Direct TV HD issues, any suggestions?

[MnRockCrawler]

I just put up a new HD dish from Direct tv, I get 93% signal strength, all normal cable channels work but for some reason the HD channels dont work. (Yes I have a HD box). I called Direct TV and they insisted on sending out a tech instead of trying to troubleshoot over the phone, and cant get a tech out here until the 21st of April. Anyone have any ideas of what could be the prob? Tricks to try?
I made sure with the support lady that HD was setup on my account and everything and she told me I was be good to go.

 

[JeremyH]

Are you sure the dish is pointed in the proper direction?

 

[team3six]

Maybe you should invite johnny knoxville and get some effedrine while pointing a magnifying light towards the TV. That should do it.

 

[SoCo Crawlgirl]

discontinued my HD with Direct TV I had to turn my TV up real loud to hear anything but the regular channels were fine and there was no diference in the pic quality sometimes worse

 

[JeremyH]

discontinued my HD with Direct TV I had to turn my TV up real loud to hear anything but the regular channels were fine and there was no diference in the pic quality sometimes worse

Wow....that is weird....never had that issue with mine.

BTW, just so you guys arent shocked when you cancel, DirectTV requires those HD DVRs that you "bought" be returned when you are done with their contract...and you'll get no money back from them. If you've purchased them from Costco, you can return them for a full refund.

 

[MnRockCrawler]

Are you sure the dish is pointed in the proper direction?

Yeah, signal is at 93%. All the original cable channels come in perfect with no hiccups. Just when I turn it to a HD channel it says "Searching for Signal" and gives me a "771 signal" code.

 

[JeremyH]

Hummm...I tried google.....maybe this will help:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=982392

also:
http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=10307680

 

[MnRockCrawler]

Yeah Ive googled around a little bit and have found alot of similar stories but noone really had any fixes. One of the problems I saw was dimmer switches played a role interfering, but I dont have any of them in my house..hmm..

Id hate to have to wait nearly a month to have a direct tv tech come out, cost me a couple hundred bucks for 5 minutes of work on something small..

 

[NorCal 2500HD]

Try this.....

You may need another person if the dish is mounted aways from the TV. Or just crank the volume up..

Hit Menu on the remote.
Scroll down to Parental, Favs & Setup
System Setup
Satellite
View Signal Strength You're in the 90's so thats a great start.
Move the dish a little to the left.....did the tone get higher or lower...If it got higher go to the tv and change the transponder number on the box. You should be in the high 90's
Lower, turn the other way til the tone gets high......
Reset the box............

Does it everytime.....

 

[MnRockCrawler]

How does one change the transponder numbers on the box? Im gona try this out tomorrow. Gonna have the ol' man give me a hand since the dish is on the roof.

 

[jsowens]

It's weird that they didn't want to troubleshoot with you over the phone. I suggest calling them back, ask the charge for the technician since he'll be a month out, if it's a charge at all I would ask to speak to a supervisor. Most phone agents will be able to waive the fee and don't want to escalate a call to their supervisor. If they do escalate and still don't want to waive the fee, threaten to cancel. When I worked for a satellite provider we waived technician fees quite often to people due to this. They'd rather waive a fee like that than lose a customer. Occasionally you'll get a stern agent who will refuse to waive a fee, but it's worth a try to save you a bit of cash.

 

[NorCal 2500HD]

When you go to signal strength, you'll see a box on the lower right side of the screen...key over to the transponder side and change from there.....