Sander Wolf

I started losing satellite channels a couple weeks ago. The Dish 622 upstairs seemed to be ok, but my older receivers stopped being able to get Bravo and some other stations. I scheduled a Dish tech to come out and fix it (after signing up for their maintenance plan), but I had done a couple of system resets and switch tests so by the time the guy came out everything was working again. He told me to cancel the service call and I did.

About a month later it got worse. I am now missing at least a dozen or so channels. I called Dish on Saturday. It took 15 minutes to reach a tech, but once I did they ran me through pressing menu - 6 - 1 - 3, waiting for the status to be 100% complete, then pressing Details. It showed this:

LNB Drift Detected…
110 (e -7.01) 119 (e -6.57) 129 (e -11.73)

The tech said that means that the 129 LNB is bad. They said that anything over 8 is cause for replacement. None of the techs had ever had me run that test before and it did seem like all the bad channels were on the 129, so I’m convinced that I need a new 129 LNB. The tech said that they could have someone out on Thursday between 12 and 5 to do the replacement. That wouldn’t be a huge problem except that I’ll probably be in the office on Thursday. I asked if anyone could come out sooner to replace the LNB. They said that they couldn’t schedule anyone, but they would be happy to give me a list of local retailers that I could call. The idea being that one of them might be able to come out sooner. Dish said that either way it would be covered under my maintenance plan.

I got these numbers from the Dish tech:

972-422-5900 Camera & Video Clinic — busy signal

972-267-3474 Satellite Guys — left a message, still haven’t heard back

This company answered my call:

888-368-4334 US Satellite Wholesale

I spoke with Lorraine who sounded very nice. She said that they had openings for tomorrow. I could pick 8-noon or noon-5. I said 8-noon sounded good. She said, ok, but we can’t place the service call, Dish has to do it. I should call up Dish and tell them to place the call under tech #8704 — otherwise I’ll have to pay for it.

So I call up Dish again and wait 15 minutes for a tech. They tell me that the retailer needs to create the service ticket, not Dish. I call Lorraine back. She says that’s not true and double checks with her supervisor and with Dish while I wait. She stands firm that it’s Dish’s responsibility. I call Dish back up and wait another 15 minutes. They tell me that they really, really, truly can’t initiate that ticket and the retailer should call in the ticket on Dish’s retail services number.

I talk to Lorraine again and tell her that. She says she’ll check and call me back. She calls me back 5 minutes later and lets me know that someone will be by tomorrow between 8 and noon.

—–

Next Day

—–

I get woken up at 6:45 am by the field tech from US Satellite Wholesale. He’s calling because he wants me to tell him why he needs to come out. I tell him 6:45 am on a Sunday is kinda early for me. He’s not really concerned about that and wants to know what parts to bring. I tell him to bring a couple of LNBs.

At about 8:30 am the field tech knocks on my door. I open it up and he immediately says he can’t work on my dish because it’s on the wrong side of the house and not grounded. He says he can’t “resume responsibility” for that. That surprises me because I thought that he was sent by Dish and would have authority to deal with anything that would come up. He says that the company who initially installed my dish should come out and fix it instead. My initial install happened about 7 years ago and I have no idea who did it and if they’re even still in business. I call Dish up while he’s in the house to try to get this sorted out. The Dish tech basically tells the guy to leave my house (I was about to kick him out anyway just because of his rude and aggressive attitude — while I’m on with Dish he radios in to his company to explain to them how I’m forcing him to stay at my house even though he can’t do anything for me). I ask to be transferred to someone else. While I’m on hold the field tech leaves. I tell him he’s unprofessional. He tells me that that’s my opinion. I tell him that it certainly is and gosh, isn’t it my opinion that matters in this instance?

Eventually, I get a Dish rep. who tries to help. From him I get that the field tech should have fixed whatever problems came up. He schedules an appointment for a Dish-badged tech to come out on Saturday. I ask to speak to a supervisor to try to sort out which techs can do what and why there’s a difference. He puts me on hold for about 5 minutes. When he comes back he says he’s talked to the supervisor and they’ve gone ahead and given me a 2 week credit and refunded my trip charge for the field tech. The supervisor is too busy to actually talk to me.

To be continued… Meanwhile, can someone tell me how Top Chef is coming along?

So I’m in the market for two or three electronic things now:

* a multi-function printer to replace my current printer and scanner
* a flat screen TV (40-42″ LCD) to replace a 37″ tube in the bedroom

You’d think that with CompUSA (my one-time employer) and Tweeter closing most of their stores in my area that I’d be able to get a great deal. But, at best, I found only overpriced stuff offered at a non-internet beating 10% off. In fact, the only thing at Tweeter that looked interesting was their comfy chairs. But, despite the “NOTHING HELD BACK” sign on the front door the chairs were not for sale. Plus, we were told, the employees already have “dibs” on them.

