I have a DirecTV HD DVR and an HD receiver with separate SWM8 unit with 5LNB dish. The equipment is about 18 months old. I'm getting picture freeze, major pixilation, and "searching for signal" onscreen. This problem can occur several times an hour lasting from a few seconds to several minutes at a time and clears on its own. It can also go for several hours without a problem. This has been a problem for several weeks but finally took the time out yesterday to DIY troubleshoot trying to pinpoint the problem. Weather was not a factor since yesterday was clear and not windy.

Here's what I found: the DVR experiences intermittent loss of signal to Tuner 1 on all the satellites BUT at the same time Tuner 2's signal strength is excellent. My other HD receiver (non-DVR) also experiences the same loss of signal at the same times as the DVR. When I'm not having a problem the signal strength on Tuner 1 is slightly lower than Tuner 2. Running a system test while Tuner 1 had no signal told me the dish needed alignment. Later, when the problem cleared, I reran the test and did not have any errors regarding dish alignment. I also power cycled the SWM power injector but I still get problems.

Since both receivers have a simultaneous loss of signal, I believe the problem is either in the external SWM8 or in the dish. I'm using SWM 1 and SWM 2 to run two cables back into my house, one to each receiver. My HD DVR is SWM compatible so I only have one cable going into it.

Any thoughts or what I should do next?