OTA signal with HR20-700

[flytivoer]

I just upgraded to HR20-700 from the HR10-250. I am in the Chicagoland area (30 miles west of OTA antennae). With the HR10-250 I had excellent OTA signals on all but the local CBS channels. Now with the same setup on the HR20-700 I am getting poor to no signal strength on OTA. I do not use Diplexers. I run separate coax from my OTA antenna in the attic, but I do split this run near my HR20 receiver in order to provide FM reception for my Tuner. Does the splitting issue that I read about only pertain to Diplexer setups? Or can you not split the OTA antenna at all? Any suggestions?

[Rick0725]

I just had 2 hr20's installed this past saturday.

I had an hr20 100 and an hr20 700 installed. I did notice that there is definately an issue with the -700 tuners.

I am getting a solid lock on the -100 tuner. but on the -700, tuner 2 is operating fine but tuner 1 in unstable going from zero to 98 or so. Unfortunately the unit first searches for tuner 1. I was getting drop outs and pixcelation. I did not see the issue on the 100. I have read that the hr20's do not process vhf well.

I called directv for a swap of the 700 for the 100. It wont be easy. I was on the phone for over an hour, they wanted to give me a rebuilt model, and they claimed that it was my antenna setup (which is barking up the wrong tree with me.)

you can try to force a software download to get the most current version and see if that helps matters. It did not in my case unfortunately.

the 700 is also a few steps ahead of the 100 software and function wise and the 700 has some benfits and the 100 is catching up.(directv is test vod on the 700 now...version 0x190).

these are the steps. if this does not help you may want to try the 100 instead which seems to be more stable on the ota side.

versions:
17xx is current
18xx is starting to make the rounds from west to east
19xx is in test to selected users and has the vod function for testing.

First, you will need to restart your receiver. There are multiple methods to accomplish this goal, but the preferred method is to use the menus. Also, make sure its in a format that can be read on whatever TV you need. I usually set mine to 480p or 480i since that is available on most TVs.

To restart your receiver, you can do one of the following:

Using the remote control, select Menu -> Help & Settings -> Setup -> Reset, and then choose Restart Recorder. You will also need to press the DASH (-) key to confirm. This is the safest way to do a reset.

If the Menu reset fails, then try a Red Button Reset (RBR). Press the Red Button behind the access card door on the front of the receiver.
If all else fails and you are unable to initiate the download process, you may need to unplug the receiver from the wall outlet, wait for 30 seconds and then plug it back in.

Once you have restarted your recorder, make sure you can access the receiver. In a few seconds, you will need to type in a special code to start the download process:

When the reset process starts, the LEDs on the front of the receiver will turn off.

Once the LEDs on the front of the receiver illuminate again *OR* the the first blue screen is displayed (whichever comes first), you can start keying in the special code. I prefer using the LED if you can see the receiver. If you do this remotely over Slingbox or from another room, you have to wait for the first blue screen to appear.

Press 0 2 4 6 8. You will need to press the keys slowly and deliberately. An easy way to think of this is zero-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, four-one-thousand, six-one-thousand, eight-one-thousand. Make sure that you ONLY type in the 5 numbers and nothing else.

After a few more seconds, you should see a screen that indicates that the download process has started.

Now, just sit back and relax as the update process will take about 15 minutes to complete. It may appear to "stick" at 97%, this is normal.
If you have your receiver defined at AV1/AV2, you may need to control the receiver at DirecTV mode on the remote. Try AV1/AV2 first as you normally would to control the receiver.

Note: Do not restart the system again after the download process is complete. The normal download process includes an automated restart which is desired, but additional restarts are unnecessary and only serve to taint the debug process.

If you find the download is NOT the LE version as anticipated, RBR the unit BEFORE it reaches 90%. This will revert the unit back to your currently defined software version and will not harm your receiver. After 90% could cause problems. It is safer to let the download process finish.

Note: If you reach the screen that says "checking satellite settings step 1 of 2" BEFORE you see an indication that the new software is downloading, then you will need to start over.

The downloading screen should show up within a few seconds (it's not immediate). If it does go too far, then a Red Button Reset should make it start over without going through the entire startup process.

[flytivoer]

I'll try the software update tonight, but based on your statement that it didn't work for you I won't hold out much hope. When you talk about tuner 1 and tuner 2, are you implying that there are two OTA coax connections? And if so, and if in fact # 2 picks up OTA better than #1, would another possibility to simply connect my OTA antenna to the second coax input?

[mcbeevee]

Originally Posted by flytivoer

When you talk about tuner 1 and tuner 2, are you implying that there are two OTA coax connections? And if so, and if in fact # 2 picks up OTA better than #1, would another possibility to simply connect my OTA antenna to the second coax input?

There is only 1 OTA connection on the back of the HR20, and it is split internally to allow multiple recordings of OTA channels. Only the satellite inputs have 2 connections.