Newbie questions

[WakeBdr]

First of all, please forgive me for my newbieness, but I have some questions to ask.

I attempted to get Dish the other day, but the installers were unable to complete the install because of the way my house is built and wired. I signed up to get 4 rooms which apparently uses two dual tuner receivers. I did not know that each receiver required two inputs until the installer told me. To me, that is not a dual tuner receiver, but two receivers in one chassis...but anyway. On to my questions...

1. What is backfeed? I see this talked about everywhere, but I can't find what it actually is.

2. Can two signals run through one coaxial cable with diplexers at both ends. I just found out what a diplexer does so this question may not make too much sense.

3. Does each independently tuned receiver have to have its own input? In other words, if I want to watch 4 separate programs on 4 tv's, do I have to have 4 inputs into my house from the dish?

I am dying to leave my cable company, but things just aren't working out right. I will attempt to draw up what my wiring looks like and post it later so that I may get some suggestions as to what I can do.

Thanks a lot

 

[mike123abc]

Dish has a new switch the DPP44 that works with the 522/322 to allow both signals to be used on one cable. But, the problem is that it is not in wide spread use yet.

A back feed is sending a video signal back up the cable. The 522/322 have an RF modulator for an UHF channel of your choice for the second TV. You can feed this channel back up the cable then down to the second TV.

The usual method is running 3 cables, 2 for the satellite one for the backfeed. With the new switch the satellite only needs 1 cable. With diplexors you can feed back the channel to the second TV. It is now possible to do it all with just one cable.

 

[WakeBdr]

Here is what the wiring in my house looks like. It is extremely difficult (read impossible) to get a new wire down the walls because the walls are 20 feet high and the existing cables go down a hole that is about 1" in diameter.

In the picture, black boxes are tv's, black lines are existing cable, red boxes are splitters, and the blue box is cable modem.

Is there a way to get satellite to every tv in my house and be able to watch a different channel on each tv?

Thanks

 

[mike123abc]

Yes you can do it since you can control the boxes with UHF remotes. You will need to locate the boxes near the cable entrance to the house. Then send their output over the cable system. You would just have to have each TV have its own channel.

Note that the 322/522 have one user selectable UHF channel and 3/4 on the other, so if 3/4 would not work you would need to get an RF modulator for a different channel.

The one TV without a splitter on the line if it is fed by RG-6 you could put a receiver at that TV.

Is there a way to run a cable in from an outside wall?

 

[WakeBdr]

I really appreciate all the help, but being a newbie, I'm having a bit of trouble comprehending.

I can place the receivers in the attic where the cable comes into the house?

What do you mean by each tv have its own channel?

The part about UHF and 3/4 channel is completely Greek to me. What do you mean by selectable UHF channel and 3/4?

It may be possible to run a new wire in from outside, but it would require some fishing to get it where I can work with it.

Thanks again

 

[mike123abc]

The way these 2 tuner boxes work is that the first TV is connected directly to the box, and the second TV uses an UHF remote to change channels. The second TV gets its picture/sound via an UHF channel (13-69) that is output via the box. You tell the box which channel you want the second TV on. The box also outputs channel 3/4 (3/4 are VHF channels actually) for the primary TV if you do not use the video out connnections.

The boxes probably would not work in the attic, it would likely get too hot in the summer, but perhaps a closet or something. You could run the satellite cable to an upstairs closet somewhere, get the output from the boxes and run that cable back to where the old cable system entrance was and connect up the TVs that way.

For 4 TVs you could have one TV on channel 3, one on channel 4, one on channel 13 and one on 15 for example. The 13/15 can be any station 13-69. The 3/4 are fixed unless you buy an RF modulator (like from Radio Shack) that could do UHF 13-69.

If you could get new cabling to 2 TVs you could locate the boxes there and use the video connections and run the UHF channels back to the cable system to feed the other 2 TVs.