DirecTV Receiver and Dish Help needed

[shadoow]

We recently upgraded our DirecTV receiver to an HD-DVR (HR24-500). At the house we have a Slimlime 3 SWN dish. I took the receiver out to the RV today to see if i could get it setup with our RV dish which is an 18" round type. I know with this dish i wouldn't be able to get HD channels; just wanted to get the SD channels to see if the setup works.
As you may have guessed i'm posting cause it ain't working!!. Here's what i've got and seen:
1) dish is directly connected to the HD receiver with coax.
2) i positioned the dish to get fairly good signals on satellite 101 transducers. Most signal strengths are 75 or greater (up to 97). A couple are in the 40's and 50's, some in the 60's.
3) For dish settings the following is selected:
- 18" round dish
- Multiswitch (vs. swm)
- Single tuner (vs. 2)
3) the time shown during setup will update indicating to me the receiver is getting a signal, but when i select 'Continue' after checking signal strengths, the next screen that comes up is titled something like " Advanced Program Guide" or something similar. It says it will download program info over the next 24 hrs. and in the meantime there may not be complete program info. At the bottom of the screen there is a bar graph to show progress and a digital register to give a number. The number remains at 0% and nothing ever shows on the bar graph. After about 5 minutes the receiver seems to reset itself (goes off, comes on, goes thru self-check, etc.), then repeats if you let it go.

Also, i cannot seem to make the audible beep feature work when checking transducer signals. I get a colored bar for Tuner ! (nothing on Tuner 2) but no sound. Tuner 1 is the one selected as the Audio Feedback Tuner.

Am i trying to do something that will not work by trying to use an 18" round dish with an HD receiver?? We'll be getting a SL3 SWM dish to take on the road with us, but in the meantime i was trying to get the 18" dish to work.

[don_lou]

Glad that you got it working!!
Don

[2oldman]

shadoow wrote:
. We're going camping next week so i'll be going thru all this again, but hopefully with quicker success.

You can see why it's easier to just get a Slimline and quit the small dish.

[shadoow]

2oldman wrote:

shadoow wrote:
Idid a reset on it's own once. I'm thinking it shouldn't be doing this...your thoughts???

See this post.

thanx for this link, pretty infomative

[shadoow]

Ok, got it working, but am not sure i understand all i know.

As mentioned earlier, i was able to get reception using the old receiver. I had a 99 signal on transducer 12. I looked at transducer 1 and it had 0 signal so i re-adjusted the dish a little to get the best signal i could on transducer 1 which was a 77. I then swapped out receivers to the HD one and brought up the signal strengths. There was an 88 on transducer 1 with most others 83 or above. I had a couple of 77's and 4 0's. I selected 'Continue', got the 'Verifying Configuration' screen and eventually go the message 'Satellite signal could not be detected' so selected 'Change settings' and went thru various combinations of 18" round (with and without 72.5 and 95 degrees) and selecting single and dual tuners. None worked any better, but I did start getting a screen after 'Verifying Configuration' that said 'Verifying Installation'. After each combination I tried I'd end up with a status screen that showed reception (or not) for each tuner. I finally went back to the original setup of 18" Round, Multiswitch, Single tuner and got the aforementioned status screen. This time i now selected 'Continue' and the status bar started showing the receiver was getting satellite info. From here i was able to get channels, guide info, etc. so it was finally working as it should.....go figure.
Guess i'll see how it goes the next time i try to do it. We're going camping next week so i'll be going thru all this again, but hopefully with quicker success.
Thanx for all the help and info you guys provided.

[2oldman]

shadoow wrote:
Idid a reset on it's own once. I'm thinking it shouldn't be doing this...your thoughts???

See this post.

[don_lou]

falconman wrote:
You may need a B- band converter between the receiver and the dish. Not required for SWM. When I converted my non SWM HD to SWM I had to remove them.

He does not need the B Band converter as he can only get SD from his Single LNB on 101

He does not need the power inserter for this non swim set up

[falconman]

You may need a B- band converter between the receiver and the dish. Not required for SWM. When I converted my non SWM HD to SWM I had to remove them.

[don_lou]

I would say that you are not getting the dish type set up correctly
You have to set switch type (multiswitch ) first -then select 18" dish otherwise it is not getting out of the swim setup
the cheep signal meter will not work on a swim set up!
some times it is hard to get it out of the swim setup-it does it automatically the other way around when connected to a swim lnb setup from non swim
let us know how you make out??

