I've been upgrading my HT system and decided to buy a Sat. receiver with DD. The Sony A55 is a real piece of junk.

Three basic problems:

1. When switching from DVD to Sat, the sound gets muted. Must turn off and on unit to fix problem.

2. Every few hours sound gets garbled. Sounds like an echo.

3. Same "searching for Satellite" message others have reported when surfing through guide.

Conclusion: don't buy a Sony A55.

Agreed! I have a Sony A-50 and it has the same problems you describe. The echo is caused by the device throwing the stereo audio out of phase, causing Pro Logic Home Theater setups to put most of the audio in the rear channels. Maddening! You can correct the problem by unplugging the unit for about 10 minutes and then reconnecting it. I just bought a directivo receiver (Sony again) and it has many problems also. Maybe one of these days I will learn. One more thing. The problems with the A50/55 seem less when the unit has plenty of air space around it.

Sony quality control just plain sucks. I bought 3 A50's that I had to return, because they were defective and each one had a different problem. I bought an two RCA's the 4280RE (dolby digital) and DTC-100 (HD & Dolby Digital) and the both work great.

junglejeff

How old is your LNB??????
If it is not the newest style you will have all those problems!!!
I had the same problems and changes my olb LNB(which worked fine on my A2 and my A4) to the new style and it cured all my problems!!!!!!!
You should be able to pick one up for $50.00 to $75.00 from a dealer(not a big chain store)

Taft was lucky, But for me a co. that doesn't adapt

it's new products (A50's) to their old (LNB/dish)

without telling client's isn't very responsable.

If your new car would need a new special gazoline & the

mfg would have forgotten to mentionned it & got you

stranded; I don't think you'd be too happy.

Also the UHF or infra-red mandatory selection is stupid

all other receivers like RCA's or Echostar will work in

BOTH UHF & infra-red so you can use a Pronto universal

& use the original UHF remote for a second room.

& when on the guide the others receivers don't say:

acquiring new guide please wait........

I have the A50 and have experienced all of the above problems also. I have found an easier fix to the echo problem. You do not need to turn it off for 10 minutes. All you need to do is switch to a premium channel (HBO, STARZ, etc.) let it sit there for 2-5 seconds and 'jump' back to your original station. That clears the echo up for me every time. Regarding the searching for satellite signal problem. I have no idea on how to get that resolved other than wait in agony.

I have the A50 and have not had the echo problems. I did have the audio drop out when watching a dolby digital movie. My audio goes through my Sony db930 reciever, maybe that's why i haven't had the echo problem.

As for the searching for satellite signal problem...it drives me nuts!!!!!!!!!!!

I also get the "searching for satellite signal on my RCA receiver whenever I press the guide button on my remote. Is this when you get the message on the Sony?

I have sold 10 of the Sony SATA50's last year and every one has failed with in 90 days or less.
These receivers keep popping up with "Please Insert Access Card" it turns out that the optical circuit is located just below the card reader.This causes the card to warp and not make good connection.
Also this receiver gets "Very Hot" because Sony put in very few air vents plus there are no vents on the top cover.
I have contacted Sony about this but they say it is not covered under warranty and they have not had any other complaints.
That is a bunch of ""Bull"". Does any know who to contact at Sony to get this on going problem resolved?
I have to keep going out to reset these at least once a month.

I have two of these A55 boxes. I have both of them connected to a two LNB (two "dual feed" LNBs) ParaTodos antenna set-up (San Diego Local channels are on the second feed). I see the "searching for Satellite" message occasionally when I switch from a local channel to a standard channel. I see it on both of my boxes. I have had some success with this by going into the antenna set up menu and running a system test. This seems to clear the problem. Otherwise, cycle power on the box (what a piece of junk).

I also see the echo thing and I have found that I can clear this up just by switching to another channel (even the next channel) and then back. Usually, this makes the sound clean up.

I also see another problem when I am using the Logo Index where occasionally it starts deleting the logos and replacing them with gray blocks as I move along with the cursor control. Exiting the menuing system and then restarting it can fix this.

I must say that I am becoming extremely disenchanted with Sony products (my 36” XBR 250 TV being the exception). I have similar bad luck with my DVD player (A Sony DVP550). This thing sometimes fails to turn on properly, coming on for an instant and then switching itself back off – minor issue since I just hit the switch a second time. It also has Lip-Sync problems occasionally as well as sound dropouts while playing DVDs. In most cases I can resolve these issues by stopping the playback, removing the disk and then restarting the playback at the start of the chapter that I was having trouble in (still a pain in the butt).

I know we are discussing the A55 here but I added the DVD comments to point out that I feel that Sony has serious quality issues, not just production troubles as some allude to, but problems with their DVT (design verification test) processes as well.

As for the LNBs, I am using the LNBs and dish that came with the system. There is nothing special about the SONY antenna. All three main manufacturers use the same antenna (made by Channel Master) for the two LNB set-up. I think this is not the case for the regular dishes.

I didn't listen to myself! I bought a Sony T-60 DirectTV/Tivo combo unit. It has about 5 serious bugs (see Tivo chat boards). I will never buy Sony products again. This time I'm serious! Their ideas are great, but their quality control/customer service is awful!