney on it most of the day.


Sounds like a bug? Did anyone else who reported this issue to DTV get a response on fix?

I am getting an OTA outdoor antenna installed tomorrow so we will see if it is something to do with signal strength.

I previously reported that my 600 had been replaced by a 100 over the weekend.

Something I noticed last night on the 100 is that when the sound changs mode from Dolby surround to regular the sound drops out for a couple seconds. This is maddening, since the sound can change many times in the course of a broadcast - the show itself is in full dolby, but the commercials, previews, etc. frequently are not.

This did not happen on the 600. Have I maybe not set somthing up quite right? The only thing I knew to check was that the audio was in dolby mode, which it is.

Hi all,
Thanks for the info regarding the HDMI...I removed the two resolutions and am just keeping 1080i. So, my next issue...last night scrolling through OTA channels here in Cincinnati and get to channel 12-1. Reboot...over and over. I was able to end the cycle by canceling out of channel acquisition and changing to a different OTA channel. It seems to be just this channel...but I was watching the NCAA tourney on it most of the day.


Sounds like a bug? Did anyone else who reported this issue to DTV get a response on fix?

I am getting an OTA outdoor antenna installed tomorrow so we will see if it is something to do with signal strength.
No response from D* so far they said to remove the channel that was causing the problem.

has anyone had the reboot issue on multiple channels or just on one? Any idea whether this is a specific model number or an issue with the software? Is it only happening on over the air signals?

When I have the installer out tomorrow, I will show him and see if he is aware of this from others.

Experienced my first episode of the dreaded H20 rebooting last night during Cold Case on CBS. Had to remove the antenna input, reboot, and change channels before it would quit. I get two CBS stations, one local and the other from Tulsa. The rebooting was with only my local station. I was able to get the Tulsa channel fine all night, in HD.

My rebooting started when the picture glitched, and went from HD to SD. It was SD only for a second and then the rebooting started. I'm thinking that the rebooting might have had something to do with the signal suddenly going from HD to SD but maybe the station PSIP was still telling the receiver that the signal was HD. Any thoughts?

Whatever it was, the problem is gone for the time being, no problem with getting the local CBS station this morning. Will have to wait until the morning soap to see if HD is back as well.

Update -- As of this morning, CBS HD is back as well.

I was getting the constant reboot with my local channels in LA. D* said they were aware of the issue, and all I had to do was unscrew my OTA connection. Did that and it works, but I am not really all that happy, that I have to go without my locals until this gets fixed.

I had a weird issue with my H20 the other night. I was watching "What lies beneath" on TNT-HD and all of the sudden the picture went blank for 5-10 seconds then a message came up on the screen that said "Invalid access card, please contact ext. XXX" This message was on the screen for at lease 15 seconds or more. just as I was ready to call Directv, it went back to normal.....weird??!!!! Anyone else have this problem?

I had a weird issue with my H20 the other night. I was watching "What lies beneath" on TNT-HD and all of the sudden the picture went blank for 5-10 seconds then a message came up on the screen that said "Invalid access card, please contact ext. XXX" This message was on the screen for at lease 15 seconds or more. just as I was ready to call Directv, it went back to normal.....weird??!!!! Anyone else have this problem?
The same thing happened to me when I was watching the local CBS station in HD. Checked and discovered that local CBS station not in HD did not have that message.

Hope it doesn't happen frequently...

Arthur Hancock told me to reconnect the HDMI output from the H20 into the 4306 and follow this start-up sequence:

First - Turn the Denon AVR-4306 off.

Second - Turn on (power up) the H20.

Third - Let the H20 reboot (wait a few minutes?).

Fourth - Turn the power back on to the 4306.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After doing that, my H20 does NOT start to reboot endlessly. Arthur also told me that if/when the H20 loses power, when repowering, this sequence needs to be followed again or the rebooting will begin.

I tried it and it works!

Life is good... :)

My sincere THANKS to Arthur Hancock!

ntzineff: A similar happening here..with 'acquiring information from sat.' would not stop re-loading. I unscrewed OTA antenna but, then, screwed it back in and, ever since Saturday, no problems. You have little to loose if you do same with your tuner. See what happens.

I had a weird issue with my H20 the other night. I was watching "What lies beneath" on TNT-HD and all of the sudden the picture went blank for 5-10 seconds then a message came up on the screen that said "Invalid access card, please contact ext. XXX" This message was on the screen for at lease 15 seconds or more. just as I was ready to call Directv, it went back to normal.....weird??!!!! Anyone else have this problem?

It's happened to me twice and both times I had to reboot the H-20.

has anyone had the reboot issue on multiple channels or just on one? Any idea whether this is a specific model number or an issue with the software? Is it only happening on over the air signals?

When I have the installer out tomorrow, I will show him and see if he is aware of this from others.

Multiple channels, but both were NBC channels (Baltimore and DC). It has only happened for OTA channels for me. I have been patient and have not called DirecTV hoping they would fix it soon, but this weekend I got tired of the rebooting so I called and made a complaint. I will now call everytime it happens. I am wondering if most people have been patient like me and DirecTV does not know how widespread the problem is.

ntzineff: A similar happening here..with 'acquiring information from sat.' would not stop re-loading. I unscrewed OTA antenna but, then, screwed it back in and, ever since Saturday, no problems. You have little to loose if you do same with your tuner. See what happens.
Two different messages.

The message I saw Sunday was the same as mikelets456 reported. "Invalid access card, please contact ext. XXX". It went away without any action on my part after several seconds and the picture came back on.

The message you are talking about is when the H20 reboots: "Acquiring Information From Sat".

It just seems, lately and with H-20, OTA stations have been causing some weird things happening with the H-20. Directv remarked they were having problems (called in) about these happenings. Directv is sending me a new h-20 to replace my h-20 but, now, the problem seems to be solved. So, in 2 days, i shall have to decide which h-20 to keep. Directv provided my current h-20 free and I own it. The one they are sending to me will be leased. Directv will continue to repair the leased tuner as long as I have it. On the one I own the warranty (90 days) is now past. So, seems, to me leasing one is better as there is no money involved.

... So, seems, to me leasing one is better as there is no money involved.Yes it is.

Especially since an H20 is only good for a doorstop if you unsubscribe to D*. Without a subscription the H20 OTA tuner won't even work. The only downside is you have to return a leased box when you drop D* service.

> I am wondering if most people have been patient like me and DirecTV does not know
> how widespread the problem is.

I'm on the phone with them right now. I'm having the same issue with WITI (6-1) out of Milwaukee. Apparently this problem is pretty widespread?

My H20 continually loses channels 95 and 101 from my custom favorites 1. I manually add it back, but it disappears almost every day. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Rob

My H20 is rebooting on ESPN HD after a minute or so of viewing. The screen goes black then it goes through the boot process. When it comes back, if I don't change the chan it reboots again. I am missing the WBC =(

Is there anything I can do to fix this or is it a call to D*?

My H20 is rebooting on ESPN HD after a minute or so of viewing. The screen goes black then it goes through the boot process. When it comes back, if I don't change the chan it reboots again. I am missing the WBC =(

Is there anything I can do to fix this or is it a call to D*?
there is a channel that is causing the H20 to reboot. In my case it was 3-1 my NBC channel I was told by D* to remove the channel from the guide until they fixed the problem. By the looks of the posts on here it seems to be a nation wide problem.

My H20 continually loses channels 95 and 101 from my custom favorites 1. I manually add it back, but it disappears almost every day. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
RobWe hope next update will fix this. All H-20s do this.

We hope next update will fix this. All H-20s do this.

Mine doesnt, or at least hasnt yet. My tech said when channels disappear for no reason it usually means a bad ground somewhere. Is this true?

Mine doesnt, or at least hasnt yet. My tech said when channels disappear for no reason it usually means a bad ground somewhere. Is this true?
Or maybe a bad Ground Hog? :)

Hey guys,

Today i had a person call in who wanted to Disconnect his directv account because he had bought a HDtv with a cable card in it. Ok thats fine you paid $400 (on average) more for a television that elimates the need for a set top box so you can mount it clean and neat.

(never you mind all the negative press about the guide being primative and being stripped of on demand and ppv)

So he informs me he's got cable, he traded in 5 DVRs, for $100 each, Samsung DVR80,Samsung DVR80,Hughes DVR80,R10, and an R15.

And now on his HDtv (w/ cable card) he has a HDDVR Cable box.

i told him there's a 30 day clause where they have to return your equipment within
30 days if you disconnect. i Told him we would hook him up and, he could return his tv and get one with out the card feature get the same specs pay $400 less and use that to go towards an HDDVR ( i would have credited the rest) - and on top of that he had a $300 cancellation fee looming over his head because the R15 was activated in Decemeber.

when i told him about the cancellation fee he said "oh well live and learn"

his account is now disconnected.... lol...

Comments please.

-Brine

thanks for clearing that up (can't say I'm the least bit happy about it though !!)
if nothing else, I'll maybe get him to go back and add a Rochester zip to see if he can pull from there.

