SWM is NICE!

[goaliebob99]

I got my SWM lnb in from ebay yesterday. Hooked it all up at the dish, and replaced the switch with the splitter. Did the process to reinstall the satellite from the old settings to the new ones. It was amazingly easy process and simple as well as fast. the whole process took about 20 min with the longest part taking the downloading of the program guide again on all 3 of my hd dvr's

I love it as I have one wire to every reciver and can record multiple things. The cool thing is during setup it tells you to remove the B Band converter, So I got rid of those. I am amazed at the thought and quality that went into this and thought that I should post about how happy I am with this product. It is well worth the 150 to upgrade if you have all the equipment to be able to run SWM allready. I couldnt be happer than a pig in mud.

 

[Rey]

mine is coming in on monday. can't wait

 

[jcrandall]

I have the Swm lnb, and have to say I'm still amazed how simple it all is. Just one into the house and a splitter/power inserter, and good to go for 4 dvrs.

 

[FlyingJ]

Well shut my mouth! I'm gonna have to look into this!

 

[gadgtfreek]

Im looking forward to installing the SWM-8 next week. Now that Ive been told how to use it

 

[lern4483]

Ok, sorry to show my ignorance but what is SWM and what can it do for my direc system..

I think im missing something good.

Thanks,
Joel

 

[jcrandall]

This is a review I wrote and has pictures and detailed explanations of the technical stuff too.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/136018-satelliteguys-premiere-review-directv-swm-lnb.html

 

[mikew]

Installed mine on Weds. Also took advantage of the built in antenna port for diplexing OTA. I have two legacy tuners, so I included the wb6/8 switch in the setup.

Sat>WB68
2 ports>R15
1 port>SD Tivo
4 ports>SWM8
SWM8
1 port HR20 w/ota
1 port HR20 w/ota
1 port HR21 w/ota/AM21
1 port HR21 w/ota/AM21

This still leaves me the 3 legacy ports on the SWM 8 and 1 port on the WB68. No signal loss, and actually a little stronger OTA with the AM21s.

As GB says...good stuff!

 

[NutFlush920]

I have the SWM LNB too and love it. I had 4 lines into the home and 2 going to each receiver. I was able to get rid of a lot of excess coax cable.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Installed mine on Weds. Also took advantage of the built in antenna port for diplexing OTA. I have two legacy tuners, so I included the wb6/8 switch in the setup.

Sat>WB68
2 ports>R15
1 port>SD Tivo
4 ports>SWM8
SWM8
1 port HR20 w/ota
1 port HR20 w/ota
1 port HR21 w/ota/AM21
1 port HR21 w/ota/AM21

This still leaves me the 3 legacy ports on the SWM 8 and 1 port on the WB68. No signal loss, and actually a little stronger OTA with the AM21s.

As GB says...good stuff!

So you have two options with diplexing?? Either run a ota feed to the SWM8 and diplex at the box, OR install a diplexer after the Pow Inv and then diplex at the box?

 

[grydlok]

I just installed one for a friend, but I still had to use 2 dishes,
4 HR21, 3 D12, and 1 H21.
I should have took some pictures.

 

[NutFlush920]

I haven't tried diplexing yet. But I have a SWMline. 1 wire going into the home connected to the PI in the basement. From there the PI is connected the 8 way splitter.

Now, I know one diplexor is placed at the receiver to split the OTA and the satellite but, where does the other diplexor go in the basement? Before or after the splitter?

Will the splitter handle a diplexed line and send OTA and satellite to each output or should the OTA diplex be done after the split to each receiver?

 

[texasbrit]

Put the diplexer in the SWM line between the dish and the splitter.
A couple of words of warning. First, DirecTV officially does not support diplexing with the SWM so you are on your own if you have problems. And second, some diplexers will not work because there is a low-band signal between the tuners and the SWM that some diplexers will filter out.
(Jason - I think your technical review does not mention this. There are 9 "visible" SWM channels as you describe, eight carry the signals selected by the tuners, the ninth carries "common" data like guide data, but there is also a tenth "channel" down at 2.3Mhz which is used for communication between the tuners and the SWM and this is the one that can have problems with some diplexers)

 

[jcrandall]

Put the diplexer in the SWM line between the dish and the splitter.
A couple of words of warning. First, DirecTV officially does not support diplexing with the SWM so you are on your own if you have problems. And second, some diplexers will not work because there is a low-band signal between the tuners and the SWM that some diplexers will filter out.
(Jason - I think your technical review does not mention this. There are 9 "visible" SWM channels as you describe, eight carry the signals selected by the tuners, the ninth carries "common" data like guide data, but there is also a tenth "channel" down at 2.3Mhz which is used for communication between the tuners and the SWM and this is the one that can have problems with some diplexers)

I promise you that my write up did NOT mention that. I have no clue as to the real technical operations behind it... Thanks for the info though.

Many have diplexed it with no problem - yet. When D11 is live, we'll know if they still work at that point

With the SWM8 having OTA diplexing built in, it is resonable to believe that the SWM LNB will work too. Given you have good diplexers (don't cut off any of the bandwith) and of course remember that D* doesn't support it.

That said, I personally don't diplex.

 

[texasbrit]

I promise you that my write up did NOT mention that. I have no clue as to the real technical operations behind it... Thanks for the info though.

Many have diplexed it with no problem - yet. When D11 is live, we'll know if they still work at that point

With the SWM8 having OTA diplexing built in, it is resonable to believe that the SWM LNB will work too. Given you have good diplexers (don't cut off any of the bandwith) and of course remember that D* doesn't support it.

That said, I personally don't diplex.

I do diplex with my SWM8 and have had no problems. Some of the people doing MFH2 MDU installs have reported the problem with some diplexers apparently interfering with the SWM 2.3MHz signalling channel; replacing the diplexer with a different type solved the problem. Probably one of the reasons why DirecTV does not "support" diplexing - imagine the average tech trying to sort that one out!

 

[Bob Nielsen]

I don't diplex (I already had 2 coax lines to each location, so I use one of them for OTA), but saw some reports that the diplexer built into the SWM8 may not work very well with low VHF stations (channels 2-6). Most digital OTA is UHF, but there are some which use VHF channels and some of those on UHF will switch back to their current analog frequencies on 2/17/2009.

 

[mikew]

I do diplex with my SWM8 and have had no problems. Some of the people doing MFH2 MDU installs have reported the problem with some diplexers apparently interfering with the SWM 2.3MHz signalling channel; replacing the diplexer with a different type solved the problem. Probably one of the reasons why DirecTV does not "support" diplexing - imagine the average tech trying to sort that one out!

What symptoms would they experience?

 

[texasbrit]

What symptoms would they experience?

Basically the tuner can't tell the SWM which block of channels it wants to receive so you get 771 "searching for satellite signal" messages.