HD receiver to two TV?

If I understand your question, the answer is no. You cannot watch 2 different channels at the same time from one receiver. You may be confused by the fact that you can RECORD two different channels at the same, assuming you have TWO feeds from your dish, but that is only recording. There is no way to output 2 different feeds.

Now if you're saying you want to use your current SD receiver on another tv, you can do that s long as you have the available feeds from your dish.

And the two feeds from the dish must be from the dish or a multiswitch. You cannot use a splitter to get two feeds. I know you didn't say that but I thought I would mention it.

If the question is can I watch the same program from one HD receiver on two TVs simultaneously, the answer is yes. You can watch 'HD' programs on you non-hd tv in a non-hd format 480i or 480p. The HD receiver has various outputs for HD and non HD.

You'll need to use an external RF modulator off of the S-VHS or composite connections to feed the second TV. The DIRECTV HD boxes don't have RF modulators built in anymore.

You will be able to see both the SD channels and down-converted HD channels.

Depending on the quality of the modulator, the picture could be pretty good.

All outputs are active
Use HDMI for hd tv from hr20/21
Use analog svideo or composite for sdtv. When you buy the 2nd HDtv you can use the component for 2 tv to view in Hd.
How far away is the 2nd tv from the receiver is the big qustion, weather the above will work?

He still won't be able to watch 2 different channels on 2 different tvs at the same time, if that is what he was asking.

dpfaunts said:

If the question is can I watch the same program from one HD receiver on two TVs simultaneously, the answer is yes. You can watch 'HD' programs on you non-hd tv in a non-hd format 480i or 480p. The HD receiver has various outputs for HD and non HD.

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Thanks. That's what I wanted. One channel fed to two TV's (one HD/one SD) just as I have it now with two SD TV's.

harsh said:

You'll need to use an external RF modulator off of the S-VHS or composite connections to feed the second TV. The DIRECTV HD boxes don't have RF modulators built in anymore.

You will be able to see both the SD channels and down-converted HD channels.

Depending on the quality of the modulator, the picture could be pretty good.

Click to expand...

This is how I feed several TV sets from my R22 (same back panel/hardware as the HD DVR (HR21). Unfortunately, the original poster said in a few months he is going to upgrade his SECOND TV to HD also. Undoubtedly, his new set will have an ATSC (digital) tuner, since that's all that can be legally manufactured/imported nowadays. Unless it's within 25 feet or so of the new HD DVR (which I understand is about all you can get out of an HDMI cable) he'll need a second DVR unless he decides to invest in one of those expen$ive solutions that runs HDTV over ethernet cable. For $5 a month more, a second DVR seems much more cost-effective.

txtommy said:

I know that I could just add another receiver but, since I wander from one room to the other many times during the day, I would like to avoid the need to change channels on two receivers to keep them synchronized.

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This part of his post makes it seem he wants the same channels on both TVs. Yes, this can be done by using two of the video outputs at once, as they are all active. Send S-video, for instance, to the SD set and composite or HDMI to the HD set.