[VHS or Beta]

I've just moved into a new office at a corporate highrise building and am lucky enough to get DirecTV service and HR21 DVR provided by my employer.

I have no idea what kind of master dish is on the roof but our company has to pay the landlord a fee for every line they put into an office, so naturally they only sprung for one cable drop to connect to the DVR. Is there any way to split this so it can feed both tuners? I assume it can't be done using your standard Radio Shack grade 2-way cable splitter, otherwise everyone would do that, right?

I don't understand satellite technology well enough to know why signals can or can't be split a certain way, but I'm adept enough to buy the right parts and crimp on some cable ends if somebody can tell me what's needed. My employer would have no problem with me hooking up the second tuner as long as they don't have to pay the building for a second cable drop. Do I have any options here?

 

[Kansas Zephyr]

Search this forum for SWM or single wire multi-switch.

 

[mickcris]

You can't split it at the wall. If the cable coming out of the wall is connected to an swm then you will have 2 tuners available. If it is not, then you will only have 1 tuner. You can't do anything about it yourself without access to the 4 lines coming from the dish.

 

[David MacLeod]

even if it is swm adding to it may overload the # of tuners causing someone to look and see why. this could lead to problems with the landlord.

 

[sattec]

I'll cover the last base! he never actually said it's a mulltisat feed, it could be a stacked 101 feed, not likely since the building is new and he was issued a dvr but still possible..

 

[rudeney]

You can't split it at the wall. If the cable coming out of the wall is connected to an swm then you will have 2 tuners available. If it is not, then you will only have 1 tuner. You can't do anything about it yourself without access to the 4 lines coming from the dish.

My understanding of how a SWM works is that it *CAN* be split at the wall. From want I have learned, a SWM can handle a set number of tuners. For example, a SWM8 puts the data streams from any combination of 8 transponders on its output. Every tuner on the cable then has access to any of those 8 data streams. As the channel is changed and data from a new transponder is needed, the tuner sends the SWM a request for it. The SWM does not worry about which tuner needs which stream; all streams are output on the cable. The cable can be split as needed using appropriately rate splitters. Of course every cascaded splitter will reduce the signal quality, so that needs to be considered. And you have to know not to put more tuners on a SWM than it can handle. The OP is likely in an MDU, and in that case, putting too many tuners on the SWM is not an issue as only the MDU operator can authorized active receivers. D* knows this by address and will not allow individual subs to add their own receivers without involvement from the operator.

 

[Teronzhul]

mickcris point was that he would need access to the line prior to entering the building. The SWM can't magically take one feed and create multiple outbound feeds. In any case, you only split if you're feeding multiple receivers. The single line coming out of the wall wouldn't be split for only one box, even feeding two tuners. The "split" is internal to the box in this instance.

But yes, as others have now said, if he can access the rooftop dish, AND can get access to 4 lines to feed an SWM5/8, AND hes not being fed from a stacked 101 system, then this can be done.

 

[VHS or Beta]

No I can't access the rooftop dish. It's a big building and I believe it's totally wired for DirecTV although I can't be certain if it's on every floor. I'm sure it's a top-of-the-line installation though, the owners spare no expense on that kind of infrastructure.

 

[rudeney]

mickcris point was that he would need access to the line prior to entering the building. The SWM can't magically take one feed and create multiple outbound feeds. In any case, you only split if you're feeding multiple receivers. The single line coming out of the wall wouldn't be split for only one box, even feeding two tuners. The "split" is internal to the box in this instance.

But yes, as others have now said, if he can access the rooftop dish, AND can get access to 4 lines to feed an SWM5/8, AND hes not being fed from a stacked 101 system, then this can be done.

Gotcha. I misread the post and thought he was talking about being in a high-rise condo and assumed he'd be in an MDU situation. We have a condo at the beach and it's the same situation as mickcris's. It's not a SWM, and the building management charges per connection. The monthly rental fee for four connections to the dish would cost us about half what we pay for cable (which also includes Internet). Give that we don't watch that much TV there, we've opted for (gulp) cable.