Wiring HD to the Upstairs (1 Viewer)

[BAF]

OTA and DirectTV standard signals currently come into the basement, and we feed the OTA with an RF modulated signal from the DTV to the upstairs via a single R59 cable which in the attic is split to 4 rooms; works well. Soon we will switch to DirectTV HD and send the OTA (for HD this time) upstairs again with the HD DTV RF modulated signal piggybacked on.

Are we better off splitting the signal in the basement and sending up 4 separate cables (somewhat of a pain, but possible), or sending up a single cable, and splitting it in the attic to the destination sets. In any case, should I switch to RG6? Note that the antenna towers are but 10 miles away and provide us with a strong signal.

Thanks to all for your help.

 

[Robert_J]

I'm a little confused. Are you using DTV to mean DirecTV or the proper abbreviation Digital Television?

Is the receiver in the basement or is it upstairs?

-Robert

 

[BAF]

Sorry for the confusion. I am not a professional; acronyms and industry standard abbreviations are not always intuitive to non professionals.

To try to clarify: the off the air antenna cable and the cables from the Direct Tv dish come into the basement. The off the air antenna is split in the basement: one side to the receiver on the first floor, the other side to the upstairs. The Direct TV cables are also routed to the receiver on the first floor. Output from the receiver goes to the nearby television and to a RF modulator. The output from the modulator goes back to the basement where it is combined with the off the air cable to go upstairs.

 

[Robert_J]

As long as you keep the antenna signals and the modulated signals on a separate cable from the DirecTV signals, then you are fine. The new HD channels from DirecTV actually get close enough to the OTA frequencies that they will interfer with each other. Other than that rule, nothing is different. From your description, I don't think you need to change anything in your system.

For DirecTV, what receiver's will you end up with?

-Robert

 

[BAF]

Robert--

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

I am looking at the DirecTV Plus HD DVR and the Weaknees HR20 or HR21 with upgrades.

 

[Robert_J]

The DirecTV Plus HD DVR is the HR21. It used to be the HR20 (which I have). No need to go with an upgraded one when you can just plug in an eSATA drive in the back and use that capacity. When you use an external drive, it does not add capacity. The DVR uses that drive instead of the internal model. If you want to take a chance, you can replace the internal drive yourself. There are step by step instructions at DBS Talk forum.

If you go with the HR21, you need the extra OTA tuner that costs about $50 from DirecTV. When DirecTV went from the HR20 to HR21, they dropped the internal ATSC tuners because most people get their locals via satellite now. But there are some like me who went to great lengths to get good OTA reception and so I use both OTA local HD as well as satellite delivered local HD.

-Robert

 

[BAF]

Robert--

Thanks again for your continued information. Are there formatting issues in adding the eSATA drive; is it "plug and play?" How big is the included hard drive; important to know when deciding about the size of the eSATA to add. Any downsides to using the HR20 with an external drive? It sounds like that may be the way to go as I too would like to have OTA HD. Any websites that address these issues (in addition to the DBS Talk forum you mentioned?)

--Bruce

 

[Robert_J]

The eSATA is plug and play but there are things to remember. Once it is "married" to the DVR, you can't record on it and take it to another DVR and play back. That is it. If you want to use the drive for some other purpose, it will have to be formatted for that use (like with a PC).

Stock drive is 320GB. I've read where people use eSATA drives up to 2TB.

You can't get an HR20 any more. They aren't made. If you want OTA, you need an HR21 and an HM21 (or some similar named box). The HM21 plugs into the HR21's USB port and adds OTA. It becomes the equivalent of an HR20.

DBS Talk is the best site for information like this. In fact, one of the former moderators on that site is working with DirecTV with their DVR software. So he knows the issues as well as the public's wants and needs. He also checks the forum for bug reports after a software release.

-Robert