Still possible that the H20, HD programming and all may go back though based on this selective inability to include the Canadian channels...that IS the whole point of getting the antenna for him and the H20 was merely a convenience to integrate the existing D* service.....so messed up !

PS: I'll drop my 2 cents worth on experience with this receiver thus far and say that I don't think I've used anything as slow or as illogically laid out and non-friendly since all the way back to the A-B series of receivers from back in the day !

This is what a lack of competition produces.

That is totally unacceptable, how are we supposed to use the box OTA in an R.V. (camping!)

That is a total deal breaker if you have to enter a zip code as you drive down the road everytime you get into a new city. :mad: That better get fixed in a firmware upgrade.

...Something I noticed last night on the 100 is that when the sound changs mode from Dolby surround to regular the sound drops out for a couple seconds...Check your Dolby Digital audio setting.

Also try plugging in a set of RCA cables into one the analog audio L+R jacks on the H20-100. This may not do anything, but it's worth a shot, since those jacks affected audio on the H20-600 (but in a different way). The other end of the RCA cables doesn't have to be connected to anything.

Question. I had 1 H10 and 1 Samsung receiver, both in HD. I had my dish upgraded and swapped the H10 for and H20.

I've had lots of issues with pixelation on the H20. The signal strength is between 68 and 80, depending on which Sat I check. I go look at the Samsung and it is in the very high 90's. I never had any problems with the H10, and it was hooked up to the same cable as the H20, though I didn't check signal strength.

Now the guy who put the dish in, installed it, came in and set up my receiver and left. Never did any fine tuning on the dish itself. I spoke with D* and they said that the signal is too weak and that my dish is probably out of line so someone is coming out next week.

A buddy has a similar experience. He just upgraded. He has 1 H20 and one non-HD receiver. The H20 has signal strength in the low 70's, his other receiver has the high 90's.

Any ideas on how this can be? It's the same dish. Does the H20 just suck?

Relative signal strength on the H20 nearly always reads lower than on older receivers. A 70s reading on the H20 is normal and might read in the 90s on an older receiver. It doesn't mean the signal is any weaker. Some of the really low transponder readings may be spot beam transponders carrying locals for other cities, and not intended for reception in your market.

However, you should not be getting pixelization or picture breakup, except maybe on rare occasions.

"Question... ...Does the H20 just suck?"
I don't think so? :p

My H20 has started freezing/locking up. In the past two weeks, this has happened 4 times. I'll be watching it and the screen will turn black and no buttons will work on the remote or the unit. Except the red reset button. Lights on the unit look normal. All will be fine after reset until the next time it does it. I am usually watching a D* HD channel, nothing OTA.

Has anyone else had this problem? I have also had some random rebooting, but so far not a whole lot of that. This bothers me more for some reason.

The unit is not too hot, not even warm to the touch. I have a small fan which keeps it cool. I have tried the 02468 trick to download the latest firmware and it hasn't made any difference.

Thanks.

I had the same problem with my H10. I would have to reset it a few times a week. Never had the rebooting issue though.


I had the D* tech out to install the 5LNB dish and swap the H10 for a H20. The H20 never worked after the software upgrade and they are sending me a new one via FedEx.

I had that D* tech out to install the 5LNB dish and swap the H10 for a H20. The H20 never worked after the software upgrade and they are sending me a new one via FedEx.

I just noticed that the D* tech who installed my AT9 dish took the middle LNB off my old 3-LNB dish... The reason I know is because the old dish is still laying where he threw it, in my yard.

Strange? Is there a bounty on those LNBs?

He also only ran four cables into the switcher. Shouldn't there be 5 cables?

_________
Jack's Fan

Relative signal strength on the H20 nearly always reads lower than on older receivers. A 70s reading on the H20 is normal and might read in the 90s on an older receiver. It doesn't mean the signal is any weaker. Some of the really low transponder readings may be spot beam transponders carrying locals for other cities, and not intended for reception in your market.

However, you should not be getting pixelization or picture breakup, except maybe on rare occasions.


Funny you mention this. When I do the "signal test matrix" all transponders read between 70 and 80 except for transponder 18 which reads 99. Seems like 18 has always been the strongest....even when I used my DTC-100, all would read 90-92 except for transponder 18...it would read 100. Just useless information being passed on in bordem...... ;)

I just noticed that the D* tech who installed my AT9 dish took the middle LNB off my old 3-LNB dish... The reason I know is because the old dish is still laying where he threw it, in my yard.

Strange? Is there a bounty on those LNBs?

He also only ran four cables into the switcher. Shouldn't there be 5 cables?

_________
Jack's Fan

Yes, I forgot to mention that as well. Underneath the 5 LNB dish is Multiswitch (I think) that does not seem to be weather proof or anything. It almost looks like a switch that you would use indoors only. Has approx 8-9 "Gold" ports, then 2-lines that run into the house. Also, about 8" from the box (built into the cable) is some sort of rectangular box....what is that for....a surpressor/compressor?

Relative signal strength on the H20 nearly always reads lower than on older receivers. A 70s reading on the H20 is normal and might read in the 90s on an older receiver. It doesn't mean the signal is any weaker. Some of the really low transponder readings may be spot beam transponders carrying locals for other cities, and not intended for reception in your market.

However, you should not be getting pixelization or picture breakup, except maybe on rare occasions.


Yeah, at the end of the day I wouldn't mind what the strength says, but the pixelization is just awful. I'm about to throw a brick through the TV. Instead, I'll wait for the tech to come out and hopefully work some magic.

Yes, I forgot to mention that as well. Underneath the 5 LNB dish is Multiswitch (I think) that does not seem to be weather proof or anything. It almost looks like a switch that you would use indoors only. Has approx 8-9 "Gold" ports, then 2-lines that run into the house. Also, about 8" from the box (built into the cable) is some sort of rectangular box....what is that for....a surpressor/compressor?

Wow, if your multiswitch is similar at all to mine (a Zinwell 6x8) --- mine is mounted inside my house and does in fact look like a good rain would ruin it... No discernable weather-proofing... Maybe it is weatherproof but it sure doesn't appear to be?

The inputs on my multiswitch that haven't been used are both marked "Flexport".

Why are there 5 LNBs and only 4 coaxial cables running from the dish?

Yeah, at the end of the day I wouldn't mind what the strength says, but the pixelization is just awful. I'm about to throw a brick through the TV. Instead, I'll wait for the tech to come out and hopefully work some magic.

Are you receiving the pixelation on just the local HD channels or are there other channels that have this problem?

Mine was with the HD locals and on Channels 72 and 79 (ESPN2 HD and HDNET). After 8 tech visits, three receivers, three multi-switches and dish/LNB replacement, I'm still having the same problems but not as dramatic as it was before. The only thing that hasn't been replaced, is the wiring but I'm not going to have them come out again, basically I give up with the tech service.

Wow, if your multiswitch is similar at all to mine (a Zinwell 6x8) --- mine is mounted inside my house and does in fact look like a good rain would ruin it... No discernable weather-proofing... Maybe it is weatherproof but it sure doesn't appear to be?

I have the Zinwell 6x8 and it's located outside. The original one didn't have any weather proofing but the latest one that I have seems to have these black protectors, I'm guessing that it's for weatherproofing. The outputs that are not in use are capped.

...
Why are there 5 LNBs and only 4 coaxial cables running from the dish?
The reason is that the orginal 3 sats are still switched as normal with 4 combinations of signals on the cable from the 3 LNBs. 4 combinations means you need 4 lines from the dish. The new sats signals are placed above and below the frequency spectrum of the existing 3 sats when transmitted on the cables into your house, therefore no new cables are needed. The catch is that you can no longer diplex OTA signals onto the same cable and a new switch that will pass these signals is required. Thats the short version.

Hey guys,

Today i had a person call in who wanted to Disconnect his directv account because he had bought a HDtv with a cable card in it. Ok thats fine you paid $400 (on average) more for a television that elimates the need for a set top box so you can mount it clean and neat.

(never you mind all the negative press about the guide being primative and being stripped of on demand and ppv)

So he informs me he's got cable, he traded in 5 DVRs, for $100 each, Samsung DVR80,Samsung DVR80,Hughes DVR80,R10, and an R15.

And now on his HDtv (w/ cable card) he has a HDDVR Cable box.

i told him there's a 30 day clause where they have to return your equipment within
30 days if you disconnect. i Told him we would hook him up and, he could return his tv and get one with out the card feature get the same specs pay $400 less and use that to go towards an HDDVR ( i would have credited the rest) - and on top of that he had a $300 cancellation fee looming over his head because the R15 was activated in Decemeber.

when i told him about the cancellation fee he said "oh well live and learn"

his account is now disconnected.... lol...

Comments please.

-Brine

Sounds like he already made his mind up and logic wasn't going to change it. Maybe he just used the cable card issue as an excuse, who knows. Plus the angst of having to call the cable company back to retrieve his equipment - it was probably all he could handle to deal with cancelling D*.

