Using the DVR 942 with only one tuner

[rlb]

Hi All,
Just got a dvr 942 yesterday. I have dish coming out to upgrade my 500 because i have the legacy twin on it. Anyway, I'm too anxious to wait to use it so I tried to hook it up with only one tuner. I called dish, registered, everything seemed like it was working. After I got the 2.23 update and program data, I could hear audio, see the guide, but no video at all. I have it hooked up with the provided hdmi to dvi cable, than put the dvi to hdmi cable adapter on that (my tv is hdmi only).

So is it possible to watch dish with one tuner till my install or no? The dish tech told me no, but I read on your review its possible.

Any feedback would be great! Thanks!

[Mark Lamutt]

(answered via email already, but for general consumption) - answer is maybe but probably not due to the almost guaranteed check switch failure with only one of the tunes connected.

[DRJDAN]

I had a simular problem. I had input 2 connected thru a COAX surge protector. It caused the input 2 to fail check switch. I got guide and audio. but no video. The Dish support person said I should not sure COAX surge protection on the inputs. The check switch did pass last night with the surge connected, but failed three times today.

Question: Is there a need to surge protect the COAX coming into the 942 or the is the ground on the switch enought?

Also the Dish support person checked and told me the HDMI did pass Dolby. I had read hear earlier that some people could not get Dolby thru HDMI. I am going to try in a day or two.

[Mark Lamutt]

The problem with running the coax through a surge protector is that the voltage signals that are sent by the receiver to the switch are recognized as surges and as such, filtered out.

[SimpleSimon]

The problem with running the coax through a surge protector is that the voltage signals that are sent by the receiver to the switch are recognized as surges and as such, filtered out.
Gotta disagree Mark - big-time. The voltage of the command signals is WAY under the radar (surge protector's trigger limit).

The typical problem with surge protectors is not being able to handle the DishPro high-band (1650-2150MHz).

There's MANY MANY brands of surge protector out there that will work just fine with DBS, including DishPro. Also note that DPPlus is NO different than DP in this context.

I use a CyberPower from Wal-Mart with no problems (Legacy or DPPlus), and of course, PanaMax, APC, Tripp-Lite, etc. all make 2GHz rated coax protectors.

[Mark Lamutt]

Alright, I'll change my answer to some surge protectors will filter out the voltage signal between the receiver and the switch. Several of the ones that I've used fail because of this.