6000 OTA Without a Dedicated Sat signal (sort of)

[DarrellP]

Someone at AVS Forums posted that they were able to use a regular old cable splitter on their satellite cable so the 6000 can see a satellite signal and function as an OTA only receiver.

This is good news so you don't have to run a seperate line to the 6000 by adding another dish, multiswitch, cable, etc. Since you won't be doing any tuning on the LNB with this setup, it will work.

I suppose you could also watch the same channel as the other receiver, though he didn't mention that.

Also, when the 6000 is first installed, it would need the cable all to itself so it can download the latest software.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yup it still needs a satellite signal, although that signal does not have to be a subscribed signal. :D

I guess they dont want people buying Dish 6000's just to use them as cheep over the air receivers.

[Chris Blount]

I think they were talking about using Diplexors. They work great for this sort of application. Although there are some detractors on this board that think Diplexors shouldn't be used.

I have a dish pointed at 61.5 with a diplexor outside which combines the OTA and Dish Signals. Then the diplexor on the inside splits them back out to my Dish 6000 receiver. One cable going to the Sat signal input and the other going to the 8VSB module for OTA HDTV.

Using a regular splitter probably isn't a good idea because there is no DC Blocker to keep the receiver's control from reaching the OTA antenna.

I've had the diplexor setup running for months now with no problems at all.

[DarrellP]

Chris, he is not using his 6000 to tune satellite channels, that is how he is getting away with using a regular cable splitter. He is running a seperate OTA cable from the antenna so he doesn't need a diplexor. His main question was; can he use the same sat cable to 2 different receivers.

Here's (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=137673) the link.

I use a diplexor as well and have tested my system with and without it and I have not seen any loss of signal quality caused by the diplexor.