I’ve been trying to reasearch this on my own but am more confused than ever.
A friend of mine has a single LNB DirecTV satellite dish and wants to use the dual recording function in their Tivo unit.
The clearest way to do that would be to run a second line from the dish to the receiver but that requires a lot of work and expense to pull a new wire through the house.
So I was thinking all they need is a multiswitch near the receiver to split out but read that multiswitches must have a dual LNB which gets us back to running two cables to the multiswitch so no gain there.
I know using a splitter with satellite TV is a no-no but then see that there are high-frequency splitters ( http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=SSM2122 ) but am unsure if they are back to the two cables/dual LNB deal. How does that item differ in essence from a multiswitch?
Anyone have any clue on this? Is there a “simple” way to set this up or are they doomed to pulling new wire?
I have DirecTV for TV service and use the local cable TV company for Internet. Both the satellite dish and the cable drop are at the same corner of the house. I have a TV set receiving DirecTV in the same room as my computer. I told the DirecTV guy that I didn’t want to run extra wires into the house if we didn’t have to. So, he ran the coax down from the satellite dish. He then took that coax coming up from the ground (from the cable TV) and ran them both into a magical splitter looking device. Two coaxial cables run into this device and one cable comes out. This one cable then runs through the walls to the room where the TV and computer are. He then plugged this cable into a companion magical device which split the signal. One coax goes to the satellite receiver on top of the TV, the other goes to the cable modem. Viola, cable and satellite on one cable.
I don’t remember the name of this magical device, however.
So does your friend like the DirecTV Tivo box? I’ve been thinking of getting one. I want to get an HD version, however, to go with my new HDTV.
They love it. Tivo (or at least DVRs in general) are the single best addition to any home entertainment system IMHO. I have yet to meet anyone who didn;t become enamored fo the thing within a week or two of using it. I have had one and miss it (ex-wife kept it). I just bought the HD Tivo for DirecTV but am having issues getting a signal (whole other story from what I am asking here). Once I get it fired up I’ll report back on how it is.
Did you get your HD Tivo from DirecTV or from a store? Does DirecTV provide local HD channels as well? Their website indicates that they don’t, but I’ve found some local DT/HD channels listed on the actual satellite guide, so I’m a bit confused. Since we live about 65 miles from Austin, getting over-the-air TV is a bit tough. I was really planning on relying on DirecTV to provide locals as well. (My HDTV doesn’t even have a tuner.) Were you able to get a good DirecTV signal before?
In order to receive two seperate directv channels at once, you need two cables coming from the dish, no way around it.
Counterintuitively, in order to receive three seperate directv channels at once, you need … two cables coming from the dish (plus an active dish splitter box).