Want to go Dish from Cable, worried about install, advice please?

[MyDogHasFleas]

Current setup:

fairly new house, using cable now, no legacy satellite at all
home-run-wired RG-6/U cable spec'd at 2.5 GHz
single drop to each room
one drop to the outside wall for cable company connection
wiring box in master bedroom closet

Want:

Dish Network AT250 with HD package and premiums like HBO
no internationals needed

Single dish (I'm in Austin TX), presumably using DishPro or DishPro Plus

SD locals from sat, HD locals via OTA antenna
currently using indoor rabbit ears, works fine for HD OTA
would like a better antenna (mounted with dish?)

HDTV in living room, SDTV in master bedroom, both run off VIP622 box

Two SDTVs in upstairs bedrooms, no DVR needed

Questions:

1. What is the recommended dish type?

2. Can I do all this without running extra cable through my walls?

2a. If not, what is the maximal setup that I can have without running extra cable?

3. Connection diagram/description for the recommended setup?

 

[DirtyTurbin]

1 - Dish 1000
2 - Yes, you will need one cable from the dish to 622 though.
3 - HDTV to 622 via Hdmi/Composite. SDTV out via TV2 into diplexer, tv 2 on channel 73. Pretty easy install. The 2 additional sdtv's will need to be on chan 73 and fed thru splitter and all sdtv will have to watch same channel. You will like the 622. One other thing I would recomend if not to much problem is run a CAT5 to the 622 if you have high spped internet to prepare for future vod services.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

I agree, if you get a 622 and 322 you can easily wire this setup. Note you will have to have 2 cables from your dish to your wiring closet. From there you will be fine with having one wire to each TV using diplexors for your tv2 backfeed. You could run just the 622 with one line from the dish but for anything more you will need the second line.

 

[Hall]

If you think you'll use an outdoor antenna, you should be able to mount something like this,

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?main_cat=03&CAT=&PROD=ANC4228

should be mountable to the dish's mast. All of Austin's stations broadcast from the same general vicinity and they're all on UHF.

When the installer mounts your dish, presuming it's on the roof or someplace feasible for an antenna, ask him politely to run a 2nd RG6 for you. Even offer a small 'tip' for doing this.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Although I would have preferred 2 cables to each room, you can get away with (1) RG6.

As far as wiring, the satellite installer is going to have to get to the wiring closet where all the cables in the house come to 1 central point, and run atleast 3 if not 4 cables to the outside to hook up the Dish and OTA Antenna

 

[MyDogHasFleas]

Although I would have preferred 2 cables to each room, you can get away with (1) RG6.

As far as wiring, the satellite installer is going to have to get to the wiring closet where all the cables in the house come to 1 central point, and run atleast 3 if not 4 cables to the outside to hook up the Dish and OTA Antenna

Thanks for your help!

Would the installer be able to utilize the RG-6 cable that currently connects to the cable company on the outside wall?

Also any thoughts about switches, etc? I am not sure how all this will work, over one cable per room. Band-stacking is another term I've heard? I'm really interested in how all this actually works when wired together.

 

[slick1ru2]

2 installers, 6 hours, holes drilled all over the place, cables laying all around the house, in a prewired house that previously had Dish (then cable)....hey, what's to worry about???

 

[DishTechCO]

As an alternative idea- A dish 1000 with one DPP Twin and one DP Dual run into to AUX port of the DPP Twin could be used. The antenna would be mounted on the same pole. Two RG-6 lines from the DPP Twin go into the SAT side of the diplexor. Two lines from the antenna go into the VHF/UHF side of the diplexor. Two lines go from there to internal home splitting location. Install the recievers there. Convert all the remotes to UHF instead of IR. Run your TV1 and TV2 lines staight from the back of the recievers. The SAT feed lines diplex back out in the same place. The SAT side of the diplexor will feed into a DP seperator. The VHF/UHF side of the diplexor will be run into a spitter. One line to the antenna in on the reciever. The other line goes to an "out" on a 2 way splitter. From the TV2 out on the reciever a line will go to the other side of that same splitter. The "in" on the splitter will be connected to the line of whatever room you want. (All this applies to both recievers.) SO... this way only one line needs to be run,there's no unsightly recievers in any room, and you'll get 4 rooms with independent progamming and the locals.

 

[DishTechCO]

Also, a 322 and 622 would work great!

 

[MyDogHasFleas]

As an alternative idea- A dish 1000 with one DPP Twin and one DP Dual run into to AUX port of the DPP Twin could be used. The antenna would be mounted on the same pole. Two RG-6 lines from the DPP Twin go into the SAT side of the diplexor. Two lines from the antenna go into the VHF/UHF side of the diplexor. Two lines go from there to internal home splitting location. Install the recievers there. Convert all the remotes to UHF instead of IR. Run your TV1 and TV2 lines staight from the back of the recievers. The SAT feed lines diplex back out in the same place. The SAT side of the diplexor will feed into a DP seperator. The VHF/UHF side of the diplexor will be run into a spitter. One line to the antenna in on the reciever. The other line goes to an "out" on a 2 way splitter. From the TV2 out on the reciever a line will go to the other side of that same splitter. The "in" on the splitter will be connected to the line of whatever room you want. (All this applies to both recievers.) SO... this way only one line needs to be run,there's no unsightly recievers in any room, and you'll get 4 rooms with independent progamming and the locals.

... but no component video or HDMI connections to TVs, right? So no HD TV? This is a nice idea (and one I had thought of, though not in this much detail), but I had discarded it because of that issue.

I am thinking that I will get someone (the installer?) to fish some more cables to my living room setup and make that the media center, with the ViP622 box, the HD TV, the DVD player, and a computer.

I think I'll need 4 RG-6/U cables and two Cat6 UTP cables.

One UTP for Ethernet, one for phone line.

The RG-6/U cables would be:

- 2 for sat input to ViP622
- 1 for OTA input to ViP622
- 1 for TV2 out to the rest of the house

I did see the post on combining basic cable and TV2-out on one RG6 cable. I might want to do that too.