DirecTV Hook-up Questions (1 Viewer)

[Scott.Lacy]

Hi all,

OK, I've got some questions that might make me sound pretty stupid, but I am stupid, so that's ok. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

My sister-in-law just got a good deal on a HD DirecTV package and had it installed on Friday. Basically, the setup is as follows:

Oval Triple LNB dish on the roof with two cables coming out of it....feeding to the basement.

One cable goes to the HD tv (also in the basement) and is hooked up to a HIRD-E86 for HD DirecTV.

The other cable is fed through the ceiling of the finished basement to the upstairs standard TV and connects to a generic receiver. Everything works fine.

As soon as it was installed, we went to CC and she bought a DirecTivo, a 4 port multi-switch and 50 ft. of RG6 cable.

When we got back to the house, I hooked both feeds from the dish into the multi-switch, then hooked up three feeds (1 for the HD downstairs, and 2 for the Tivo upstairs). After I was finished connecting everything, the HD TV worked fine, but the upstairs TV cannot acquire a signal on either the Tivo or the Generic receiver. I've been doing some research and it seems as if the oval dish has a multi-switch built into it. Does this mean that I do not need the multi-switch and all cables should be run directly from the dish to the receivers? If not, how can I make this work?

As I said, I'm not the sharpest tack on the shelf when it comes to this stuff, so thanks in advance for any advice.

Scott

 

[WesleyHester]

I didn't get enough details from your post but I'll try and help anyway:

I also have a triple LNB Oval dish feeding 1 HD receiver and 1 SD receiver.

My dish setup came with a 2 output multi-switch box. If a wanted to add a Tivo receiver, I would have to REMOVE my current multi-switch box from the dish and REPLACE it with a 4 output multi-switch box (I don't think they make 3 outputs but there could be some).

Just reading your post it sounds as if you connected the NEW 4 output multi-switch into the OLD 2 output multi-switch and that would be incorrect. If I am wrong in this then I am sorry I misunderstood.

I do know that my current 2 output multi-switch has 4 inputs that are connected to 4 cables from the LNBs and that the other side has 2 outputs that are connected to my receivers.

You stated: "I hooked BOTH feeds from the dish into the multi-switch, then hooked up three feeds (1 for the HD downstairs, and 2 for the Tivo upstairs). By "both" did you actually mean 4 cables from the LNBs and not "both" from the 2 outputs on your current multi-switch (not the new one)?

 

[Robert_J]

Does this mean that I do not need the multi-switch and all cables should be run directly from the dish to the receivers?

Again correct. The Phase III multi-sat dish has a built in switch with four outputs. You should run two more cables and connect them to the DirecTivo. If you ever need more than four outputs, that would require a 4x8 (or 5x8) cascadable multi-switch. More than eight outputs and there are different options available.

-Robert