HD OTA Dual Tuner?

[leftheaded]

I'm getting a VIP-722 today and don't have an OTA antenna yet. Dish only provides half the locals in HD if you subscribe to locals.

I'm going to try to use OTA for the remaining HD locals. But what equipment do I need? I know I need an antenna for the roof. Do I need something like an HDHomerun? Or do I use an input on the VIP-722?

I want to be able to record shows, setup timers, etc... for the OTA HD also.

[Geronimo]

The HD Homerun is for digital cable. The 722 has a single OTA digital tuner. You can record from it even while recording to the two satellite tuners.

[leftheaded]

The HD Hoerun is for digital cable. The 722 has a single OTA digital tuner. You can record from it even while recording to the two satellite tuners.

awesome, thanks for clearing that up!

so, regarding the tvguide info... if i signed up for the locals with Dish, and I use the OTA input on the VIP-722, will I see both the OTA locals and the Dish locals in the guide as separate channels?

[Geronimo]

Yes. You will see both. In my 622 guide the Dish version of Channel 7 is simply noted as 7. The digital OTA stations are noted as 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. As for guide data it will be present for most if not all statiosn. there are some exceptions.

[sievers]

awesome, thanks for clearing that up!

so, regarding the tvguide info... if i signed up for the locals with Dish, and I use the OTA input on the VIP-722, will I see both the OTA locals and the Dish locals in the guide as separate channels?

I just got my dish installed this past weekend and have just gone thru the same situation you are in. You will see both ota and dish locals, side by side in the guide. For channel 5 for instance, you'll see something like 5-00 for the dish channel, then 5-01 thru 5-03 or whatever number of sub-channels you get for that station via ota. The ota channels will appear in yellow.

If you are wondering how to connect your antenna to the 722 (without using a separate coax direct to the tuner), check this thread complete with great diagrams (thanks to brantlew and mfabel) that really helped me out with the same issue.

Oops, I can't post a link yet, but this will get you there if you cut n paste

dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=115684

[leftheaded]

wow, this is very helpful info!

quick question about the connections & diagrams. Would I need to do anything while the installer is here today? Or should I verify anything he's putting in (hardware wise) to make sure I can do everything later?

I'm going to read those other threads right now.

thanks again!

[Geronimo]

Do you want the OTA to come in on a separate line or do you want him to send the satellite and OTA over the same cable?

[sievers]

my installer claimed he was never trained on how to setup ota... so depending on who you get, they may or may not be much help. If your house is already set up for cable (like mine) then he will add the diplexers, assuming you tell him you want the 2 tv setup. Then your job will just be to add a splitter after the diplexer at the 722, so you can feed both the tv2 output and the ota tuner (the installer will probably just hook up the tv2 output). Then you need to run the antenna to your splitter up in the attic or wherever it is. May need some more coax but assuming there's already a splitter up there, you will be ok there. Or alternatively you can get more diplexers and combine the ota signal near the dish. Just follow those diagrams and you'll be fine.

[bigshew]

You should go to www.antennaweb.org and enter your address. You'll get a list of TV stations in your area and how far away they are from your house. If you're lucky you can get by with using an old cheap indoor antenna connected to the 722. I'm 7 miles from most of the Chicago stations and pick them all up with a 8 yr old RCA omni-directional antenna.

[leftheaded]

Do you want the OTA to come in on a separate line or do you want him to send the satellite and OTA over the same cable?

It doesn't matter to me, but I was thinking it would be cleaner from a cable management perspective if it were the same line.

my installer claimed he was never trained on how to setup ota... so depending on who you get, they may or may not be much help. If your house is already set up for cable (like mine) then he will add the diplexers, assuming you tell him you want the 2 tv setup. Then your job will just be to add a splitter after the diplexer at the 722, so you can feed both the tv2 output and the ota tuner (the installer will probably just hook up the tv2 output). Then you need to run the antenna to your splitter up in the attic or wherever it is. May need some more coax but assuming there's already a splitter up there, you will be ok there. Or alternatively you can get more diplexers and combine the ota signal near the dish. Just follow those diagrams and you'll be fine.

I do have cable in the house now from the Comcast people. The thing is, I am getting two STBs for 2 HDTVs & 1 SDTV: Vip-722 and a HD reciever. The VIP-722 will be in the living room & will feed a bedroom with TV2. The other HD reciever will be in the office. I'd like to have OTA HD locals at both HDTVs. I'm guessing that the installer will run one cable from the sat, and split that signal for each receiver? I don't know yet.

also, about the diagrams... are the signals bi-directional?