[shadoow]

Ok, tried again this morning, but no joy in mudville. Here's the latest:

Once the receiver is turned on and it goes thru its selfcheck a screen comes up showing the DTV logo with a bar at the bottom and 0% listed cause at this time it doesn't see the right dish; no reception. I go to the menu and select the following to designate the dish i'm using:
- Dish Type "01: Round (18")"
- Switch Type "02: Multiswitch"
- Tuner "Single"
I go to 'Signal Strengths' and bring up the signal bar for Transducer #1. I aim the dish and the best i can get on Transducer #1 is 88. I select 'Continue' and a screen labeled 'Verifying Configuration' comes up. The time/date on the screen updates correctly. After a few minutes i get a message: 'Satellite signal could not be detected'.

During this process the receiver locked up once (had to unplug to get it going again) and did a reset on it's own once. I'm thinking it shouldn't be doing this...your thoughts???

Next i decided to set up our old receiver that we normally take with us. It's an old RCA receiver that i got back when you could actually buy a receiver instead of leasing it. I was able to set it up and get TV reception fine as usual, however, i did notice that most transducers had a poor signal. We used the #12 transducer as it had the highest at 99. Evidently, only one transducer has to get a good signal for this receiver to work. Unfortunately, we can't use it anymore cause DTV has indicated it will no longer support its use.

Another thought/question.... I don't have the power inserter connected to the HD receiver when it's in the RV as it is in the house. My understanding was it wasn't required for the 18" Round Dish so am i wrong here??

And another question: I normally use an in-line signal meter at the dish to help me dial it in. When i connect it when the HD receiver is connected i don't get any signal response whatsoever. Does this sound right or is this an indicator of a problem???

What do you suggest i try next. I'm pretty positive i'm on the right satellite as it seems to be aimed per the guidance i'm seeing on dishpointer.com.

[Bill_Satellite]

Since you have a SWM antenna at your home you will not be able to follow bstehmy suggestion. You need to use a non-SWM antenna to get the receiver to setup for an 18" round option.

[shadoow]

bstehmy wrote:
I think a recent updated messed all of us on the HR24 but I got it to work this way. Take back in your house and go thru set up. Discount the coax imput then go back into set up and select the 18" dish & multi switch. Take back ou to your rv. For some reason this works for me.

i think this is basically what i'm doing. Right now the receiver is in the house and working with the roof antenna (SL3 SWM). Shortly i'll take it out to the RV and connect it to the 18" Round DTV dish so i'll reset the dish info, but then i'll have to go thru dish aiming to get a good satellite signal. It's at this step i'm having some trouble. I'm going to try to re-aim the dish to make sure i'm getting satellite 101 so we'll see. I'll report later on how this mornings efforts go.

[bstehmy]

I think a recent updated messed all of us on the HR24 but I got it to work this way. Take back in your house and go thru set up. Discount the coax imput then go back into set up and select the 18" dish & multi switch. Take back ou to your rv. For some reason this works for me.

[shadoow]

Bill.Winegard wrote:
Actually, it sounds like you are doing all the right things. What kind of antenna are you using? The dish is an 18" round DirecTV dish. It has a dual LNB but only 1 output is used. I've used this same dish for years with an older SD DirecTV receiver. It sounds like you might be using a multiple LNB antenna and it's not really properly pointed. If it's a single LNB antenna (the old 18" round) it's still possible to point at a wrong satellite and get signals on some transponders. If you are pointed correctly you should be seeing 90+ on the 101 satellite transponder #1. [COLOR=]I'm seeing 83/85 on the #1 transducer; not good enough??
Do not reset the receiver as it will revert to SWM (the last known good configuration). I don't reset the receiver; it resets itself (times out?) if it doesn't get guide data after about 5 min. You should see a strong signal on Tuner 1 and no signal showing on Tuner 2 if you have things wired correctly. That's what i'm seeing. All response is on Tuner 1 and none on Tuner 2 I apologize for this next statement, but after you have a good signal and verified what I mention above you need to click on Continue and tell me what screen you are actually seeing (it should go to one that says Verifying Setup or something similar. I'll check this when I try again tomorrow morning.

[2oldman]

i'm using the one with the bars that shows only 1 transducer (transponder) at a time, not the screen that shows all the transducers at onceOk, but I still suggest using the other screen.

the receiver was just taken from the house where it's been for awhile so i'm assuming software is up to date.If it was operational in the last few days, it should be. But, if you're experiencing constant reboots, it's not.

You will not only have to have a good signal, you will have to have the guide loaded to stop the reboots. Good luck.