Question about newer receiver boxes...

[indestructible]

My family has had Dish Network for, like, ten years now, but we haven't upgraded any of our equipment since then. We now have an HDTV, and it'd be nice to get HD programming, but of course this means having to upgrade all of our equipment as well.

I'm curious, though, because looking at the newer receiver boxes on Dish Network's website, many of them say they can connect to two separate TVs. Our current setup is, we have two TVs (one in the living room, one in the bedroom), each with their own receiver box. There's a third TV we have that we'd kinda like to get satellite programming on, as well, but that's less important.

Anyway, what I'm asking is, I don't quite understand how the "one box that transmits data to two TVs" thing works. So the main TV would have the receiver box, and the other TV just doesn't have a receiver box at all attached to it? How does it respond to the remote, then?

 

[3HaloODST]

Yep. TV2 would be fed via coax and would be fed an SD signal. The TV2 remote is a UHF Pro (radio) remote, as to which the receiving antenna can be affixed to the back of the receiver itself, extended with a piece of coax, or even backfed via the TV2 coax connection, depending on your remote reception needs.

To simplify things, a diplexer is used, as well as a separator and/or triplexer, which enables a single coaxial cable to not only feed the satellite signal for both tuners into the DUO receiver, but also allows that same cable to backfeed the NTSC signal to TV2, using only a diplexer on the other end, to separate the sat/tv signals. A DPP-compatible dish is required ideally (AKA 1000.2/1000.4.)

As for your third TV, if it is just a standard (non-HD) TV, then you have two options. You can either split the TV2 feed from the DUO receiver to have a mirror feed, or get another receiver if you want it to have a separate channel from TV2.

If you want HD on more than 1 TV though, you will need a receiver for each TV that you would like to view HD on.

Hope this helps.

 

[MattG@DISH]

3HaloODST has a good answer

To the OP: If you want any more info on upgrading, feel free to PM your phone number/account number and I'll get you taken care of

 

[Nyth]

Or, support your local retailer:

http://www.dishnetwork.com/customerService/locate_retailer/default.aspx

Some do not do many Retail DIU's (Dish'n it up) some do. I personally do a lot of them. Don't make much money on them but I love servicing long term customers.

 

[dishburgh]

... I love servicing long term customers.

Hi, I'm a long term customer - What are you wearing ?

 

[Hall]

How many HDTVs do you have ?

How often will someone be watching TV in the bedroom and someone else watching the "third" TV ?

I'm expanding on 3HaloODST's explanation...

 

[harshness]

It should have been pointed out by 3HaloODST (and Matt) that the distribution feed brings both the TV1 and TV2 programming to connected TVs so a third TV would get to choose between what the other two are watching.

 

[Hall]

It should have been pointed out by 3HaloODST (and Matt) that the distribution feed brings both the TV1 and TV2 programming to connected TVs so a third TV would get to choose between what the other two are watching.

That's news to me... How does the viewer switch between TV1 and TV2 ?

Edit: Hmmm, dug into the manual and found this:

This section describes how to connect the receiver’s HOME DISTRIBUTION connection to the cable-ready remote TV located in another room away from the receiver. You can use these instructions to connect TVs in your house to see programming from TV1 or TV2.

So it is true ! Downside is, you need (2) remote controls...

 

[indestructible]

I technically have two HDTVs, but we'd really only want HD on the main TV. The other two TVs we have (a smaller HDTV and a big SDTV) don't need HD programming that much. There would be instances where all three TVs would be in use, preferably watching different programming. So, I assume the best solution here would be to get one of those Duo boxes, along with a single SD box for the third TV?

 

[Hall]

Yes - I'd even get an HD box for the 3rd TV. It will NOT cost extra per month but might cost more up-front as part of the upgrade costs. At least ask (just tell them it's an HDTV set - the installer won't care) to see the prices. Later, if you replace it with an HDTV, you'll be set !

Have you considered a DVR ?

 

[Teehar]

For 3 tv's i would recommend getting one 722 and 1 211.That way you have hd for 2 tvs and sd for the third.If you add an external hdd to the 211 it becomes a dvr so you would have 3 dvr capability.

 

[indestructible]

DVR isn't a top priority for me, only because it costs a little extra to the monthly bill (right?), and we're basically trying to cut down what we're paying monthly as much as we can. We're even looking at getting the lowest possible channel package, because looking over the different packages, the lowest one covers all the channels we regularly watch, so we don't need anything more than that. DVR would be kinda neat, I suppose, but honestly, I'd rather go without than have to pay another $5-6, or however much it costs, every month.

 

[gdarwin]

That's news to me... How does the viewer switch between TV1 and TV2 ?

Different channels. I have TV1 on channel 25 and TV2 on channel 27.

 

[Hall]

DVR isn't a top priority for me...

Fair enough.... you can't miss what you never had ! I will say, once you've had one, you CAN'T do without later !!

 

[dwarren2]

I technically have two HDTVs, but we'd really only want HD on the main TV. The other two TVs we have (a smaller HDTV and a big SDTV) don't need HD programming that much. There would be instances where all three TVs would be in use, preferably watching different programming. So, I assume the best solution here would be to get one of those Duo boxes, along with a single SD box for the third TV?

You could get a 722 series and a 211 series. Connect the TV1 output from the 722 to the main TV. Connect the TV2 output to the SDTV. Install the 211 at the smaller HDTV and pay a 1 time fee of $40 to activate an ehd on the 211. There is no charge to activate an ehd on a 722. That gives you HD on both HDTV's with OTA capabilities and SWD on the one SDTV.