SWM for one receiver

[heelsfinl4]

I've read multiple posts about installing a SWM for many receivers, but Ihave a much simpler setup. I have 2 cables coming down from my dish (5 LNB) and into the back of my hr20-100. One of them is hidden away nicely but the other cable is laying across my floor. Onviously, I would like to have one cable into the back of my receiver and have it split internally so I still have 2 tuner capability. I'm just not sure about where the whole installation process for this. It sounds too simple that all I would need is the SWM and then run one cable from it to the back of my receiver. Is this the intended purpose of them? I apologize if this has been answered and thanks in advance

[jodyguercio]

I've read multiple posts about installing a SWM for many receivers, but Ihave a much simpler setup. I have 2 cables coming down from my dish (5 LNB) and into the back of my hr20-100. One of them is hidden away nicely but the other cable is laying across my floor. Onviously, I would like to have one cable into the back of my receiver and have it split internally so I still have 2 tuner capability. I'm just not sure about where the whole installation process for this. It sounds too simple that all I would need is the SWM and then run one cable from it to the back of my receiver. Is this the intended purpose of them? I apologize if this has been answered and thanks in advance

Thats the purpose. :)

One wire two tuners. Dave29 and several others here can help with any and all SWM questions you might have.

[houskamp]

yep..
run dish>4cables>swm (can be out by dish)>Power Inserter>HR20 (sat in #1)..

[heelsfinl4]

yep..
run dish>4cables>swm (can be out by dish)>Power Inserter>HR20 (sat in #1)..

I don't think I have 4 cables from the dish. I have 2. What would the other 2 cables be for? Also, what is a power inserter, and where would it go? My dish is up about 25 feet, so I can't access it. If I were to install the SWM, would there be any need for me to get near the dish? Thanks again.

[heelsfinl4]

Thats the purpose. :)

One wire two tuners. Dave29 and several others here can help with any and all SWM questions you might have.

Thanks for the response. Does Dave29 view this particular forum, or should I post it in another one?

[HDTVsportsfan]

He runs thru all of the forums, he's always running around here somewhere on a regular basis. You can PM him tho. That would be better anyway.

[houskamp]

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=114457

[1948GG]

I don't think I have 4 cables from the dish. I have 2. What would the other 2 cables be for? Also, what is a power inserter, and where would it go? My dish is up about 25 feet, so I can't access it. If I were to install the SWM, would there be any need for me to get near the dish? Thanks again.

LOOK at the dish; if you don't have 4 coaxials coming out from the LNB assembly, then your dish was installed wrong (even if only TWO on them lead out to where your receiver is).

I've seem MANY AU/AT9's installed with the minimum output leads, which results in an installer making another trip out to the site to put in the additional leads (at a minimum, they should have put in the four leads for a foot or two out the back end of the dish for future expansion, thus saving an added trip when the subscriber wants to expand, like you want to).

First, you'll have to get the local DirecTV contractor out to put in the dish FULLY, adding the proper leads while keeping the dish alignment up to snuff. Then you'll have to add the SWM-8 in the system (needs ALL FOUR of those leads), and you're good to go. Pricing on the SWM-8 has dropped to good levels (around $200 and less) at the retail level.

But you have to get that dish done right first!

[bobnielsen]

I don't think I have 4 cables from the dish. I have 2. What would the other 2 cables be for? Also, what is a power inserter, and where would it go? My dish is up about 25 feet, so I can't access it. If I were to install the SWM, would there be any need for me to get near the dish? Thanks again.

Four cables are required because the SWM is designed to let up to 8 tuners access any of the transponders at 99/101/103/110/119 degrees. The 5 LNB dish has a built-in switch with 4 outputs. You will need to access the dish and remove the LNB assembly from its support arm to run two additional cables through the arm to the unused connectors on the LNB assembly. The power inserter supplies power for the SWM and LNB. It has two coax connectors and is placed in the signal line between the SWM and your receiver.

[BNUMM]

LOOK at the dish; if you don't have 4 coaxials coming out from the LNB assembly, then your dish was installed wrong (even if only TWO on them lead out to where your receiver is).

I've seem MANY AU/AT9's installed with the minimum output leads, which results in an installer making another trip out to the site to put in the additional leads (at a minimum, they should have put in the four leads for a foot or two out the back end of the dish for future expansion, thus saving an added trip when the subscriber wants to expand, like you want to).

First, you'll have to get the local DirecTV contractor out to put in the dish FULLY, adding the proper leads while keeping the dish alignment up to snuff. Then you'll have to add the SWM-8 in the system (needs ALL FOUR of those leads), and you're good to go. Pricing on the SWM-8 has dropped to good levels (around $200 and less) at the retail level.

