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K

3 Messages

Wednesday, August 30th, 2023 9:58 AM

Trouble Receiving Local Channels on DIRECTV - Need Help!

Hey everyone,

I've been a loyal DIRECTV user for quite some time now, and I've recently run into an issue that's been quite frustrating. It's all about receiving my local channels. I know they're a crucial part of my TV lineup, but for some reason, they just don't seem to be coming in properly.I've checked my signal strength, and it seems to be okay for most of my other channels. I've tried resetting my receiver a couple of times to see if that would fix the problem, but unfortunately, it hasn't made any difference.Has anyone else faced a similar issue with their local channels? If so, what steps did you take to resolve it? 

ACE - New Member

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5.2K Messages

1 year ago

What local channel market are you in and what receiver model do you have? If you have other receivers, list their model numbers as well as if they too cannot receive your locals. What happens when you try to tune to a local channel, do you get an error code? This could be related to the Nexstar disputes going on.

Community Support

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254.4K Messages

1 year ago

Hello @Katherine_Ryan, we are sorry to hear that you are not enjoying your local channels properly, we're sending you a PM to further investigate. Laura, DIRECTV Community Specialist

ACE - Expert

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20.6K Messages

1 year ago

Local channels are on spot beams aimed at the cities so are on the 99S and 103S transponders on the signal meter.  In general if the 99/103 are in the 80s then the spot beams are the same.

Contributor

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9 Messages

1 year ago

I've noticed 2 similar things lately.

Premier Customer 10+ years in Northern VA (zip 20120) Local Channels all on T11/T14 99.2°W or T9S/T16 101.0W.  Not sure of Premium Networks.  
HR54/200 with 1 client.  Software 0x1987 As of 9/29.  SWM 5LNB Reverse Band.  Wired Ethernet.

My signal is how DTV left it 10 years ago.  
Sat101 of 32 transponders 4, 12, 20 are 50 to 60%, 26 is about 90%, 28 is none and the remaining are always 100% with some 99%.
Sat 119 I do not think is used here, I see it with 100 and a few 99 or 98% on transponders 22-32.
99s none.  Cannot see it
103s none Cannot see it
99ca transponders 9-24 ~85%
99CB ~94% on 13 transponders
99CR Transponder 1 76% others all ~85 transponder 15 none 0
103CR none Cannot see it
103CA 90-95% all transponders
103CB 95% all transponders

1st while watching NFL football on ABC local FOX local or NBC local the picture will freeze or pistillate.  When the signal comes back a whole play is missed.  This problem never happens during a commercial.  I DVR football to skip commercials and the recording notifies it is incomplete as I start it if the whole game has played.  If I start 45 min or so into the game the freezes have always been later in the recording or I have caught up.
 
Outside of NFL I rarely watch local TV.  Too much trouble fast forwarding commercials.

2nd also noticed often at early AM hours 1 - 3am on Premium Movie channels "SignalSaver" pops up and forces me to watch on a letterbox streamed screen instead of full screen DTV from satellite.  Really frustrating.  I have tried to catch it by recording live TV but maybe fell asleep and forgot which was the test.  This new anomaly has the feel of DirectV attempting to force everyone into streaming which is NOTHING like DirectV or DirectV DVR service!

Does the LNB go bad?  How to test?
Does on transponder for one satellite fail?  50% on the 101 transponder 4 is how it has always been.  
Should the DTV Tech attempted better than 95% on some 99's and the 103?  He was here for hours and after 8PM.  He would not accept the beer I offered him for his patience and I was having one in front of him.  
With the near 100% on the 101 sat do I attempt to dither on one of the 99 or 103?  
Which of the 99 and 103 are required in my service area

DTV has almost no support available.  You can contact customer service like people that thank you for calling and are over the top apologetic.  DTV customer service all got straight A's on customer diversion tactics.  I cannot say I feel in any way they were happy I called nor felt sorry for my experience.  I do not think they understood the questions.  Signal is or is not.  Signal comes in through transponders and tuners...   Please let's leave my 1Gig internet service connection out of it.  I use that for work.

