Black screen on local channels

What local channel market are you in? This sounds like a broadcasting issue from the local channel broadcaster/owner.

Charlottesville, Va.

I agree, but the engineer doesn't seem to. He did say they record everything, which is why I sent him the times the screen goes black so he can review his recordings. I'm sure he has more important things to do than answer my email, but I was hoping to hear back from him by now.

Hello. Thank you for giving us the details about the black screen and audio dropout you're having with these two local channels. You deserve to have your service fully working. For basic troubleshooting with your current situation, you can follow the steps on the following links:

Audio Issues: https://www.directv.com/support/satellite/article/KM1011235 

Black Screen: https://www.directv.com/support/satellite/article/KM1002402 

Once you follow the steps on the link above, please send us a PM to confirm that this situation won't happen again or start troubleshooting on our end. Saula, DIRECTV Community Specialist

Those links really don't apply to me, but thanks.

In my 20+ years of having satellite, nothing like this has ever happened. That I can troubleshoot it down to being a local channel and no hardware/software/cable/ connection issues (otherwise I would see it elsewhere), tells me it's a satellite communication issue between them and you. The only way I think this can be resolved is for you to contact the engineer at CBS/FOX in Charlottesville. His name is Tim Free. Being as Tim has yet to return my email, and I don't expect he will, I don't think he'd be willing to take time to call you for, as I think he sees it, an issue that doesn't involve his station. When I left the station on Friday, I was left with the feeling he thought it was strictly on my end because no one else has reported it. I had a couple of things to say about that, but I got the feeling I was being blown off. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I should say, if anything is resolved or is still occurring, I won't be able to tell until I record Golf on Saturday and Sunday. Golf/basketball and the NFL are the only things I watch from the local stations.

Locals send their programs to an uplink center by OTA, phone line or fiber.

Tim said it was OTA. That's why I want them to talk. He can confirm to D* that there is no problem on his end (they've had issues before), which will then fall on them. I can tell D* it's on their end, but they won't believe me. I can save my recordings and have a tech come out, but I have my doubts he will be able duplicate it, and I'm confident it isn't the HR54. But I'm all ears. I'm willing to listen and learn. I just want a solution.

Also, I have no idea how to PM Saula as he requested.

There is a box on the top of this page with lines in it that is the DM/PM at least with Firefox.

Thanks. I'm using Firefox and not seeing it unless I'm looking in the wrong place. This is my screen grab.

Mine shows it between the DTV.com and the bell on my laptop

I'm very disappointed a D* representative has not returned. As you all know, dealing with tech support on the phone is a trip in and of itself. What I've laid out, could easily be handed over to tech support and they could see if the cause is on their end. Interestingly, I watched a recorded 2-hour PBS show (also Charlottesville) this week and it occurred 3 times.

I did find a 10-year-old thread that had the exact same issue I've reported here. He was able to resolve his issue by bypassing his AVR and running directly from the HR34 to the TV. Unfortunately for me, that is the way my setup is, so that doesn't solve my problem. I do have audio running through my AVR, but that will not create a video problem. I do plan on playing around with some things this weekend once I record golf. It makes no sense why my TV (Sony A8H) would work perfectly on every channel except for locals. That's why I've eliminated that. However, in order to cover every base, I will swap that HDMI cable with my Genie C61 cable just to make sure. All of my cables are Monoprice high speed 4K.  

Hey - I have the same problem with local channels. I'm in Sacramento using DirectTV stream.

Randomly across all local channels:
- the screen will go black for 2-3 seconds
- picture will comes back with audio
- then audio goes out for 1 second
- then everything is back to normal.

This only happens on local channels. If I change it to the history channel everything is fine. When I change it to a local channel (like ABC10, or KCRA3), this will constantly happen.

I still have the problem. MY local station said it isn’t on their end, but I haven't taken the time to contact D*. That's on me and I need to get my act together.

Coming up on a year and I wanted to post an update.

Hopefully, this nightmare is over. I had a tech stop by on 4/2. The ‘remedy’ was to replace the HR54 with another one. It wasn’t until this past weekend when I recorded the Masters that I had a chance to see if that would solve the problem. I wasn’t convinced it would, but they had to start somewhere. Saturday was almost perfect. A couple of pixelizations and a couple of audio dropouts, but no black screen. Sunday was another story. From 5-7 I had 8 black screens. I called them on Monday and he arrived at 10:15 this morning. After explain the situation and what the previous tech tried, he started testing the coax signal as it was going into the HR54. He was not receiving a good signal. The previous tech didn’t do this. He then went to where the coax entered the house and received a good signal. So now we know it’s in the house wiring. He then tried the coax outlet behind the TV which fed to the HR54 that is in another room and wasn’t getting a good signal. So, we decided to bypass that outlet and string a coax line from the entrance to the house directly to the HR54 and received a good signal. In the end, we determined that whomever installed the coax in the wall must have pierced the coax with a staple gun, as those, like electrical lines, need to be secured prior to entering the outlets. As a final step, he replaced the LNB. He left at 11:45. 

Thank you for updating us, Spooky69. We're happy to hear that your service is now working. DIRECTV appreciates you. 💙 Claudine, DIRECTV Community Specialist