DirecTV - Any Help?

Since day one last year when it was installed, it has not worked right. After four trips from their installers, it now works worse than it did before they replaced boxes and cables.

Audio glitches, sort of like corrupted digital files, that sound like garbled echoes. It skips to live television when I unpause it many times. It skips in programs I'm watching, sometimes up to two or three minutes ahead for no reason. I set the DVR to record a program, The Talking Dead, first run, and it doesn't record the first run it records it later in the evening and I've set this program up twice, deleting the original setup yet it still records the program at the wrong time.

If they can't fix it, and there's no settings I can find that would affect anything I'm dealing with, what the hell do I do? I'm tempted, if there's no contract(not sure as it's not my house or my deal) to go back to Dish. At least there the only problems I had were DVR's going out every six months to a year. I never had these kinds of problems just trying to watch tv with Dish.

Just right now as I'm typing a message came up and said the internet isn't connected, which it is. First time I've ever seen that message come up. I cannot watch On Demand as it cannot connect to the server, which is itself. As far as I know, the server isn't referring to the net or at least that is what one of the tech's told me. That's only for Pandora, Youtube, etc.

In the front room it is supposed to display the telephone number when the phone rings. It comes up unavailable with 000-000-0000 and it never did that before they replaced the box. All the other problems have gotten worse in the last month since the box and cables were replaced or fixed.

I used to install these thing so I'm not ignorant of how they work and I can find no settings that will help. A couple of audio settings that do nothing to fix my problems. Nothing else would help with the skipping or the nonexistent phone numbers.

Anyone got any help? I don't see how getting another tech out here to replace a "brand new" refurbished box will help.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Get a Raspberry Pi and install Raspbmc. Then you can have access to 99% of anything that has ever been on TV/cinema.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

new box, same results?
same transmitter on dish?

I have no experience with DirectTV and from what I've heard, it'll stay that way. I've been with Dish Network for a long time and other than a program tantrum every once in a while, I'm a very satisfied customer. Even when there are program outages, it's no big deal, there's no show that I just have to see the new episode of every week. This latest, which involved Turner Broadcasting, took Cartoon Network off and the only reason I missed that was for Adult Swim. If I've had trouble [ rarely ] a tech comes right out, fixes it and it's always been free. Even when the DVR went out, they brought me a new one the same day. And I live in a tiny town in Illinois, so I consider that pretty good service. If you're not happy with them, let your wallet do the talking.

can you give me a model number off unit?

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

reset directions

I gotta run..so cant respond

try the factory reset...should be red button in front door or on back, if not, unplug from wall for 5 min.
If that doesnt work:
they also get buggy in the cards. in this order:power off>remove card>power on>power off>insert card>power on

get into your system settings and play with different satellites. it will go into a mode that searches for best signal.

if none of those get a good signal, your dish alignment may be off. one of the settings makes a loud beeping noise, you can mess with the dish and hear the best alignment through an open window. If your getting awesome signal, and everything is still buggy, you have a hardware issue. The skipping forward issue is odd. Maybe a stuck fwrd button on remote or front of receiver?-sounds like more than that though. If those resets don't work you prob need a new unit or dish/transmitter. I don't miss directv.

Been a DirecTV customer for 3 years now & while I have had some minor issues overall my experience has been great with them. You are having some really #ty luck and while I have really no general idea what is going on it does almost seem to be something on the hardware side. I would think the satellite is just for the signal and controls nothing else. The poster above had some good troubleshooting steps to try so I would start there but I have to think it is still something you can't fix yourself. When they come out they should be checking signal strength and all that good stuff.

I`ve had direct-tv for at least 15 years and I haven`t had any problems.
I installed it myself,in 15 years I`ve had to replace the box once and the little receiver thing on the dish once.

My guess is that it`s the receiver thing on the dish that isn`t working correctly.
They are easy and cheap to replace, just 2 screws holding it on,then you slide it out, unscrew the cables.putting a new one on is the reverse,connect the cables, slide it back in, put the 2 screws back in.

the box has a slot with a little credit card thing slid into it, they say that the chip on the card can go bad but I`ve never had to replace mine.slide the card out then slide it back in to reseat it.

On the back of the box it has a slot to connect an internet cable to, but I`ve never hooked my box up to the internet.
My box works fine without an internet connection,i don`t record things or buy ppv movies,an internet connection might be needed to do those things.

if your dish isn`t secured tight enough the wind can cause it to move and will create intermittent reception problems.
after about 10 years I had to move my dish because the branches on a big tree had grown out far enough to cause reception problems by blocking the signal when the wind blew the branches.

I don`t think it`s your box because when my box stopped working it completely stopped working it wasn`t intermittent problems,it just kept searching for a signal and never found one.

I've been playing around. It seems the audio problems only happen with ESPN. It may have happened on some other shows in the past but I can't seem to get it to happen anywhere other than ESPN and I can't remember it happening in the near past anywhere else but ESPN. It's pretty much every program on any of the ESPN networks that do this.

I don't know why that is.

All the other stuff happens on DVR programs and live tv. Resetting the box does nothing nor does removing the card and reinserting it before resetting it. So it looks like I'm screwed and just going to have to take it. If I call them again the language that will come out of my mouth will not be pretty, I will yell and scream bloody murder and nothing will get done.

Anyway, thanks.

a reply to: Mandroid7

HR44-200, if that helps. Yes, the dish is the same. It's only just over a year old and shouldn't be messed up but things can happen. I do know they put new cables on it but don't remember if they changed anything else on the dish.