# Solution 721 Problems (all of them)



## Guest (Aug 18, 2004)

Are you experiencing any problems with your PVR 721 (software/hardware)? Here is the mother of all the solutions you ever may need; do not use power strip but plug the receiver the single power outlet. 
According to the "Advanced Technical Support Team Member Tracy" that is.
Since the S/W update to 172, some time last week, occasionally I was getting "you cannot change channel, switch to live mode first" messages when I intended to change channel even though I was in LIVE mode and recording nothing. I simply rebooted the system and bypassed the problem. It happened too many times and this time had a chance to call the support. When I laughed at to her solution, she got pretty snappy but I "reported for duty" and followed the order. She was not in the mood to listen to me the fact that I had my system the way it is from the beginning. While waiting for the reboot, I asked her to enlighten me why "power strip" would be a problem. Here is her answer: Let say there are four outlets... each one is being powered in a sequence to provide each outlet enough power so the equipment don't starve for power... I work with 721s all the times and I know that these receivers are particularly picky with the power supply..." not word the word but something like this.
I naturally didn't tell her that all my "delicate" electronics are getting the juice from either of the 2500W or 1500W Counterpoint power modulators (capacitor based). If they are good enough for my Class A power amps along with DAC, and transport and other misc. Hi-Fi, the stinky 721 should get it's act together and be greatfull because it is being fed by as pure as it gets juice money can buy (at least what I can afford).

In short, if you have a PVR 721 and having problems with it ("having problems" was redundant, wasn't it), unplug all your other appliances, don't turn the lights on/off at will, make sure that you neighbors don't use electric lawn mowers, etc... 

Cheers,
Ruhi


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Yet another reason to not even bother to call E*, just come here for your answers.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

I was also told to directly plug in receivers to the wall by several CSR's a couple years ago. My APC battery backup should be arriving today and I'll be plugging everything into that and getting rid of my power strip. The tech that installed my 721 didn't seem to care how it was plugged in - strip or directly.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Is your power strip a surge suppressor? If so, why not use it to help protect the UPS.

Some folks may start yelling about that, but they're wrong.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

SimpleSimon said:


> Is your power strip a surge suppressor? If so, why not use it to help protect the UPS.
> 
> Some folks may start yelling about that, but they're wrong.


The power strip cost $5 - I don't have a lot of faith in something that cheap. :lol:


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

I finally got around to adding in my UPS to my 721. Of course, the in lines from the sat still run thru the 2500+ joule power strip that I have, so I was wondering if anyone actually sells a UPS that has a dual coax passthru/surge setup? I don't need the phone line. Will have to see if it is any more stable than lately since the L172 has caused me some problems, but it seems to be a little more stable now. And I have yet to have had a signal loss on a recording since changing to the SW64.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

finniganps said:


> I don't have a lot of faith in something that cheap. :lol:


I think my first wife used that excuse in our divorce.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

larrystotler said:


> I was wondering if anyone actually sells a UPS that has a dual coax passthru/surge setup?


 I've never seen one.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

larrystotler said:


> I finally got around to adding in my UPS to my 721. Of course, the in lines from the sat still run thru the 2500+ joule power strip that I have, so I was wondering if anyone actually sells a UPS that has a dual coax passthru/surge setup? I don't need the phone line. Will have to see if it is any more stable than lately since the L172 has caused me some problems, but it seems to be a little more stable now. And I have yet to have had a signal loss on a recording since changing to the SW64.


RCA has a surge supressor strip with dual coax protection (I think 2100 Joule rated) and Monster Cable of course has some for $100 and up. I haven't seen any UPS with dual coax protection. I'd like to find a coax surge supression solution for 3 lines -- 2 for my 721 and the other for my 811. Currently, my coax lines are unprotected against surges.

Another Question: What would be the minimum UPS for supporting two receivers? Would an APC 350VA be sufficient.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

Cholly said:


> Another Question: What would be the minimum UPS for supporting two receivers? Would an APC 350VA be sufficient.


I have a APC 500 and it is rated for 18 minutes with a computer and monitor. Obviously 350 would be less, but it depends on how much power your receivers are drawing and how long your typical power outages last where you live.


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## musicmaker2020 (Apr 19, 2004)

That has to be one of the best things I have ever heard from a CSR. True it is a piece of computer equipment at heart but what most likely fixed it was the hard power reboot.

If this acutally caused an issue then how come millions of homes in america use power strips for their home PC's and have no issues.