I’ll put forth the argument that with eBay, Craig’s List, Froogle, and the like that there really aren’t any great deals anymore. It’s easy to find the going rate for an item and just as easy to sell it for that rate. Why give me a $200 discount on a $1200 TV when the store can stick it on eBay, ship it back to their online warehouse, or sell in bulk to a reseller who will fence it online?

So I continue to scour dealmac.com for TVs and printers, but $10 says I’ll just buy everything from Costco.

Millions Complain About New Holiday HDTV Sets

Like I’ve been saying, this stuff isn’t easy to buy, install, nor use. I’d like to see more articles like these and less that assume it’s a piece of cake to get HDTV and 5.1 sound in place.

ssssshhhehhhhhshhhhmmmm
it’s always there now
pehwssssssshhhh
even when I turn up the volume to mask it
fwoooooshhhssssss
static, noise, distortion?, hiss
hussssssssssssss
but where’s it coming from? How can I get static when going from a lossless file in iTunes to the Airport Express then via an optical cable to the amp?
eeeeeeesssssssssssseeeeeeessssssssssssssssss
It’s driving me crazy.

I think it started because of another mystery barely solved: The Case of the Non-Working UHF remote. I’ll save that story for another day. It involves packing tape.

How did I fix a big part of it?

I moved the amp a smidge to the right. Why would that matter?

Still waiting for Dish’s software update so that I can get my HDMI input working again. In the meantime, the component is working pretty good and it does make the switching easier on the amplifier. Now I only need one remote to go from Dish to DVD. (That’s because when I bought the amplifier I didn’t feel like paying an extra $400 to get the Denon that had HDMI switching.) So now the Dish and the Playstation (which doubles as my DVD player) all route through the Denon. Used to be that the Dish ran straight into the LCD’s HDMI input. I still say the HDMI’s cleaner, but I’d bet I couldn’t tell if the two weren’t side-by-side. Maybe I’ll spend that saved $400 on a new center speaker…

The Dish is cool in that it can decode over the air HDTV signals and integrate the stations into the normal schedules, etc. It’s just like they’re regular satellite channels, although they show up as a different color in the guide. When I record something I generally like to record off of the local signal. I figure it’s free, it’s probably less compressed, and it’s a couple seconds earlier (since it doesn’t have to go up and down hundreds of miles before it gets to me). That last part is a little silly, I admit, but it just seems more pure to go with the over the air signal. The problem is that my reception isn’t always so great. I have an old-school seven or so foot antenna wedged into the attic, but still (according to the Dish receiver) my signal strength only rates about a 66 out of 100 for most over the air channels. Anything below 60 or so won’t even tune in via the Dish (there’s an error message instead).

So when a station’s reception isn’t great it’ll show up in the picture. I’ll see lots of lazy pixels or smeared images. Sometimes it’s no big deal, but sometimes it makes the show unwatchable. It’s unpredictable. I’d just record the locals via the Dish’s retransmission because it’s cleaner, but I’m not sure how to set that up (the automatic recording seems to prefer the over the air signal) and it just feels — wrong. Luckily, a second-hand Radio-Shack signal amplifier inserted before the antenna splits off into each room of the house solved the problem. A low-tech solution to a high-tech problem.

Part of the trouble with any new technology is that the “early adopters” often run into a ton of problems with it on its way to maturity. A lot of times I’m one of them. I got an AOL account when you could still get one that resembled your name (but now can’t get it to work on Mac OS X). I’ve beta tested all sorts of unusual software (and caused customer down-time when it broke). I had an iPod before most of my friends (and thanks to AppleCare am now on my third unit). But I didn’t realize when I first started setting up my home theater how bleeding edge it really was. TV just doesn’t seem like something new and different. I mean, I’ve been watching it since I was a baby. But when you run into problems like the one I’m in the middle of now, you begin to realize how flimsily strung together this implementation of the semi-new technology is.

I turned on my Dish/TV/Amplifier a couple nights ago and instead of seeing high definition brilliance I saw a blue screen. I still heard everything in glorious 5.1, but no picture. Hmmm. Must be a bad HDMI cable. No, maybe the TV’s gone bad, it was kinda cheap for 1080p wasn’t it? How ’bout the Dish 622? Crap.

Normally, you’d try to troubleshoot. Use a spare HDMI cable. Can’t. The thing was too expensive to buy two of them. Plug another device with an HDMI output into the TV. Don’t own one. The composite video out from the Dish worked ok (but was obviously less pretty) so I just used that for the night. I called Dish the next day to see what they had to suggest. I spoke to a tech who said, oh yeah, that’s a known issue. The HDMI just goes out after a while. We’ll download a fix to your box in September or October. His supervisor said the same thing. They credited a week’s worth of service to my bill, but wouldn’t send me a new receiver. I’m not happy about that. On their suggestion I hooked the component out from the Dish 622 into my receiver which then goes into the TV. So now I still technically get HD, but it’s not quite as nice. Well, honestly, it’s not that much of a difference. It is noticeable though.

Apparently HDMI and HDTV still has bugs, and I (like a whole lot of other people) just got nicked by the bleeding edge of technology again.

