[don_b]

Hi, Need some expert advice on connecting my signal (goes out of Home distribution output on receiver 722) to my HTPC TV tuner card.

I recently got DISH installation on my new home .
Let me give a brief idea of how the wiring is done.

In my new home, the builder has already run coax from outside and coax wires have been routed to various rooms including living room , loft, bedroom, etc.

Everything sort of merges in the ON-Q box in the walking closet of my master Bedroom.

Let me give a brief idea of how the wiring was done when the dish guy came to install.

• 
  dish installed on roof and cable routed to outside of home. Cable connected to coax able that runs to the On-Q box. This is the main input to home.

• 
  Althought I dont have 2 TV at the moment, He asked me , in which two rooms I need my signal. I said , the living room and the loft. he then put , what I believe was a Diplexer inside the on-Q box. I just checked the ports. basically the Satellite signals i.e. the signal coming from the dish , is connected to "sat" port, the "VHF/UHF" port is connected to cable that is runs to the loft area and the "in/out" port is connected to the cable that runs to the living room. I guess this is pretty much standard installation

• 
  In the living room he installed the dish 722 receiver. From the wall on the living room, the connected the output to a "tripliexer". from the triplexer, he connected the sat1 , sat 2 to the receiver and the "home distribution" output from the receiver to the "ch21-60" port on the triplexer

I have a old HTPC lying around with a Hauppage TV tuner card in it.

I want to connect that to HDMI2 on my TV in the living room.

I also want to use media center PC and watch and record over the air channels , basic channels in it.

Is there a way to split signal coming into the living room to feed my HTPC as well as my receiver. ?
I know I can't get the digital channels like espn CNN, but looking to see and record only the basic channels like NBC, CBS, ABC , etc on my WMC HTPC.

 

[gtal98]

An HTPC will not be able to decode the signals coming in from the dish. All channels are encrypted using a proprietary technology. If all you needed was an HTPC and a dish on your roof, why would you ever pay Dish money for tv?

If you're just wanting to use the HTPC for local channels your best bet would be to purchase a good off-air antenna and connect that to your HTPC. You'll be surprised what's out there for free now.

 

[don_b]

@gtal98

Even the free to air channels feeding off the DISH network are encrypted? Like NBC, CBS, ABC etc?
I had comcast in my old apt and did use a splitter to connect feed to my HTPC and the TV tuner was able to decode the signal to watch the regular over the air channels

"If all you needed was an HTPC and a dish on your roof, why would you ever pay Dish money for tv?" .. doesn't really answer my question.

 

[gtal98]

Yes, everything coming in the feed from the dish is an encrypted digital signal. Connecting it straight to a tuner of any kind (HTPC, TV, whatever) will get you nothing. Satellite systems work nothing like cable systems. Also, you can never put a splitter in the signal path between a dish and receiver, it will make things inoperable.

 

[Stewart Vernon]

Comparing cable to satellite is apples to oranges.

The encryption isn't even the major issue here... it is the transmission method that is the issue. Some TVs do have cable-TV tuners built-in to decode cable-delivered signals. The signals sent via satellite to Dish network receivers are only decode-able by Dish network receivers.

 

[don_b]

thanks guys for the answers!