The reason is that the orginal 3 sats are still switched as normal with 4 combinations of signals on the cable from the 3 LNBs. 4 combinations means you need 4 lines from the dish. The new sats signals are placed above and below the frequency spectrum of the existing 3 sats when transmitted on the cables into your house, therefore no new cables are needed. The catch is that you can no longer diplex OTA signals onto the same cable and a new switch that will pass these signals is required. Thats the short version.

Thanks 66stang351.

In other words, I shouldn't worry about it... :D

Are you receiving the pixelation on just the local HD channels or are there other channels that have this problem?

Mine was with the HD locals and on Channels 72 and 79 (ESPN2 HD and HDNET). After 8 tech visits, three receivers, three multi-switches and dish/LNB replacement, I'm still having the same problems but not as dramatic as it was before. The only thing that hasn't been replaced, is the wiring but I'm not going to have them come out again, basically I give up with the tech service.

Chorgey,

I just received the H20 last week and haven't had a ton of time to explore it completely. However, the local channels are so bad you just can't watch them. Seriously, about every 4 to 5 seconds a portion of the picture suffers from pixelizaton. When I called D* we ran through my signal strengths as I indicated in my message a few posts ago. Anyway, he said some were below the acceptable level( the ones in the 60's) and some were "dangerously low" (the low 70's). I'm watching channel 75 now on my old dish right now and it even seems to suffer slightly from pixelization, nowhere near as much as the Locals on the H20. I never had an issue with this receiver and the old 3LNB dish.

So perhaps it is the dish alignment. I'll keep my fingers crossed. They are coming out next Wednesday.

Wow, if your multiswitch is similar at all to mine (a Zinwell 6x8) --- mine is mounted inside my house and does in fact look like a good rain would ruin it... No discernable weather-proofing... Maybe it is weatherproof but it sure doesn't appear to be?

The inputs on my multiswitch that haven't been used are both marked "Flexport".

Why are there 5 LNBs and only 4 coaxial cables running from the dish?


I'll have to take a picture of it....

Are you receiving the pixelation on just the local HD channels or are there other channels that have this problem?

Mine was with the HD locals and on Channels 72 and 79 (ESPN2 HD and HDNET). After 8 tech visits, three receivers, three multi-switches and dish/LNB replacement, I'm still having the same problems but not as dramatic as it was before. The only thing that hasn't been replaced, is the wiring but I'm not going to have them come out again, basically I give up with the tech service.

I'm waiting for another installer visit today to fix this exact problem. It's the 4th time I've had someone come after calling Direct TV. I get pixellation/picture freeze for a second or two pretty regularly on these same channels. Each time the tech just checks the dish for signal strength, and nothing changes. The audio Sync is frequently off for me too on these same channels. I was thinking maybe having another 5LNB dish put in might fix it, but after reading posts here it seems that probably won't help. I've only tried two H20 receivers, and they both do the same thing.

I've also asked that my OTA antenna be re-installed, since I had it diplexed with the old 3LNB dish and it worked great for NBC, and ABC without breakup. Every time they send someone who really doesn't know squat about OTA antennas, except to hook them up. They don't have measuring equip to check the signal on the roof, usually don't even have a big enough ladder to get on the roof, and generally don't seem to want to hook up my antenna. It will need a separate cable from the dish to the H20 to work, and the have to run it from the roof.

Direct TV always assures me, the installers know how to do over the air antennas, yet when they get here, they know nothing about it, even with a specific work order to re-install the antenna. One even suggested I check into cable, or dishnet to see what they offer. If I were Direct TV I wouldn't be too happy someone reresenting me is saying that to a customer. Anyway, does anyone know if Direct TV installers really can install an OTA antenna properly to work with the New 5LNB dish? I've heard some are either "HD specialists" or "Lead installers" and know more than the average installer.

I'm waiting for another installer visit today to fix this exact problem. It's the 4th time I've had someone come after calling Direct TV. I get pixellation/picture freeze for a second or two pretty regularly on these same channels. Each time the tech just checks the dish for signal strength, and nothing changes. The audio Sync is frequently off for me too on these same channels. I was thinking maybe having another 5LNB dish put in might fix it, but after reading posts here it seems that probably won't help. I've only tried two H20 receivers, and they both do the same thing.

I've also asked that my OTA antenna be re-installed, since I had it diplexed with the old 3LNB dish and it worked great for NBC, and ABC without breakup. Every time they send someone who really doesn't know squat about OTA antennas, except to hook them up. They don't have measuring equip to check the signal on the roof, usually don't even have a big enough ladder to get on the roof, and generally don't seem to want to hook up my antenna. It will need a separate cable from the dish to the H20 to work, and the have to run it from the roof.

Direct TV always assures me, the installers know how to do over the air antennas, yet when they get here, they know nothing about it, even with a specific work order to re-install the antenna. One even suggested I check into cable, or dishnet to see what they offer. If I were Direct TV I wouldn't be too happy someone reresenting me is saying that to a customer. Anyway, does anyone know if Direct TV installers really can install an OTA antenna properly to work with the New 5LNB dish? I've heard some are either "HD specialists" or "Lead installers" and know more than the average installer.

I have my OTA antenna working with my 5lnb dish but Im not diplexing the signal. As far as D* techs installing antennas, good luck. I tried to have my D* tech hook one up when I first got D* and he talked me out of it. He wanted no part of it even though it was on his work order. I finally ordered one and put it up myself and it works great. Its funny because my D* tech also tried to talk me out of D* completely. He told me I shouldnt have left E* and that he would go with Mediacom which is my local cable company.

I have have a OTA too, but wired directly to my receivers. They work GREAT. I'm about 60 miles west of Chicago. I got a Channel Master antenna, that is only for UHF. Looks like a 2 x 3 foot piece of metal screen they have at Little League Diamonds. That was very easy to install, did it my self with a bracket and pole from Radio Shack. I get all the local channels in HD, except channel 2. Their HD channel is in the VHF range.

The only reason I went with the 5LNB was to future proof and get ready for other National HD programming. At this point I think I probably should have waited.

Direct TV always assures me, the installers know how to do over the air antennas, yet when they get here, they know nothing about it, even with a specific work order to re-install the antenna. One even suggested I check into cable, or dishnet to see what they offer.

A couple of the techs that came to my house, stated that they don't get paid for the visit. It seems as if the original installer gets paid for the job done and if someone else comes out to correct the situation, they don't receive anything for it. I guess that's why I'm usually the last stop or why the installers never wanted to go to the roof and investigate further. All they ever want to do is check my signal and to disconnect the coax and look at the wire to see if it's okay.

I have have a OTA too, but wired directly to my receivers. They work GREAT. I'm about 60 miles west of Chicago. I got a Channel Master antenna, that is only for UHF. Looks like a 2 x 3 foot piece of metal screen they have at Little League Diamonds. That was very easy to install, did it my self with a bracket and pole from Radio Shack. I get all the local channels in HD, except channel 2. Their HD channel is not in the VHF range.That "screen" antenna is probably the Channel Master CM 4228, a high gain UHF antenna.
http://www.channelmaster.com/images/4228Antenna.jpg

Channel 2-1 in Chicago is actually on RF channel 3, which is in the lowband VHF range. Most UHF antennas won't work well for lowband VHF channels 2 thru 6.

That "screen" antenna is probably the Channel Master CM 4228, a high gain UHF antenna.
http://www.channelmaster.com/images/4228Antenna.jpg

Channel 2-1 in Chicago is actually on RF channel 3, which is in the lowband VHF range. Most UHF antennas won't work well for lowband VHF channels 2 thru 6.

Yep, that's it.

phoard1,
Did you find the 4228 difficult to aim?

Well...we had already decided we were going to send the H20 back (for good) before I caught up on the last couple of days posts here...certainly not having any regrets thus far.

I have a few misc comments about some of the posts but will just say a few things rather than do individual quotes/replies.

Forgot if I had mentioned earlier, but we were also experiencing pixels/breakups out of the box...regular D* stations(200s, 500s), bedroom levels were high 90's and H20 levels were high 60s to high 70s with 1-2 under 50...thought it was maybe cable or connector or something but repeat visit by tech insisted everything up to the receiver was fine and to arrange for replacement of it (that was enough to get us to bail entirely given the prev mentioned OTA issues)
(I wonder if there's maybe some kind of flaw with the coaxial terminal going into the box ?)...I'll bet anything that if we had attached a different receiver in that room those stations would be fine !!)...and in fact, I'll know for certain when our replacement HTL-HD arrives in a few days. (D* would not make an H10 available so shopped around for used...they're lucky we're even going to honour the programming commitment and same for HD...all just to merge OTA nicely)

unprotected switch...our install last week, same deal...no rubber boots and switch is not even under the soffit...I guess we're supposed to believe these new silicone lined connectors are protection enough against the elements...no caps on unused either.....the RECTANGLE box inline with the cable that somebody mentioned (also outdoors in their case) sounds like the band filter being installed for mpeg4 stuff (about 1" sq by 6" long...guessing right now)...ours is right before the receiver.

