That's compatible.

And you're pressing the red reset button inside the access door?

Info

Yes, have done it more times then i wanted to. I have been working with Dish as well as Direct TV for years. Seems it just get much more unreliable.

I did try and isolate the HD R by itself to see if it would register the SWM. But again it did not. I also noticed that it is not picking up all the channels as the HD DVRs are picking up.

for example, you get Local Standard Def and Local High Def channels on the HD DVRs.

On the HD R only, it only is seeing the HD locals and does not even show the standard def ones.

I believe this receiver is part of the problem but not the whole problem. I am beginning to believe there is another issue floating around in my mess.

Now i am looking for a tester for the coax. maybe one of the lines are shorting out.

That does sound like a rogue unit.

Update

Ok, Today I received two new receivers, an H21-200 and a HR 22-100

I tried the new H21-200 from Direct tv. I fired it up, updated the software and reset it 3 times. Not once was I able to see the swm. Sure the unit fired up and there were channels, however i was back to the same old thing. It did not see the swm.

I then unpluged it and put in the HR DVR unit and once again fired it up and updated the software. Sure enough, it saw the swm and all the channels were there.

I proceeded to fire up another HR DVR and update the software and reset it. The 2nd one worked, then the 3rd one worked.

Now I have all three HD DVRs up and running and all of them are in the signal strength screen looking at the swm transponders.
Every transponder is working on all three units. This is a first. so I left it there for sometime. After a couple of hours they were still all there.

So, I went to one of the units and left the signal strenght screen and went to one of the hd channels for that transponder. It worked.

I went to the 2nd unit and noticed that one of the transponders went to zero. So i went back to the unit watching the show and back to the signal strength, and all the transponders were back on all the units.

So, back to the one and turned on the hd channel, then went back to the second and again saw one transponder out, but this time i left the signal screen and turned on one of the hd channels for that transponder. the picture was perfect and working fine.

I proceeded to another room and the 3rd unit and noticed that 2 transponders are out. HMMM are you following this. So, thinking this is normal, not knowing for sure, I decided to just exit out of the signal screen and turn on the channel for the third unit. it worked.

Now i have all three units working and still running at the same time. There doesn't seem to be any signal loss at this time.

the units have been running for hours with no glitches.

I do not believe it is over yet, I am going to have to keep an eye on everything and see how it goes over the next several days.

However, I really would like to understand why the standard HD receivers are not compatible with the HD DVR units? Two brand new HD Receivers just wouldn't see the swm in conjunction with the two HD DVR units. When I installed the new HD DVR, it picked it right up.

Is it possible that the SWM you sold me isn't working correctly or it is a model that is not compatible? So far it is working with the all HD DVR units.

What are your thoughts.? thanks

IF the SWM is working with all HD DVRs, then the SWM is working fine. It sounds like the issue may be with your HD receivers.

????????

How can that be. It was a brand new unit from Direct TV. the unit before was new and purchased through your company. Granted one model is older then the other, but both units are working just not picking up the swm.

Has anyone ever done a multiple config like mine mixing the DVR with the Non DVR unit off a 1x8 splitter?

Just doesn't make any sense to me.

Yes, there is no reason why you cannot mix receivers.

Just to confirm: If you have no DVRs and try to connect just one of your H2X boxes, without a splitter, it doesn't work?

yep

I did only have a reg receiver, and it did not work. go figure.

Give up

Ok, you win, i give up. whoever is out there.

Well, it only worked till this morning. I turned on one tv and it was working. shut that one off, went to another and it worked then cut out.

I replaced the swm and power unit along with another splitter. Still no luck. My swm transponders are not working.

So, to recap

Checked the lines. all good
Checked the receivers, regular and dvr units. have many all good
Checked the swm and power supplies. two swms and 5 power supplies

Its official. I am lost.

lets take it from this angle

ok,

Fire up each unit one at a time. Go to the swm transponders. all good

now after all three are running and looking at all three receivers the swm transponders are good.

Now, follow me here. I go to one receiver and back out from the transponder list to give me a picture in the upper right corner. It works. The channel is there. I then go to one of the other receivers and one of the transponder nodes has gone to zero. I go back to the receiver and go back into the swm transponder window and they are good. I go back to the receiver that lost the transponder and it is back to normal. IS THIS NORMAL? I don't think so.

IS THERE A POWER DRAIN somewhere. A short drawing the juice from the system and pulling the signal out?

research

I been researching the transponders and found that the zeros are normal when viewing on other receivers.

So, lets say my signal strength is great and the Receivers are great and the swm is working along with the power supply.

