Anyone know anything about satellite receiver installation?

[golfgal]

We got a free upgrade from Dish to a HD-DVR for "Christmas". They mailed out the box but apparently I didn't explain what I wanted to do well enough and we are moving the box from one room to another so it isn't picking up the signal. Now, I know with cable there is a junction box somewhere in the house (I think it is outside actually). With cable you can move the coax on the splitter to activate different "ports" in the house. Our satellite is connected to this same box. If I wanted to move the box to a different room, can I move that coax to the right port on the box? The Dish support guy is telling me they need to run a new coax from the dish to the wall outlet-which they did NOT do when they set up our other HD-DVR. If this is all that needs to be done, I can do that myself and save myself a day of waiting for the tech to come out.

 

[GeorgeG]

The cables and connections inside the house are usually the same for dish and cable. The difference is outside they will be hooked up to either the cable TV line coming in from the street or to the line going to the dish. Inside, it's all one system.

 

[bicker]

Most of the time that's the case, at least with newer wiring (RG6). I bet what OP is hearing from Dish is paranoia about the possibility of older wiring (RG59) in the home. I guess the rule of thumb is "try it"... and if it doesn't work, then the CSR at Dish was right about new wiring being necessary (but either way it probably won't need to be a straight run from satellite to box, unless I'm missing something about Dish's equipment).

 

[golfgal]

Most of the time that's the case, at least with newer wiring (RG6). I bet what OP is hearing from Dish is paranoia about the possibility of older wiring (RG59) in the home. I guess the rule of thumb is "try it"... and if it doesn't work, then the CSR at Dish was right about new wiring being necessary (but either way it probably won't need to be a straight run from satellite to box, unless I'm missing something about Dish's equipment).

We have only had Dish for 2 1/2 years so I would assume the wiring is ok. The cables they made for inside say RG6 on them. I am sure it is just a hook up a switch thing, which is ok because that will be fast at least. I looked at the junction box outside this morning and moved one but that didn't help-but I don't know that I moved the 'RIGHT" one either. I didn't have time to mess around with it too much.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

If this is DirecTV, you need 2 cables to be run to an HD receiver. The regular receivers only need one, but the HD receivers require two.

 

[bicker]

We have only had Dish for 2 1/2 years so I would assume the wiring is ok.

I'm confused... I thought you said that you wanted to switch which wires in your home you'd be using - so you wouldn't be using the wiring that you've been using for the last 2 1/2 years.

The cables they made for inside say RG6 on them.

That's the key. The important thing will be the wiring inside your walls, on the new run you plan to start using. As long as it is RG6, and has no breaks, you should be golden.


Except...

If this is DirecTV, you need 2 cables to be run to an HD receiver. The regular receivers only need one, but the HD receivers require two.

Really? That's very interesting. Do you know why? (I'm going to try to research it a bit later today.)

 

[bicker]

Okay just did a bit of research. The "2 cables" arrangement is old - pre-2008. Since 2008, the systems that they've been installing work fine with just one coax run.

 

[golfgal]

We won't be switching wires in the house-at least when we got the HD DVR in our tv room they didn't have to do that and that was Christmas 2008. We had a receiver in our basement family room. That one controlled the old tv in the basement as well as the new HD TV in the main floor family room. We got an offer for a free upgrade to HD DVR and free HD for life so this is why we are finally switching out the receivers (they wanted to charge us $99 before and no offer of free HD). The dish is set up with one wire connected to the coax in the junction box outside the house to go to the coax in the tv room (which is on our second floor). Another wire is set up to go to the coax for the basement tv. Our house is new enough that they installed all the cable lines when they were building the house.

We want to now have the receiver in the main floor family room on the HD TV but also control the basement tv as well.

I was just hoping that someone could give me simple directions to hook this up so I could get it done yesterday. They are coming out from Dish to hook it up this afternoon.