HDHomeRun Signal Strength Variations

[reggie14]

I'd like to get a second opinion on something before a submit a trouble ticket to SiliconDust.

I'm in an area that's in the middle of a digital cable transition. I had signal strength issues tonight, and I started to fiddle with things to get my TV up and running again. Using the HDHR utility, I noticed one of the tuners in my dual-tuner HDHR always reports about a 10% higher signal strength than the other. At first I figured it was the cable splitter or the cables, but then I noticed that it didn't matter if I swapped the cables going to each of the tuners- the first tuner still reported a 10% lower signal strength.

Things seemed to improve since earlier this evening. I still have the signal strength variation between the two tuners, but recordings are more reliable. I'm still getting a hiccup in recordings every minute or so (and I see a drop in signal strength and symbol quality when this happens), but that's less frequent than before. I suspect Comcast is doing something to screw things up right now.

But, actions by Comcast wouldn't explain the 10% signal strength variation. That makes SiliconDust's goal of having signal strength above 90% rather difficult to achieve. Is this something I should be concerned about? Has anyone else noticed anything like this on their HDHRs?

[Polypro]

I have a difference...don't think it's 10%, but there is a difference. I think there is a reply from jafa on this subject on the SD forums. I wouldn't doubt it was the QAM SS...I went from 100% SS on Brighthouse, to like 60%...needed an amp to bring TV back.

[reggie14]

The sort of weird thing is that my HDHR only has problems with one channel. It's on the lower frequency side, whereas the rest of my QAM channels are higher. That's probably not relevant. But, what might be is that the problematic channel is one that Comcast just moved. It used to be higher up, but I think they moved it down to an frequency range reclaimed from analog cable.

Out of curiosity, do you have any idea how HDHRs compare to STBs when it comes to picking up weak or particularly strong signals? My two DCT6200s are fed from the same splitter and they don't have any problems picking up Fox (the problematic channel on the HDHRs).

[reggie14]

I found a thread on the HDHR forums that seems to be about the problem I'm having. Here's a link to it if anyone is interested.

Update: The new HDHR software seems to have fixed this issue. I didn't even realize there was a software update available.