DirecTV Oddity

[crokett]

Recently after a thunderbanger the satellite receiver displayed 'searching for satellite signal'. I discovered more or less by accident that all I have to do is go to the signal meter on the dish selection menu and it all works again. I don't do anything else but that.

It has happend a couple times since the first time and I fix it the same way each time. Any idea what is happening and what I am doing by going to the signal meter?

[DUD]

David I don't know why going to signal meter would fix it other than locking in a signal that way.
However I found out why We haven't had DirecTv in a week, and why it has been getting a lousy picture, the puppy chewed the cable into, and is now working on the ground wire. Oh well it is quiet in the house now. Bill

[buckeye]

I have DISH which is similar to DirecTV. My signal will go out during thunderstorms when there is heavy cloud cover. The signal will recover on it's own after the sky clears up. As a matter of fact, we had a thunderstorm last night while watching the final episode of Survivor. My wife about went nuts and was calling up people to record it for us. Fortuneatley, the signal came back after a few minutes.

[sacherjj]

I would guess that the Signal Meter has a more aggresive loop in redetecting the signal. It would have to have a fast loop or you couldn't move the dish fast to adjust. Although if there is a serious disparity, I would call DirecTV and see if there is a diagnostic for the box. I'm running a regular and dual tuner DirecTiVo and I very rarely lose satelite and it comes back very quickly.

[crokett]

Joe,

thanks. That makes some sort of sense. This happens on both my receivers so I am wondering if it is a problem at the dish somehow?

[sacherjj]

If you are getting a good solid signal in the signal test, I don't see how it could be the dish. Because the dish is giving you a good solid signal. I would think it has to be all in the receiver(s). If both are doing it, then it seems to be a defect in the hardware or firmware as to recapturing the signal with loss. If i were programming the system, I would incorporate the most aggressive loop I could to get the signal back. It doesn't seem like that is the case here.

[gerti]

Maybe wind kicked the dish out of alignment and the signal is weak? How high do the bars go on the signal meter?

[crokett]

The bars go to 95%. I have no idea if that is normal - never had reason to check until last month.

[sacherjj]

95% is strong and you should have a stable system. Is this occuring only during rain?

[jAngiel]

Personally I think what happens when it loses the signal is that it goes into some sort of polling loop and it will eventually recover on it's own. By going to the signal meter you are bypassing the polling loop and forcing it to recheck the signal NOW instead of at the end of some internal timer. I have no idea what's really happening but in my mind that seems like a logical explaination.

[sacherjj]

I agree. But I also think it is poor engineering. The polling loop should be very fast for the first five minutes. Then slow down. Each second that the show they are watching is gone, people get annoyed.

[crokett]

95% is strong and you should have a stable system. Is this occuring only during rain?

Thunderstorms. Just rain doesn't seem to bother it. So it is either the lightning or something is loose on the disk and the wind is moving it out of alignment.