Some people wonder why outsourcing has become such an issue. If you got people in the US telling people this garbage with no expertise then whats the difference paying someone 80 percent less to say the same thing via outsourcing. Someone like that CSR should be repremanded.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

But in some ways that CSR MAY have been correct. I was rereading the surge box and noticed that the 2nd port is only rated for cable at 950Mhz. Now, I don't know which input that side was going into because I just redid some of my stuff and unhooked everything. So, I may have been wrong and it may have been the power strip causing the sig losses on my 721s 2nd tuner and not the DP Quad. However, since the legacy setup seems to be working properly I am reluctant to change it.......That's one of the problems with the stacked LNB implementation since it needs such a higher freq range to work properly.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Larry: I've seen that "satellite" vs. "cable" or "antenna" business on the coax surge protectors myself and have never had a problem - as long as one of them was rated for satellite. I think it's just marketing to the average ignorant consumer. They would think it bad if the one they wanted wasn't labelled.

Thinking about it, it would cost MORE to make the 2 sides different than the same.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

Perhaps, but it could also explain things. If it cost them $0.25 more for each sat line rated to 2.2 vs. the standrad 1.0Ghz, than I could see that as being the case. The cable line is also only rated at 75V, while the sat line is rated at 200V. I may end up changing back out to DP and testing.......if it affected the quad, it would also affect a DP21 or DP34.....or even a DP Dual ran straight in.....It could be the bandstacking that is the problem.


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## tunagimp (Jul 7, 2004)

rarslan said:


> Are you experiencing any problems with your PVR 721 (software/hardware)? Here is the mother of all the solutions you ever may need; do not use power strip but plug the receiver the single power outlet.
> 
> In short, if you have a PVR 721 and having problems with it ("having problems" was redundant, wasn't it), unplug all your other appliances, don't turn the lights on/off at will, make sure that you neighbors don't use electric lawn mowers, etc...
> 
> ...


LOL!!!

I'm on 721 version 2.0. My first one, received about a month ago, would not, repeat would not, retain Sat signal on tuner number one, for more than three hours at a time.

My second 721 (a "New" replacement) arrived in a highly crushed box with little in the way of packaging material except four styrofoam pieces to hold the receiver in place while the UPS clown sat on it to eat his lunch.

Both have had the problem of the "Guide" and "Clock" functions flickering at random which says "Voltage Problem" to me. The unit functions OK, but it's unnerving. So, I had the local utility company put a meter monitor on my outside voltage and had them use a high tech thingy on my inside outlets to measure my line voltage...Rock solid 120.0 most of the time.

Thinking the same thing as your "Advanced" CSR, I took the 721, plugged it; all by itself; into the inside outlet that "tested" most steady according to the local Utility Folks---and---you guessed it...

It still flickers.

My solution is simplier, I just force myself to blink constantly while watching TV, that way I don't notice as much.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

larrystotler said:


> Perhaps, but it could also explain things. If it cost them $0.25 more for each sat line rated to 2.2 vs. the standrad 1.0Ghz, than I could see that as being the case. The cable line is also only rated at 75V, while the sat line is rated at 200V. I may end up changing back out to DP and testing.......if it affected the quad, it would also affect a DP21 or DP34.....or even a DP Dual ran straight in.....It could be the bandstacking that is the problem.


I'll add that one to my list of things to check - that some surge protector's #2 cable port might not take DishPro - or even Legacy.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

My SW64 seems to be working ok through it. It was made by Woods.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

larrystotler said:


> But in some ways that CSR MAY have been correct. I was rereading the surge box and noticed that the 2nd port is only rated for cable at 950Mhz...That's one of the problems with the stacked LNB implementation since it needs such a higher freq range to work properly.


Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I could see how this might affect a stacked LNB such as a pro, but a legacy uses L-band converted frequencies of approximately 950-1450 MHz, meaning that there might be a slight roll-off affecting signals above 950, but probably not. It will probably work just fine. The hybrid splitters I've seen that claim to work only to 890 UHF seem to also have good response far above that (admittedly this is not a hybrid splitter) and this is a similar passive circuit.

I would try an experiment...log your signal level on high and low transponders with and without the unit in place, and see if there is any significant difference.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

In my previous post, I neglected to state that the surge supressors I mentioned specifically stated that they were for satellite feeds. Whether or not this is marketing hype, I don't know. At any rate, I'm still looking for a means of providing surge supression on 3 sat lines without having a rats nest of surge supressor strips.

Re: APC 500 -- I'd been checking on that at my local Sam's Club. Good buy at $47.50, compared to $40 at other stores for the 350. I'll probably pick one of these babies up.


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