ACE - Expert

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20.6K Messages

1 year ago

Signal averages don't help, we need all the individual readings post pictures if you want. 99s/103s are where your local HD channels are sent from so if there is no readings then the SWM LNB  needs replacing.  Any sat transponders going out would cause those channels to be lost nationwide (except local channels) and DTV has backup transponders to switch to. The 101 sat only has 4 HD channels the rest are SD and are being shutdown.

(edited)

Contributor

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9 Messages

1 year ago


After your email kind of indicated I could have an issue with the LNB I took a few more minutes this morning and did some dithering using the signal meters.  I understand that is ill advised but with no high dollar meter available these days that is what I have.

I made some major improvements and you can see.  On the 101 Satellite Transponders 4, 12, 20 and 28 are still very low across all 5 tuners.

Is that enough to say the LNB could be replaced as you suggested?  

If I continue to see freezes, skips and SignalSaver annoyance at this point  I should replace it?

Otherwise it looks like taking a few minutes to set the 99 and 103 at better numbers may have fixed the issue.  I wish I took better notes.  I cannot remember is the last set of dithering was on a 99 or 103 satellite.  I think it was 99 which is where I made the largest improvement.  I was working from the lowest 99 tuner set of meter bars.  Then looking back at the lready good numbers to be sure they remained stable.

Below are the numbers you requested.

Thanks for giving me the confidence to try and improve the tuning over the contractor you sent years ago.

101 T1
1 - 8       100 100 99 51 99 100 100
9 - 16       98  100 99 76 98 100 99 99 
17 - 24   100 100 99 40 99 100 100 98
25 - 32   100  91100   0  100 100 100 100

Tuner 2 TS 4, 12, 20, 28  /  53 74 41 0
Tuner 3 TS 4, 12, 20, 28  /  53 76 44 0
Tuner 4 TS 4, 12, 20, 28  /  57 76 41 0
Tuner 5 TS 4, 12, 20, 28  /  55 76 43 0

Sat 119  T5
22 - 24       97 97 98
25 - 32       98 98 98 98 98 99 99 99

Sat 119  T4
22 - 24       97 97 98
25 - 32       98 98 98 98 98 99 99 99   

Sat 119  T3
22 - 24       98 98 98        
25 - 32       98 98 98 98 98 99 99 99   

Sat 119  T2
22 - 24       98 98 98        
25 - 32       98 98 98 98 98 99 99 99

Sat 119   T1
22 - 24       97 97 98
25 - 32       97 98 98 98 98 99 99 99

99 CA   T1
9 - 16          95 96 95 97 95 96 95 96  
17 - 24        95 96 94 96 94 96 93 96

99 CA   T 2   
9 - 16          95 96 95 97 95 97 95 96
17 - 24        95 96 95 96 94 96 94 96

99 CA   T3
9 - 16          95 96 95 97 95 96 95 96
17 - 24        95 96 94 96 93 95 93 96

99 CA   T4
9 - 16           95 96 95 97 95 97 95 96  
17 - 24         95 96 95 96 94 96 94 96

99 CA   T5
9 - 16           95 96 95 97 95 97 95 96  
17 - 24         95 96 94 96 94 96 94 96

99CB     T1
1 - 8              97 95 93 94 95 93 93 95
9 - 14            95 95 94 94 97 95

99CB     T2 
1 - 8              97 95 94 94 95 93 93 94  
9 - 14            95 95 94 95 97 95

99CB     T3
1 - 8               97 95 93 94 95 93 94 94   
9 - 14             95 95 94 94 97 95

99CB     T4
1 - 8                97 95 93 94 95 93 94 94
9 - 14              95 95 94 95 97 95

99CB     T5
1 - 8                97 95 94 94 95 93 94 94   
9 - 14              95 95 94 95 97 96

103 CA  T1
1 - 8                97 97 98 97 98 97 97 96     
9 - 16              97 96 96 94 95 94 95 95
17 - 24            95 95 95 95 95 95 95 94

103 CA  T2
1 - 8                97 97 98 97 98 97 97 96     
9 - 16              97 96 96 94 95 95 95 96
17 - 24            95 95 95 95 95 95 95 94
 

