DirecTV H20 (non-DVR) Official Thread - Page 206

RPMcCormick, have you been able to figure out what was causing the purple-ish lines on your picture? My H20-600 is about 2 years old now, and just started making those lines a few weeks ago. I'm just starting to investigate what is causing it, but I know through trouble shooting measures it is not the TV or cable, and it is definitely coming from the receiver's component output.

My best guess is some component failure in the Y Pb Pr output circuitry. Connected an HDMI cable between the H20 and the Sharp LCD and the issue is gone. Unfortunately I own my box - having purchased it when these first became available. So no option to have it replaced by DirecTV Giving some serious thought though to maybe getting the DirecTV HD DVR next year - especially since DirecTV has cancelled the HDPC-20 device (which would have let me record with Windows Media Centre).

I own an H20-600 DTV receiver along with a 52" 120Hz LG HDTV LCD. What would be the best picture settings on the H20? Is it best to have native set to on and 1080i as the only resolution available? Thanks in advance.

Yes - that is what I do - only choose 1080i. If you choose other settings you may find the box actually switches its output to match the program (between HD and SD). The more recent firmware versions do a good job of displaying the menus and program guide over whatever video spec's a channel is using. Good Luck!

Have you noticed any picture quality loss when viewing native 720p programs @ 1080i upscaled?

No. The majority of my viewing is DirecTV satellite feeds. Any of the local ATSC stations that I watch off-air are all 1080i for their HD. I have a Sharp Aquos LCD TV/monitor.

What about Fox and ESPN? All of their content is native 720p.

Don't watch any ESPN. Not sure what the native encode parameters are on DirecTV - it may be re-encoded. I have FOX in HD via DirecTV providing WNYW FOX5 from New York City. Off air my local FOX station is a sub-channel on the ABC affiliate and is only SD. I can also receive a distant market FOX affiliate off air but since I have WNYW I don't bother. (The New York station is better.)

The only question is whether the D* HD box or your TV upconverts the signal better to the native resolution of your TV.

Dana

What's the easiest way to find out?

Try it both ways. First, set the D* HD box to "Native." The STB will pass through the resolution as it is received from the source. Your TV will do all the upconversion. (One downside is that there will be a momentary handshake between the receiver and the TV every time you change channels.)

Second, turn Native off and set the STB output to whatever the native resolution is of your TV. 720p, 1080i or 1080p. Now the D* STB is doing all the upconversion. No handshakes either.

Then you decide which option looks best.

Dana

I tried that but it's so hard to tell the difference since I don't have DVR and can't pause the picture.

You don't have to examine every pixel. Personally, I let the D* HD STB do the upconversion to eliminate the native pass-through handshaking. It is unlikely that the TV has better conversion chips than the STB has. As you say, you can't tell the difference.

Relax and enjoy the picture!

Dana

I'll disable native and leave only 1080i as a usable resolution then. Thanks folks!

I have the problem with no DD with HDMI cord, but I do get DD when I have the toslink connect to audio. This results in lip sync issue. I have the H20 and the latest firmware I believe 407A. Audio is hooked up through Yamaha receiver, DD works for Bluray player. What do I need to do to get the HDMI working with DD?

I have a H20 with firmware 407E . It's connected via HDMI to a Onkyo TX-SR605 and DD is working fine on the channel where it's present. At that point I'll check your HDMI audio config on the receiver.

Rodolphe

I have an H20-600 in one of my bedrooms and I just reset the thing, because it was pixelating some HD channels.

Anyway, now after the reset, it only picks up the 70s and 80s HD channels.

All of the HD channels, including the locals, are black and just say 771.

So I went through the Sat. Set Up and got these results:

Satellite 101: OK
Satellite 110: OK
Satellite 119: OK
Satellite 99a: FAILED
Satellite 99b: OK

Then it says "Your dish type is set to 5LNB, Mulit-Sat, but the receiver detected 0 satellite"

WTF????????

I have 2 other H20-100's in the house, that are set to 5LNB and work perfectly with all of the HD Channels coming in perfectly.

Could this H20-600 be defective, or could the BBC be defective, but then, WHY would it only cause the one satellite to Fail, and not all of them if that was the case???

Help I have a H20 DTV receiver on my HDTV The receiver does not show who made it (m. I wanted to use a AVR remote instead of the DTV remote td o control the DTV H20 (made in mexico).
When I looked up the remote codes for the satalite receiver in the manual ? can anybody give me the code?

Hi guys, a quick question. I'm moving my H20 downstairs, but hope to output it to 3 separate sources. The 3 TV's will never be on at the same time.

1. First TV to a Toshiba CRT RPTV, will do component and optical audio here
2. Second is a Westinghouse LCD, will do HDMI here
3. Third is an old 25" CRT, will do either composite or s-video and analog audio

My two questions are:

1. How do you think HD channels will show on the 25"? Will the picture be "squeezed" in to fit?
2. Second, if I have the Dolby Digital output set to "on", will I still get analog audio out of the RCA's? Or would I need to turn it "off" before watching that TV?

