# Dish HD and big green chunking blocks!



## newteech (Nov 28, 2006)

I've had Dish HD for 6 months and I'm getting ready to dump it for DirecTV.

Every time I watch HD programming on Dish, the signal chunks and I get the big green squares filling my screen. This only happens with HD channels.

I've had service stop by several times to fix the problem. The receiver was swapped out and the dish repointed to no avail.

One tech admitted to me that because of my location (so cal) I can only see 1 hd satellite and the quality is always going to be poor.

Could someone provide some ideas on how to go about fixing this problem? Is there a fix?


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

newteech said:


> I've had Dish HD for 6 months and I'm getting ready to dump it for DirecTV.
> 
> Every time I watch HD programming on Dish, the signal chunks and I get the big green squares filling my screen. This only happens with HD channels.
> 
> ...


Sounds like you need another tech. If this one can't get the Dish 1000 working well then you can go to 2 dishes. 1 dish 500 for 110/119 and 1 other for 129 (either a 300 or a 500 w/ a single feed). This will increase the gain on 129.


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## newteech (Nov 28, 2006)

whatchel1 said:


> Sounds like you need another tech. If this one can't get the Dish 1000 working well then you can go to 2 dishes. 1 dish 500 for 110/119 and 1 other for 129 (either a 300 or a 500 w/ a single feed). This will increase the gain on 129.


I already have two dishes!

The signal on 129 has never been better than 65, whereas the other regular signals have been in the 90+ range


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## Mikey (Oct 26, 2004)

You'll probably continue to have issues with HD off the 129 satellite until it's replaced. That's one sick bird, and looks even more sick on the West Coast.


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## DP1 (Sep 16, 2002)

Well that signal strength isnt necessarily a huge problem. My signal for 129 is low like that too.. but until it drops below 50 it doesnt really affect anything.

Does this problem only happen when you first tune to a given channel and then clears up shortly thereafter.. or are you saying it makes the channels unwatchable continuously.. either by never clearing up or clearing up and then coming back again without changing the channel?


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## newteech (Nov 28, 2006)

Mikey said:


> You'll probably continue to have issues with HD off the 129 satellite until it's replaced. That's one sick bird, and looks even more sick on the West Coast.


How do you know this? Could you point me to some documentation proving this?

I'd like to get out of my 18 month commitment with DISH, though I'm sure they're not going to want to let me.


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## newteech (Nov 28, 2006)

DP1 said:


> Does this problem only happen when you first tune to a given channel and then clears up shortly thereafter.. or are you saying it makes the channels unwatchable continuously.. either by never clearing up or clearing up and then coming back again without changing the channel?


The problem happens every 5 minutes or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It will chunk and then clear up for awhile, then chunk again later. It doesn't matter the channel, it happens on all the HD channels

It's so much fun watching a quarterback throw a long bomb, only to see big green blocks when the wide receiver is about to catch the ball.

Do you have any suggestions?


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## Mikey (Oct 26, 2004)

newteech said:


> How do you know this? Could you point me to some documentation proving this?...


Well, start here: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=53697&highlight=129+problems


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## DP1 (Sep 16, 2002)

newteech said:


> The problem happens every 5 minutes or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It will chunk and then clear up for awhile, then chunk again later. It doesn't matter the channel, it happens on all the HD channels
> 
> It's so much fun watching a quarterback throw a long bomb, only to see big green blocks when the wide receiver is about to catch the ball.
> 
> Do you have any suggestions?


Well it could be borderline signal strength on 129 as Mikey is alluding to.

But it would have to be lower than 65 to cause it.

When you go to check the signal strength on 129 what do you see more specifically than "65"? Because each of the transponders are going to have their own readings if you scroll through them. Are some decidedly lower than 65?

If so, and the dish for 129 has been tweaked multiple times to try and make it better to no avail, bout the only other thing would be using a bigger dish for that satellite.


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## ssmith10pn (Jul 6, 2005)

Yea that's the answer. Drop E* and go to D* and cut your HD content and quality in half. :lol: :lol: 

Find someone with more than a pulse to work on your stuff.


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## acxpert (Jan 31, 2006)

I just upgraded to the HD package. They installed a new dish 1000 dish to get the HD channels. I live in San Carlos hills (near SF)

Occasionally the hd channels freak out for a few seconds and then come back in. It is great when it works but the drop outs are driving me nuts.

When you go to system info 119, 110 and 129 all are green although I have seen them all with red x's in them.

When you go to point dish 129 shows slightly less than 50, 119 is about 90 and 110 is about 80.

Can this be corrected or is the 129 satellite a POS as rumored?

Thanks.


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## DP1 (Sep 16, 2002)

Anytime you're below 50 you're gonna have issues with dropouts. I have many on 129 in the mid 50's and I get away with it. When you're checking that for 129 you need to scroll through the different transponders while you're at it to see what the highest and lowest ones are. They can vary quite a bit.

If the dish can be tweaked enough to where all the transponders on 129 are steadily above 50 it would help alot. The higher the better obviously. Course when inclement weather set in you'd still lose them rather quickly even if they were in the mid-low 50's cause you'd have no room for error.


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## ssmith10pn (Jul 6, 2005)

You need a seperate dish for 129. That would probably bump the signals up to the 70s and 80s which would elliminate the pixelation.


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

newteech said:


> I already have two dishes!
> 
> The signal on 129 has never been better than 65, whereas the other regular signals have been in the 90+ range


I had the same problem. Dish came out and put up a 24" dish for 129. That made all the difference in the world.


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## krysnik (Dec 3, 2006)

Steve H said:


> I had the same problem. Dish came out and put up a 24" dish for 129. That made all the difference in the world.


I live in Southern CA. I got Dish in July and I have the ViP622 DVR-HD on my main TV and a standard receiver in the bedrooms.

My problem is that I get these green blocks on anything that is recorded on the DVR. I also get sound drops (it always happens at the important part of a show!) and sometimes the pixels actually move within the screen (like they are glued onto the persons face and moves when they move) and it also will lose sound on the TV totally if I delete a few things off the DVR at a time and I have to unplug for a few seconds to be restored!

on the non HD receiver, I got loss of function ie: no FF, RW, etc, off and on. I am sick of this!

I called dish, they are sending out a tech since I have issues with both receivers since I got the darn thing. Any suggestions I should be armed with when the tech actually shows up? Do I need a second dish and/or receiver replacement?


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

> Any suggestions I should be armed with when the tech actually shows up? Do I need a second dish and/or receiver replacement?


What I did in the past with the 622 problems in take digital pictures of the problems. Then the tech can see what you are talking about just in case the problem isn't happening when he is there.


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## krysnik (Dec 3, 2006)

Steve H said:


> What I did in the past with the 622 problems in take digital pictures of the problems. Then the tech can see what you are talking about just in case the problem isn't happening when he is there.


I could do that, but nearly everything recorded will show the same thing.

I guess I didn't word my question correctly. What solution worked to get rid of this issue for those in this thread?


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