2 cables, 3 receivers?

[PVS]

My new house is pre-wired with 2 RG6 cables running from the roof to the basement. Can I add a third (HDTV) receiver without running a third cable? I don't want a cable to run on the exterior wall.

I currently have 2 Dish500s (one twin and one single) connected to two SW-21.I wouldn't mind to replace switches but don't want to run more cables.

Can you guys help?:confused:

[Mark Lamutt]

To add the 3rd receiver (Dish 6000 as you said HDTV), your going to have to replace your Twin LNB with 2 dual lnbs, make sure your single lnb is a dual lnb, replace your sw21s with an sw64, and run that 3rd cable. There's no way around running the 3rd cable unless you are willing to replace one of your existing receivers with the 6000.

BTW, welcome to DBSTalk, PVS! :hi:

[PVS]

Thank you. I thought I could get around this 3rd cable. I switched from DirecTV where I had 4 receivers fed by 2 cables off a single dish so when the builder asked me about cables I asked for 2. Should have joined this forum before

[xgrep]

I might be wrong, and even if not, this would not be an economical way to avoid running a third cable, but it should be possible to convert to all DishPro LNBs and switches. A DP34 switch should allow two cables to feed up to 4 receivers. But there is no HD receiver that can handle DishPro, so you'd need the adapter ($80) for the 6000 and any other non-DishPro receivers. Finally, even if you did it, you might need to upgrade your cable, anyway, because DishPro equipment is most reliable with RG6 that handles (I think) 2.4GHz, though your cable run is currently short enough to not require that. All things considered, this hardly sounds worth it.

x

[Wolfmanjohn]

Well, you did the right thing by joining this forum, and you can always continue that winning streak by rejoining DirecTV!:D :lol: Simpler set up, too!

[BobaBird]

Originally posted by xgrep
it should be possible to convert to all DishPro LNBs and switches. A DP34 switch should allow two cables to feed up to 4 receivers.Correct, but that's not going to let him get out of running the 3rd cable. If the switch is mounted near the dish there will be 3 (out of 4 possible) receiver outputs, and if the switch is in the basement it still has to get a signal from the 3rd satellite for HDTV.

[xgrep]

Originally posted by BobaBird
[...] if the switch is in the basement it still has to get a signal from the 3rd satellite for HDTV.
Oops, right you are. I was thinking he already had all the sats he would need.

x

[Paralyn]

Is there any way that a single wire that has come out of a SW21 switch that combined the signals of two satellites, can go through another switch or coupler and provide the signals to two receivers or a 721 PVR? I'm trying to avoid another cable run at all costs.

[scooper]

NO !

[PVS]

Scooper, Why not?

[xgrep]

Originally posted by PVS
Scooper, Why not?
The receiver software is just not set up that way. Aside from that, it wouldn't even be possible for receiver software to handle cascaded SW21s, since, far as I understand things, commands intended for the "far" one would always be taken by the "near" one (somebody swore that he had this working, and I still can't figure out how that could be).

BUT, you CAN feed the output of most of the other switches (SW42, SW64, Twin LNB, etc.) into an SW21 so that three (or even four) sats can feed a single receiver. Of course this probably means (in your case) buying additional gear, but if it's avoiding another cable, there are ways.

[sneakymoose]

It sounds like I am running into the same problem. I'm getting a 721 which wants two inputs and to continue using my 4900 I'd need three wires from dishes to house. I have two. The house was under construction when they installed these wires, and the company doing the wiring decided to staple everything in place (with lots of staples). So I imagine I couldn't really snake a third wire in to the "wire closet".

How do you suppose most installers would handle getting the third wire run? I have the Dish 500 mounted on the top of the covered patio and its wires run through the patio ceiling (in the framing) into the space between 1st and 2nd floor (not big enough to call crawl space) and then up to the attic and down into a closet in one of the bedrooms. This bedroom happens to have a wall shared by covered patio. Do you suppose an installer would drill a hole through the wall and run an exposed cable along the floor of the room? How could I do this more elegantly? If I go through the attic, won't I have an obstacle in getting around all the insulation in the side wall? And I'd want to ensure that it is all still waterproof (we don't get a lot of rain here, but during a monsoon it is very windy with hard rain). Sounds like a nightmare to me. Is this why people stick with cable TV??

