Multiswitch question

[BigSteve63]

Hi - New here and don't know a whole lot. I have had DTV service for 10 years and am just upgrading to new receivers, one with DVR. My dish setup is the original 18" round with dual LNB. My wiring is centralized in one location, and I would like to make satellite and antenna available to 12 drops in the house. Would I be better off with 2 3x8 or 5x8 switches set up in parallel? I also have the antenna amplified and ran directly to both of my existing TVs, but would like to run via one cable to each room and diplex back out if needed. Can anyone help out the new guy??????????:D:

Thanks
Steve

[houskamp]

What will you have for recievers after upgrade?

[carl6]

If it will all be standard definition, you can diplex. If you will have HD, then forget diplexing and plan to run additional coax for OTA.

Give us details as to what your final installation will be (receiver types, model numbers, etc.) and we can give guidance.

[Telcoguru]

If you are going HD I would use the Zinwell MS6X16WB Wide Band 6x16 Multi-Switch.

[BigSteve63]

H-20 and HR-21 receivers are the upgrade, keeping old Hughes and RCA legacy for later use. Current mess runs through several splitters and will be cleaned up. As stated, I have a 1x4 OA amplified signal, with two outputs going directly to the wall outlets at the new receivers. I would like to combine into single wire for the other outlets. The DVR has 2 satellite feeds installed. I was looking at Satpro for 3x8 Aspen or 5x8 Perfect vision, or comparable items from EBAY. The 3x8 switch is passive or powered for 19.99, the 5x8 is 47.99 with power supply. The way the cabling is ran, most of the runs are in the 50' to 75' range, so I am not sure whether I need power or not. The installers left what looks like a 2x4 Zinwell that I had planned to use to split the incoming signal for the parallel setup. I would like an installation that will handle upgrade to newer dish (eventually), so I am not sure what to install. Thanks for your assistance - I know these are simple questions for a lot of you, but I need to make sure that I heading down the right road with this.

[dave29]

If you want to try to diplex OTA, I would recommend a SWM8.

[houskamp]

you will need a WB68 at minimum.. the older units can stay hooked up (to wb68) the way they are.. diplexing is tricky on the new recievers..
best bet would be a SWM8, hook old recievers to legacy ports (there are 3) and new ones to swm port..

[BigSteve63]

So if I use the WB68, will it support the OTA antenna feed? If I use the SWM8 setup, will the OTA flow through the legacy ports and diplex back out at the old receiver locations?

[houskamp]

So if I use the WB68, will it support the OTA antenna feed? If I use the SWM8 setup, will the OTA flow through the legacy ports and diplex back out at the old receiver locations?
0 for 2..
swm8 will only output ota on the swm lines.. but you could diplex separately the legacy lines..

[BigSteve63]

0 for 2..
swm8 will only output ota on the swm lines.. but you could diplex separately the legacy lines..

Diplex out separately? You lost me - would I just have a diplexer at the TV, or would I run new lines to TV for OTA? (would not be too much of an issue, have good access and LOVE pulling wire)

[houskamp]

Diplex out separately? You lost me - would I just have a diplexer at the TV, or would I run new lines to TV for OTA? (would not be too much of an issue, have good access and LOVE pulling wire)
separate lines are the best solution for OTA...
on the swm line you can diplex in ota> split to multiple recievers>diplex it back out..
on the legacy ports you would have to diplex in>diplex out for EACH line..

also SWM only requires one line to use both tuners on a dvr..

[BigSteve63]

separate lines are the best solution for OTA...
on the swm line you can diplex in ota> split to multiple recievers>diplex it back out..
on the legacy ports you would have to diplex in>diplex out for EACH line..

also SWM only requires one line to use both tuners on a dvr..

OK - makes sense now, I will probably go with the SWM8 setup - this should allow me to be able to add HD package and/or receivers going forward, shouldn't it? Thanks again for taking the time to walk me through this!:)

[houskamp]

OK - makes sense now, I will probably go with the SWM8 setup - this should allow me to be able to add HD package and/or receivers going forward, shouldn't it? Thanks again for taking the time to walk me through this!:)
Yep, it will support up to 8 tuners total (dvrs count as 2 tuners) plus the 3 legacy ports

[boba]

Hi - New here and don't know a whole lot. I have had DTV service for 10 years and am just upgrading to new receivers, one with DVR. My dish setup is the original 18" round with dual LNB. My wiring is centralized in one location, and I would like to make satellite and antenna available to 12 drops in the house. Would I be better off with 2 3x8 or 5x8 switches set up in parallel? I also have the antenna amplified and ran directly to both of my existing TVs, but would like to run via one cable to each room and diplex back out if needed. Can anyone help out the new guy??????????:D:

Thanks
SteveSWM8 will only handle 11 tuners 8 on SWM and 3 on legacy.

[BattleZone]

As long as the legacy receivers only needed signal from the 101 sat, you could cascade switches off of 2 of the legacy ports to support many more receivers. :)