Why the signal drop off only on the hd channels?

If i were a troubleshooting tech, drop off would occur on all channels. Unless there is a bandwidth issue coming from the lnb?

Do you think the LNB could be bad or outdated when dealing with the SWM?

info

I did some much digging on the net and other forums.

What about cable length? One guy said a tech came out and added more cable between the receiver and the swm. The tech said it was too short and the signal was too strong.

Have you heard of this? My total cable length between one run is about 40 feet, 50 feet and about 70 feet.

I also just today, moved my power supply to the swm to the back of one of the receivers. I read where it being next to the receiver is over powering the signals to the receivers. Have you heard of that?

So far after moving the power supply the tvs are working. will have to wait and see again.

allenv30,

I am still absorbing more of what my system is doing, but plan to put up a detailed thread on what I have learned soon. I installed 11 new HD TV's, 1 PI6, 1-SWM-EX4, 2-SWM8's, 1 of the 2 power supplies, 4 DVR's (2-HR20, 3-HR21), 8 receivers (3 or 4 H20-600, 3 or 4 H21-100), and all new cable and splitters (all DirecTV branded or approved), in my local Pub. The reason the math above is fuzzy, is because the whole damn system is voodoo and has necessitated having spares. I have 4 H20-100's that we started with (pre SWM - straight to dish), that are sitting collecting dust. They do NOT work in a SWM system. I have an HR-21 that occasionally won't get signal no matter what you do, then leave it unplugged for a day and plug it back in and let it chill for a week or a minute and works fine eventually, with the odd exception that sometimes when it's not getting signal, if I turn it off, I get a VERY PINK (negative image almost) HD channel that goes away if I turn it back on. That one I initially thought was the TV but it ended up following the DVR to other locations. Oddly enough that one seems to be fine right now, but if it gets unplugged... it's 50/50 whether it will find signal again. I have swapped units between locations and cables endlessly, and have found no rhyme or reason behind what happens.

I have found that for the DVR's, my problems have always been with the HR21's, and never with the HR20's, except that 2 days ago an HR20 is saying it needs to recover it's drive, which it has not done so yet (YAY!!!, a NON signal problem!). H20-600's have been pretty solid, only one seems to have an attitude occasionally. H21-100's have been pretty solid, though they've had their moments. Altogether I've got 15 tuners on 2 SWM8's (8 & 7), runs are anywhere from 30 to 60 feet total to each receiver, never split more than twice (4way to 2way, DTV branded), and my dish is about 5 feet from my SWM board.

My experience with the SWM8's has been good. I've observed that they work pretty solid (this system is normally on for up to 18 hrs a day... all receivers and TV's at the same time). They have been a little bit sluggish at times, slow finding channels (gotta go to the channel a couple times before it gets it), but they always pull through. They are, after all, maxxed out more or less. I'm seriously considering getting a third so that they only have to play with 5 tuners each, I think they'll get a bit snappier (glad I opted for the EX4 instead of the EX2!!!).

My general impression with the receivers is about 75% to 80% working, 20% to 25% failure rate. That's why the back-up units, you don't want a crowd of drunk English soccer fans looking at you while you're trying to get their Arsenal match back on. My gut feeling is it's a combination of crappy firmware (that has definitely been getting better, but reliability is still a ways off), and sloppy QC on the hardware, or at least the SWM functionality of it. It's almost like the receiver's SWM implementation is beta, maybe they'll learn enough that next years model will be rock solid (TIVO????).

Image resolution and tracking are BEAUTIFUL on this system, and reliability has improved. It's the best thing out there (and the ONLY thing for HD NFL) and is wonderful to watch, but I think it'll be a year or so before it all gets really solid. Just gotta let those receivers catch up with the SWM's.

Hope this helped, but probably just confused you more.

thanks for compelling me to finally post about this, when I read your thread I could TOTALLY relate, and loved your thoroughness of description. I thought I was the only one dealing with their mood swings!

PM me if you want to share notes.

SteveDawg

I wanted to add another piece of advice in case someone else is struggling. For some reason H20s (not HR20s) have trouble migrating from a standard 5LNB, non-SWM environment to a SWM environment. If you have H20s in the field and want to switch over to a SWM system, the H20s might have to be swapped out. This doesn't happen all the time, but it happens frequently enough to cause me to post.

Update

After everything and i mean everything, new receivers, new swm, new splitters, and even new cables.

I changed out the lnb last week. And as of now my problems are gone. I am keeping my fingers crossed, so far so good. All my channels are staying on and not breaking out at all.

what a mess it was.