please verify my setup

  • Thread starter Thread starter jimmyt
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jimmyt

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Hey everybody,

I am doing some pre-wiring for additional receivers because I am renovating my basement. I would like to wire for 6 receivers. Currently I have a 18-20" Bell dish with single LNB. Two cables come into the house.

Can I use the same dish and just by a dual LNB?

For the wiring, I plan to bring in 4 cables and attach a HF splitter (minimum 1 GHz from HD?) to each cable in the house. These would split into 2 separate SW44s and then feed the receivers. Will this work? What is the cost for the SW44s? Where can I get them outside of a Bell store?

I know this has been discussed extensively, I just want to make sure my plan is a good one.

Thanks.

Jim
 
If I understand your proposed setup correctly, you're planning to bring two more cables in from your dish, i.e. you have two cables coming in now from a single "dual" LNB and you want to add two more cables in.

Whether you can just add a second single "dual" LNB to your current dish depends on whether you want additional programming (esp. HD) or not. All HD and some SD programming is on the 82 satellite. In order to pick up the 82 satellite, you need an "elliptical" 20" dish and it needs to be skewed slightly. This allows the second LNB to receive the signal from 82. If you don't care about HD/additional programming, you can just add a second single "dual" LNB to your existing dish. This will give you four cables all carrying signals from the 91 satellite.

I'm not sure your plan to use separators to double the number of potential receiver hookups from four to eight will work. I don't know anything about the types of separators people use to split a single cable to feed a two-tuner 9200 receiver, but I'm not sure they'll work with legacy LNBs. If they do work, and if you don't care about HD/extra programming, I don't think you'd need a SW44 at that point - you can just connect the eight cables from the four separators directly to your receivers.

If you do intend to have HD, you have several options. Again, you'll need a 20" elliptical dish skewed to pick up the 82 satellite. With this kind of dish setup, you have at least three different options for LNBs:

1. You can add a second single "dual" LNB and feed all four cables into a SW44. You can then "stack" an additional SW44, allowing you to connect up to 8 receivers. You don't need any separators with this kind of setup.

2. You can replace the single "dual" LNB with a "quad" LNB, which is essentially two LNBs in a single housing with four cable outputs. A "quad" LNB has a built-in SW44 switch. Only problem with this setup is you'd still need at least one more SW44 to feed more than four receivers (and you may also need a non-"legacy" quad LNB, since "legacy" quads may not allow switch stacking). Advantage is that the cost of quad LNB probably cheaper than buying another single "dual" LNB and SW44;

3. You can replace the single "dual" LNB with a twin "dual" DishPro (NOT DishPro Plus) LNB. This is like a quad LNB, but with only two cables out (i.e. it has a built in SW21 switch instead of a SW44). You can then feed the two cables into a DP34 switch, which is a two-in, four-out stackable switch, i.e. you can add up two two more DP34s to feed up to twelve receivers. Advantage of this option is you don't have to drill any more holes through your walls.

Most of the above hardware is NOT available from BEV, since they don't support it. I've always had good success getting it on ebay. Alternatively, if you're in a bigger centre, there's probably four or five independent satellite TV suppliers that would have the hardware.
 
Hey Jimmy, what you are proposing is similar to what I have (including HD).

As taxtwit mentioned, your dish needs to be 'skewable'. So check the dish to see if it can rotate (like a steering wheel).

I have two dual LNBs (four lines coming into the house) that connect to four splitters (both sides power pass, up to 2.4GHz). Each splitter feeds one line to each of the two SW44s. This allows me to have eight 'outs' to the house.

This does work, providing you have a skewable dish.

G'luck!
 
Patman, any reason you need to use the SW44s? Can't you just connect receivers to the two "outs" coming directly from "splitter" (I think it's actually called a "seperator") without passing through a SW44?
 
Splitters and separators are different things...

You can do as you suggest if you are using dish pro plus LNBs (with SW44 built in) so: DPP LNB(s) to separator giving you two outs...

You need a switch in there somewhere to put both satellites onto one line.

If you have legacy LNBs (or dish pro (without the 'plus')) the two sats need to be combined somewhere in order to have both sats on one output. So, by using splitters, you can split each line (one 82 signal becomes two signals for eg.) and then feed each line into each SW44.

Here's some good info on DPP technology:
http://www.satelliteone.com/dish/support/support.html
 
patman92,

just to be clear. when you say a "DPP LNB(s) to separator giving you two outs..."

that is limited to one dual receiver.


IMO for 6 receivers is tricky if some will be dual tuners.

The 2 Bell approved ways is trunkating 2 SW44's or
using the proper splitters and split each line into 2 SW44's.

More expensive but many more options and less cabling is the DPP way.

One DPP twin lnb.
2 Lines coming into house
2 DPP 44 switches trunkated
= 8 receivers (including dual tuners with a separator)

Cost of the DPP 44 switches is more and a bit harder to get as well.
 
How far can the sw44s be from the dish. I plan on running the 4 incoming cables about 65 feet to the two sw44s and then out to the receivers. I would like to keep the switches inside the house.
 
Q: You're right, you would have to add the DPP 44s in there for more outs.

I agree that the DPP way is the better way, but you're right it's expensive compared to the 'bell' way.

Jimmy: My setup runs about that length (between switches and dish) and works fine... just be sure to have good quality compression connections and RG6.
 
total cable run for legacy is around 100-150 feet.
DP/ DPP is 200 feet.

The switch can be anywhere between that.
 
No one has mentioned the different between two tuners and two receivers.

I believe Bell ExpressVu allows for 6 tuners, not 6 receivers. So be cautious if any of your hook-ups involve a 5900 SD PVR or a 9200 HD PVR -- as each will count as 2, not 1, tuner/receivers.

If I am mis-informed, I am happy to be corrected.
 
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