switches

[grassvalley]

<DIV>I'm rather lost. I'm hoping someone can help. I have 4 receivers; a&nbsp;301, 501, 508 and a 6000 that I want to link together. From reading these post, I need an SW64&nbsp;but I don't fully understand the difference&nbsp;between legacy and dishpro. My system was brand new out of the box about a year ago which consists of a dish 500 going to two receivers (501 and 508) and a dish 300 only going to the 6000 pointed at 148. The 301 isn't hooked up yet. Is there a way to tell what LNB I have without having to climb on my rather steep pitched roof? My longest cable run will be around 100 feet. Bottom line; I want to have my dish500 pointed at 110 &amp; 119 and a dish 300 pointed at 148 going into 4 receivers. Thanks for any advise you all can give me.</DIV>

[BobaBird]

Yes you need an SW64. You can identify your current switch from your receiver's Installation menu check switch summary. That will at least give a clue as to which type LNB you have. Of course, there's alway a visual inspection which you can hopefully do from the ground. See the LNB pictures at http://www.switchinfo.info/index.htm. There's a good chance you have a Twin which will have to be replaced with 2 dual output LNBFs or a legacy Quad to feed the SW64.

DishPro is explained at http://ekb.dbstalk.com/217. I doubt your year-old Dish500 has it.

[boba]

If you already have a Dish Pro Twin on your 500 you can put a Dish Pro Single LNBF on the 300 and run all three inputs to a DP-34 switch that would give you all satellites at all four receivers. The 6000 is the only receiver that isn't Dish Pro compatible so it needs a Dish Pro adapter.

[grassvalley]

Thanks for the quick replys. I have what looks like two arms each holding an LNB. According to the installation summary, I have an SW21. Does that mean that I have a dish pro twin and can do what Boba suggested?

[boba]

Did you follow BobaBird's suggestion on visiting the site? From your description it sounds like you have two dual LNBFs and two SW-21s which receiver did you check the switch on?

[grassvalley]

I did go there (http://www.switchinfo.info/lnbs.html)and saw what looked like my LNBs. It was the one on the right. The caption said "The LNB on the right is from the new DishPro family.
" I did a check switch on both the 501 and 508 with the same results.

[BobaBird]

I think you got misled by the way that page displays. When I have the favorites frame showing on my browser, the 3rd picture displays under the other 2. I think your "one on the right" is actually the middle one (grass background), 2 legacy dual LNBFs. That fits your check switch summary indicating SW21s which are incompatible with DishPro.

That takes us back to what you came here to confirm -- you need an SW64. Hope you enjoyed the trip :D.

DishPro is still an option, but in addition to buying the DP34 you would also need to replace the LNBs on both dishes and buy the adapter for the 6000.

[grassvalley]

Thanks for all your help. I think I'm just going to install another dish. It looks like that'll be cheaper.