Stumped by directtv problem (1 Viewer)

[lawrenceW]

I am working on my parents home theater and I have run into a very frustrating problem.

They live in a condo that shares a single dish. Every unit has a working satellite connection except theirs. Every unit has the same model receiver. A cheap sony model.

My parents are only receiving some channels. Basically every even transponder shows 0 and every odd show 70-80.

I have tried two different sony receiver/access card combos on their DirectTv account, same problem. I then purchased the RCA DRD4385 with component outs, because I thought the two boxes might be bad. Same problem.

I brought the neihbors receiver and access card ( the same cheap sony) over to their TV, and it worked perfectly. I took our original receiver to his place and it did not work. Always the same problem, half of the transponders working, half not.

To me, the installation is fine, because the neighbor's box received a valid signal and had no problems and received all the channels and all the transponders had a good signal.

I thought the problem must lie with the account, so I got a 4th receiver and access card, the same RCA model. I cancelled their account and activated this receiver under my old account, which I never had a problem with and I used several months ago before I moved. Still the same problem. Half of the transponders worked.

Don't know if it matters, but here are the basic connection for the sat.

Sat in to Monster Power 2600. Out to RCA DRD4385G. Component out to Denon 2802. Component out to Mistubishi WS 47 in.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The installers and Direct TV are all stumped as well.

I am desperate at this point.

Thanks

 

[Robert_J]

Apartment and condo satellite systems use stacker technology. It combines the right and left polarized signals by modifying the freqency of one of them and sending them down a single line. It allows the use of conventional cable splitters instead of more expensive multi-switches. The Sony receivers that everyone has is the only model I know of that has a built in de-stacker. You will need a de-stacker for every sat receiver you are installing. Go to the DirecTV section over at Tivo Community and search on "stacker". You should find places to order de-stackers for around $80 each.
-Robert