But you have to get that dish done right first!

If he only needs two cables to the one receiver then it was not installed wrong. Maybe by the requirements for DirecTv employees it is not correct, but for others it is a total waste of cable unless they are certain that they will be back soon to add receivers. Why should one contractor provide more cable and labor than they are getting paid for when someone else may receive the benefit?

[sbl]

If you have only two cables from the dish, then the SWM needs to be mounted right at the dish. The four feeds from the dish go to the SWM and then you can use one or two of the existing cables as the SWM output.

I bought a SWM because I had four cables but I also wanted to add a powered OTA antenna and HR10. So the four feeds from the dish go to the SWM, two legacy outputs go to the TiVo, one SWM feed is split to my HR20 and HR21, and one is left for OTA.

[dave29]

Thanks for the response. Does Dave29 view this particular forum, or should I post it in another one?

if you only have 2 cables from your dish right now, then you will either have to add 2 more down to a main distribution area or mount the swm at the dish with 4 cables going into it and then run one line into your house.

for your case i would reccommend a swm lnb. all you would have to do is swap your lnb's out and add a power inserter behind your receiver, i have the swm lnb as well

[cwdonahue]

I don't think I have 4 cables from the dish. I have 2. What would the other 2 cables be for? Also, what is a power inserter, and where would it go? My dish is up about 25 feet, so I can't access it. If I were to install the SWM, would there be any need for me to get near the dish? Thanks again.

As others have stated, you need all 4 cables from your dish to connect to the SWM. [Although, given you can connect these cables "any old way" to the SWM, do you really need all 4 connected?]
To answer your other question about where the Power Inserter (PI) would go, I'll tell you about my SWM setup.

In my case, the four coax leads go into my basement and are terminated on a pair of grounding blocks. 2 cables went from the grounding block to my HR20, one cable to my D11, and one to my HR21....so I could only use one tuner on my HR21.

I ran 3' cables from my ground blocks to the SWM which I mounted to the sill plate of the house along the nearest wall. You then need a 15' cable from the SWM to the PI. Mine is coiled because I mounted the PI about 2' away from the SWM. The PI is then plugged into an outlet in the basement it shares with my powered antenna amplifier. Since you have only one HR2X, you can then use the coax that runs to the back of your HR2X and connect that to the PI. In my case, I have a very short 1ft. long coax to a 4-way splitter (allowing for growth) which I then connected the existing coax leads to my HR20 and HR21. My D11 is connected to a Legacy port on the SWM.

So, where are your grounding blocks for the cables that come into your home? That will help you figure out part of the plan. Get the other 2 cables installed from the dish and grounded in the same area.

[evan_s]

Even tho it theoretically could be possible for the swm to provide 2 tuners with just 2 cables hooked up it's not designed to function that way and it wouldn't work. As it stands each of the 4 input ports gets locked to 1 of the 4 different options and if you only had 2 cables hooked up you'd end up missing large amounts of content because it wouldn't have the signal coming in. 2 new wires will have to be run from the dish to hook up to the SWM.

[carl6]

[Although, given you can connect these cables "any old way" to the SWM, do you really need all 4 connected?]


Yes, you really need all four. The reason is each of the four input connectors on the SWM is locked to a specific signalling protocol. There are four such signal combinations and without all four being available, the SWM will be missing satellies and transponders.

The four signal combinations (that are sent from the SWM to the dish) are:
13VDC, no tone: 99 odd, 101 odd
18VDC, not tone: 99 even, 101 even
13VDC, 22KHz tone: 103 odd, 119 odd.
18VDC, 22KHz tone: 103 even, 110 even, 119 even

So if you were to leave any one cable disconnected, you would lose those transponders from the indicated satellite. If you leave two cables disconnected, you lose two of them, etc.

Without an SWM, the receiver sends the signal to the dish, and the LNB assembly sends the applicable satellite/transponder mix back to the receiver for the channel being requested. The internal multiswtich in the dish has four outputs, each of which can serve any of the four combinations (that is why it doesn't matter what order you hook them up to an external multiswitch).

But the external multiswtich (either SWM or WB68 or WB616) must have all four sets of signals present at it's inputs in order to satisfy a request from a receiver for a particular channel. Each of the inputs to the external multiswitch is locked to one of the signal combinations listed above. Disconnect that particular input, and you will lose the associated channels.

A regular multiswitch has multiple outputs, and each tuner must have a direct coax line back to one of the multiswtich outputs. The multiswitch then detects what that specific tuner has requested, and cross-connects the applicable input to that output.

The SWM works entirely differently, but still must have all of the source signals available at it's inputs - thus the need for all four lines from the dish.

Carl