# Ask DBS Talk:OTA Tuner Quality



## Eagles (Dec 31, 2003)

I am aware of the OTA bug, and I got my first taste of it this morning. I have a two questions concerning the 921 OTA. (1) Does the BUG affect the ability of the OTA to lock onto or recognize signals that may not be very powerful? (fringe area 40 to 60%) (2) If not, is the OTA receiver used in the 921 a lower end on the quality scale? I spoke to a retailer who specializes in OTA reception. He claimed certain HD OTA receivers are more sensitive than others, (better) and can lock consistently onto a 20-30% signal with no problem. When I told him I have a Dish Receiver he said from his experience E* and D* are inconsistent at best. Any thoughts or feedback on this would be helpful. Thanks !pride


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Eagles - the answer to #1 is possibly. I know after talking at length to the developers at Eldon that they've made several changes to the 921 code concerning OTA reception to make it more robust in addition to fixing the OTA bug. 

I don't believe the 921's 8VSB module is at the lower end of the quality scale. I'm receiving the weakest channel in Denver much better with my 921 than I ever did with my 6000. That's what I'm basing my answer on.


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## Eagles (Dec 31, 2003)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Eagles - the answer to #1 is possibly. I know after talking at length to the developers at Eldon that they've made several changes to the 921 code concerning OTA reception to make it more robust in addition to fixing the OTA bug.
> 
> I don't believe the 921's 8VSB module is at the lower end of the quality scale. I'm receiving the weakest channel in Denver much better with my 921 than I ever did with my 6000. That's what I'm basing my answer on.


Mark-Thanks for the feedback. You said they made several changes to the 921 in addition to fixing the BUG. Is the BUG fixed, or are we still waiting for the new software release? I still have L142. As far as the 921 being more robust, will the new software play a part in that, or was that statement by the company based on hardware and various components built into the 921 already? Right now if I don't get say 55-60% steady signal strength it will not lock. !pride Thanks


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## Eagles (Dec 31, 2003)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Eagles - the answer to #1 is possibly. I know after talking at length to the developers at Eldon that they've made several changes to the 921 code concerning OTA reception to make it more robust in addition to fixing the OTA bug.
> 
> I don't believe the 921's 8VSB module is at the lower end of the quality scale. I'm receiving the weakest channel in Denver much better with my 921 than I ever did with my 6000. That's what I'm basing my answer on.


Mark-I forgot to ask in my reply. As I said I cannot lock on at less than 55-60%. Is that normal? What type of signal is necessary for a solid lock?
Thanks again !pride


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Eagles - I've been told that the OTA bug has been squashed, but am still on L142 myself, so I can't confirm. And please keep in mind that if Dish puts the next software version through the normal beta process before publicly releasing it, that I won't be able to talk about it because of the beta NDA I'm under. The only reason that I can talk about L142 now is that everyone is under the same version currently, and I'm trying to provide some decent support for the product.

Everything's that is fixed from this time forward will be in software. Once the box is in your hands, there's nothing that can be done to the hardware without recalling the box.

And I don't know what a minimum SS is. It'll be easier to determine with the new software generally, but even then experiences will vary depending on individual situations with multipath reception. My guess, and this is only a guess, is that a SS of 50-60 would be the minimum. The weakest channel in Denver that I pick up comes in around 70.


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## BigMike (Dec 4, 2003)

Eagles said:


> Mark-I forgot to ask in my reply. As I said I cannot lock on at less than 55-60%. Is that normal? What type of signal is necessary for a solid lock?
> Thanks again !pride


Don't know if this helps or not, but I can't lock on to anything below about 60% with my 811. I'm guessing that's the minimum signal strength for Dish equipment. I think different manufacturers may use different scales for measuring signal strength, so company A's 30% may be equal to Company B's 60% and still be about the same strength.

Mike


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