The comment about mobile RV's and having to change ZIPs repeatedly is interesting...I don't know if D* sanctions such usage but if so, there could be enough of a case to indeed see a future firmware adjustment to allow more flexibility for the OTA stations...I sure couldn't have seen us expecting them to do much about us wanting the Canadian networks that were within range but if they do indeed change it will be nice down the road when mpeg4 is more of a going concern and we have to go back to D* for yet another receiver.

knowledgable antenna service...it's a shame the way things are set up now, because there are indeed guys out there that know what they're doing AND these same guys are D* and E* dealers typically, but the way D* handles their service assignments now, you can't handpick in advance (or even talk to them) so you don't know what the hell to expect when they arrive...similarly, these guys that come in and do their best to imitate the cable guys from way back by doing little more than check your connection, well that's just plain SAD !! It's already outsourced, I don't understand why it doesn't function better....is the demand on them so great that the talent pool is that diluted...hard to believe !?!? and leaving dishes lying in your yard (left our hanging right on the house still !!) and all the crap they leave lying around on the ground, cable scraps, plastic ties, etc, etc...ya I can pick it up...but that is just poor service imo...similarly they should offer to dispose/remove the cardboard boxes, styrofoam, etc...

OT...I read elsewhere on AVS earlier today about D* refusing to transmit anymore firmware for non D* branded receivers....that is LOW !! In my mind, I can see even the numbest of CSRs being able to do that with a single key press for a given receiver...if D* was so inclined to assist us....(praying my HTL-HD is up to date because I know a lot of things sucked prior to a certain release)

good luck...happy viewing...there is much to look forward to with HD (all these little aches and pains aside)

PS: D* hasn't told us yet what kind of deal, $ damage we have to look forward to for the pleasure of them having sent us that crappy H20...I'll let ya know what humorous argument they present to support it !!

moo

PS: D* hasn't told us yet what kind of deal, $ damage we have to look forward to for the pleasure of them having sent us that crappy H20...I'll let ya know what humorous argument they present to support it !!

moo

If returned within 30 days of set up, there's no charge. Also, one of the rep told me that as long as I return the H20 box, there won't be any charges for cancellation.....I don't think this is correct, but that's what was told to me....when I threaten to cancel my service for D* trying to charge me for 5 LNB upgrade.

phoard1,
Did you find the 4228 difficult to aim?


No not at all. I went to AntennaWeb.org (http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx) . You enter your address and it give you the stations you are able to receive, there compass orientation from your location, and the frequency they are broadcasting on. Interestingly they didn't show the channels from Chicago as being something I could get from my house, because of the distance I presume. They did show the analog orientations so I just used those. They were all between 92 and 94 degrees. So I went on the roof with a compass and eyeballed it. SUCCESS!!

This is particular antennea really is for only getting signals from one direction, however, I did receiver some channels from Rockford which is compass orientation 321 degrees and about 25 miles away. I don't get those channels with the H20, but I do with my Samsung D* receiver. Finally, make sure from AntennaWeb what frequency the HD channels in your area are broadcasting on. This is only a UHF antenna.

IM me if you want more details. I don't want to hijack this thread. Sorry folks.

Please note: I had a problem with my h-20; called Directv and they sent me a new h-20-100. So far, I get quick (fraction of a second) interruptions in video and audio. This also includes the XM channels. Will get interruptions on a recording on XM..maybe 2-3 inrupptions per song. I will continue to monitor this problem over week end. I did get the first h-20 (and another one for lower level of home) free and Directv did send me a replacement free. So far, no money involved. And, now, I am 'leasing' this newest h-20. Directv says they replace leased h-20's free of charge. You send defective h-20 back in a prepaid box. So far, the h-20 has proven to be NOT very reliable. My previous tuners were better in build quality, etc. The h-20 is very good when working properly. But, the most important thing in a tuner is reliability. So, far, marks quite low for the h-20. By the way, the 'box' is bigger on the 100 model over the 600 model but seems lighter. It seems to run cooler because more space inside box. I sure hope these cliches in reception disappears over week end because the picture is excellent with the h-20-100. By the way, I get a very strong signal, both OTA and Directv. I have separate dishes for each of 3 sats.

... I did receive some channels from Rockford which is compass orientation 321 degrees and about 25 miles away. I don't get those channels with the H20, but I do with my Samsung D* receiver...
Interesting.

Which model H20 do you have? Is it the H20-600 (made by LG) or the H20-100 (supposedly made by RCA)? I've had both and found the tuner in the H20-600 far superior to the H20-100 and the previous Samsungs I've had.

Does this look correct?

Does this look correct? My question is regarding the multiswitch and it's location....Outdoors!

An actual comparison between sensitivity of 100 and 600 models of the h-20.....
For OTA reception the numbers for the 100 model (Mexico) read about 2 points below the
model 600 (Korea). Example: 100, on the 600, becomes becomes 98 on 100 model. For Directv, whereas the 600 gives a reading of 78 on a certain transponder, the 100 gives a reading of 80 and so on..about 2 points higher. Bottom line, the 600 slightly better on OTA and the 100 model slightly better on Directv. All of this makes little difference in the real world. Both models have plenty of sensitivity. The problems with the h-20 lies, mostly, in little nagging things. Just not enought time and thought has gone into this h-20 in my opinion. I believe the lifespan of this tuner will be shortlived. It will continue to be a work in progress. My Zenith HH520 was a completed product with zero problems for the time I had it.

mikelets: I have always kept mutiswitches inside where they remain dry. Of course, the system, then, requires a bit more wire. I run my OTA wire completely independent of the Directv wire.

An actual comparison between sensitivity of 100 and 600 models of the h-20.....
For OTA reception the numbers for the 100 model (Mexico) read about 2 points below the
model 600 (Korea). Example: 100, on the 600, becomes becomes 98 on 100 model. For Directv, whereas the 600 gives a reading of 78 on a certain transponder, the 100 gives a reading of 80 and so on..about 2 points higher. Bottom line, the 600 slightly better on OTA and the 100 model slightly better on Directv. All of this makes little difference in the real world. Both models have plenty of sensitivity...Those numbers only represent how the different ss meters are calibrated and as you said, is no reflection on the actual performance of the two receivers. I found the OTA tuner in the -600 I had was far superior to the -100. More than a couple of points on the ss meter. In fact, my old samsung ts160 outperforms my h20-100 in the OTA department. YMMV

Does this look correct?
No. The picture's composition is not as good as it could be (the top of the dish is cut off). Also, the picture's contrast is rather low? Maybe that was due to the apparently gloomy (overcast) lighting that was present when the picture was taken?

By the way, if my dish was mounted like the one pictured, I would be most upset... Are my eyes fooling me or is the multi-switch just dangling from the coaxial cables? Was the person who installed this dish under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Why didn't the installer just use duct tape to mount to the chimney? Makes future adjustments much easier...

This looks like a case where keel hauling might be entirely appropriate... unless your wife's cousin's brother-in-law was the installer. There's no explaining family. ;)

EDIT: Oh, I'm sorry. I just noticed that "My question is regarding the multiswitch and it's location....Outdoors!"

I don't see any problem with having the switch outside just so long as you live in an arid region that never receives any rainfall.

The person that installed my AT9 dish ran the wires neatly into my house and mounted the switch on the inside wall close to my receiver. Doesn't look anything like the one pictured...

TECHFOBE,
No, this was done by a Directv installer and I am on the phone with Directv right now. I don't know if the CSR knows what he is talking about. He said the multiswitch is fine outdoors but should not be hanging. I told him I wanted a installer to come back out and do it right. He is sending someone out tommorrow. Anything I should be aware of?

I'll be insisting on having the multiswitch indoors when I upgrade to the 5LNB. I'm waiting for the more compact, better looking "Slimline" dish, which hopefully will have weather-protected coax terminals. Thus there will be no connectors exposed to the elements.

Here's a better picture.....

TECHFOBE,
No, this was done by a Directv installer and I am on the phone with Directv right now. I don't know if the CSR knows what he is talking about. He said the multiswitch is fine outdoors but should not be hanging. I told him I wanted a installer to come back out and do it right. He is sending someone out tommorrow. Anything I should be aware of?
If that multiswitch HAS to be outdoors....BE SURE it's weatherproofed....Mine's in a weatherproof box with O-ring seals on ALL the connectors....The guys who did my install have been doing this for many years and know their stuff....They mounted it BEHIND and under the dish with a form of (what looks like) modified pipe clamps...Anyway...it appears it's up there to stay awhile..... :D

TECHFOBE,
No, this was done by a Directv installer and I am on the phone with Directv right now. I don't know if the CSR knows what he is talking about. He said the multiswitch is fine outdoors but should not be hanging. I told him I wanted a installer to come back out and do it right. He is sending someone out tommorrow. Anything I should be aware of?Post your pic over at satelliteguys.us and get their reaction.

That installer should be fired, IMO.