103 CA  T3
1 - 8                97 97 97 96 98 97 97 96     
9 - 16              97 96 96 94 95 94 95 95
17 - 24            95 95 96 95 95 95 96 94

103 CA  T4
1 - 8                98 97 98 97 98 97 97 96     
9 - 16              97 96 96 94 95 94 95 96
17 - 24            95 95 96 95 95 95 96 94

103 CA  T5
1 - 8                 97 97 98 97 98 97 97 96
9 - 16               97 96 96 95 95 95 95 96
17 - 24             95 95 96 95 95 95 96 94


103 CB    T1
1 - 8                 95 95 95 95 92 92 95 95    
9 - 14               93 92 95 95 94 93

103 CB    T2
1 - 8                 96 95 95 95 92 92 95 95
9 - 14               93 91 95 95 94 93

103 CB    T3
1 - 8                  96 95 95 95 92 92 95 95 
9 - 14                93 92 95 95 94 94

103 CB    T4
1 - 8                  96 95 95 95 92 92 95 95
9 - 14                94 92 95 95 94 93

103 CB    T5
1 - 8                  96 95 95 95 92 92 95 95
9 - 14                94 92 95 95 94 93

99 CR      T1
1 - 8                     86 88 85 96 0 95 0 97
11 12 13 15 16    91 92 94  0 93
17                          91

99 CR      T2
1 - 8                      86 89 84 96 0 94 0 97
11 12 13 15 16    92 92 94 0 93
17                          91

99 CR      T3
1 - 8                       86 89 83 95 0 94 0 97
11 12 13 15 16     91 92 93 0 93
17                           91 

99 CR      T4
1 - 8                        86 89 85 96 0 94 0 97
11 12 13 15 16      91 92 94 0 93
17                            91

99 CR      T5
1 - 8                         86 89 84 96 0 94 0 97
11 12 13 15 16       91 91 93 0 94
17                             91

103 CR  All 0 All 5 Tuners
1 - 8                         0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0      
9 - 16                       0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
17 - 18                     0 0

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

1 year ago

I've got to say that's an overkill of information.

Ignore 99cr and 10cr, they are reverse bands and don't carry anything of relevance to you.

Ignore 119

Ignore  the tuners T2, 3, 4 and 5  because you'll see all the signals on one tuner, the others will be the same.

That leaves you with 101, 99CA, 99CB, 103CA and 103CB, We'll look at those in a minute

But you say you don't get any signal on 99s or 103s.  These are carrying locals on what are known as spotbeams.  Your HD locals are nearly all on 99s, mainly on TPs 15 and 23 so you should see those. Most other TPs on 99 and 103 will be zero or low because they are delivering local channels pointing at cities other than yours.

Look at 99s again. You will have to wait for the system to scan the transponders, the signals will not appear immediately. Tell us what you see on 99s.

You should always dither on 101, not on 99 or 103. That's because the beams from 101 are wider than the others and so it's much easier to find the beam center. But your signals on 99 and 103 look great so you've done a good job of dithering anyway.

now let's look at 101. Most of the TPs carry national beams so you would expect to see signal strengths of around 100 which you do.

tps4,12, 18,20,26 and 28 carry spotbeams pointed at different cities. You will see some of these because the spotbeam overlaps your city. Other will be low or even zero because they are not pointed at you. So your 101 signals are what you would expect, they show a correctly aligned dish.

So I am going to assume you will find your 99s transponders if you are patient!!

So conclusion is there is nothing wrong with your dish alignment or almost certainly with your lnb. 

The problem you are having is caused by:

An occasional issue with the LNB or with a cable or connector. Very difficult to find.

A problem with the signal coming from the station. You say the problem does not occur with commercials. That points to a problem in the national feed to the station.

Signal interference by trees maybe

On which specific channels does this happen? 

