Panny TU-HDS20 + SAT C = Misery

[Steve Mann]

Man, what a day yesterday... The DirecTV installer made it to the house at 3:30 yesterday. He had NO CLUE as to what he was supposed to do. He had never installed a SAT C kit or ever heard of one. After about an hour of explaining it to him, talking him thru what he need to do while he was up on the ladder, we FINALLY got signal from all three Sats. Good news? So I thought...

Next step after configuring the Panny TU-HDS20 for three sats (and confirming good signal on all three), was to call DirecTV so they could add SHOW-HD. After about 15 minutes of messing around with the CSR at DirecTV, he finally gets SHOW-HD to work. Great, I say! I have SHOW-HD!! Picture even looks pretty good ! However, just as we're about to hang up I asked him to let me make sure that my other HD channels were still there. Nope... all gone. HDTV and HBO-HD didn't come in. Got a 'channel unavailable' message. So... After more fooling around from the rep, putting me on hold etc., he has me restart (reboot) the Panny. Worse thing I could have done. When the receiver came back up, it searched for the Sat, found it and then went into the 'acquiring data' mode. Too bad it never moved from that spot. The progress indicator never moves and it fails to 'acquire data'. I can still get into the setup menus etc, but I can't get ANY Sat channels now. I spent over an hour on the phone with DirecTV technical support to no avail. They finally suggested that I call Panasonic because they thing the receiver 'went bad'. Yeah, right.

I can't really believe the receiver choose this time to crap out, but I guess it's possible. However, I think it's more likely that something came down the line from DirecTV that nuked it? Dunno... I hope to learn more tonight when I talk to Panasonic.

Thanks for listening and any suggestions.

[Gregg Lengling]

I feel for you.....Directv took 5 calls just to get ShowHD running, 2 days later I had no regular show or hbo.  Had to call again, after complaining loudly they credited me for the whole month of HBO and Showtime (Saved me 24 bucks).

The first thing I would do is everything you can to test your receiver.  I'm not familiar with yours but the RCA units have a test feature.  It checks everything, the access card, phone line ect.  Check this all out...also there is an option to see what the card number is by putting it on the screen so you don't have to remove it.  I would also do that, if Directv zapped the card it will show that with no valid card #.  Then you call them and complain, they will send a card and tell you it will cost you $20.00, don't take that crap. Tell them they screwed up and should Fedex you a card at no charge.  (They did this to one of my receivers, the charge showed on my bill but was offset with a credit for the same amount).

Let us know how you make out.


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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
gregg@camelcomm.com

[Steve Mann]

Thanks Gregg.

I've tested everything that the box will allow and it all tests fine including the access card. Something is obviously screwed up though.

I'll be calling Panasonic's tech line tonight. I'm hoping they have some answers or will be willing to send out a new box.

[Todd Wiedemann]

Steve -

Have you tried disabling the OTA side of the Panny ?

I've noticed that it seems to help when it's in 'Data Acquisition' mode ...

Just a thought.


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Todd.
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Mitsubishi 55819
Panasonic TU-HDS20
Apex AD-600A

[Steve Mann]

No, I haven't tried that, Tom. I did (just now) try removing the coax feed from the Dish to the recever. Waited five minutes and then restarted the receiver. Still nothing. It's sitting at the data acquiring screen forever with no progress indicator. I'll try removing the OTA feed and try again.

[Steve Mann]

Well, I think I've tried everything I can. I don't know what else to do. I spoke to the folks at Panasonic. They weren't all that helpful, basically they suggested moving the box around from room to room to see if the problem followed the box. If that the case, then call them back and they'll fix it with only parts being covered.  

I sure wish I had another HD receiver I could try. That would be the easy way. I know the SAT C kit is working as I had SHOW-HD for awhile and I get good signal strength from it. I know I'm about to the point where I'm ready to say F**** it and through all of it out the window.  

[Pat]

I seem to recall a problem being discussed on HomeTheaterSpot about Panasonics going nuts when faced with like 600 channels.  Could this be it?

[Steve Mann]

 

Originally posted by Pat:
I seem to recall a problem being discussed on HomeTheaterSpot about Panasonics going nuts when faced with like 600 channels.  Could this be it?

Dunno... most of the suggestions I'm getting here and from over on the AVS boards center around signal strength on SAT A. If it's not strong enough, the receiver won't download the program guide from the Sat and thus leaving you with nothing. I've had pretty good signal on the A Sat, varying from 83-95, so I don't think that is the problem. I have a DirecTV Tech scheduled for Saturday. If I haven't gotten if figured out by then, I'm hoping this guy won't be as clueless as the first and will be able to solve my problem.

I HAVE to have it working before Sunday night so I can have my Sopranno's in HD.  



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Steve M. Mann
Mits 65908
Panasonic TU-HDS20
Sony SAT-T60
My Home Theater
My Young DVD Collection

[Steve Mann]

 

Originally posted by Steve Mann:
I HAVE to have it working before Sunday night so I can have my Sopranno's in HD.

Well, looks like I'm going to make that self-imposed deadline.  

I'm finally enjoying HDTV once again via DirecTV. What an experience. Thanks to Todd, I was able to verify that my Panny receiver was okay. Todd invited me over to his house this morning to hook my receiver in to his system. It had no problem whatsoever downloading and acquiring data from the dish at his house. Thanks, Todd. This was a BIG help in troubleshooting the problem.

Armed with this new data, I met the DirecTV tech at my house at about 1:15. Even though I explained all I had been thru, he still insisted on playing around with the receiver an access card. We he was finally satisfied that all was correct with the receiver, he went out on the ladder and started inspecting the previous install of the Sat C kit. I could understand his reluctance; it was raining pretty hard after all.

After moving one of the feeds off of the multiswitch to the correct port on the combiner, we realized that not only had the first installer made a mistake, but also that we still had more problems.

After about an hour of trying this and that, we swapped out my 5x8 multiswitch with the original 4x4 that came with my oval dish. Bam! Everything started working. I had HBO-HD, HDNet and SHOW-HD. Yippee! But, I was now one feed short for my two DirecTivo's and my HD receiver.  

For some reason unknown to me, he was able to get a second 2x4 multiswitch I had, to cascade after the 4x4 this giving me enough ports/feeds (plus one left over). I had tried this setup originally when I had the oval dish installed, but couldn't get it to work.

To make long story short (I know, too late), all is back to normal AND I have my Showtime HD. I just hope it ends up being worth it after all of this work.

Thanks again to all the suggestions here and especially to Todd for opening up his house and system to help me out.

[Todd Wiedemann]

It was really my pleasure, Steve.

I'm glad that your issue is finally resolved.

With almost 120 members now, this group has to be one of the more well-organized, enthusiastic HD groups in the nation. We owe it to each other, as a community, to help each other out.

It's also really nice to put a face by the name. I know that we spoke about a get-together, Steve, but how about everyone else ?

Let's start a new thread about it in the 'Off-topic' area.

Again, it was great to have you over, Steve.

Enjoy Stargate SD1 !!

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Todd.
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Mitsubishi 55819
Panasonic TU-HDS20
Apex AD-600A