I'm still confused about Duo receiver boxes...

indestructible

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Oct 29, 2010
41
0
Ohio
I'm going to be getting new equipment this weekend, and as I understand it, the Duo receiver boxes work for two TVs. The thing I'm not understanding, though, is how is the secondary TV controlled and operated? For example, I have an HDTV in the living room, and a standard def TV in a room upstairs. If I want the standard def TV to be the secondary TV, how do I change the channel, and stuff, while watching the TV upstairs? Would I have to run down stairs every time I wanted to change the channel, or something? I just don't get how it works if the other TV doesn't have a receiver box. This is probably a silly question, and I'm sure I'll see how it works when I actually get the new equipment, but I just can't wrap my head around it.
 
Not a silly question

Tuner 2 has a UHF Pro (Radio frequency) remote which works through walls/floors. So you just aim the remote at the TV (if you want) and it would change channels. It has a range of 100 feet or so (maybe more)

Tuner 1 remote is usually IR (infrared remote...like most remotes)
 
The secondary TV uses a UHF remote, in where the signal can travel through walls. You will not have to go upstairs to change the channel.

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Not a silly question

Tuner 2 has a UHF Pro (Radio frequency) remote which works through walls/floors. So you just aim the remote at the TV (if you want) and it would change channels. It has a range of 100 feet or so (maybe more)

Tuner 1 remote is usually IR (infrared remote...like most remotes)

The UHF Pro remotes we provide have a range of 200ft.
 
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RaymondG@Dish Network said:
The UHF remotes we provide have a range of 200ft.

As long as there are no walls, floors, or other things that cause interference. :)

Ross

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The UHF remotes we provide have a range of 200ft.
Sorry, Ray...but that is ideal...but in most cases, not real. Many factors come into play...building materials, interference from other electronics, etc, etc. There are many people here who have had trouble with less than 100 ft...even 25 ft. As a DIRT member, be careful with blanket statements.
 
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I have a 722. when the uhf antenna was attached to the back of the receiver, I had dificulty changing channels from less than 30 feet away. Attached a piece of coax between the antenna and the back of the 722, moving the antenna bout 6 feet away from the 722. No more problems.
 
Sorry, Ray...but that is ideal...but in most cases, not real. Many factors come into play...building materials, interference from other electronics, etc, etc. There are many people here who have had trouble with less than 100 ft...even 25 ft. As a DIRT member, be careful with blanket statements.

Agreed. I'm having trouble with the kitchen remote that is upstairs from the receiver about 25 feet away. Have to wave it high in the air to make it work.
 
The factors you listed can contribute to reducing the range of the UHF and UHF Pro remotes. However there are a number of ways to counteract the interference so the remote will funtion at a distance. If anyone is having trouble with their UHF or UHF Pro remotes not working properly please send me a PM and I would be happy to help.
 
Agreed. I'm having trouble with the kitchen remote that is upstairs from the receiver about 25 feet away. Have to wave it high in the air to make it work.

Try extending the antenna out from the receiver with a coax cable. If that's not sufficient pick up a cheap indoor TV antenna (think dollar store) on the end of that length of coax and you'll probably be able to control the receiver from down the street.........lol. I did this with both my 722 & 722K, problem solved for about $10.

Ed
 
As a retailer I have to ask this, who did you sign up through and get this receiver from? There is no reason why a customer should not know how this receiver works unless they just purchased it on their own. I mean no disrespect to the OP but to whoever you got the receiver from. That's poor customer education on their part. It just frustrates me.
 
As a retailer I have to ask this, who did you sign up through and get this receiver from? There is no reason why a customer should not know how this receiver works unless they just purchased it on their own. I mean no disrespect to the OP but to whoever you got the receiver from. That's poor customer education on their part. It just frustrates me.
The OP said he will be getting the receiver this weekend, so I assume he has an appointment scheduled and hasn't yet been "educated".
 
I remember when I got Dish installed last December, I had the 625 installed initially (have since upgraded to ViP722k), and I asked the rep "How the hell does the remote TV thing work?" He explained it to me, and when I tried it out, I was amazed. :)
 
Try extending the antenna out from the receiver with a coax cable. If that's not sufficient pick up a cheap indoor TV antenna (think dollar store) on the end of that length of coax and you'll probably be able to control the receiver from down the street.........lol. I did this with both my 722 & 722K, problem solved for about $10.



Ed

Hard to do on a 922...
 
They changed the antenna connection on the 922 because it receives and TRANSMITS in the 2.4 GHz band.
 
The most amazing thing to me about the TV2 setup isn't the UHF remote, but how the feed to the 2nd room was made. I had one existing coax to my living room (TV1) that was fed through multiple walls and tiny attic crawlspace...I had no idea how the tech was going to feed another coax out from the tuner to the 2nd room, let alone 2 sat feeds into the tuner. Until I saw him put a splitter/diplexer on the outside of the house that fed the 2nd room, and a triplexer behind my TV cabinet so that all in/out feeds were going through that one coax from the outside of the house to the living room. No feeding wires in my limited attic space, no extra cables needed, no drilling of extra holes in walls, except for the coax directly through the outside wall to the 2nd room. Ingenius.
 
As a retailer I have to ask this, who did you sign up through and get this receiver from? There is no reason why a customer should not know how this receiver works unless they just purchased it on their own. I mean no disrespect to the OP but to whoever you got the receiver from. That's poor customer education on their part. It just frustrates me.

Like someone else said, I haven't actually gotten the equipment yet. I've had equipment from back in 2000, that I've still been using today, so I have no idea how the more modern technology works at all. I had read about these "Duo" receivers on the Dish Network site, but it didn't really explain how they worked, just that they connected to two TVs. I didn't go to retailer to upgrade, I just talked to someone at Dish about upgrading, and set up an upgrade time (this weekend). I figured they'd actually explain it to me when they come to do the install, I just wanted to have some idea of how it worked ahead of time.

New question, though; can the secondary TV remote be set up to control the actual TV, itself? What I mean is, on the TV upstairs, I have it connected to one of those digital TV tuners. The tuner has its own remote, but the only thing it can do to the TV is power it off. So, if I need to adjust TV settings, I have to have the second remote handy. It'd be super nice to only have to need one remote...
 
Yes, there are device codes you can enter for your brand of tv that will control most TV functions: volume and power in SAT mode, most other TV remote functions in TV mode. If you get a good installer he/she will likely set your remote up for you to control the TV.