Newbie Question

[lexowgrant]

I'm thinking about leaving Comcast because of the price. I have been talking to Dish Cust. Svc about the installation here at the 3 level townhouse. He says with a 722 tuner I can drive 2 tv's, one HD and One SD. I have 3 TV's, one on each level. I figure the tuner would be on the top floor, near the HD tv. Normally, would that be an HDMI connection?
How is the 3rd floor tuner connected to TV2(, the sd tv)? Is it through the existing RG6 built into the walls of the house? If so, how does the tuner know whether it's talking to the 2nd floor tv or the 1st floor tv?
The salesman says I have to rent a second tuner to drive the third tv. I will not need three tv's on at any one time, only 2 max.
Do I need to rent that second tuner or can I just say we can't operate the 2 sd tv's at the same time?
Thanks in advance for your patience with this question, which I'm sure is very basic.

 

[sjvirchow]

Yes, the connection from the 722 to your HDTV is more than likely going to be an HDMI connection.

The installer would try to use the existing cable terminals in your house, providing there is a routing box, or similar place where all the cables get split at once, like a distribution box for example. If not, they would run new cabling. There are two physical tuners in the 722, both are segregated from each other, which keeps them from interfering. The 722 switches on the 2nd tuner, when the power button on Remote #2 (which is designated for the 2nd (SD) TV) is pressed, ditto for the 1st tuner. It's not possible to split the signal at the distribution point, because any data from the satellite dish is encrypted, scrambled, and compressed, until it reaches a receiver. The receiver's job is to de-crypt, de-compress, and unscramble the data coming from the Dish and display it on the TV, so yes I believe you would need a 3rd receiver to complete that task. On the back of a 722 is a port that goes from the 2nd receiver to a triplexer, which takes all the outputs from the dish, and the 1st and 2nd tuners built into the 722, and runs that data back up the same line that runs into your receiver. If you split the signal after it's unencrypted, it might be possible but I'm not sure. You would be stuck watching the same thing on two TV's in theory.

 

[lexowgrant]

Thanks for your reply. Is there a reciever at TV2 the SD TV, a box that does that decoding job?

 

[Doc6666]

There is only one receiver involved, the tv2 connection comes out of that box. If you split it then both of the sets connected to the receiver would watch the same thing.

But in a 3 floor deal, if you have it set up for the basement and top floor for the split, then you would have to carry the remote around with you to change the channels on those floors. Or purchase another remote, Dish will sell you another one for about $20.

 

[lexowgrant]

So, if the HD tv is on the top floor of the three story house, fed HDMI from the receiver, and the TV2 feed is run into the existing house cable wiring, then
can you watch that feed either on the first floor or the second floor by connecting those tvs to the house cable wiring? But if you wanted to watch on both first and second floor at the same time, it would have to be the same show? Thanks for your time in replying.

 

[GNASH]

Yes, we have 2 receivers that each output all tuners on coax to all the TVs in the house. We use channels 4, 73, 75, and 85.

By switching channels, we are able to see all 4 tuners.

Geoff

 

[GNASH]

So, if the HD tv is on the top floor of the three story house, fed HDMI from the receiver, and the TV2 feed is run into the existing house cable wiring, then
can you watch that feed either on the first floor or the second floor by connecting those tvs to the house cable wiring? But if you wanted to watch on both first and second floor at the same time, it would have to be the same show? Thanks for your time in replying.

After reading further, the answer to the part about the same show is it depends.

You would have 2 tuners available for 3 TVs. Out of the box, tuner 1 is IR and tuner 2 is UHF. Tuner 1 must have line of sight to the receiver unless you buy a new remote (21.0 I think) and switch it to UHF mode. Then both remotes could be used through the floor, so floor 1 and floor 2 could watch different things with remote control.

Hope that helps,
Geoff

 

[lexowgrant]

So if I want receiver and HD tv on the third floor and SD on the first and second floor tv'S , do I need a second receiver?

 

[GNASH]

So if I want receiver and HD tv on the third floor and SD on the first and second floor tv'S , do I need a second receiver?

How many TVs do you want to watch different programs at the same time? If it is 2, then you need 1 receiver. If it is all 3, then you need 2.

Geoff

 

[lexowgrant]

THanks, all. Very helpful site.