# ***72.5 local users BEWARE of 6.3 update



## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

I'm one of the unfortunate soles in the 72.5 local satellite service area. After getting the 6.3 update tonight, I discovered that these channels no longer work. In case you wonder why I would be wanting locals in SD rather than HD, it's because I can't get all of my locals over the air in the rural area I live in without a monster of an antenna.

I called D* support (pain in the arse of course) and tried to explain the bug to the CSR. She wanted to send me a new receiver after an hour of other pointless troubleshooting steps doing things like the obvious reset and auto-detect satellite stuff. Of course sending a new box is only temporary until it takes the update.

After demanding to speak to a super, I got a guy who knew all about the problem. They are aware of it, and he seemed to feel that it would be resolved in the next 24-48 hours. Being the sceptic that I am, I convinced him to install an outdoor HD antenna for free that will hopefully pick up that missing channel that to this point I'm required to use the 72.5 feed for....FOX in this case for me.

None the less, if you are a 72.5 customer and you still need those channels, you better unplug your phone line again for a couple of days at least.


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## rminsk (Jun 4, 2002)

This could be bad news for the people who have not had 6.3 activated yet. They will most likely put 6.3 rollout on hold till the problem is fixed. Hopefully they will only hold 6.3 for only areas that have 72.5 locals.


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## talbain (Jul 31, 2002)

and what may i ask is 72.5? how would you know if you need it?


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## az_double_eagle (Aug 14, 2006)

Okay, dumb question, but what "area" of the country does the 72.5 local satellite service area cover? *threeonparfive* doesn't give a location.

Thanks,


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## rminsk (Jun 4, 2002)

az_double_eagle said:


> Okay, dumb question, but what "area" of the country does the 72.5 local satellite service area cover? *threeonparfive* doesn't give a location.
> 
> Thanks,


Allendale
Alliance
Altoona
Angola
Augusta
Belton
Bloomington
Boise
Bristol
Bryan
Burlington
Cadillac
Cedar Rapids
Champaign
Chapel Hill
Charleston
Chatsworth
Chattanooga
Clearfield
Cochran
Columbia
Davenport
Decatur
Eau Claire
Eureka Springs
Evansville
Fayetteville
Florence
Fort Smith
Fort Wayne
Freeport
Grand Island
Greenville
Grundy
Hastings
Hollister
Iowa City
Jacksonville
Jefferson City
Johnson City
Johnstown
Kearney
Kingsport
La Crosse
Lincoln
Littleton
Macon
Moline
Myrtle Beach
Nampa
New Bern
Norton
Owensboro
Peoria
Perry
Plattsburgh
Rhinelander
Rockford
Rock Island
Sioux Falls
Springfield
Syracuse
Temple
Toledo
Traverse City
Urbana
Waco
Washington
Waterloo
Wausau
White River Junction
Worthington
Wrens
Youngstown


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

az_double_eagle said:


> Okay, dumb question, but what "area" of the country does the 72.5 local satellite service area cover? *threeonparfive* doesn't give a location.
> 
> Thanks,


If you happen to be in one of the coverage areas, you'd know because you have two different dishes at your house....one oval dish for everything including HD and one round dish for your locals (standard def only). It's a ridiculous setup but D* ran out of bandwidth for giving locals to the entire country....this was there solution.

I myself am in NE Tennessee but there are many areas served by that G*( D#@&# 72.5 satellite.


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## az_double_eagle (Aug 14, 2006)

rminsk said:


> Allendale
> Alliance
> < snip>
> Youngstown


WOW - thanks, *rminsk*, for the ultra quick response! Whew, I lucked out, I guess- for once.


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## az_double_eagle (Aug 14, 2006)

threeonparfive said:


> If you happen to be in one of the coverage areas, you'd know because you have two different dishes at your house....one oval dish for everything including HD and one round dish for your locals (standard def only). It's a ridiculous setup but D* ran out of bandwidth for giving locals to the entire country....this was there solution.
> 
> I myself am in NE Tennessee but there are many areas served by that G*( D#@&# 72.5 satellite.


Thanks, *threeonparfive*, for the explaination about the second dish. I didn't realize that.

Now, I can see how D* could have messed this up.  Hopefully, it'll be fixed up relatively soon for you and the other 72.5 locals customers.


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## Twister18 (Jul 6, 2006)

threeonparfive, did your local channels give you a searching for satellite 1 or 2? When I tried to auto-detect, it detected 72.5 but there was a warning of a wiring problem, something I had never seen before. I also got the 6.3 installed this morning.


