OTA Add-on

First of all the option to drop locals and save $5 doesn't exist any more, hasn't for years at this point. As for your OTA options it really depends on the kind of receiver you have.

 

Pretty much says it all. You will NOT be allowed to save the $3 that they give to those who don't have LIL available at all. I'll wager that if you look at your bill, there's no line item for Local Channels (and hasn't been for some time as tsmacro noted).

Do you have access to a TV antenna or some place to put one? The ViP622 has a built-in tuner for digital OTA broadcasts.

http://www.tvfool.com

 

You need to run a coax from a TV antenna to the antenna in on the back of your 622. Then do an antenna scan on the 622 to add OTA to your guide.

 

I don't no about DISH but Direct TV messes with our OTA receiver ! Don't get half my Sub channels !

 

Dish HD receivers scan and display all channels they can decode.

Some sub-channels may not have guide data, but they are all viewable.

 

Depending on how (or if) your TV2 is distributed, a diplexer/triplexer may be a possibility.

The preference would be for an independent coax.

 

This is precisely the magic of autopay. Autopay is evil in the context of TV programming.

 

Triplexers and diplexers work fine on DISH installs except for Hopper/Joey systems.

And in some homes, it sure beats running more coax.

In a better world there would be multiple coaxs everywhere . . . .

:coffee

 

This depends on whether your ViP622 is already driving another TV using backfeeding. Even with backfeeding, it may be possible but it gets dicey.

You need to bring us up to speed on your specifics (is there a TV2 and can you get to your cable coming down from the dish).

If you're not up on the nomenclature and technology, this can get pretty daunting.

 

Where does the cable from the "Home Distribution" output go?

hint: It should either disappear into a wall (or floor) or go to a di/triplexer.

The faster and more detailed your information comes, the quicker we can arrive at a solution.

 

How many receiver u have would also be helpfull. How many lines come down from the dish? where would the ANT be placed? Do u see anything that looks like a splitter behind your receiver? Read what it says and give us that info, if there is any.

Typcially a dish installer would pull 1 cable from the dish down to the receiver location (someone correct me if I'm wrong), he might also try to run that cable near the TV2 room location. Then behind the receiver install what looks like a 3 way splitter, which is actually a triplexer. The triplexer splits the SAT inputs out an into the 2 SAT in connections on the recvr, the 3rd connection would come from the TV2 output on the rcvr and back feed on the same wire coming from the dish, keeping in mind that that wire runs near the TV2 location, which is where he would cut the wire, add a diplexer, to de-combine the SAT/TV2 feed an run a wire from there to TV2. In this scenario, it is not possible to add the ANT signal (assuming u'r ANT will be on the roof) since the SAT cable is already being di-plexed. A coax can carry 2 SAT feeds and 1 feed from either the ANT or TV2, but not both. Now the installer may have run 1 cable from the dish and used what looks like a 2-way splitter to feed the SAT inputs, this is actually a Dishpro 'seperator'. Then he should of run a 2nd cable from the recvr straight to the TV2 location. In this scenario, you could use that TV2 cable to diplex (combine) the ANT signal, but you would still need to run a wire from the ANT to connect 'somewhere' to the the wire going to TV2, to diplex the ANT signal in. Now you see how complicated this gets? This is why we recomend running a seperate cable, to save you from the hassle. Plus diplexers fail, especially if they get wet, or they're cheap RadioCrap products.

This is for a 1 rcvr install, if u have multiple rcvrs, then likely there are multiple wires coming from the dish, possibly even a SWITCH somewhere along the way. This is where it can get even more complicated. More wiring is better, as this gives u more options to diplex more signals on the same SAT wires. But trying to figure out what wire goes where and used for what?!?! complicated.

Diplexing: Using 2 diplexers to combine 2 different signals on the same wire. Combine the signal on 1 end, and split it out on the other.

 

The simplest and most likely for success is run a new cable for the TV antenna.

 

This indicates that backfeeding is being used and unless you know your way around in the radio frequency communications domain, a separate cable is going to be your best path to OTA.