DishPro Plus 44 Switch Review

[Scott Greczkowski]

Well after months of delays it is here, the DishPro Plus 44 switch! The multi dish switch billed as the swiss army knife of Dish Network switches. And from the short time I have played with it, it lives up to its billing!

I rushed home from work to find my box from DishStore.NET at my door. I quickly ripped it open to find my long awaited prize jewel inside. (well ok... I opened the box, and in the box there was a box, and inside that box was a box, and inside that box was two more boxes, and one of the boxes even had another box inside!) There was a total of 5 boxes used to ship this monster of a switch!

I also found in the box from DishStore.NET 3 Dish Pro Plus separators and a DishPro Dual LNB (I am going to convert my dish at 61.5 from Legacy to DishPro technology)

I quickly went to town getting ready to hook my new switch up.... then I realized something. For each Dish Pro Plus Separator I had I needed two coax jumpers for each one, plus since I was hooking this switch up through my existing DishPro 34 switch I needed jumpers for that as well.

So I hopped into my truck and went to Radio shack, where I purchased all 6 of their 1 Foot RG-6 cables they had in stock. My cost came to $25. I needed to go to Best Buy to get more jumpers. At Best Buy I got three 3 foot jumper cables for $4 each.

I then drove back home to get it hooked up...

Since my DP34 switch is located near one of my 921's I felt that was the best one to setup first. The manual did not really to tell you the order to hook things up, so I opted to get all the cables plugged in then plug in the power for the power inserter.

I got everything hooked up, had the satellite feeds going to the switch, and I had the feed from the outside going to the power inserter. Then I realized something, I needed one more RG6 cable to go from the power inserter to the Dish Pro Separator. I did a quick search and found a 3 foot cable (phew!) and hooked it up.

I then ran the 2 cables from the separator to the back of the 921.

Tech Tip... If you have a receiver marked Dish Pro PLUS compatible and you don't have the latest software you can run your line to the Satellite 2 Input on your receiver and you unit can get the update that way.

Then the moment of truth came, I turned on the TV and the 921... I then plugged in the power inserter for the DP+44 switch.

Was I going to be happy?

I quickly went to the menus and did a check switch.

A smile came across my face as I saw the screen say it was doing step 1 of 4. (The DP34 does 3 steps) The check switch took around 60 seconds to complete, a little longer then it did with the DP34 switch.

When it was done, I saw what a wanted to see... DPP44 was my switch listed! I was kind of shocked to see that instead of just 4 satellite locations displayed there were actually 5! I guess the DP+44 can be cascaded for a total of 5 satellite locations!

I was very happy that it worked (and it worked the first time!)

I decided to challenge the DP+44 switch and see if I could make it not work.

I decided to hook it up to one of Dish Networks biggest problem children, the DishPlayer 7200.

I ran a RG 6 cable from the switch to the DishPlayer, I then did a check switch on the DishPlayer. It identified the switch as a SW-64 (like its supposed to!) and it worked great! (Note however that the DishPlayer did not show the FSS satellite at 105 as its software can not handle the FSS satellite. This is a DishPlayer software issue, and nothing is wrong with the DP+44)

And there we have it.

I am going to play with it some more, and I am going to attempt something which I am not sure it can handle...

I am going to hook up a total of 3 DishPro Plus Receivers (2 921's and 1 721, plus a Dishplayer 7200) This will make the DP+44 output to 7 different tuners from 1 switch.

I will let you know how I made out at a later time.

So far I feel that to call the DP+44 switch the Swiss Army Knife of Dish Network switches is a fitting name. Will the unit continue to work flawlessly? If not you will hear it here.

Below are some pictures of the unit and my check switch screens. I did not take any pictures of my install outside, as I have yet to tidy up things there.

Remember if your looking for a DishPro Plus 44 switch our friends at
DishStore.NET

have a huge stock of DP+44 units in stock and they are ready to ship!

[Brando]

Hi,

I need to ask about the Diseqc switch. I am trying to connect two dishes to a single receiver using a Diseqc dish. I have a fortec star lifetime receiver. The connections were made through the switch but the receiver is still only detecting one dish. I checked the setup can you help. You can email me at baby_boy_brando@hotmail.com

[NHDishOwner]

I have heard of DSS and FTA but not FSS. Thanks........

[Scott Greczkowski]

FSS is the KU service that Dish Network rents, they rent space on two satellites, at 105 and 129. To see these satellites you need a SuperDish which has a FSS lnb on it to pick up the lower powered KU signal.

Thats what FSS is.

[rtt2]

They should make the Dish Pro Plus Separators able to plug directly into the back of the satellite receiver.

I hope I am explaining myself here...

Similiar to the way the VOOM diplexer clips directly onto the back of the receiver directly into the input.

[mike123abc]

My 6000 saw the DPP44 as a SW21 cascaded with a SW64. My 811 worked flawlessly. My 301 is causing me problems. It is dark now so I cannot really diagnose it well.

I have 3 satellites hooked up at the moment (119/110/61.5), since it got dark before I could hook up 121. 119 on input 1, 110 on input 2, 61.5 on input 3.

The 6000 sees 119/110/61.5 on a SW64 on the 1 side of a SW21, it sees the 2 side of the SW21 as not connected (correct since 121 not connected yet).

The 811 sees DPP44 with input 1 being 119, input 2 being 110, input 3 being 61.5 and input4 not connected.

The 301 is seeing 119 on 1, 110 on 2, nothing on 3, and a "feed" 61.5 on 4. It is very odd. But, it is dark and I have not had a chance to go out to check the connections.

Tomorrow if I get up early enough before it gets hot, I hope to hook up 121. Hopefully this will fix up the 301.

[Foxbat]

Scott,
On the sixth photo you included the 921 identifies the Device for the 110/Port 1 as "feed" and 119/Port 2 as "sgl". Any idea what these indicate?

[Stargazer]

I know that when I do a check switch with the SuperDish using a DP-34 with three satellites at 105, 110, 119 it indicates it as:

Switch Status" Connected to a DP34 with 3 inputs
Port 1 DP Feed 105 Even, Odd
Port 2 DP Feed 110 Even, Odd
Port 3 DP-Dual-2 119 Even, Odd

The Feed indicates one output on the lnbf while the Dual-2 indicates two outputs on the lnbf. The switch only needs one output from each lnbf and I believe some may have two because they just used some that they had from bulk supplies for their Dish500's to use on the SuperDish.

Perhaps the sgl indicates it as being single, the same as feed, that the lnbf would have only one output instead of two.

[Tweakophyte]

Does the DP+44 "switch" faster than your old set up?

[Scott Greczkowski]

No seems about the same speed.

In the pictures you see the DPP44 switch status, whic is being fed from a SuperDish which is pointed at 105. The SGL is the FSS feed which is fed out by a Dishpro single.