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

Twister18 said:


> threeonparfive, did your local channels give you a searching for satellite 1 or 2? When I tried to auto-detect, it detected 72.5 but there was a warning of a wiring problem, something I had never seen before. I also got the 6.3 installed this morning.


Actually, my symptoms were just a black screen on all 72.5 channels.

Another interesting bug I've discovered is in the auto satellite config app. If you happen to have one or both tuners parked on an HD channel or 72.5 channel, the auto config will likely not detect any satellites other than 101. Some times, it won't even see your multi-switch. To prevent this, be sure and park both tuners on standard channels like 206, 242, etc. In my case, once I did that, the detect took a longer time but managed to find all four sats. Then when it starts reading them to pull down what channels it can see, it would give an error and it only gives you like 5 seconds to see it.

I found that if I had one of the tuners on an HD or 72.5 channel number and then ran the auto config, it would go through it really fast and only see sat 101. When working properly, mine seems to sit on 37% for a very long time during the detection phase.

Hope this helps.


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## mgmrick (Aug 28, 2002)

How can a company this big do all this testing....and opps what about the 72.5 sat ????

Rick...yes a 72.5 sat user.


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## juc (Jun 25, 2006)

Oh no--i'm in the burlington area....i need the locals in SD because I can't get any OTA!!!! My H10-250 is coming tomorrow for the install...crap. hopefully this will get fixed very soon.
JUC


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

juc said:


> Oh no--i'm in the burlington area....i need the locals in SD because I can't get any OTA!!!! My H10-250 is coming tomorrow for the install...crap. hopefully this will get fixed very soon.
> JUC


Don't fret. It's highly unlikely that your new receiver will come with 6.3 already on it. It will also have to be up and running for a while to pull the update down over the satellite. The update won't install with having the code downloaded and then a phone home telling the update to install itself.

Once the receiver has been installed and phoned home for it's initial activation, just pull the phone line out for a few days until D* gets things sorted out and hopefully provides an update to the software.


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## Twister18 (Jul 6, 2006)

I just went round and round with a tech trying to explain to them what the update did but to no avail. I have a tech call sent out for tomorrow.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

I have an email into my contact... and I have posted in the TechKnow forum at forums.directv.com to see if we can get some answers.....

I'll let you know (or litzdog or greywolf if they post to the TechKnow forum)


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## Twister18 (Jul 6, 2006)

ebonovic said:


> I have an email into my contact... and I have posted in the TechKnow forum at forums.directv.com to see if we can get some answers.....
> 
> I'll let you know (or litzdog or greywolf if they post to the TechKnow forum)


Thanx Earl, otherwise I really like the update.


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## Arkie (Feb 28, 2004)

I am in a 72.5 area. I do not have 6.3 yet, but have had things happen where the 72.5 channels have gone away before.

I have fixed it by going in and going through the satellite setup again. It has picked up 72.5 every time I have done this. 

You might try letting it go through the guided setup again and see if it works for you.


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

Please see my notes about. After the 6.3 update, this will be a source of greater problems. Once you work through parking both tuners on standard 101 channels, you will pick up the 72.5 satellite. That's not the issue. The issue is that the box only sees that the bird is there. It won't decode any channels coming from it.


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## Arkie (Feb 28, 2004)

I understand your notes. I just remember that I had similar things happen when I ran "auto detect satellite" in the past. When I went through guided set up things worked out.

It was a shot in the dark, but I thought it worth throwing out there for a try.


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

Arkie said:


> I understand your notes. I just remember that I had similar things happen when I ran "auto detect satellite" in the past. When I went through guided set up things worked out.
> 
> It was a shot in the dark, but I thought it worth throwing out there for a try.


Gotcha. At this point, since D* has admitted to me that it's a known problem and I'm getting them to hook me up with an HD antenna for my HD locals, I'm content. If I'm still with FOX in a couple of weeks, I may get desperate enough to take that next step. I'll certainly keep it in mind.


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## Twister18 (Jul 6, 2006)

I have thought about getting an OTA to pick up my locals and drop the ones through Directv. Is this recommended? I do not have HD locals as the present time. Any thoughts on what type?


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

Twister18 said:


> I have thought about getting an OTA to pick up my locals and drop the ones through Directv. Is this recommended? I do not have HD locals as the present time. Any thoughts on what type?


