[pierze]

Please excuse this noob question - I searched around and I can't find anyone who has already asked this so hopefully I'm not repeating another thread.

I currently have an H20 box in my apartment. I'm wired in and working fine. In the telco room of our building my line comes off a 2-way 2ghz splitter with the unit next to me, which then gets split on another 2-way 2ghz splitter in my closet, which then goes to my single H20. I don't have anything hooked up to the wire off the other splitter right now. My signal strength is excellent for now, and my box is configured to use the "round 3lnb" type dish. I get pretty much every channel I should expect to get (obviously no HD). Finally, my H20 has the B-Band Converter in-place now. I've been told these don't do harm or good in the SD setups, but are necessary for MFH-2 signals on an H20.

My building has MFH-2, and two of my neighbors are hooked in at the telco room. I believe each has no more than 2 tuners hooked up, for a total of 4 tuners on an SWM8 box - meaning there should be plenty of room for 1 more tuner. Both my neighbors are hooked in off the same 4-way splitter that comes directly off the SWM8. Since there are only two hooked up, there are two spots left.

I switched my wire from the old-school original system (which was a 2-way splitter) to one of the spots on the 4-way splitter on the MFH-2 system. From what I can tell the only other thing I need to do to get HD working is to do the satellite setup on my H20 again and switch to the 5LNB type dish.

However, when I do this I don't get very many high-number signal strengths anymore off all the transponders. If necessary I could get the exact numbers, but for now suffice to say I have mostly 0's and a few 90's. If I skip the signal testing and go right to the data-download for the channel guide, I never get any data (I've let it sit for over an hour in that state).

I've taken my H20 over to my neighbors unit which is wired with MFH-2 and the box works fine.

What am I missing about my wiring?

Do I need to get a diplexer, multiswitch, another B-Band Converter, etc etc? I'm pretty sure I've connected things the right now, but clearly I'm missing something. Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[texasbrit]

Please excuse this noob question - I searched around and I can't find anyone who has already asked this so hopefully I'm not repeating another thread.

I currently have an H20 box in my apartment. I'm wired in and working fine. In the telco room of our building my line comes off a 2-way 2ghz splitter with the unit next to me, which then gets split on another 2-way 2ghz splitter in my closet, which then goes to my single H20. I don't have anything hooked up to the wire off the other splitter right now. My signal strength is excellent for now, and my box is configured to use the "round 3lnb" type dish. I get pretty much every channel I should expect to get (obviously no HD). Finally, my H20 has the B-Band Converter in-place now. I've been told these don't do harm or good in the SD setups, but are necessary for MFH-2 signals on an H20.

My building has MFH-2, and two of my neighbors are hooked in at the telco room. I believe each has no more than 2 tuners hooked up, for a total of 4 tuners on an SWM8 box - meaning there should be plenty of room for 1 more tuner. Both my neighbors are hooked in off the same 4-way splitter that comes directly off the SWM8. Since there are only two hooked up, there are two spots left.

I switched my wire from the old-school original system (which was a 2-way splitter) to one of the spots on the 4-way splitter on the MFH-2 system. From what I can tell the only other thing I need to do to get HD working is to do the satellite setup on my H20 again and switch to the 5LNB type dish.

However, when I do this I don't get very many high-number signal strengths anymore off all the transponders. If necessary I could get the exact numbers, but for now suffice to say I have mostly 0's and a few 90's. If I skip the signal testing and go right to the data-download for the channel guide, I never get any data (I've let it sit for over an hour in that state).

I've taken my H20 over to my neighbors unit which is wired with MFH-2 and the box works fine.

What am I missing about my wiring?

Do I need to get a diplexer, multiswitch, another B-Band Converter, etc etc? I'm pretty sure I've connected things the right now, but clearly I'm missing something. Any help would be much appreciated!

With the SWM output you can't use/don't need a BBC. Disconnect it and you should be fine.

 

[pierze]

With the SWM output you can't use/don't need a BBC. Disconnect it and you should be fine.

