Direct TV Issues?

Question

I have Direct TV, and it worked for me for a while, but suddently it says "looking for satilite signal" (or something of that sort) and the picture goes black. I tried calling the service line at Direct TV, but they said i needed to buy a new box. I don't think my box is the problem though, any suggestions for fixing this?

Answer 1

a SFSS can sometimes be caused by the tuner in the receiver going bad, that is true. Is it the case for you? Let me give you a few tips to find out youself.

First, do you get the SFSS on all of your channels, or just a few? How often does it happen (all the time, every five minutes, every night at 5 pm, etc.)? If it's just a few channels affected or happens intermittently, it's not likely to be the receiver, but indicates to me that it's your multiswitch, cabling, and dish need to be checked out.

Here's a good way to check even further: if you have a second receiver that DOES get the signal (or even a friend who has the service in working order), try plugging the "defective" one in there and if it still gets a SFSS then it's the receiver. If the problem doesn't move over, try putting the receiver back at the original location. The next steps may be to check your multiswitch and dish alignment if you determine the receiver is good.

The best help I've seen comes from a user-to-user forum that DirecTV hosts (go to http://www.directv.com then click on Customer Service, then Technical Support Forums). Be sure to give them your signal strength readings (found through your menu). These people do not work for DirecTV in any way, but they do know a lot about the equipment and issues.