I'm not sure that you can do SD locals OTA and still record them with your DTiVo.


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## rminsk (Jun 4, 2002)

threeonparfive said:


> Don't fret. It's highly unlikely that your new receiver will come with 6.3 already on it. It will also have to be up and running for a while to pull the update down over the satellite. The update won't install with having the code downloaded and then a phone home telling the update to install itself.


Not quite. If it is on the list to install 6.3 it does not need to pull it off the satellite. If it is not cached locally on the drive it will download it off the phone.


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## rminsk (Jun 4, 2002)

Twister18 said:


> I have thought about getting an OTA to pick up my locals and drop the ones through Directv. Is this recommended? I do not have HD locals as the present time. Any thoughts on what type?


I did that the second day after I setup my HR10-250.


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## herdfan (Feb 5, 2003)

threeonparfive said:


> I'm not sure that you can do SD locals OTA and still record them with your DTiVo.


You can record any DIGITAL locals OTA with an HR10-250. No analog locals. SD/HD doesn't matter as long as they are digital.


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## mattbooty (Dec 28, 2002)

Is this a problem for everyone with 72.5 channels? Has anyone gotten them to work? I have them as well and have been looking forward to 6.3 but now I'm afraid to upgrade!


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## slydog75 (Jul 8, 2004)

juc said:


> Oh no--i'm in the burlington area....i need the locals in SD because I can't get any OTA!!!! My H10-250 is coming tomorrow for the install...crap. hopefully this will get fixed very soon.
> JUC


If you're making the judgement based off of analog channel reception you'll want to give it a try again for Digital OTA... I could barely get any of my locals analog but they all come in great Digital.


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## mattbooty (Dec 28, 2002)

If in fact they did break this, what are the chances of being allowed DNS stations until they fix the problem?


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## rminsk (Jun 4, 2002)

mattbooty said:


> If in fact they did break this, what are the chances of being allowed DNS stations until they fix the problem?


Somewhere between slim and none... Just because the receiver you are using does not work DirecTV has receivers that can receive locals in your market. The FCC would be very unforgiving if DirecTV turned them on. I would guess you would have a better chance of getting a new receiver than have DNS turned on.


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

mattbooty said:


> If in fact they did break this, what are the chances of being allowed DNS stations until they fix the problem?


Snowball's chance in hell. It's not DTV's decission to make. Dream on.


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## FlugPoP (Jan 7, 2004)

slydog75 said:


> If you're making the judgement based off of analog channel reception you'll want to give it a try again for Digital OTA... I could barely get any of my locals analog but they all come in great Digital.


Same here! :up:


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## Twister18 (Jul 6, 2006)

Any other updates on this? They are trying to ship me another HR10-250.


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

Twister18 said:


> Any other updates on this? They are trying to ship me another HR10-250.


Nothing here. I expect my antenna will get installed (Spet 23rd) before they get a software update released to fix this.


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## dwacek (Sep 17, 2006)

I am having the 72.5 blackout problem, and in comparing the transponder signal levels to a SD DVR, transponders 2-4-6, 14-16-18-20 are reading no signal level. The SD DVR shows good signal level on all even transponders 2-32.

I contacted "Protection Plan" tech support, who knew nothing of the problem. When I told the supervisor of this forum posting, he looked it up and was going to contact his system level programmer's to get working on the problem. (cue Jeopardy bumper music here...)

I told him I did not want to wait 8 months for the fix like I did last year when they killed the D10 serial port with a software "update". He assured me they would be working to resolve this quickly, much as they said last year.

When software breaks hardware, it's never a good thing...

Big D


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## Twister18 (Jul 6, 2006)

dwacek said:


> I am having the 72.5 blackout problem, and in comparing the transponder signal levels to a SD DVR, transponders 2-4-6, 14-16-18-20 are reading no signal level. The SD DVR shows good signal level on all even transponders 2-32.
> 
> I contacted "Protection Plan" tech support, who knew nothing of the problem. When I told the supervisor of this forum posting, he looked it up and was going to contact his system level programmer's to get working on the problem. (cue Jeopardy bumper music here...)
> 
> ...


Same thing here on the transponder. I am also having a search for sat 2 as a message. I talked to Customer retention and he suggested to not connect the phone line after the initial call which sucks because I do like the 6.3 options.


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## Twister18 (Jul 6, 2006)

Hey earl, anything back from your buddy at Directv?


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

Twister18 said:


> Hey earl, anything back from your buddy at Directv?


