Directv Hughes Tivo Dual tuner question (1 Viewer)

[Chris Sharp]

Hey....I have a how's it work question...

My Directv setup is as follows:
Hughes Directv Tivo series 1 dual tuner not modified
Round Dish dual LNB
pretty simple right?

This evening I was tearing apart my living room in order to paint it this weekend. In doing so I needed to move my entertainment center towards the middle of the room. As a result, I had to disconnect one of the coax cables coming from the dish to the Tivo. I left the other one connected. When I turned the tivo on I expected to only be able to view one tuner. To my surprise both tuners are still available and it's showing me live TV, not something already recorded on both tuners. I changed the channels on each of the tuners and I was still able to view a different channel on each tuner. I went into setup and checked the signal strength and I normally have mid 90's for both my signals...one signal was showing me 44 strength while the other was showing 94. How is this possible without having both coax cables connected?????

What little I thought I knew about satellite TV is now in question. Does this sound right to anyone? Thanks in advance for any explanations.

Chris

 

[Heath_E]

As far as I know, that's not supposed to be possible. I may have to go yank one of my cables now just to see.

 

[Chris Sharp]

As far as I know, that's not supposed to be possible. I may have to go yank one of my cables now just to see.

Let me know! It's still working....

 

[TonyTone]

Stupid question, but...how do you know (or, how can you tell) if you're really watching a different channel on each of the two tuners or if the box is in reality switching channels on the same tuner even though you're clicking on the "change tuner button/switch"?

The real test to see if you're still getting the two-tuner functionality even with just one coax connected would be to schedule (just checking the 30-min. buffer doesn't count) two programs on two different channels (one on each channel) to record at the same time and see if both programs do indeed get recorded in their entirety.

 

[Chris Sharp]

Stupid question, but...how do you know (or, how can you tell) if you're really watching a different channel on each of the two tuners or if the box is in reality switching channels on the same tuner even though you're clicking on the "change tuner button/switch"?

Well I changed each tuner to a new channel and the 30 minute buffer filled up on both. I was able to rewind as much as 30 minutes on each channel. So I know both tuners are working.

Couple things I have found out. I can't watch food network and another channel. When I switch to food network it tells me it's searching for a signal. So are certain channels available on one tuner and not the other?

Also, I unplugged the tivo and when it started up it needed both tuners connected into order to startup. Otherwise it got to 26% of gathering information from the satellite and quit. This doesn't make much sense to me either.

Anyone shed some light on how this crazy/great technology really works?

 

[StephenL]

Two tuners, two coax cables and a dual LNB enables reception of channels from odd and even transponders at the same time. If you disconnect one coax you can only receive channels from odd OR even transponders.
http://www.satellitetech.com/techhelp.html

 

[Grant B]

I have the same reciever so instead of starting a new thread, I'll post here.
I have the hughes in the bedroom and have a HD box as the main and use an oval 3 lnb dish for both. I also get the directv HD package. So why can't I record the HD package on the Hughes?
I know the video will be 'dumbed down' but there are a few things on HDNet that I would get a season pass to.
Any ideas?

 

[Stephen Tu]

I have the same reciever so instead of starting a new thread, I'll post here

I think that's kind of silly. There are only a few PVR models; that would make for a few giant threads and make it very difficult to search for information. Better to make a separate topic with a subject containing well chosen keywords, when you have a specific question rather than looking for a general review. (E.g. "Why can't I record HD on an SD DirecTivo")

As for your question -
It simply isn't designed to handle the HD data rates and format. There isn't any hardware/software in the unit to downconvert the programs to a lower resolution. It is basically dumping raw satellite data to disk, then when time to play back it is grabbing the data and sending it to the decoder. The decoder in the unit would choke if you send it HD.

You'll have to wait a few months for the HD DirecTivo model to handle those channels.