# 721 - Video quality problems and dish pointing questions



## virtualsmith (Jul 16, 2002)

Hello all. I've had my 721 for about 3 weeks now and I've been seeing a problem with video quality lately. About every third recording has major video quality problems where about every 5-10 seconds the sound cuts out for a second and/or the video majorly pixelates for a second. Then it will go back to normal for 5-10 seconds then happen again, over and over for the life of the recording. It has happened to me once on live TV but I was able to get it to stop by messing with my dish pointing screen. Before I go on, has anyone had problems like this at all?

Now it seems to me like this problem is either because one of my two tuners is faulty or my dish pointing isn't set right (which is what I think it is). But, every time I got to the dish pointing screen, it looks like the settings have been reset. When I go to the screen, the thing is set to Dish 300 (I have a dish 500). So I change it to Dish 500 and check out tuner one and tuner two. switch one is always set correctly (transponder 14, I think) but switch two is usually set to "spot beam 3" which has a signal strength of about 3. So I change switch 2 to point to transponder 11, which has a signal strength of 91, do a switch check, hit done and everything should be fine. But if I immediately go into the dish point screen, switch 2 will be set to spot beam 3 again! Is this a problem?

Do I have to have one of my switches set to look at a spot beam? I have none with a signal strength of more than about "9". Can I have both my switches set to different transponders? Also, what about individual satellites? It looks like I had both switches pointing to sat 119 for a while until this morning when I changed one to point to 110. 

Thanks in advance for any help!
Steve


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## Big D (Aug 19, 2002)

I noticed the same thing when I was checking my signal strength, must be the way it works now. I don't believe it is a problem, however it is working differently then it used to with my old set-up. Spot beams should not be used as a test unless you know you are in it's shadow. I always use T-11 for all of my tests, that way I get consistent readings from test period to test period. 

If you continue to get drop outs, you will need to isolate the cause by starting at the beginning and working through it. Check for loose or bad connections, loose mounting or the dish itself, etc. Swap cables around, check to see what channels are dropping out and if they are all on the same bird. When all is right, there are no drop outs to speak of. 

Good luck.


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