That has to be the worst installation I have seen! There is no way I would ever accept that. Two things I did notice, unless my eyes are fooling me I see only 3 cables so why did he even use a multiswitch? You only need it if you have more than 4 receivers. Also while it is hard to judge with the pic being slightly off to the side, I would swear that mast is not plumb.

edit: I just looked at your newer pic and I dont see any bolts in the bottom of the mount :eek: That is just waiting to come off the wall!

TECHFOBE,
No, this was done by a Directv installer and I am on the phone with Directv right now. I don't know if the CSR knows what he is talking about. He said the multiswitch is fine outdoors but should not be hanging. I told him I wanted a installer to come back out and do it right. He is sending someone out tommorrow. Anything I should be aware of?Post your pic over at satelliteguys.us and get their reaction.

That installer should be fired, IMO.

That has to be the worst installation I have seen! There is no way I would ever accept that. Two things I did notice, unless my eyes are fooling me I see only 3 cables so why did he even use a multiswitch? You only need it if you have more than 4 receivers. Also while it is hard to judge with the pic being slightly off to the side, I would swear that mast is not plumb.

edit: I just looked at your newer pic and I dont see any bolts in the bottom of the mount :eek: That is just waiting to come off the wall!

Are you talking about the mast mount? There are bolts and its quite secure. About it being plumb....I have not had a chance to get up on the roof and check. I know the old mast was plumb.

Correct, I only have 2-recievers, so I have no clue as to why the multi-switch. I just hope the guy that comes out does not make it any worse...as if it could be.
this stuff is really getting to be a pain...I have wasted countless hours and $$$ with directv. Although they are helpful, this has been quite annoying and my wife is getting sick and tired of spending countless hours with billing errors and installers coming to our house several times.

Bottom line: Satellite tv may have a big problem in future years when 'one wire into house for everything' becomes normal. Or beyond that, perhaps, 'no wire into house to get everything'. The average consumer likes things simple and to work perfectly for months/years. Satellite tv is becoming more complicated not less. I had a big dish back in 90's and everything worked very well. And the quality of picture was 'the best'.

A couple of the techs that came to my house, stated that they don't get paid for the visit. It seems as if the original installer gets paid for the job done and if someone else comes out to correct the situation, they don't receive anything for it. I guess that's why I'm usually the last stop or why the installers never wanted to go to the roof and investigate further. All they ever want to do is check my signal and to disconnect the coax and look at the wire to see if it's okay.

Well, I finally got an installer with a ladder to go on my roof and run a cable from the OTA antenna to my H20 receiver. (although the signal is weak, and I don't get any of the channels I used to get, I hear now I need an indoor UHF amplifier?)

He didn't speak very good english, after the job, he just said "no charge?" I said fine, so then he said "no money?" so I figured he wanted me to pay him something for the effort, even though he would report to Direct TV that he didn't charge me anything. I ended up paying him 52.50 for the installation, (direct TV alreayd ok'd me a credit on my account for up to 100.00 if I had to pay anyway)

It just gets weirder every time another installer comes out, this one said my picture freeze was because the dish was too close to the house, and didn't have a wide enough angle to the sky, even thought the transponder readings are good. Previous installers said it was fine. One said we don't advise putting this big dish on the roof. Others say the best place is the roof. So I'm considering calling for yet another installer to move my dish out from the house a few feet. I have a feeling nothing will be differerent though.

What mess this new dish and receiver are.

Mikelets,

For no special reason, I'm attaching (below) a couple of snapshots of my dish and switch. Sometimes pictures do not accurately represent vertical or horizontal axis. I think it has something to do with paralax, but I'm probably wrong about that. So, your mast could in fact be plumb and it just looks out of plumb in your picture?

Before everyone asks, that is a weather station in the background, not a satellite dish... :)

In the picture of my switch, it's difficult to see it well because of the clutter of overly-long cables running to my equipment. The equipment is hidden in the wooden box that opens into my den/home theater part of my house. While the view from the rear (in my garage) is not aesthetically pleasing, there is no cable clutter visible from inside the house itself.

I think that when a technician/worker (cable, satellite, plumbing, etc) does work for you, you just takes your chances. "Sometimes you's gets lucky and often times you's don't..." You didn't get lucky. As I mentioned before, the complete lack of duct tape should make it obvious that it was a sub-standard installation!

I just had a horrible thought... What if the same jerk, errr, I mean installer --- comes back out to "fix" things?

Be afraid. Be very afraid. :D

[B]Anyone know what type of "indoor UHF amplifier" I need to boost my OTA signals. I talked to a Direct TV supervisor, who said that with the old 3LNB dish, when OTA is diplexed, it provides a power boost to the OTA signal, the new 5LNB dish works on a different frequency that doesn't do that. He said I need an indoor UHF amplifier to run the cable through then into the STB, and said I could probably get it at Radio Shack. As weird as this seems, it sort of makes sense. With the old dish diplexed with the antenna, I got good signals on NBC, ABC, Public television, and Pax CH66, (which carries the ORioles) With the direct connection, antenna to receiver, I only get my local digital public tv station, and that is weaker.

...What mess this new dish and receiver are.

What a mess, indeed!!!! Locally, in my case, I watched one AT9 dish installed, then have done a total of four AT9 installs on my own, helping and fellowshipping with friends and neighbors. No meter, no special stuff---just follow very carefully following the instructions in the manual, even though it claims to need a meter for a proper install.

Just a mere 1/16th of any inch on elevation and azimuth adjustment can make a major difference with this dish.

But, once you get it all lined up, compromised and balanced the signal between 119 and 101 using your signal strength graph on the H20 receiver. You should get a decent set of readings. Albeit in the high 70s and upwards, and the 70s shouldn't be the norm, at least here by the Texas coast.

You can "fire through the slot" to get a great view of the satellites. For our area, about 60 degrees inclination with no obstruction is all that is needed. If one has that, and satellites 101 and 119 have a good signal, then I think the disk is all set.

The coax connectors can make a major difference, contributing to some baffling issues with alternating high and low signal strength. Pixelating. Check your coax, make sure it is good, and check the connectors. In my situation, I had old RG6 that was patched and really messed up. Actually, it still did a good job, but my connectors were very good. I replaced it with new copper-core middle conductor coax, if anything, for my own psyche...

With a decent mount, this dish should install just fine on the roof. I mean, there are old C-band disk roof mounts for dishes that have a multi-foot spread which mounts that can handle over 10' wide dishes... By decent mount, I mean decent. They are built for this kind of support requirement.

But, I'll admit, I worry about this AT9 dish. It is so very sensitive with alignment issues. A bird crashing into it, a branch, perhaps a strong wind storm... I worry about having this dish on a mount in such a way that it is difficult to access, so that tweaking is a major chore.

I would have the dish accessible for quick touch-ups, if possible. I'm convinced annual tweakings are a requirement.

But, once aligned, it should give a good set of signals.

cybermonkey, I hope your new H20 works out for you!

Just a quick update on my freezing/locking up H20 problem. It happened twice in the span of two hours last night while I was trying to watch basketball. I called D* this morning and they are sending out a new H20 to replace mine. Geesh, I hope this new one is better, and not just new and different problems.

[B]Anyone know what type of "indoor UHF amplifier" I need to boost my OTA signals.

You need a mast mounted preamp. Amplifying the signals indoors only amplifies the noise as well. The Channel Master 7777 or 7775 are both great and yield better than 20dB of gain for UHF signals. If you get one that only works next to your TV you are wasting your time. At solidsignal.com the prices for these are reasonable as well.

After complaing so much that I finally got escalated to the special support team (along with a special phone number to call), the latest service person came out (number 4, I think). He didn't even bother climbing onto the roof, but declared the problem was with the H-20, with was replaced (as a 100 instead of my previous 600). Some problems have gotten slightly better but I still have dropout, pixellation etc. I see no reason to keep calling, since the service people don't do anything anyway when they come. I guess I'll just have to live with things the way they are until DTV figures out how to fix these things.

This is a small thing, but I recently noticed that when I use the little blue button to do the programming quick check (forgot the exact name) sometimes pushing the orange button to select a program doesn't work.

By trial and error and just dumb luck I figured out that you have to be on the currently broadcast program for the button to work. If you start to use the blue button just as a show is ending you need to be careful to have the curser on the just finishing hour rather than on the show that's about to begin. Stupid. I would think that any logical person would assume that you could click anywhere on the line to go to that channel.

"...I still have dropout, pixellation etc... ...I guess I'll just have to live with things the way they are until DTV figures out how to fix these things."

I'm curious, since this is my first High Definition receiver --- just exactly how many freezes, stutters, audio drop-outs and pixelizations is normal? How can you figure out whether these are caused by the H20, AT9 dish alignment, lousy cable connectors, poor satellite transmissions or network broadcasting difficulties?

For example, I noticed that a couple of times during the basketball game last night, the picture kind of froze for a second and displayed pixelization --- then the picture blanked out for a brief moment and then all was well again. Should I be upset or is this "normal"? Was this caused by the H20? FWIW, I don't think it had anything to do with rainfade... The skies were clear.