(edited)

Contributor

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9 Messages

1 year ago

That is a lot to unpack.  Glad I don't need to think about an LNB.  That replacement, I do need a ladder for.  The rest I can reach out the window.  Afraid of heights and needed to avoid the trees you all like to mention.  I point at clear sky.  It is in a flight path from time to time.  I am 3-5 miles from IAD.   In this area I indicated the locals are on 101.  "locals" to me are abc nbc cbs and fox.  9S or T16 I think are the satellites.  I would have to go back and look at notes I made yesterday.  All but 1 station was on 101.  Lynx has a pretty good list, but you have to search it several times.  Some are VA some are MD and some are DC.  It is what it is.
I also stated 119 was of no use but mentioned it because I can see it with my 5LNB.  I set the tilt to see if I could improve the 119 #'s and I did.  While I was at it the 99%'s on the 101 all went to 100%.  Curious how tilt plays a role on 99 101 103.  Thats all.  
I did not dither on 101 as I started there.  
Thanks for the bill of health knowledge on tps4,12, 18,20,26 and 28.  That was the # set off for the last 10 years.  The 85%'s on 99 and 103 have always been that way.  I mounted the dish when I moved here because I could and I enjoy that kind of nerdy stuff.  I learned when DTV made me a deal I could not refuse while needing to distribute some kind of cable like service to dorm rooms.  I got to set a 3 meter dish, tune 48 channels aggregate and distribute to the buildings.  All fantasy for a network nerd admin learning how to host web and email.  After I got moved in here, I called DTV for a contractor because I knew as much as I enjoyed having Philly TV here in DC, I wasn't going to be allowed to keep it.  
That all said the skips in NFL have not occurred today.  But I am only looking at one game so far.  Its on CBS.  I was actually thinking the skips were because utube took the DTV experience away.  So far streaming sports or commercial TV has little or no value for me.  There is absolutely no competition for the DVR in the Genie or other DTV devices.  In the old days the TiVo was better but we all know what happened to their greed.  Just a memory now.  Even if there were a decent, easy to use DRV, keeping track of 14 streaming subscriptions to have what I have now would be kind of crazy.  Although I think about it.  My "Premier" is 200.99 per month before all the other costs on the bill.  The going rate is 154.99$.  And Premier does not include all the movie channels any more.  For a customer as long as I have been I am not sure the purpose of the 46$ gouge.  There is also a fluffy 46$ of other fees added.  25$ of it is "Advanced Receiver Fee".  Ever tried to get a laxidazical receiver?  They send you a Genie anyway and charge a different fee.  
There is value in Streaming.  81$ a month at least considering the over charge on my bill.  It should be 191$ instead of 272$.  But I was trying to limit missed excitement and forced streaming.

ACE - Expert

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20.6K Messages

1 year ago

There is nothing on the 119 as it is being used for Puerto Rico last I heard. The 101 is SD with only 4 HD channels.

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

1 year ago

If you are in the DC DMA, then your HD locals are almost all from satellite D11 on 99s. Only your SD locals are on 101. They are nearly all from satellite D9S.

So humor me and look at 99s again.

Contributor

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9 Messages

1 year ago

Gee all that useless data you asked me to collect and all you have is a supposition?  Where is your data from?  

Finding where the channels come from is as impossible as finding a channel listing, in order of channel, of all 4 DTV packages.  Alphabetical is useless.  Unless of course you were comparing competitors.   

You are an ace! 

Contributor

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9 Messages

1 year ago

How do I look at the 99's again?

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

1 year ago

the definitive list of all directv channels, cities, transponders etc is maintained in an excel spreadsheet by a group that now posts on the satellite guys website. It is maintained absolutely up to date by people with the necessary equipment to read all the signal content.

https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/directv-transponder-map-data-10-4-2023.402660/

There's a lot of complicated data but it's really useful once you get to understand it.

99s is in the satellite list on your receiver, you saw it but assumed there were no signals because you did not wait long enough. 

Contributor

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9 Messages

1 year ago

I have looked all over on that site and never found this list.  Heard of it and found it existed in searches.

Very interesting.  

Super like.

I haven't looked for the 99s again today as I am recording football for background noise while I bump around here.  I will have time later in the week.

With my tweaking I must have improved the numbers.  It is much better today.   


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