There’s nothing I like about basketball. When I was a kid my semi-famous Aunt gave me a nice one and 20 years later, it has yet to hit pavement. Needless to say, I’m terrible at H-O-R-S-E. I’ve seen two games in my life. One was somewhat interesting because I’d never seen a basketball game before. The other was cool because I had box seats and free hotdogs and beer. My complaints against the sport are endless: I don’t appreciate the grandstanding. It seems like more of an individual sport than a team sport. The score is way too high (better than soccer in that respect, I guess). The rules are odd (I still don’t quite understand how fouls add up both for the individual player and the team). I don’t understand how any pro basketball player could miss a free-throw. The list goes on…

But now I have a new 42″ LCD TV, the Dallas Mavericks are in the playoffs, and TNT is broadcasting in clear, bright HD. And suddenly, I care. I’m not sure whether it’s just the fair-weather fan in me coming out or if I’m just drawn to how great my new TV can look. (I did catch myself watching a Discovery Channel HD feature about these mean starfish that attack coral reefs, so maybe it’s the latter.) Either way, I’m impressed. So, not sure if I’m “rowdy, loud, and proud,” but I’m at least interested. Now football, that might be a different story. We’ll see in a few months.

So, I’m still on the fence about whether or not to keep the new TV. It’s big and pretty when it’s all lit up, but for something so expensive I expect it to be perfect all the time. I know that if it was there’d be no need for the model that cost two thousand dollars more, but it’s still frustrating when the TV shows its weaknesses. Like the other day when playing a Playstation2 game for the first time. Karaoke Revolution scrolls lyrics across the bottom of the screen which you have to sing in time and in tune or a virtual audience will humiliate you off of the stage. On my screen the text blurs. Not so much that it’s unreadable, but it’s definitely noticeable.

Then we watched The Aviator last night. Not a terrible movie, but definitely too long for a biopic that doesn’t even cover the guy’s entire life. Looked pretty good on the screen until they got to the golfing scene and all the grass looked blue. Turns out it’s one of Scorsese’s special effects, but I didn’t know it at the time and figured it was the TV. I blew away my calibration of the screen by adjusting every single config. I could trying to turn the blue to green, but still couldn’t manage to do it. Then I figured it must be a loose cable. I disconnected and reconnected the Playstation2 (which is doubling as my DVD player until I hear a good explanation of why it shouldn’t). No change. I pulled out each component connection from the back of the amplifier. No red. No blue. No picture at all. Wait…

…no picture at all? Is sync carried on the green component cable? I thought that idea went away about fifteen years ago. Guess not because when I yanked the cable (on either end) the picture dropped.

After a twenty minute delay we resumed the movie. Turns out the next scene is completely green, so I should have just been a little more patient. Played the DVD on the laptop later just to double-check that it was the way it was supposed to be. Freakin’ Scorsese. Maybe I should listen to the director’s commentary.

The Dish receiver arrived today. After unpacking it I realized that I need to buy YAC (Yet Another Cable). Actually, make that two. The first cable is HDMI –> HDMI. That goes from the Dish receiver to the TV and carries digital sound and video. It didn’t come in the box with the receiver which gives me an idea of how much it costs. The odd part is that I’ll only be using half of the cable. I won’t be using the audio part because I use a separate amplifier to connect to the speakers. So I need YAC for the sound part. That one’s a standard optical cable (though I may buy one that comes with the tips to fit into a headphone-type jack because I broke one of them off accidently the other day on the cable from the Airport Express to the amplifier and had to use the spare). Had I spent another $300 on a receiver that had an HDMI input, I could save a couple bucks now. I think I made a good choice — the cable is less than $30.

I attempted to install the Dish receiver myself. The official Dish Guy doesn’t arrive for two more weeks, but they went ahead and shipped the receiver early. And how am I not supposed to try installing it with that kind of wait? A few problems though. The most obvious is that I’m missing all the cables that I need to make the fancy connections. I tried using the ones they included (3 x RCA — R, L, Video) and got an image. But when I connected what I thought was the feed from the satellite dish, I ended up with what was probably a huge ground loop. It made my subwoofer hum and the video image shake. Not pretty. So, after searching for signal twice, I gave up. Besides, with two weeks to spare, maybe I can save a couple bucks and order the cables over the internet.

The stereo receiver can now be calibrated since I can hook it up to the TV to see what’s going on (and, well, I really don’t have much else to look at on the TV since Dish guy is still three weeks out). I ran the auto-calibration thing and noticed all kinds of weird stuff I was just blissfully living with before. First of all, the rear speakers were backwards (right was left and left was right). Second, the receiver seems to think that one or both of the rears is also wired out-of-phase. You’d think I’d be able to hear that, but then I missed the far more obvious right/left mix-up. You’d also think that the guys I hired to run my rear speaker cables would know right from left. Hell, they even labeled the wires wrong.

So, do I bother trying to fix it? And more importantly, how would I know if I did?