Mitsubishi SR-HD5 Sat Receiver (1 Viewer)

[Ken R]

I have a Mitsubishi SR-HD5 Satellite HD receiver. It is failing! It cannot see Sat 109, transponder #2 at all. Many others do not have signal strengths over 60 or 70. I believe that the guide is transmitted on 109 #2, so without that, the entire Sat receiver section is not working.

I know, you're thinking that my dish is defective, its alignment is off, or line of sight to the satellite is obstructed. To that end, I bought another new dish (wanted two anyway). I sat it up and it works fine with my second receiver. I cabled over to the new dish from the HD5 receiver and got exactly the same symptoms as before. I have isolated my problem to the HD5 receiver.

Now, it's only about 20 months old. I'd like to see about a repair or exchange program. Problem is that none of the authorized service centers know anything about HD/DirectTV receivers. I tried Mits directly . . . no luck there, either. Their website doesn't seem to admit to their existance.

So, my question is: Do any of you have any suggestions on getting my SR-HD5 receiver fixed or exchanged? I hate to throw away a $1,000 unit without trying.

 

[EricRWem]

I'd sure be pissing and ranting all over the place if something like this happened to me. I hope you're able to get satisfaction, prefably, without another dime coming out of your pocket. This is ridiculous.

My suggestion is: Get ready to kick ass.

Did you CALL Mitsubishi vs. just the website? Have you contacted whomever you bought this hardware from in the first place? Do you still have the receipt and all the paperwork, because honest to God, you need to go crazy on someone right quick and get satisfaction on this. The more documentation you have, the better off you will be.

If you get jerked around, threaten and prepare to act on these things:

1.) Contact your local Better Business Bureau

2.) Contact any consumer reports divisions of your local press and media, print and TV.

If they can detect you're ready to really make some noise, they may help you just to keep you quiet if nothing else.

 

[Robert_J]

If you paid $1,000 twenty months ago, you got taken. I paid $400 for my E-86 two and a half years ago and I feel cheated. You can call up D* and try to get an exchange. They have been selling new HD receivers for $99 since early this year.

-Robert

 

[Ken R]

109 was a typo, it's actually 101, transponder #2 that gets no signal. There are actually 5 transponders that get no signal using this receiver and only 4 without signal on my other receiver in the other end of the house. DirectTV says that four of the five "no signals" are normal.

I also get no signal on the middle xponder 110 (or is it 119) the one for HDTV. All transponders are "N/A" except for #8, #10, and #12 which have "0" signal. They used to have good signal strength.

We're looking for the receipt. My source (Ed Kellum in Dallas) is a great store and still in business. I haven't called them yet, but will.

Yes, I paid $999 for the Mitsubishi receiver. When I upgraded to HDTV, my non-HD receiver needed to be replaced. I had to buy the new one. Actually, I'm still using the non-HD receiver in the other end of the house.

I didn't know they were obsolete already.

 

[Ken R]

Eric, thanks for the info and ideas. I've spent a good part of the morning calling service centers and the Mitsubishi telephone numbers they give me since they can't help. So far, I've only talked to one human being . . . and she tried to be helpful. The Customer Service number is a toll number and is always busy. (or at least has been since about 8 this morning)

Sometimes, I enjoy a good battle . . .especially when I think I've been wronged. But at this point, I just haven't determined who to contact to get service. The service may be too expensive anyway, we'll see.

I'll keep trying to contact someone at Mits to see if they have any program to get my equipment working again. Also will call Ed Kellum and Sons to get their advice.

It's really odd the way the box had died (or is dying). It's losing sensitivity to some satellite transponders and not others. It has lost #2 on satellite #101 altogether. The HD O.T.A. works perfectly, so we still get terrestrial HD.

 

[Robert_J]

That's a separate tuner. I've never heard of one of them dying.

Do you have DirecTV's equipment coverage? They will replace your receiver for free if you do.

-Robert

 

[Ken R]

Robert, thanks for the information.

I'm pretty sure I don't have equipment coverage. I got into HDTV and satellite on a do-it-yourself basis. (took down my big 12" diameter ugly dish and went DirectTV instead by purchasing a dish antenna at Fry's electronics and connecting it to my Mits receiver that I had already purchased to get OTA Hi Def).

It sounds like you really know your stuff. I'm still learning.

I contacted Ed Kellum & sons where I originally bought my Mits HD-5 receiver. He had the purchase on record from about 27 months ago. Of course, it's out of warranty and I did not buy the extended warranty coverage. BUT, he clued me in to a place called TSR Repair Center. For a flat fee of $100, they'll refurbish my receiver and send it back to me with a 90 day warranty. That's perfectly acceptable to me. I'll be contacting them tomorrow to make arrangements and verify the cost.

Ken

 

[EricRWem]

I'm sorry you're out of pocket at all, but if that comes through for you and everything works out, that's certainly better than a thousand dollar deep six situation.

Let us know how it goes! Good luck!

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Perhaps this is unethical, but if you haven't called DirecTV about this you might try calling them and adding the protection plan--costs about $5 a month and covers everything even if you self-installed.

Wait a week or three and call 'em up and tell them your reciever died. They will send you a new one on an exchange basis. They ship FedEx next day air and you return your bad one in the box the new reciever comes in, they send you a prepaid label so there's no shipping charge.

The box they send will probably be a Hughes HTL-HD. This box is manufactured by LG and has a much better ota tuner, very much better and more versatile scanrate upconversion for SD channels, and very much better aspect ratio modes.

I started out with the Toshiba version of your box, never got good ota reception with it (that usually is the first thing to fry on these). Had the protection plan from the start and swapped it out after 2 years, but they sent another E-86 clone that was even worse (this was over a year and a half ago). I ended up buying a Sony HD-200 (also LG built) that's worked great for 18 months or so now.

 

[EricRWem]

I'm not usually big on borderline ethical tricks like this, but hell, you know what? In this case, I give Steve's idea a big

 

[Ken R]

Well, you guys are not going to believe this.

Since Saturday, my HD5 has been working only sporadically on O.T.A. signals. (no satellite). Last night, it lost it's memory of the local OTA channels. I commanded it to rescan so at least I could watch local TV. It went through the local VHF and UHF channel number and then just kept going on and on, through channels 100, 200, 300, and all the way up to #820! What the heck?

Sure enough, the receiver had decided to come back to life. It's now receiving all channels (OTA and Satellite) perfectly with great signal strengths on all!

Yeah, I know it's not fixed. In fact, it further confirms the heat theory. I'm going to place a muffin fan on top of the unit for now and see what happens.

I have a new DirectTIVO receiver (10-250?) coming for my wife for Christmas. I'll try to hold off for 24 more days before sending this HD5 to the repair shop.

By the way, the repair place in PA charges $99 to refurbish and warrant the unit for 90 days. That's a good deal. I'll send mine off after Christmas if the fan doesn't fix it.