You should go to www.antennaweb.org and enter your address. You'll get a list of TV stations in your area and how far away they are from your house. If you're lucky you can get by with using an old cheap indoor antenna connected to the 722. I'm 7 miles from most of the Chicago stations and pick them all up with a 8 yr old RCA omni-directional antenna.

That could be nice if I didn't need a roof antenna. I live 11 miles away and have direct line of sight to the local broadcast tower. someone put this together for the bay area: http://www.choisser.com/sfonair.html

[sievers]

I do have cable in the house now from the Comcast people. The thing is, I am getting two STBs for 2 HDTVs & 1 SDTV: Vip-722 and a HD reciever. The VIP-722 will be in the living room & will feed a bedroom with TV2. The other HD reciever will be in the office. I'd like to have OTA HD locals at both HDTVs. I'm guessing that the installer will run one cable from the sat, and split that signal for each receiver? I don't know yet.

yeah the diagrams I'm referring to only cover the 2 tv setup as you noticed. For the third, it should be similar, just duplicate everything from the sat to the box and leave out the tv2 part. I see on my sat outside there are 2 coax coming from the dish but only one is being used, so I think both could be used if needed. You can't split the sat signal like you would the cable signal, I think there is a special splitter needed but that's beyond my realm of knowledge. But I do believe in this case dish would provide said special splitter if they aren't using both leads from the sat. You'll probably have to provide any additional coax/splitters needed to get the ota signal to each room.
also, about the diagrams... are the signals bi-directional?
Yes for tv2, the signal goes out of the 722 and back up the same coax that the 2 sat and ota signals came in on, and then will be sent to tv2. So in reality if you have a splitter that feeds the whole house, what will end up happening is that ALL your other tvs will be tv2. In my case, the installer disconnected tv2 from my splitter in the attic (from my comcast setup) and connected it to the vhf/uhf output of the diplexer he added up there. He left my 3rd room connected to the splitter which was now connected to nothing else, since the cable from outside that was connected to the input of the splitter was now connected to the sat input on the diplexer. But it was a trivial process to reconnect the uhf/vhf output of the diplexer to the splitter input, and reconnect tv2 to a splitter output. From there I just connected the ota coax to one of the splitter OUTPUTS, which will pass the signal to the diplexer and to my 722. If you want ota to be fed directly to all the tvs, you'll need more splitters/coax, basically splitting the ota coax and then recombining that with the uhf/vhf output of the diplexer before going to the splitter.

That could be nice if I didn't need a roof antenna. I live 11 miles away and have direct line of sight to the local broadcast tower. someone put this together for the bay area: choisser.com/sfonair.html
can't speak for everyone but I'm using a $50 indoor/outdoor radio shack antenna and it works fine from about 30 miles away, in the attic. I'd guess at 11 miles it should be pretty easy. I do have trouble getting cbs, which for some reason is positioned a little different that the others so I'm gonna put the antenna outside and see if I can get it.

[leftheaded]

well, I went the easy route and picked up a $20 indoor antenna from radio shack, and hooked it up to my OTA input on the 722. I picked up 32 local channels! Lots of foreign language, some audio only.... All of them have over 70 signal strength & thats with the rabbit ears collapsed. Works for me.

The only catch is that I can't get these OTA locals on TV2 for some reason. Also, most of the channels have no guide info listed, but the channels do show up (in yellow) on the dish guide.

[theoak]

well, I went the easy route and picked up a $20 indoor antenna from radio shack, and hooked it up to my OTA input on the 722. I picked up 32 local channels! Lots of foreign language, some audio only.... All of them have over 70 signal strength & thats with the rabbit ears collapsed. Works for me.

The only catch is that I can't get these OTA locals on TV2 for some reason. Also, most of the channels have no guide info listed, but the channels do show up (in yellow) on the dish guide.

You will not be able to get live OTA HD on TV2. The only way to see OTA HD programming on TV2 is if it is being recorded or was recorded.

[fredinva]

You will not be able to get live OTA HD on TV2. The only way to see OTA HD programming on TV2 is if it is being recorded or was recorded.

That's strange!!! Last night I watched Letterman in OTA HD on TV2!!!

(split the antenna into the 622/722. send the OTA signal up to tv2 on the modulated cable. I watch tv2 on modulated ch 22. Using TV mode change channles to the OTA HD channels.)

works for me,
fred