Mikelets,

For no special reason, I'm attaching (below) a couple of snapshots of my dish and switch. Sometimes pictures do not accurately represent vertical or horizontal axis. I think it has something to do with paralax, but I'm probably wrong about that. So, your mast could in fact be plumb and it just looks out of plumb in your picture?

Before everyone asks, that is a weather station in the background, not a satellite dish... :)

In the picture of my switch, it's difficult to see it well because of the clutter of overly-long cables running to my equipment. The equipment is hidden in the wooden box that opens into my den/home theater part of my house. While the view from the rear (in my garage) is not aesthetically pleasing, there is no cable clutter visible from inside the house itself.

I think that when a technician/worker (cable, satellite, plumbing, etc) does work for you, you just takes your chances. "Sometimes you's gets lucky and often times you's don't..." You didn't get lucky. As I mentioned before, the complete lack of duct tape should make it obvious that it was a sub-standard installation!

I just had a horrible thought... What if the same jerk, errr, I mean installer --- comes back out to "fix" things?

Be afraid. Be very afraid. :D

Thanks for the reply....yea, it could happen. I guess I'll just have to "stand over" him while he's working. I'm so fed up at this point that he ain't leaving unless it's done right.

I only have 2-recievers and will never go above 4.....do I even need the Multiswitch? If I do, should I insist that the switch be mounted inside? Also, we had very heavy rains last week and the picture was "rock solid" so I guess I should make sure he does not mess with the dish's alignment? I'm in the 70's and 80's with the H20 and 99 on transponder 18.

For 4 receivers or less you do NOT need a multiswitch. I would get rid of it (one more potential failure point) TechoFobe's photo is how the install should look except for being on a chimney the house entry point will be a distance away. Note the neatly bundled and secured cables.

man this thing runs hot :mad:

today I installed my H20 into my rack in a Middle Atlantic RSH-4A rack drawer: directly above it is a DirectV SAT-T60

one hour later both units were extremely hot to the touch: I had to increase the rack spacing to allow more room on top of the H20

I predict lots more reports of H20 failures due to heat

I'm curious, since this is my first High Definition receiver --- just exactly how many freezes, stutters, audio drop-outs and pixelizations is normal? How can you figure out whether these are caused by the H20, AT9 dish alignment, lousy cable connectors, poor satellite transmissions or network broadcasting difficulties?

For example, I noticed that a couple of times during the basketball game last night, the picture kind of froze for a second and displayed pixelization --- then the picture blanked out for a brief moment and then all was well again. Should I be upset or is this "normal"? Was this caused by the H20? FWIW, I don't think it had anything to do with rainfade... The skies were clear.

This is about the level of disruption I'm seeing at this point. Maybe I'm being too fussy but I would expect that the HD equip. would work as least as well as the old RCA I had for many years. This has not been the case for me.

man this thing runs hot :mad:

today I installed my H20 into my rack in a Middle Atlantic RSH-4A rack drawer: directly above it is a DirectV SAT-T60

one hour later both units were extremely hot to the touch: I had to increase the rack spacing to allow more room on top of the H20

I predict lots more reports of H20 failures due to heat
This seems to be more reported with the China-built H20-600 units that the Korean ones. I happen to have one of each, and the Korean one has no such problem. I'm awaiting a delivery of a replacement for the China-built one (free), which did get quite hot as some have reported.

The h-20 from Mexico (100) is lighter with a larger front to back box. It runs 'warm', perhaps the reason for a larger box. Components maybe smaller (and less). I have the 600 and 100. When the 100 is working 100 percent it gives a great picture along with audio. And it runs 'warm', far from being dangerous to components inside. Now, if it can just be reliable.

If you have high reception 'numbers' the h-20 should work perfectly as far as far as dropouts etc. are concerned. The key word here is 'should'. Very little quality control, it seems, on these units. But, when all is right, video and audio are the best.

If you have high reception 'numbers' the h-20 should work perfectly as far as far as dropouts etc. are concerned. The key word here is 'should'. Very little quality control, it seems, on these units. But, when all is right, video and audio are the best.

I agree...however, HD (mpeg2 and 4) are where I have most drop outs and pixelation.(95%) Has anyone checked to see if there is a temperature rise in the box if your watching HD as opposed to SD material. I know it sounds "stupid", however, like a processor in a computer, the more you "put through it" the hotter it gets.....maybe the same with these boxes. In essence, they are computers.

man this thing runs hot :mad:

today I installed my H20 into my rack in a Middle Atlantic RSH-4A rack drawer: directly above it is a DirectV SAT-T60

one hour later both units were extremely hot to the touch: I had to increase the rack spacing to allow more room on top of the H20

I predict lots more reports of H20 failures due to heat

Mark, my H20-600 sets on top of a table and is cool all of the time. The PQ is better than my Sony 100, 200, 300 and two H10s. But that is all it can do better. It is sloooooow........ and my ota has these one half to one second drop-outs that is driving me crazy. The five other boxes are ok and hooked to the same DB4. I have tried the attenuator trick to no avail. I'm about to give up and move it to another room and hook my 200 back up to my plasma.

Interesting.

Which model H20 do you have? Is it the H20-600 (made by LG) or the H20-100 (supposedly made by RCA)? I've had both and found the tuner in the H20-600 far superior to the H20-100 and the previous Samsungs I've had.

I have the H20-600. The Samsung is something like TS350, I think. I'm not at home now.

man this thing runs hot :mad:

today I installed my H20 into my rack in a Middle Atlantic RSH-4A rack drawer: directly above it is a DirectV SAT-T60

one hour later both units were extremely hot to the touch: I had to increase the rack spacing to allow more room on top of the H20

I predict lots more reports of H20 failures due to heat

I agree. It is much hotter than any other receiver I've had. As a matter of fact, I have my H20 in my "office" and it sits on the edge of my new desk. I had been doing some dusting so i shut it off and picked it up. I hadn't realized there were air slots on the bottom of the H20 too. My desk was hot. Now I need to find a way to get it slightly up off my desk or put it on a mat or something.

It is best, with h-20, to have it completely exposed on the 4 sides. It is best to have 6 inches of open space at top and and rubber feet under each corner to raise it, at least, 1 inch off shelf. It you do this the h-20 (100) runs 'only slightly warm'. I have had my receiver on all afternoon ( XM radio) and the sound has been perfect with zero dropouts. It is so very important to keep it as cool as possible. This keeps the conponents inside from breaking down.

On this newest receiver I have (from Mexico), the h-20-100) the time between channel changes is down to one second for xm radio stations and 2 seconds on the video channels to include OTA. And, instead of 6-1 for OTA, I can just touch 6. I did have a couple of problems but all is 100 percent, as of now, and the picture and sound is great with zero dropouts. Keeping figers crossed for sure!

Does this look correct? My question is regarding the multiswitch and it's location....Outdoors!
Even IF that switch was happy outdoors, that is the sloppiest install I have ever seen by an installer. No concern for cosmetics, cable routing is a mess....

An install should enhance all appearances. Coax lines neat and straight, drip loops in concert with each other. Zip ties, if used, should at least have their excess clipped. Zip ties, eventually lose strength in the sun so shouldn't be relied to keep bundles tight.

"Around here", installers of both DISH and DirecTV seem to take pride in the install. You look at the way the dish is mounted, everything is plumb and straight, the coax follows contours of the house, when possible. Nothing is flopping around. I dunno... maybe it is a city code thing.

Sorry...............................! A photo doesn't do justice, I'm sure.

Man, that is flat out nasty. Sorry for the critical nature.

man this thing runs hot :mad:

today I installed my H20 into my rack in a Middle Atlantic RSH-4A rack drawer:..
If you got an H20-600 (LG made double chipsets), it will run hot. I would only put it on the top rack.

OTOH, the H20-100 (RCA, single chipset) is very cool and has more ventilation, with room to mount an interior fan (but it's not needed).

[B]... With the old dish diplexed with the antenna, I got good signals on NBC, ABC, Public television, and Pax CH66, (which carries the ORioles) With the direct connection, antenna to receiver, I only get my local digital public tv station, and that is weaker.
What make and model antenna do you have?
Did you have the H20 connected to the "diplexed antenna + 3LNB dish" ? Or did you swap out an older HD receiver for the H20, at the time they put in the 5LNB dish?

BTW...... Whatever happened to the new bird?.... Last I heard(about a month ago) was that it has anchored and I'm just curious what and when can we expect the first broadcast from it?

Just spoke with level 2 support. Told her that rebooting problem is now on 2 OTA channels. She said the solution is to send me a new receiver. She said that it had new software in it. I asked why cant I download it on to my old receiver. I think that she is full of sh-t
I find it hard to believe that new software cant be put on old receiver. Can anybody enlighten the group on this.
This would be my 4th H 20
Something does not make sense. It will cost DTV a small fortune to send all a new box

A question: On h-20-100, when getting a xm radio station, the receiver only displays 1 or 2 song titles, etc. It then goes to a dark screen and displays no more song titles, artist singing, etc. Most of my previous receivers would always display complete information for every song. I had 1 receiver that gave a person the option of turning off information. What is your experience with the h-20 on xm radio and displaying all the info, all the time, as it should? In my car xm radio displays the info for every song.

