I recently had to purchase a SWM5 LNB on my own because like many DTV was unwilling to help their long standing customers with the SWM upgrade. I have the 3 prong LNB right now for HD/DVR. Due to my HOA we had to get rid of the second cable outside our place and the SWM was the only solution. I now have the SWM5 LNB in hand and am going to install it. I have only one HD DVR receiver and internal cabling in the house. The DTV tech said it should be an easy swap of the LNB and plug straight into the DVR which is SWM compatible. I've been reading other posts about splitters and power supplies but they were all in conjunction with multiple receivers. Do I need any of these items? My understanding from the tech was I only needed the LNB since the DVR was compatible and I only had one. Also, once I swap the LNBs out, do I need to reprogram the receiver? Or can I just pretty much plug and play as before? I don't want to lose anything I have now. Any info will help. Thanks.
Installing SWM5 LNB
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Sorry, ALL SWiM LNB's require the power supply, regardless of how many receiver you have - it will NOT work otherwise...
As dishrich said, you do need a 21 v. power inserter. You should unplug your receiver when hooking things up (make sure you connect the LNB and receiver to the correct ports on the power inserter). Plug in the PI first, then the receiver. It will recognize the SWM and configure itself automatically.
Thanks guys. Is there a difference between the SWM8-PI and a SWM5? Can I use the SWM8-PI for the SWM5?
Make sure NOT to use the BBC. Plug the RG6 coming from the power inserter right into the back of the receiver. as long as you have the dish properly sighted in, it should work flawlessly.
The power inserters are all the same, its only the splitters that are different.
The power inserters are all the same, its only the splitters that are different.
The SWM8 uses a 29 volt PI, while the SWM LNBs use a 21 volt PI. Supposedly Directv supplied 29 volt units for some early SWM LNB installations until the 21 volt type was available, so either should work in your case.
One more thing, if my satellite was already aligned with the previous LNB which looks the same but with multiple cables, will I need to adjust it for the new SWM LNB? And no other programming is involved for the SWM? Will my current programming, saved shows, lists, etc. remain? I don't want to lose all that stuff.
Just ordered the SWM8 PI. Hope it goes smoothly when I come to swapping everything out. Thanks all for your input.
Just ordered the SWM8 PI. Hope it goes smoothly when I come to swapping everything out. Thanks all for your input.
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Also, you seem to be working around it, but I would believe the HOA cannot enforce whatever rule they are trying to enforce against you due to OTARD. It doesn't specifically spell out cabling, but they would probably rule in your favor if you brought a complaint against an HOA. Never heard of a complaint about cabling before.
you said you have a 3 prong lnb are you talking about a triple sat or a kaku lnb? You should not lose your scheduler any of your old programs. What kind of HD/Dvr is it? It isn't a Tivo is it? If you are running an HR10-250 of a tripple sat dish then swm will not work on it. I just ask because when you said you had a 3 prong lnb I wanted to make sure because it that is a slimline dish then the 3 prong is the 5 lnb. The 101 99 and 103 are all picked up by the middle one.
I believe it is the KA/KU LNB. It has 3 prongs that start at the center but go to the left when you look at them. It looks exactly the same as the SWM but just has 4 outputs instead of 1. We have the Slimline dish. We have the HR10 receiver, I think. I'm not at home at the moment and I forgot. The DTV tech said it was SWM compatible.
You should be able to swap it out without realignment. However, the HR10 is not compatible with SWM, nor does it receive the Ka satellites. Directv is trying to replace all of those and if it really is a HR10, they will upgrade you to a HR2x DVR (hopefully at no cost).
Honestly I don't know which receiver we have without it in front of me. But the DTV tech looked at it and said it was SWM compatible so I never bothered to remember what model it was. I'll have to check when I get home.
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Okay, we have the model HR21-700. It's the black one with one SWM2 jack in the back. We have the Slimline dish and I bought the SWM5 KA/KU5 LNB and 21V power inserter. Is there anything else I need to swap out current LNB to this one HD DVR receiver?
If all you have is the one DVR an no other receivers, yes you are set. Just remove the AU9-ODU and replace it with the SWM-ODU. Figure out what line you have connected to the LNB and run that into the PI-21. Then run a line from the PI-21 to the receivers SWM input.
If you go into system setup and start the re-setup satellite when it get's to the system test select the SWM instead of multi-switch. Then hook up your line from the PI-21. The receiver will verify the setup, then it should walk you through from there.
If you unplug the receiver before you connect the SWM it may not be able to read the new configuration. Then you will have to wait for it to go to the black screen before you can do what I just told you. So just leave the receiver on when you do the switch.
If you unplug the receiver before you connect the SWM it may not be able to read the new configuration. Then you will have to wait for it to go to the black screen before you can do what I just told you. So just leave the receiver on when you do the switch.
All I have to say is wow.. The HOA bitching about a cable.. Obama should make the concept of HOA illegal. I would make the HOA split the bill for the stuff you had to but because of some anal retentive duma**es who dont bother to look at the legality of what they enforce.
I know this HOA bullsh*t is driving me up the wall. It's so lame what we complain about and they nabbed about 3 or 4 units for the some satellite violation. Who gives a crap?! They're everywhere. But whatever, that's a whole other story.
I just swapped out my AU9 LNB with a SWM5 LNB. I hooked it up to the proper cable. From the wall it goes into the Power Inerter (which everyone told me), but they sent me a SWM Kicker which they said replaced the PI. So, it goes into that and from there goes into our SWM jack in the back of our single receiver. When booting up it was unable to detect the satellite. The satellite setup is now set to Dish: Slimline5S-SWM, Switch: SWM, and Recevier: Dual. The satelite should be aligned with the previous LNB which I was told would be the same. Is there anything else I need to do programming-wise to get it to detect the satellite? I reset the receiver and it still won't do it. Is there a setting I am missing? I need help right away so I know whether I should put my old setup back or have DTV come out and hook it up for me.
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