# Whole Home and OTA trouble



## fizban11 (Feb 22, 2009)

I have been a DTV customer for 11 years and I am having an issue of which I am rather frustrated.

I had 2 HR20's, one 100 and one 700 and received my locals via off-air connected directly to the boxes. I then subscribed to the whole home dvr service last October and I started having recording issues with a specific local channel. OK, I could watch 6-1 (Waco/Temple NBC) and it would be pristine, clear and sharp. However, anything recorded from this channel was either completely garbled, no matter which machine it was played from, or (very rarely) the recording would be viewable but it would constantly drop out/digitize out. 90% of the time it was just garbled.

I called several times to complain about the recording issue and that the machines seem to respond in slow-motion when using the multi-room viewing. I was bumped up to the HR21-700's, two of them and the AM-21's for locals. I installed them myself. I am still miffed that after 11 years DTV WILL NOT give me the latest equipment, and that even one of the HR-21-700's sent to me was a refurbished unit. But more of the same and again, only with channel 6-1 (NBC). Again, about 90% of the time.

I called in again to complain. The tech on the phone noticed that I used my gigabit backbone (hard wired CAT 6 cables, gigabit router and gigabit switches) instead of the DECA units, so they insisted this was the problem. A tech was sent out, DECA's were installed, units were reset and I proceeded with normal TV recording and viewing. The tech that came out said that he felt the AM-21's were the culprit as the signal is sent to the DVR on the same "bandwidth" as many of the DTV channels and the DVR is getting interference. I disagreed as the signal itself coming in seems to be fine. But, now something new is happening with the DECA's installed and the gigabit ethernet disconnected: 6-1 when viewed is sharp and clear, but now anything recorded from it is clear and sharp, but ALL DVR functions do not work, such as rewind, fast-forward and commercial skip. When I try to use them, it freezes at the spot I am on for about 10 seconds or so then jumps back to the beginning of the program. If I just let it play, it plays without incident, but I am stuck watching commercials. I am really confused.

When just viewing the channel and nothing recording to the LIST, even the rewind live TV function seems to freak out. I can view for a couple of minutes, go to rewind and the units freeze for the customary few seconds, then jumps back to the spot in the program at the moment I tuned to channel 6-1. This happens probably 70% of the time I try it.

I called in to complain again, and this time, I was told that they were bumping it up to the software engineers and that an ETA for getting back to me could not be offered. I was hoping to throw this out to the "A-game" crowd and get some thoughts. Thanks!

Before anyone jumps on it, this is not a knock on 6-1 (NBC.) This is a recording/playback issue for 6-1, not the signal. Nor do I want to make this an issue of whether or not I should subscribe to locals through DTV or receive them free via off-air antenna. My reasons for receiving via off-air is that the signals are MUCH better quality, both video and audio and I DO NOT lose the signal for locals in bad weather. Most of our recording is via locals, so having them always on is vital, not to mention during the storms recently with all the tornadoes, I never lost any local channel signal and was able to get weather information.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

It's not clear if this problem is with MRV or if its from trying to play these recording locally on the DVR?

side note: Local HD through DirecTV are pretty close to OTA PQ [at least here for me].


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## fizban11 (Feb 22, 2009)

I am not sure what is causing it, but when I had the HR20-100 and 700, I had the same issues. Once the whole home DVR service was put in and I was upgraded to the HR21's with the AM-21's for OTA, I thought it would solve the problem, it didn't.

Since reception is clear when viewing the channel and the signal strength is 100%, I know it's not my wiring or the Monster PowerCenter. It has to do with the equipment and the digital transmission. Could it be possible that the specific broadcast band for my local NBC is not working with the DTV DVR's? I just don't know.

All I know is, I have to watch Chuck and The Event online - which is a waste of my TV and equipment!


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

Do you have any friends/neighbors with D* and use OTA? The problem could very well be an issue with your local station.


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## Sharkie_Fan (Sep 26, 2006)

fizban - 

we had this problem in our area a while back with our Fox affiliate OTA. I spend more hours than I care to count trying to figure out what was going on - swapping antennas, cables, etc, etc, etc.

I finally gave up and started recording the SD channel provided by DirecTV (my kids like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, and we all watch them as a family, so we decided we could live with SD on FOX since those are the only two shows we watch).

A few months after I had given up, I was contacted by DirecTV through this forum because they had seen a bunch of complaints about the local Fox affiliate. I gave the guy a bunch of information, did a few things he asked me to try, I think, and within a few weeks, FOX was fixed and we haven't seen a problem since.

To this day I don't know what the problem was, but I'm going to point this thread out to the guy who was in touch with me, and maybe your problem is the same as our problem was and it can be fixed too.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

As the AM-21 connects to the host receiver uniquely via USB, you can safely ignore any suggestions of radio frequency interference between OTA and satellite; especially if your OTA comes in on a completely independent cabling system.

The disparity between live viewed and recorded is a baffler. Both ways the signal has come through the AM-21 and is entirely contained in the receiver. Have you tried pausing a live OTA channel and continuing a few seconds/minutes later?


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## azarby (Dec 15, 2006)

fizban11 said:


> I have been a DTV customer for 11 years and I am having an issue of which I am rather frustrated.
> 
> I had 2 HR20's, one 100 and one 700 and received my locals via off-air connected directly to the boxes. I then subscribed to the whole home dvr service last October and I started having recording issues with a specific local channel. OK, I could watch 6-1 (Waco/Temple NBC) and it would be pristine, clear and sharp. However, anything recorded from this channel was either completely garbled, no matter which machine it was played from, or (very rarely) the recording would be viewable but it would constantly drop out/digitize out. 90% of the time it was just garbled.
> 
> ...


Can you clarify if you are using any diplexing of the OTA signals?


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## bleggett29 (Feb 2, 2008)

My best guess is you're getting some interference from KFWD which would be nearly 180* away from KCEN--If you are indeed located where your profile states. Both transmit on VHF Ch9. My theory would be that although you're able to view KCEN with no problem, some data from KFWD is being picked up adding to the bandwidth exceeding the limitations of the HR21.


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## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

sounds like broadcast issue, very similar to fox issues many had on ota and here on both ota and lil.
I forget now what the engineer at local fox (which is also our local d* uplink station) said they had to do here.


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## markrogo (Sep 18, 2007)

I have a really, really similar problem with a single channel (it happens to be the CW affiliate here in the SF Bay Area). It also didn't seem to exist at all prior to MRV and current generation DVRs. 

I am of the overwhelming opinion this is not a coincidence.


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