Multi-Switch Issue

[Lawdog150]

Hello everyone.....

Today I had Directv out to perform a Genie upgrade on my system. My house is about ten years old and the satellite dish and wiring were already in place when I bought the house. I currently have three tv's on the system and was ordering the Genie with one client and keeping one of my DVR's.

The technician that came out advised me that he could not find my multiswitch when he was up in my attic. I went up there myself and found the wires coming into the house and down the wall into the rooms but did not locate a switch myself. He then took the lines off of the back of the two receivers and hooked something up to the disconnected wires and told me the bad news was I had a switch somewhere but he wasn't going to be able to do anything because he couldn't locate it. He went on to tell me that it was too hot in the attic for him to work and he would have to re-schedule another appointment to come back in a morning time slot to work on it. He also told me to tell Directv to have an In-Home Tech come out instead of a regular installer.

When the installer was on the roof, he took my satellite dish apart and there were four coaxial cables feeding the dish. He told me once again there should be a switch somewhere but told me again there was nothing he could do since he couldn't locate it.

Does this sound right? I'm going back into the attic tomorrow to try and locate the switch but I scoured the attic today and was unable to locate anything that looked like a multiswitch. He did tell me that there are direct installs from the dish to the boxes..... Could it be he is wrong and there is no switch? He also told me Directv used to not log where the switch was located but are now required to do so....I'm assuming for this very reason?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.....

Paul

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys Paul!

What equipment do you have now? Dvrs? Regular receivers? You say you have more than one dvr, so it sounds like you have to have a multiswitch somewhere since you have three televisions connected. Without a multiswitch you could only have the two dvrs connected. They may have to run new wires inside the house in order to bypass the existing switch since it isn't compatible with the new Genie. Good luck and be sure to come back and tell us how it went.

 

[Lawdog150]

Thank you for the welcome Raoul!

Sorry, I forgot to add my equipment. This is what leads me to believe there is no switch. I have four coaxials coming into the house from the dish. My main DVR, an HR22, has two lines to it. second HR22, in my master bedroom, only has one line to it. The third tv has an old non-HD, non-DVR box on it with only one cable going into it. Since I only have four lines going into the house from the dish and only four lines to my three boxes, it leads me to believe that I don't have a switch installed in my house....and it's a large attic with a lot of space to look in to try and find that small box.....

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

Thank you for the welcome Raoul!

Sorry, I forgot to add my equipment. This is what leads me to believe there is no switch. I have four coaxials coming into the house from the dish. My main DVR, an HR22, has two lines to it. second HR22, in my master bedroom, only has one line to it. The third tv has an old non-HD, non-DVR box on it with only one cable going into it. Since I only have four lines going into the house from the dish and only four lines to my three boxes, it leads me to believe that I don't have a switch installed in my house....and it's a large attic with a lot of space to look in to try and find that small box.....

Yea this sounds like no switch, 4 lines, 4tuners active, the temp of the attic is understandable, the techs stupidity is not in this case. Seems to me if you can find a location in the attic that you can see all 4 wires in a group with about 2feet slack you cut them there, and install the new switch that the tech should have brought with him then convert to swm from there. Did your first tech know the second dvr only had 1 line? Because if he didnt, then its understandable for him to assume a switch was present. Which would have had to be replaced. If he had a swm 16, although the order probably called for a swm8 multiswitch, he could have "made it work" with a little effort.

That being said if you attic was over 90degrees i wouldnt do the trouble shooting then either. Some things just need to be done in the AM.

Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[raoul5788]

Yup, I'm thinking no switch since the one dvr has only one line. The tech should have seen that. Shame on him for not checking!
BTW, check my tag line!

 

[Lawdog150]

The tech did know about the single line on the master bedroom DVR. I informed him of the whole setup as soon as he walked in the door. The master bedroom cable line in is one of the cables he used to test to see if there was a switch or not with his testing device.

The cable in the attic has plenty of slack in the line, so I don't think that is an issue. It just seems strange to me he quit so quickly. I agree no one should be in an attic when it's hot. It was warm but not unbearable.

 

[raoul5788]

It sounds like he was just lazy.