For 4 receivers or less you do NOT need a multiswitch. I would get rid of it (one more potential failure point) TechoFobe's photo is how the install should look except for being on a chimney the house entry point will be a distance away. Note the neatly bundled and secured cables.
LongRider,

"...except for being on a chimney"? Gee, I rather like the way the chimney blocks the hurricane winds which we too frequently experience. Of course I won't know for sure if this dish will survive a hurricane until later this year (if the storms continue like the past two years).

This is the same physical location where all of my previous D* satellite dishes have been mounted. Should I move it? Why?

If it shouldn't be mounted there, I can't really blame the D* installer (well, except for leaving the yard filled with trash and the old dish) because he asked me "Do you want it there?" and I said "Sure."

Thanks.

For 4 receivers or less you do NOT need a multiswitch. I would get rid of it (one more potential failure point) TechoFobe's photo is how the install should look except for being on a chimney the house entry point will be a distance away. Note the neatly bundled and secured cables.

You do if you have more than one dish.

Just spoke with level 2 support. Told her that rebooting problem is now on 2 OTA channels. She said the solution is to send me a new receiver. She said that it had new software in it. I asked why cant I download it on to my old receiver. I think that she is full of sh-t
I find it hard to believe that new software cant be put on old receiver. Can anybody enlighten the group on this.
This would be my 4th H 20
Something does not make sense. It will cost DTV a small fortune to send all a new box

I just got a new -600 box on Monday to replace my other -600 box. My original problem was only that the caller ID did not work. The new -600 did not fix the CIDproblem but I left it in. It runs about 3 degrees hotter than my old -600, no big deal I guess.

However, last night I lost all my OTA channels. The box was just 'searching'. I realized there was nothing wrong with my OTA system so I rebooted the box with the red switch. It came up on my local CBS 11-1 and then immediately rebooted. When it came up it rebooted again. Stuck in a loop. The next time I pulled the card and it came up with the no service message box, instead of rebooting. At the no service message I was able to change channels to a D* channel. As soon as I was able to get it off of a local channel it stopped rebooting and everything is now fine.

My point is that it will probably do it again. My old -600 never had this problem and I got it in November. If this new unit has new 'software' you probably do not want it. :) Actually I think new H20-600s are a hit and miss proposition. Some of them work better than others. Particularly since D* is recycling them at their repair depot. If they cannot find a problem on their diagnostic routine, out it goes to the next customer.

Swapping boxes is not a big issue for D*. They swapped thousands and thousands of Samsung TS360s. They will swap thousands and thousands of H20s too. They make $1 billon a month in revenues. What's 10 or 20 million in swap costs?

Wow, if your multiswitch is similar at all to mine (a Zinwell 6x8) --- mine is mounted inside my house and does in fact look like a good rain would ruin it... No discernable weather-proofing... Maybe it is weatherproof but it sure doesn't appear to be?

The inputs on my multiswitch that haven't been used are both marked "Flexport".

Why are there 5 LNBs and only 4 coaxial cables running from the dish?

The flexport is used for the international sat at 95 degrees. At least that's what mine is used for.

Anyway the directech who installed the antenna for the International sat screwed up. He didn't install the 6x8 multiswitch right. I only get 3 of the 4 sat I'm supposed to get on either set. I called D* and got a CSR (CSR are lucky if they know the day of the week). She passed me on to tech support (level one) who was smart enough to know he didn't know what was up so I was passed on to a higher tech support person who finally got it right. It appears that my multiswitch was not hooked up correctly.

I require four lines coming from my 3 LNB antenna (2 for 13 volts and 2 for 18 volts) going to the multiswitch and one going from the International antenna going to the flexport. There are 3 outputs used. One for the old Sony for sat 101 and one for the sony HD receiver and one for the international receiver.

My multiswitch is mounted on the side of the house next to the hole in which all my cables enter the house. It appears to be waterproofed with black grommets on each connector. After its hooked up correctly I'm going to duct tape some plastic over it to protect it from the elements.

I was leaning towards buying a H20 but after reading some of the threads here I've decided no way in hell. Too bad Sony isn't making sat receivers any longer.

As far as training goes my Directech installer said new personnel are given one week of training and one week on the road with a partner and then he's on his own.

They have to purchase a Birdog sat finder ($425) from the company.

As soon as Verizon can hook up FIoS I'm dumping D* and Comcast like a bad habit.

I was leaning towards buying a H20 but after reading some of the threads here I've decided no way in hell. Too bad Sony isn't making sat receivers any longer.

Don't be too quick to jump to conclusions. What we read here are all the exceptions - bad boxes, etc. But my H20-600 (LG) has been a definite upgrade from my Sammy 360. The OTA reception is better and I think overall PQ across the board is better.

Dana

The h-20 (both 600 and 100 models) are 'the best in audio and video' when working 100 percent. The BIG problem is lack of quality control where they are manufactured. I believe heat to be a big part of the problem. It breaks down the components inside the box. The 100 box is bigger (but lighter) allowing for more free air flow. Still, quality control is lacking in this new receiver. Directv pays $30 alone for shipping a box to your home and prepaying to get your return box. This is a needless waste for any company and can not go on indefinitely. For one thing, the consumer will not stand for it. The consumer (me included) likes things to work and to be trouble free. In the near future one wire coming into the home (and equipment that will work troublefree) may win out over satellite tv. This one wire will deliver all services and at a more than competitive price. Bottom line for Dish and Directv..they had better get their business model more troublefree and easier for the consumer. Things in this world always change.

Don't be too quick to jump to conclusions. What we read here are all the exceptions - bad boxes, etc. But my H20-600 (LG) has been a definite upgrade from my Sammy 360. The OTA reception is better and I think overall PQ across the board is better.

Dana

I definitely agree. What we talk about most here are the exceptions. However, I have a Sam 360, an H10, and a Sony 200 sitting in my closet and I wouldn't think of swapping any of them back. The PQ, MPEG4, and OTA sensitivity are still far superior to any of them.

Still, quality control is lacking in this new receiver. Directv pays $30 alone for shipping a box to your home and prepaying to get your return box. This is a needless waste for any company and can not go on indefinitely. For one thing, the consumer will not stand for it. The consumer (me included) likes things to work and to be trouble free. In the near future one wire coming into the home (and equipment that will work troublefree) may win out over satellite tv. This one wire will deliver all services and at a more than competitive price. Bottom line for Dish and Directv..they had better get their business model more troublefree and easier for the consumer. Things in this world always change.

You make good points and they sound like common sense, but for those of us who lived through 2 years of the EXACT same talk regarding the Sam 360 it will not happen this way. This is just grist for the few who read forums like these. They will get through this box's problems, and the next, and the next. They will spend millions and millions swapping boxes out and with all their failings and inadequacies will still try to keep the 12 million customers happy. Despite all this they still grow at a remarkable clip and remain a dominant force in the industry. They haven't even turned on all the satellites they currently have in the sky and have more launches planned!

bill: And, of course, we are entitled to our own opinions here. I am just saying, everything else being about equal, the vast majority of the public will opt for 'ease of ownership and operation'. And, of course, no one can envision what this industry will look like 30 years from now. Just look back 30 years. And, for sure, changes are coming about at an ever -increasing rate. I had a Big Dish back in the 90's and it was great with unsurpassed quality of picture (at the time). I have been with Directv ever since but their growing pains have been a 'pain in the ---' for many consumers. And I am still with Directv. But, without competition in manufacturing set top boxes, quality control is out the window. Directv should understand that the cost of quality control (and making the best, most reliable boxes available, would save them money in the long run. And, what is even more important, life would be made so much easier for many of their customers. My recent Zenith HD520 box was very reliable with zero problems. The current boxes are made down to a price and it shows. The future will be interesting, as always.

LongRider,

"...except for being on a chimney"? Gee, I rather like the way the chimney blocks the hurricane winds which we too frequently experience. Of course I won't know for sure if this dish will survive a hurricane until later this year (if the storms continue like the past two years).

This is the same physical location where all of my previous D* satellite dishes have been mounted. Should I move it? Why?

If it shouldn't be mounted there, I can't really blame the D* installer (well, except for leaving the yard filled with trash and the old dish) because he asked me "Do you want it there?" and I said "Sure."

Thanks.
Sorry, I worded that badly. I was refering to the OP where with his dish on a chimney the cables will have to be exposed for a distance before they can go into the house. In your photo it looked like the cables went straight inside at the base of the dish. Your photo was a great example of how it should be done.

edit: I just reviewed yout photo and I see you are on a chimney too. The siding fooled me as I am used to exposed brick. So where do your cables go, it looks like they go into the house right at the base of the dish?

