2 cables or 1 cable + 1 separator?

ehoeppner

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Original poster
Feb 20, 2006
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I'm upgrading from a 508 with a Dish 500 to a 625. I have a legacy twin LNBF & a single cable from the dish to the 508.

If I have read these many posts correctly, I think the 625 could be hooked up either with 2 cables running from the dish to the 625, or with the 1 existing cable and a separator just before the 625. Is one of these two ways better or preferred? Would I even have a choice, or is it the installer's choice?

Related question, the existing cable is about 9 years old, running along the outside of a brick wall facing south. The cable jacket is very faded & cracking all along the length. Will the installer replace the cable as part of the upgrade?

Thanks. This website has been a HUGE help to me!!
 
ehoeppner said:
I'm upgrading from a 508 with a Dish 500 to a 625. I have a legacy twin LNBF & a single cable from the dish to the 508.

If I have read these many posts correctly, I think the 625 could be hooked up either with 2 cables running from the dish to the 625, or with the 1 existing cable and a separator just before the 625. Is one of these two ways better or preferred? Would I even have a choice, or is it the installer's choice?

Related question, the existing cable is about 9 years old, running along the outside of a brick wall facing south. The cable jacket is very faded & cracking all along the length. Will the installer replace the cable as part of the upgrade?

Thanks. This website has been a HUGE help to me!!

I honestly think you'll be better off with the Legacy Twin using 2 lines from the LNB to the 625... I see too many DPP Twins that are problematic.
 
You can't feed a dual tuner with a Legacy Twin with a single cable. The installer needs to replace the Legacy Twin with a DPP Twin and that LNB can feed the 625 and 508. If you're NOT keeping the 508 then he can feed the 625 with two cable runs from the Legacy Twin.

To avoid trouble calls, I would ask him to replace the cable. Legacy technology was more forgiven than DP technology and if the cable is too old, you're gonna have problems with DP equipment.
 
RandallA said:
To avoid trouble calls, I would ask him to replace the cable. Legacy technology was more forgiven than DP technology and if the cable is too old, you're gonna have problems with DP equipment.

So very true... as this also applies to wallplates with the white center, not the blue.

The other side of me says I can remember two specific New Connects, everything brand new... DP+ Twin fails.... I wasted more time dealing with bad out of box whereas I could have thrown up a DP Twin/Quad up and run a second line and be done with the job the first time... no trouble calls, no headaches... only two tests instead of three... life is good. :)
 
rcdallas said:
So very true... as this also applies to wallplates with the white center, not the blue.

The other side of me says I can remember two specific New Connects, everything brand new... DP+ Twin fails.... I wasted more time dealing with bad out of box whereas I could have thrown up a DP Twin/Quad up and run a second line and be done with the job the first time... no trouble calls, no headaches... only two tests instead of three... life is good. :)

so are you saying the blue ones are better? and is blue a universal color marking like it is when marking utilties? becasue there are some things sold by rca that are "satellite" marked with clear or white centers.
 
RIRWIN1983 said:
so are you saying the blue ones are better? and is blue a universal color marking like it is when marking utilties? becasue there are some things sold by rca that are "satellite" marked with clear or white centers.

FWIW, for what I am told the blue center wallplates are rated for DPP technology.
 
Hmm ... last summer I tried to replace a Legacy Twin with a DPP, using RG-6 cable, but could neer get it to work. Ended up getting a Legacy Quad to hook up my new 721. Perhaps it was the wall plates that did me in. :(

In any event, Legacy technology is apparently more "forgiving" and I would stick with that if possible.
 
The colored barrel connectors are rated to 2 Ghz and above. The white ones or clear ones are rated to 1 Ghz. For DP to work everything (cable, ground block, barrel connectors, etc) needs to be rated to at least 2150 Mhz.
 
RandallA said:
The colored barrel connectors are rated to 2 Ghz and above. The white ones or clear ones are rated to 1 Ghz. For DP to work everything (cable, ground block, barrel connectors, etc) needs to be rated to at least 2150 Mhz.

Some of my wall plates and barrels are not rated for 2 GHZ and I have long cable runs and my system works flawlessly using DPP and a seperator. The grounding blocks are also standard.
 
I think the barrels and grounding blocks needing to be the colored ones is vastly overrated. Most of mine are the old ones and my systems run just fine. I have a DPP44 switch, two DP34 switches and am feeding a 721, 921 and VIP622 just fine.
 
Grandude said:
I think the barrels and grounding blocks needing to be the colored ones is vastly overrated. Most of mine are the old ones and my systems run just fine. I have a DPP44 switch, two DP34 switches and am feeding a 721, 921 and VIP622 just fine.

I'm sure most of the older ones can do DPP, I bet you newer parts are made cheap on purpose and wont do 2.2G so you may have to go with the blue centered stuff. Its all a silly game.
 
just because it has a white center it doesnt mean that it won't work... it just means that it was tested to be rated at at least 1 GHz... that doesn't mean it couldn't handle more, they just didn't test it that high.
The colored ones are rated at at least 2.2 GHz.... which is currently high enough for DPP tech. I wouldn't be surprised if 3 GHz was needed in the future.
Wouldn't bother me though, everything I install is rated at 3 Ghz because that is what Wildblue requires
 
ehoeppner said:
I'm upgrading from a 508 with a Dish 500 to a 625. I have a legacy twin LNBF & a single cable from the dish to the 508.

If I have read these many posts correctly, I think the 625 could be hooked up either with 2 cables running from the dish to the 625, or with the 1 existing cable and a separator just before the 625. Is one of these two ways better or preferred? Would I even have a choice, or is it the installer's choice?

Related question, the existing cable is about 9 years old, running along the outside of a brick wall facing south. The cable jacket is very faded & cracking all along the length. Will the installer replace the cable as part of the upgrade?

Thanks. This website has been a HUGE help to me!!

Well, the installer came out Friday morning, replaced the LNB and left the single cable alone. He stated the cables are good for about 20 years (?), but he would check the signal strength once he installed everything. When he checked the strength it was about 75% on 110 and about 80% on 119 (I may have those reversed). Installer said anything above 75% is good. I'm just northwest of Chicago, about 10 miles from O'Hare Airport.

I haven't had any problems yet, I think 75-85% is about all my 508 got for signal strengths except for some peaks at 90%.

Thanks again for everyone's responses!
 
ehoeppner said:
Well, the installer came out Friday morning, replaced the LNB and left the single cable alone. He stated the cables are good for about 20 years (?), but he would check the signal strength once he installed everything. When he checked the strength it was about 75% on 110 and about 80% on 119 (I may have those reversed). Installer said anything above 75% is good. I'm just northwest of Chicago, about 10 miles from O'Hare Airport.

I haven't had any problems yet, I think 75-85% is about all my 508 got for signal strengths except for some peaks at 90%.

Thanks again for everyone's responses!

personally, on a clear day I'd like to see more like 90-100 on most transponders with some of them 100+
 
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