You may want to give him a bit of time -- it's Monday morning and not even working hours yet here in CDT.


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## bigviking (Sep 16, 2006)

FYI - Multiple people (including myself) had the same exact problem over the weekend, but with 3.1 instead of 6.3 on our HR10-250's.

My problem happened after forcing a restart. I am not convinced that this really is a 6.3 specific problem. I think DirecTV messed something else up over the weekend.


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

threeonparfive said:


> I'm one of the unfortunate soles in the 72.5 local satellite service area. After getting the 6.3 update tonight, I discovered that these channels no longer work. In case you wonder why I would be wanting locals in SD rather than HD, it's because I can't get all of my locals over the air in the rural area I live in without a monster of an antenna.
> 
> I called D* support (pain in the arse of course) and tried to explain the bug to the CSR. She wanted to send me a new receiver after an hour of other pointless troubleshooting steps doing things like the obvious reset and auto-detect satellite stuff. Of course sending a new box is only temporary until it takes the update.
> 
> ...


Just a couple of thoughts..

First, it will only take the update if you have a phone line plugged in. So if you don't WANT it to take the update, unplug the phone line!

Second.. you're only missing one channel? I doubt the DirecTV antenna will do it, get a real antenna, Radio Shack or Channel Master or something decent sized. Have you tried to get Fox HD out of market? Have you applied for a waiver..?

Third, do you get a signal in the satellite screen on the 72.5 transponders?? Did DirecTV even bother walking you through this to check before blaming the receiver? Did they have you repeat guided setup?


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

Adam1115 said:


> Just a couple of thoughts..
> 
> First, it will only take the update if you have a phone line plugged in. So if you don't WANT it to take the update, unplug the phone line!
> 
> ...


First.......
I was the one who reported this problem. Had I known this was going to happen, I most certainly would have unplugged the phone line. Unfortunately, I didn't get the same warning that I posted about.

Second.....
I applied for the waiver and was denied. I'm not too confident that their antenna will get the job done but it doesn't cost me anything to try. Plus, I'll let them do the work of mounting and getting the line in the house. I can always upgrade the antenna itself later. Right now, I only have an indoor amplified antenna sitting in my basement where my entertainment center is. Even with this setup, I do get a very week signal that isn't strong enough to actually watch the channel. Given this, and how high I am on a hill with no trees in the way, there is a good chance that the antenna on the roof could do the job.

Third.....
I've not checked the transponders for 72.5, nor did they have me go through the guided setup. And don't forget that when I got transfered to the supervisor, he said that they were aware of the problem and they were working on it. He made it sound like it was the software update as well. At this point, I'm not doing anything more until my antenna comes or they get a patch released.


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## rrr22777 (Jul 31, 2002)

I have the same issue with satellite 95. Is there any fix out?


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

threeonparfive said:


> First.......
> I was the one who reported this problem. Had I known this was going to happen, I most certainly would have unplugged the phone line. Unfortunately, I didn't get the same warning that I posted about.


I was commenting on you saying that it would only be a matter of time before replacment HR10 woud take the update...


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## Twister18 (Jul 6, 2006)

Adam1115 said:


> I was commenting on you saying that it would only be a matter of time before replacment HR10 woud take the update...


That would be me and I won't plug it in unless I know it is ok.


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## mikehoff99 (Jan 5, 2006)

Am I the only one that did not get the update yet?


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## thebarge (May 3, 2005)

mikehoff99 said:


> Am I the only one that did not get the update yet?


Nope, I, along with many others, didn't get the 6.3 update. Is the 72.5 satellite the one for locals? What channels are on that sat?


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

Well....my Eagle Aspen DTV2BUHF antenna got installed today. It improved my signal of one of my other channels but I still can't enough of a signal for the Fox station I'm missing. It peaks at a strength of 41 no matter what direction this new antenna is turned.


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## LlamaLarry (Apr 30, 2003)

Did anyone here either get (or force the install) 6.3a?


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## alwayscool (May 10, 2005)

I just called D* and they told me the 6.3 software was sent down on Sept 12 to some customers and the rest will receive it on Oct 4 at 2 am local time. And the 72.5 bug has been fixed.


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## threeonparfive (Jun 25, 2004)

Just checked and it appears that the update fairy came during the night last night (or maybe the night before...not sure) and updated my box.

I'm showing 6.3a-01-2-357
37615

My 72.5 locals are working once again!


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