Unfortunately I already tried that before I posted - I should have said that originally. I've tried it both with and without the BBC.

 

[DirecTv Chicago]

Unfortunately I already tried that before I posted - I should have said that originally. I've tried it both with and without the BBC.

Generally whats going to cause this problem would be 1.) B-Band Convertor (you've already taken this off), 2.) MFH2 Software download not complete (I will assume this is not the case if it works in your friends unit), 3.) just plain low signal.

I would check the splitter your hooked into. You will have to check with the system operator or whoever manages the system and go with a 2 way maybe if possible. Also check the splitters as alot of the Trades Winds have been having problems with the MFH2 system.

 

[pierze]

Ok. I found another splitter in the system in my house which I will remove (that should help increase the signal strength).

So just to be clear the wiring is as follows:

SWM8 (outside my unit) -> 1x4 splitter (outside my unit) -> wire -> my H20

That's it! Please correct me if I have this wrong.

Also, I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to set my H20 to now... I see to have deleted the settings in it and now I don't trust that I have it right. I need to do the satellite setup and choose "5LNB, Multi-sat" right? (as opposed to "Oval, 3LNBs" which is for old school SD signals, I think).

For some reason after lots of searching online, here, and at DirecTVs forums, I can't find a simple How To or walk-through of the correct software settings for an MFH-2 system. Hopefully someone here will have that handy.

Thanks again,

 

[pierze]

Oh... another question - how long does the MFH2 software download take?

When I plugged my unit in at the other house I could swear I got HD, but maybe I only checked SD channels. Now I'm beginning to second-guess myself and I unfortunately don't have the other house to test things at right now.

Perhaps I just didn't let things sit long enough once I set them up at my place. I let it sit on "downloading satellite info" for at least an hour, maybe two, and it was at 0% the whole time. Who knows though, perhaps someone will tell me that I was supposed to leave it there for 8 hours (overnight) or something like that...?

 

[Slowhand]

Oh... another question - how long does the MFH2 software download take?

When I plugged my unit in at the other house I could swear I got HD, but maybe I only checked SD channels. Now I'm beginning to second-guess myself and I unfortunately don't have the other house to test things at right now.

Perhaps I just didn't let things sit long enough once I set them up at my place. I let it sit on "downloading satellite info" for at least an hour, maybe two, and it was at 0% the whole time. Who knows though, perhaps someone will tell me that I was supposed to leave it there for 8 hours (overnight) or something like that...?

A few points:
1. Most likely the problem is either a bad splitter that is somewhere between the receiver and the swm. Keep looking .

2. Another possiblility is the number of tuners that are on the swm. You said that two neighbors are also on the swm. How many tuners are they using? You probly already know that a dvr counts as two tuners.

3. Does your SO know that you are going into the telco closet to switch from the old system to the mfh2 system. If everyone just went in and did their own connections who is going to keep track of the number of tuners on the swm.

4. Most SO rely on recouping the cost of the mfh2 upgrade by charging a swm tuner fee. If everyone went in and did their own connections then the SO may not be around when chaos results and someone has to fix the problems.

Slowhand

 

[pierze]

A few points:
1. Most likely the problem is either a bad splitter that is somewhere between the receiver and the swm. Keep looking .

2. Another possiblility is the number of tuners that are on the swm. You said that two neighbors are also on the swm. How many tuners are they using? You probly already know that a dvr counts as two tuners.

3. Does your SO know that you are going into the telco closet to switch from the old system to the mfh2 system. If everyone just went in and did their own connections who is going to keep track of the number of tuners on the swm.

4. Most SO rely on recouping the cost of the mfh2 upgrade by charging a swm tuner fee. If everyone went in and did their own connections then the SO may not be around when chaos results and someone has to fix the problems.

Slowhand

(1) Will do.

(2) I'll check - I know at least one of the neighbors on the current SWM8 and I'll track down the other. And you're correct, I'll be sure to count '''tuners''' not boxes or devices.

(3) Yes. I'm involved with both my building and the SO in an official capacity. My SO is incompetent though.

(4) True, see #3.