Newbie help!

[bave388]

Just need some advice. I have been with DTV for 3 years now in my house and have a triple lnb dish on the roof with 3 lines coming down into the basement and then connecting directly to three coax lines to each tv (no switches etc).

I have been thinking about getting a DVR for convenience, primarily for a 42" panasonic plasma edtv in my bedroom. Problem is that I have only that one line going up there without having to rerun another line?

Secondly my current reciever is a good hughes with component outputs and I am worried my picture will get worse if I swap this out and use a DVR as my reciever, thoughts?

And lastly, as a first time DVR user, which would be the best recommended unit? Not looking for anything fancy, just functional and low cost.

HD is not an issue currently as no OTA hd available in my area.

Thanks!

[ISWIZ]

You will need 2 lines (one for each tuner) if you get a DVR. As for which one to get, you can get a D10 that has the TIVO software/ and room for about 50 hrs of recording. Or the R15 which is the new DTV model with a new interface and about 80 hrs of recording.

Which is better or will get better is a matter of opinion and you know all about what opinions are.;)

Hope that helps and welcome.


By the way, both are "free" now as they are $100 with a $99 rebate until Feb. 2006

[Chris Blount]

Hi bave and welcome to DBSTalk! :welcome_s

I agree. You will need a second line going up there. As far as the PQ issue, you will have to weight the benefits of having DVR vs. the possible PQ degradation. Personally I think you won't see too much of a difference. Just having the ability to timeshift programs will change the way you watch TV.

[bave388]

Ok, that doesn't sound too bad and I will probably just go for the R15 since DTV offered me that one for free with 120 hours of recording, should I go for the 45$ installation since I will need another line run? How will they do that? fish through the walls or make a mess?

[carl6]

How will they do that? fish through the walls or make a mess?
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The installer will do the easiest, fastest, least work installation he can. It certainly will not include fishing a wall.
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Typically, you can pay them additional money to do "non-standard" installations, although you may need to arrange that in advance so they have enough time to do it. If you are able to do the work, I would recommend you do it before the installer shows up, and have them run to wherever your common point is.
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As for making a mess, they are supposed to clean up after themselves, and you should certainly have input on the routing of cable, etc., so long as it doesn't result in a much longer cable run (they allow something like 100 or 125 feet of coax as part of a "standard" installation).
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Carl

[bave388]

And how hard is it to install it yourself? My understanding is that if you have only one cable you just cant watch and record something else, which isn't really a problem for me, if that is correct??

So, assuming only hooking up one input, how hard is the install?

[Donnie Byrd]

You will need 2 lines (one for each tuner) if you get a DVR. As for which one to get, you can get a D10 that has the TIVO software/ and room for about 50 hrs of recording. Or the R15 which is the new DTV model with a new interface and about 80 hrs of recording.

Which is better or will get better is a matter of opinion and you know all about what opinions are.;)

Hope that helps and welcome.


By the way, both are "free" now as they are $100 with a $99 rebate until Feb. 2006

Dave, i believe the D10 is a "standard" D* receiver and not dvr. you are most likely referring to the R10 w/TiVo.:)

[Donnie Byrd]

My understanding is that if you have only one cable you just cant watch and record something else, which isn't really a problem for me, if that is correct??

So, assuming only hooking up one input, how hard is the install?

bave388, welcome to the forum:welcome_s ..........with only 1 tuner active, you won't be able to watch another program while recording one but you can watch a recording already in your playlist while you record another. you will quickly find though, that you wished you had the second tuner active.:)

[ISWIZ]

Dave, i believe the D10 is a "standard" D* receiver and not dvr. you are most likely referring to the R10 w/TiVo.:)


My bad! Been a rough week at work and it's only Tuesday!:D

[bave388]

Thanks, you guys have been great.

One last question, I promise!

I am pretty sure I will just suck it up and use one input since I reaalllllyyyy dont want someone hacking holes through my new walls (new house) and nor do I want ugly wiring exposed. I am really not home that much anyway so it will likely just be recording stuff for when I am not home.

Ok, that said, how hard is it to install it yourself? IE: just hook up the wiring and then call DTV?

[LockMD]

Ok, that said, how hard is it to install it yourself? IE: just hook up the wiring and then call DTV?


Just that simple.

[gvaughn]

I agree. You will need a second line going up there.

Technically, if you don't want to run a second line up to your room you can still get the use of both tuners if you use a stacker/destacker. It's much less messy, but a more expensive route.

[bave388]

Well, I called DTV last night to get the specs for the R15 and they told me I could also use a switch or splitter, is this true?

Basically I have three coax lines coming down from the triple lnb dish and into my basement where each of those three connects directly to another coax line which runs to each wall outlet.


So, I have this splitters/combiners from about a year ago when I had to use a cable modem to combine and then split. They are "Terk BDS-P1"

Basically these have two coax inputs/outputs on one side, and one on the other, and it is labeled combiner going the one way, seperator the other.

If I just hooked this up coming out of my wall into the one input and "seperated" or split the signal and then ran a line to each of the DVR inputs, would that work for dual tuners?


Thanks!


EDIT: The part I have is actually a "Diplexer"
http://www.audiovox.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/GenProductListCmd?type=nprev&catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&categoryId=5069&langId=-1&page=&urlString=&productId=&brand=

[gvaughn]

Well, I called DTV last night to get the specs for the R15 and they told me I could also use a switch or splitter, is this true?

Basically I have three coax lines coming down from the triple lnb dish and into my basement where each of those three connects directly to another coax line which runs to each wall outlet.


So, I have this splitters/combiners from about a year ago when I had to use a cable modem to combine and then split. They are "Terk BDS-P1"

Basically these have two coax inputs/outputs on one side, and one on the other, and it is labeled combiner going the one way, seperator the other.

If I just hooked this up coming out of my wall into the one input and "seperated" or split the signal and then ran a line to each of the DVR inputs, would that work for dual tuners?


Thanks!


EDIT: The part I have is actually a "Diplexer"
http://www.audiovox.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/GenProductListCmd?type=nprev&catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&categoryId=5069&langId=-1&page=&urlString=&productId=&brand=

I don't beleive a diplexer will work. I'm NOT a technical expert though...so you shouldn't consider me the final word. From what I understand...you would use a diplexer to combine a satellite and other (antenna) signal together and then to re-split later. But the way channel switching works on a satellite tuner (even channels on one frequency/polarization, or something like that, and odd channels on the other frequency/polarization) the tuner needs to switch frequencies to access different channels and this doesn't work correctly over a diplexer.

If you check out the D*Tivo forums there are a number of threads on this topic:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=7

[stupid0g]

DO not! use a splitter, or a diplexer!... anyone that works for dtv should be shot for saying so ( and yes i do work for them). yes it will work for roughly 4-6 mnths if your lucky, but afterwords it tends to split the signal into seperat 13/18v into each wire, which leads to searching for astelite on about half your channels.

Just a friendly reminder