Thanks,
Matt

I finally got my new receiver (Denon 3808ci) hooked up last night...very pleased with movies and music alike.

Something did rain a little on my parade though . I picked up some new RG6 coax (Belden) from Blue Jeans because I was tired of the unnecessary jumbled mess of the 25 foot run that Direct TV put in when I had it installed. Purchased a 10 foot run to go from the wall to my power center, then two 3 foot runs for the SWM box/2nd tuner. Hooked everything up the same way, turned on the Direct TV receiver and got nothing, no signal. I thought maybe I spaced something, but went upstairs and noticed the same thing on the bedroom tuner box, no signal there either. I'm no expert on satellite cabling, but it seems to me if both boxes are not getting a signal, then the problem is at the dish, or somewhere BEFORE the line hits the splitter in the garage (from the splitter in the garage I have one line going into the HT room, and one going upstairs to the bedroom), and would have nothing to do with the new cables I used in the HT room.

Anyway, it just seemed like a strange coincidence that my satellite would go out around the same time I hook up a new receiver and run new coax from the wall. I have a guy coming out tomorrow to take a look. Irritating since I wanted to play around with some of the DSP and PLII modes for 2 channel sources, but hopefully it's fixed tomorrow.

Since you have a SWM, make sure that the output from the power supply (IIRC it's the red insert coax connector) it going to the SWM and not your receivers, sounds like the SWM isn't receiving power.

Is the bedroom box fed off of the SWM splitter where you installed the new audio receiver?

I have everything hooked up the same way as before actually...a 10 foot run of coax from the wall to the 'in' jack of my Panamax 4300. Then a 3 foot run from the 'out' jack of the Panamax to the 'Power to SWM' jack on the SWM splitter. Then another 3 foot run from the 'Signal to IRD' jack on the splitter to the DTV receiver. All pieces are connected the same way, the only difference being the use of new Blue Jeans RG6 coax and the new receiver (connected to DTV receiver via HDMI). They had me run all of the tests last night...unplugging the SWM box, disonnecting coax, etc. The SWM green power light still comes on when I plug it in so it seems to be getting power okay.

This is what's throwing me off...since my DTV box in the bedroom is having the same issue though, I don't know how it could be anything at the HT end of it. If the bedroom DTV box was okay, I'd say I definitely screwed something up at the HT end...but being that the issue is affecting both boxes (that are split in the garage, before the HT end comes into play), I don't know how it could be anything 'inside' the house...though I freely admit I don't know much about satellite cable runs! Also, I couldn't find the power inserter last night so I think it must be up on the roof near the dish...CS said that may be the issue.

Thanks for your help guys.

No, the bedroom box (just the standard DTV box, not a DVR) just goes straight to the wall, which then runs straight down to the splitter in the garage.

I'd try removing the Panamax from the connection and see if that fixes it.

Yeah, that was one thing I did try last night...to no avail. I had everything hooked up through the Panamax for the past 6 months though and had no issues.

I should add that the SWM box is located right behind my DTV DVR in the HT room, AFTER the signal is split in the garage. That's the reason I don't think it has anything to do with the line going to the HT. If something is wrong at the HT end (after the signal is split in the garage), how could it affect the signal going to the bedroom?

Here is a quick flow-chart for each display if it helps:
HT Room: Dish>>>PI>>>splitter in garage>>> straight downstairs to the Panamax>>>SWM splitter>>>DTV receiver (HD DVR)
Bedroom: Dish>>>PI>>>splitter in garage>>>straight upstairs to the DTV receiver (standard DTV box, not a DVR)

With the switch yesterday I lost channel 7-1 and 7-2. I rescaned today and now it list two 7-1 and 7-2. If I check the signal meter only two of the 7's have power. My set only recognizes the two that don't have power. Anybody know what I can do to make it see the ones that have power?

I lost 7-1 last night, and didn't realize it while I was recording the Stanley Cup Finals and missed the first period. I knew that WHDH was changing to their VHF signal, and I knew it was going to be 1 minute before midnight, so I thought I'd be OK. I guess D* flipped their switch early not knowing when the change would happen.

I just reran antenna setup on my HR20, and I have both 7-1 and 7-2 coming it at nearly 100% signal in RI.

I will rerun antenna setup on my other two DVRs later today.

SMK

I've noticed a bug with recent software on my H20-600. Whenever you activate the guide, press the info button, or use menu functions the audio is lost momentarily. This seems to only occur with some channels and not others.

Today I installed a SWM LNB and 4 way switch. My H20-100 and HR20-100 work fine but my H20-600 will not work. The new software was downloaded and installed and it looks like SWM is setup on the H20-600 but I don't get any SAT signal. Anyone see this problem after setting up a SWM LNB? I verified the cables are all fine...even moved the H20-600 to one of the working locations and same thing. No SAT signal. I wonder if maybe some versions of H20's have old hardware that doesn't support SWM. Now I have to call DirecTV abd see if they will send me a new receiver. They will probably want to send a tech out and charge me $80.

Thanks,

Ron