Currently, I watch the 4900 on two TVs by using the Ch. 4 output of the 4900 back into the second outlet on the wall of the family room, which I've directed into the master bedroom through the above referenced wire closet. The UHF remote works through the floor, most of the time. Once I have the 721, I won't even have that extra outlet in the family room. I suppose I could try a product that transmits the picture and sound signal over the air. (e.g. on Ch. 19 or something)...

[scooper]

sneakymoose - if both cables from the dish go to the cable closet, and assuming they can both work with DISHPRO equipment, that may be your simplest solution. Replace your Legacy TWIN with a DISHPRO TWIN, then use a DP34 switch (or 2, as required), then run a cable from the DP34 to each tuner. Unfortunately, this would also require a DIshPRo Legacy adapter on each non-Dishpro tuner (your 4900, at least).

[sneakymoose]

Yes this will work for a single Dish 500... But if I have a second dish (which I don't currently, but once I get an HDTV I will), how will this hook up?

[scooper]

With a DISHPRO setup, you would add the sideslot dish with a DISHPRO SINGLE LNB, then pull the cable for that to your first DP34 in the closet. Again, a Model 6000 would probably require the Legacy adapter, but I think you could count on any future models to be DISHPRO compatable. Not that I have any inside information, but that's what I think will happen.

Doing your OTA antenna (for local DTV) is a different problem.

[sneakymoose]

Thanks... So I will need to run another wire, but at least I can wait until I want HDTV stuff and by then hopefully Dish will put the content I want on 110 or 119 (or maybe if they merge, onto 101).

Out of curiosity, if I had a DirecTV system with a single 18x20 dish but with three LNBFs on it, how many wires must be run into the house in this case, to support three or four receivers? Do they have a better switching/stacking scheme to where I would require only two wires into the house, or would I still need to run a third wire?

Thanks!!

[MarkA]

Sneaky, VERY rarely would you actually use the 110 slot for DirecTV, so usually you only have two LNBFs on the dish. Anyways, there would be 4 cables coming from the dish regardless (they mix 110 in to one of the others because it's only a few transponders) going into your switch. You could (by mounting the switch outside) get off with only 3 coming from the switch for three receivers.

Basically, you're outta luck for the most part. Don't worry, RG-6 running down the outside of your house is decorative:) (well, you can at least paint it so it blends in...)

[scooper]

If you want to switch to D*, and do the HDTV, you will need 4 wires coming from the dish - wait - let's rephrase that -

Most of the D* oval / 18x20 inch dish are coming with a 4x4 Multiswitch out on the dish. If you have 4 or fewer tuners, then you would need 1 coax for each tuner. If you want to go beyond that, I'd pull 4 cables to your closet, and get a 4x8 / 5x8 multiswitch (with the 22KHz tone generators if needed), and again, all your tuners would run from the closet MS.

I hate to say this, but you really should have had your installer pull 4 coax from the dish to your closet, even if all you currently had was the Dish500 TWIN - I know, hindsight is 20/20.

[sneakymoose]

Yeah, I see that I could have benefited from more cables from the dish location to inside. :( Well, the home builder's contractor is the one that did the wiring for all the low-voltage stuff (cable, sat, CAT-5/telephone, alarm) and they include basically just a packaged deal. I paid extra for some speaker wiring which they didn't even do very well. I was afraid to do the wiring myself (during construction) because I was told that I wasn't allowed to for liability reasons, and if the wiring was found and they weren't happy with it, they could just rip it all out. However, if I ever get into another house, I'll just go ahead and do it myself and get them some beer or something.

But like you say, hindsight is 20/20. Even if I had done the wiring myself, I'm not sure if I would have known to run more than 2 wires to the outside box.

So, maybe I will check out what it looks like in the little attic and see if there is some way I could run wiring over that room, dropping down into the existing box in the closet on one side of the room, and dropping into the outside wall that borders the patio roof on the other side; then drill a hole in that wall near the bottom to get the cables out of it, and patch up the hole.