Direct TV HD Tivo Setup? (1 Viewer)

[Andy_Bu]

Hi all,

I have been a DISH network customer since 1996 but my wife and I have decided to make the move to Direct TV as we like the Tivo HD PVR solution better than the 921 HD PVR solution from DISH.

Being a total newbie to Direct TV, could someone explain to me the setup I would need for HD Tivo?

These are my needs

1) A dish that can handle a two room setup

2) One Tivo HD sat receiver and one regular sat receiver


Since I am having a contractor in to redo my home theater, I want to prewire it for this setup, but I am not sure how many wires come down from the dish, or what switches are needed.


If anyone could help me out with a basic setup, or point me to a wiring diagram, that would be great! Thanx

 

[Rob Kramer]

The 3-lnb (oval) dish will have 4 lines comming off the built-in (or attached) multiswitch. Each of these connections can support 1 directv box (ie, you can do 4 rooms with standard dtv boxes). DirecTivo requires 2 lines (two tuners are built in to each unit). In this configuration, the dish supports either 3 rooms (1 dtivo + 2 boxes) or 2 rooms (2 dtivos). HD Dtivo has four built-in tuners. Two for dtv (just like standard dtivo), and two additional tuners for OTH HD signals (from an external antenna - not the dish).

You need four cables to the HD DTivo - 2 from the dish, and two from your HDTV antenna (maybe 1 rooftop + 1 indoor, or just 2 fm rooftop). You will still have two lines left from your dish, which can be run into other rooms.

If I was building new, I would run 8 cables (4 not used) for future upgrades (you might want video out in the future). Cost of 4 additional cables is nada ($30 for 100' of rg6).

 

[Stephen Tu]

You only need 1 line from the OTA antenna, so just 3 cables to the HD-DTivo.

I'd recommend getting a standard DTivo for the 2nd room, so run 2 sat lines to each room. Once you get used to PVR viewing, watching on a standard receiver is just annoying. The standard DTivo is only $99, definitely worth it, esp. since the one Tivo fee would cover both machines.