BTW, how do you like your weather station? That looks just like mine

...The consumer (me included) likes things to work and to be trouble free. In the near future one wire coming into the home (and equipment that will work troublefree) may win out over satellite tv....This remains to be seen.

From posts on other threads and friends' experiences with crappy cable boxes and repeated cable internet and phone outages, the current situation on the cable side of the fence doesn't look any rosier to me. (However, that doesn't mean I'm satisifed with D*)

Also, millions of people live in rural areas where cable, dsl or fiber may never be available. Satellite TV and wireless internet options like WiMax (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6304962.html) will be their only choices for a long time.

arxaw; As I said, I have had Directv for many years. I get local HD but our cable system does not have HD. I certainly do not pretend to know the future in delivery systems of information to the home. But, one thing for sure; it will always be changing and evolving.

Sorry, I worded that badly. I was refering to the OP where with his dish on a chimney the cables will have to be exposed for a distance before they can go into the house. In your photo it looked like the cables went straight inside at the base of the dish. Your photo was a great example of how it should be done.

edit: I just reviewed yout photo and I see you are on a chimney too. The siding fooled me as I am used to exposed brick. So where do your cables go, it looks like they go into the house right at the base of the dish?

BTW, how do you like your weather station? That looks just like mine
Okay, I thought I had a problem, Houston... ;)

Actually, the chimney is inside of the cement block wall. We attached a sheet of plywood to the block, after some remodeling. Still need to paint the siding to match the rest of the house, but lately I find myself watching my new plasma and HDTV.

We (my son) drilled a hole through the plywood & block, and then fished them into the garage. It wasn't easy but he is good. :)

I really need to work on neatening up the mass of cabling that is visible in my garage. Maybe I can convince my son to visit and help?

That's a new Davis weather station. I mounted it to my old television antenna mast. Living 55 miles from the transmitter towers WITH huge pine trees blocking the way always made OTA reception poor, so I don't even miss the antenna. I didn't bother trying HD-OTA.

I really enjoy the weather station. You too? We get a fair share of violent weather in this area, and it is always fun to run out and see the anemometer spinning like a whirling dervish in the middle of a storm! And, it is much more accurate than the "local" weather reports. The PC interface is also nice. I can now check the weather by accessing the WeatherLink software on the PC attached to my plasma monitor (for short periods only, don't want to risk image retention).

While watching Mega March Madness Friday night --- my local CBS station's HD program, on channel 10, went out and never came back during the Florida / Georgetown game. The UConn / Washington game on channel 710 was solid...

Probably nothing to do with the H20?

Local CBS feed looks fine today...

Talk about pain & suffering? Watching the game in SD was cruel & inhuman punishment. :)

Is this a common D* occurence or just bad kharma visited on me?

To repeat a question: With a H-20-100, when getting a xm radio station, I only get info for one song when I tune to the channel. From then on, a blank screen. In other words, listening to an xm radio station, I do not get the information as to current song, artist, etc.
With xm radio in my car, I get the information for every song.

While watching Mega March Madness Friday night --- my local CBS station's HD program, on channel 10, went out and never came back during the Florida / Georgetown game. The UConn / Washington game on channel 710 was solid...
Probably nothing to do with the H20?
Is this a common D* occurence or just bad kharma visited on me?

Nothing to do with the H20. As a 3 year consumer of D* HD the networks occasionally have problems generating and/or distributing a flawless bit stream to various outlets and broadcasters. When this happens the default fallbacks are 1) no picture, or 2) SD.

You will also see problems with 5.1 audio as well. When HD video and 5.1 audio problems occur, more often than not, it is very difficult to determine the root cause. You can wait it out or switch to an alternative channel like you did. In addition to my MPEG4 local digital channel feeds I have OTA HD and the network HD channels on the channels in the 80s as backups during technical problems. 90% of the country never notices because they are still SD or NTSC anyway.

To repeat a question: With a H-20-100, when getting a xm radio station, I only get info for one song when I tune to the channel. From then on, a blank screen. In other words, listening to an xm radio station, I do not get the information as to current song, artist, etc.
With xm radio in my car, I get the information for every song.

On at least D* 801 and 853, if I press the Info button on the remote I get info on the artist, song, etc.

Dana

To repeat a question: With a H-20-100, when getting a xm radio station, I only get info for one song when I tune to the channel. From then on, a blank screen. In other words, listening to an xm radio station, I do not get the information as to current song, artist, etc.
With xm radio in my car, I get the information for every song.

I get this also, it's like a screen saver I suppose. To find out the song info for the next song, you might have to go to the remote control of your H20 and press the info button. My STB is the H-20-600

Nothing to do with the H20. As a 3 year consumer of D* HD the networks occasionally have problems generating and/or distributing a flawless bit stream to various outlets and broadcasters. When this happens the default fallbacks are 1) no picture, or 2) SD.

You will also see problems with 5.1 audio as well. When HD video and 5.1 audio problems occur, more often than not, it is very difficult to determine the root cause. You can wait it out or switch to an alternative channel like you did. In addition to my MPEG4 local digital channel feeds I have OTA HD and the network HD channels on the channels in the 80s as backups during technical problems. 90% of the country never notices because they are still SD or NTSC anyway.
Thanks Bill,

As a noob to D* HD I have no experience to go by... This isn't much different than back when television first came out. Stations often had problems and signal failure... Then too, when the networks began to transmit color --- there were many problems... Bleeding edge stuff?

For that matter, any broadcast, satellite, cable, OTA or any other --- can have "technical difficulties"? But, now that I have heard from you, I know that it is just the way it goes... Which is okay...

Seems to me that the HD technology in general is still very rough around the edges.

Thanks for the helpful reply. :)

Thanks, guys for answer to question pertaining to xm radio on Directv. I know you can push info for information on each selection. But you have to keep pushing button as each new song is played. As I said, on other receivers, the info was automatic on every song. Again, another reason my Zenith hd520 was superior in its' features and menus.

Nice to see, Dana, you enjoy great music..on xm radio 801 and 853...Sinatra and the Big bands of 40's. Keep Swingin'!

This seems to be more reported with the China-built H20-600 units that the Korean ones. I happen to have one of each, and the Korean one has no such problem. I'm awaiting a delivery of a replacement for the China-built one (free), which did get quite hot as some have reported.My H20-600 is of Chinese origin, but was purchased just 4 weeks ago from Value Electronics. It is not elevated, but has good ventilation on all sides. Just slightly warm to the touch, temp on the top is 98 when off and 100 on (tuned to an HD channel). The Chinese plant may have dealt with the heat problem at some point. I haven't had any problems with the H20, but it will wind up in a bedroom eventually. I just got it because it was free (after rebate). I'm looking forward to the HR20-250. Once you get used to a 2-tuner DVR, STB's like the H20 are demoted to backup usage.

Thanks, guys for answer to question pertaining to xm radio on Directv. I know you can push info for information on each selection. But you have to keep pushing button as each new song is played. As I said, on other receivers, the info was automatic on every song. Again, another reason my Zenith hd520 was superior in its' features and menus.It's either another one of D*'s stoopid mistakes or it's a designed in "feature" to prevent screen burn. If it is a "feature" then D* put it there for your own good, kinda like microsoft's built in features one can't get rid of....:)
</sarcasm>

arxaw: As far as burnin in above situation, as stated, I always had all information of songs playing on other receivers in the past. of course, then, it was music choice on Directv. Anyway. not to worry, I know all the information on each song anyway...well, almost.
Hey, for 3 days now, my h-20-100 has operated perfectly with zero drop outs on audio or video! Good going, Directv!

Update: A little over a week ago I upgraded to the Ka/KU dish and the H20. I previously had the 3 LND and both an H10 and Samsung. The H20 did as well as the H10 in picking up my local OTA signals, but not as good as the Samsung...still not a big deal. It is getting all the stations I was wanting.

I was upset by pixelization on my HD programing with the H20, especially the local HD channels received via the dish. I had called Directv and we went through my signal strength and they said they were on the fringe. Of course, they couldn't get someone out to me for a week and a half. So today, I went out and started "fine tuning" myself. Luckily my dish is pole mounted. Anyway, I was successful in increasing SAT 119 by 3 points, 110 by 4 points and no change to 101 and 103(which is very strong).

I just watched a good portion of the NASCAR race in HD without one Pixel problem.
Channel 2 is usually the worst so It'll be interesting to see how it looks tonight.,

Can someone give me a high level summary of what content is on each of the 4 SATS?

...Can someone give me a high level summary of what content is on each of the 4 SATS?
http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/america.html
At the above URL, look at the DirecTV satellites on:
101.0
102.8
110.0
119.0

info banner time out:

no matter what the banner timeout setting I choose, the info banner stays up for 25 seconds: is there something I am missing?

info banner time out:

no matter what the banner timeout setting I choose, the info banner stays up for 25 seconds: is there something I am missing?Are you confusing it with the channel banner that comes up when you change channels? I have mine set for 2 seconds and it goes away after 2 seconds.