Newbie needs help/ideas with 522 and OTA antenna

[hwbj]

Since my local cable company has decided to increase their fee by a "modest amount" (actually about 23% for me) I've decided to look into satellite tv.

DishNetwork seems to have something that sounds almost perfect for me, a simple 522 reciever that I can hook up to 2 tv's. I do NOT qualify for local stations but I can make up most of that from Distant Network a la carte.

I will need an OTA antenna to pick up the local ABC and NBC stations. According to antennaweb.org I'm 8 and 11.1 miles from the transmitters, so it shouldn't be a big problem.

The questions I have are about how they works together

If I get some kind of OTA antenna that mounts to the dish or on the roof I'm assuming I'll need a diplexor that will connect the antenna and sat onto one coax, that will come into the house, then does it need to be resplit or can it go directly into the 522?

If it needs to be resplit then I assume the sat plugs into Satellite In while the OTA antenna plugs into the Antenna/Cable In on the back of the 522.

It also appears from the 522 manual (the online pdf version) that this will only work for TV1 and for TV2 I'll have to connect the OTA antenna directly to the second TV. Is this correct?

Most importantly how do I switch from viewing a program coming from the satellite to one coming from the antenna? Can I use the DVR to record programs from the antenna?

There's probably a dozen more questions, but it's been a long 2 days seaching the web, reading pdf's and forums and my brain is fried
I apologize if any of this is unclear, I'm very new to satellites and DBS.

...and btw, this forum has already been an incredible resource for me, you guys are awesome.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Welcome aboard!

First, the 522 is not a 'simple' receiver. Second, unless you're gonna spend big bucks on DPPlus gear, you're going to have a dual cable coming into the house to feed the 522.

You only need a diplexer if you have to share the OTA feed on the same cable. Considering you already have cable TV wire running around the house, you should probably just use that for the OTA. That also solves some of your other issues.

Remember - the 522 and most other E* boxes do NOT actually do anything with the OTA signals, so there's no real reason to mix them in unless you've got a TV with only one input. Exception: the 921 is capable of recording digital OTA.

And thank you - we do try to give out the good stuff here.

 

[hwbj]

Welcome aboard!

First, the 522 is not a 'simple' receiver. Second, unless you're gonna spend big bucks on DPPlus gear, you're going to have a dual cable coming into the house to feed the 522.

You only need a diplexer if you have to share the OTA feed on the same cable. Considering you already have cable TV wire running around the house, you should probably just use that for the OTA. That also solves some of your other issues.

Remember - the 522 and most other E* boxes do NOT actually do anything with the OTA signals, so there's no real reason to mix them in unless you've got a TV with only one input. Exception: the 921 is capable of recording digital OTA.

And thank you - we do try to give out the good stuff here.

thanks for the info....sorry about calling the 522 simple, what I meant was only having to use one receiver.

The cable coming into the house now will still be connected to my cable modem so I'm not sure if it's possible to use that for OTA also.

If I understood you correctly, then I cannot use the 522's DVR capability to record anything coming in from the OTA. It's a case where if you press the SAT button on the remote you'll be using the satellite and if you turn that off then you're using the signals coming in from the OTA and the two never work together at the same time on the same tv.

I suppose the easy way around that is too hook up a VCR to the second tv.

 

[SimpleSimon]

No sorry needed - and I meant that the installation isn't actually simpler - mostly due to the number of cables needed.

Yeah - mixing cable internet & OTA is not wise. The cable internet is probably only needed at a single location - maybe it can be isolated from the rest of the house wiring.

Correct - the 522 will only record satellite, and you've got the handle on how OTA works with it. In fact, it's best to not bother with the 522's Ant-In port at all.

OTA to VCR to one TV input and 522 to another TV input is a good way to go.

And in case you've not done it before, signal quality is best on S-Video, next is RCA (composite), worst is RF (coax). So use the best you've got, and keep that in mind when buying new gear.

 

[hwbj]

Correct - the 522 will only record satellite, and you've got the handle on how OTA works with it. In fact, it's best to not bother with the 522's Ant-In port at all.

OTA to VCR to one TV input and 522 to another TV input is a good way to go.

SimpleSimon...thanks for the suggestions.

I've talked with a Dish CSR and it looks like the middle of next week
I'll have the dish installed

There is one thing I'm not quite sure about, I've read in other threads that you can use a combiner to get Satellite and OTA to a TV that only has one RF connection, can it be that easy?

I've been thinking of setting up an old TV in a room in the basement and was wondering if I could get the dish and basic cable to it.

I appreciate the time and advice, you've cleared up a lot of my questions and doubts. Thanks again

 

[SimpleSimon]

Not exactly that easy - cable usually has every channel occupied, so there's no place for the satellite box's RF output to "fit". The 322 or 522 TV2 has an adjustable UHF output that might be usable.