[jasonp5]

I currently have 2 4x8 multiswitches in order to feed 6 rooms, 4 of which have 2 lines each....

The other day, I brought my bedroom LCD and HR20 down to the living room. I wanted to be able to have dual screens for football Sunday...I figured I should just be able to unplug one of the Sat feeds on my downstairs HR21 and plug it into the HR20. Thought I would have full access, just not have dual recording ability. Well, I had all kinds of problems, got 771 messages, locals werent available on 1 TV for a while, rebooting required switching from one feed in to the other, etc... before ultimately getting it good enough for what I was trying to accomplish....My thought now is to just have 4 lines in the living room and that way I have the extra 2 when I need them...

I think the easiest way, although I don't know if it will work would be to get a 2x4 multiswitch and take the 2 I have coming into the living room into there and then take 4 off of that and I have my 4 lines. Will this work? Will I lose anything in doing this?

I have the ability, although it would be time consuming, to run 2 lines from my existing 4x8 multiswitches and I assume that would be the preferred method, but figured I would ask and see if the 2x4 multiswitchwould even work first as I would prefer to do that..

Thanks,

 

[doctor j]

4X8 multiswitches won't get you the HD Ka low sat signals.
You need zinwell 6X8 or 6X16 multiswitches.
If you're trying to make the wiring work like "splitters" you need to consider SWM.

Doctor j

 

[Mertzen]

Any 3*4 switch [ there are no real 2*4 ones] would only give you the 101 sat and hence you'd miss out on any HD action.

 

[jasonp5]

Ok...that what I was worried about...

I guess I don't know what Multiswitches are in the basement...6x8 maybe...I have 4 lines coming in (I thought), going into the switch, then 4 from there to the other switch, leaving me 12 total. I have HD in 2 rooms without issue, so that part of the setup is fine...it's just matter of getting an additional 2 lines to the living room, so I have 4 HD Capable lines and dont get any of the random 771 or other errors I was getting when I only had one line plugged in....Sounds like the 2x4 switch is out...and I'll just need to run 2 more lines...unless there is another option...

 

[doctor j]

SWM is an option.
You'll have to buy.

Also cascaded 6X8's can be part of the problems you describe.

If you're going to work on it , I'd get 4 high freq. 2 way splitters and put multiswitches in parallel.

Doctor j

 

[BattleZone]

Get 4 of these:

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=SP2WAPHL

or other 2-way, 2.3 GHz, 2-way power-passing splitters, and split the 4 lines going to the satellite. Make sure that the two lines coming off the splitter go to the same input port on BOTH switches.

 

[shadough]

Why not just get a Zinwell 6x16??? 16 tuners sounds like plenty to me. I've never had much success splitting satelite even w/ high freq. power pasing splitters.

 

[jasonp5]

I could get a 6x16, but the problem isn't the number of lines I have access to.. I have 2 open spots on my current configuration that I could run lines from to my living room to give me 4 there. I was just trying to avoid having to do that.

I thought it would be less of a hassle to take my 2 lines that in my living room already and split them into 4, but I don't want to lose anything when doing that and still need HD for both...



I guess I don't really get how it works...If I have 2 lines and plug them into my receiver I get everything I need, all HD Channels, etc...If I only plug one line in, I should still be able to get everything, but I would only have 1 tuner...

How, when going through a 2x4 or 3x4 multiswitch do I lose HD. I have those same 2 HD capable lines coming in and 4 new lines coming out. I don't really understand how the HD is lost in that.

 

[carl6]

How, when going through a 2x4 or 3x4 multiswitch do I lose HD. I have those same 2 HD capable lines coming in and 4 new lines coming out. I don't really understand how the HD is lost in that.

The answer is not short or simple, but here goes. The dish has four outputs. Internal to the dish electronics, signals from 9 individual LNB's are mixed into four combinations of signals. All four of those combinations are available to each of the four outputs on the dish.

The receiver sends a command to the dish, telling it which of those combinations it wants (which one the channel you tune to is included in). The four signals are a combination of dc voltage (13V or 18V) and the presence or absence of a 22KHz tone. So you get 13V no tone, 13V with tone, 18V no tone and 18V with tone.

Once you add an external multiswitch, in order for it to be able to provide all of those combinations, it must have all four combinations available from the dish at it's inputs. Thus four coax from the dish to the multiswitch input. Now, when the receiver connected to output 1 asks for combination A and the receiver connected to output 2 asks for combination B, etc., the multiswtich simply makes the appropriate cross-connection to the source signal from the dish. If it did not have all four combinations available, your receivers could ask for a combination that the multiswitch did not have available.

So, if you extend from one multiswitch to another, then you have to extend all 4 signals, thus four coax connections.

Did that help explain it?

Carl

 

[RegGeek]

I'd try redoing the receiver set up if you haven't already. Previously you had it configured for 2 tuners and now you only have one. When you are changing channels it is eventually try tuning to tuner 2 which is no longer there. Redo the guided set up and select one tuner operation for each of the boxes and it might work.

 

[jasonp5]

That makes complete sense...thanks a lot for the explanation...I guess I will just run 2 more lines...I could set each up as a Single Tuner, but I don't want to have to do that each Sunday and then set it back to double for Sunday night television...

Thanks for all of the help.

 

[Grentz]

The answer is not short or simple, but here goes.

Awesome simple explanation Carl.

You might also ask why the SWM technology CAN be split then. The reason is that a SWM module (or LNB) takes in those 4 wires like a multiswitch does, then it has a total of 8 "channels" that it puts out onto the wire at different frequencies. Each tuner anywhere on the cable (so even through splitters, etc.) can claim 1 of these channels (so a DVR takes 2, standard receiver 1).

The receivers then request what they need and the SWM sends the appropriate signal down that channel frequency, instead of like how on the standard/old multiswitch setup the whole cable is used for sending the signal.

Very simple explanation again, but hopefully it helps