Newbie here !

I've read dozen of pages on this thread and there is some very good info but I have yet to find an answer to my situation.

I currently have a dish with one dual LNBF running 2 cables to my basement. I have a 3100 & 2700 receivers (one on the 3rd floor & one on the 1st).

I just bought a 9220 from FS. They had no 9200 so I had a friend buy it for me ... hopefully I will be able to register it with BEV but that's another problem.

Is there a way I can use only 2 cables from my dish to my 3100 & 9200 without buying any twin LNBF ? I do not want to run any other cable in the house either.

I'm not quite sure I understand how the SW44 works. I was thinking of connecting the other dual LNBF to my dish, running a cable from each LNBF to my basement. From there I would input them in the SW44, connect the cables going to the 1st & 3rd floor in the outputs of the SW44. Since I only have one cable available for my 9200, I would get a SW21 to connect the 2 required cables to the 9200.

As for the 3100, I would use the second cable coming out of the SW44.

Would this work ? Would I be able to fully exploit the 9200 ? BTW I'm only going to use TV1 for the 9200.

It seems that people have had to get these twin LNBF for the US ... is there no way of getting them from BEV or some other electronic store in Canada ? How about SW21s ... can we get them here ?

I'm so confused and any help would be really appreciated

PS: once all the connections are done, since my dish is already installed (last year by BEV) do I need to realign it to get the second feed ?

Big thanks in advance !!!

If you have two cables running inside your house, then you could install the SW44 outside close to the new dish, then run the two cables to the 9200. To use any other receivers, you've have to add more cables from the SW44 outside to the other receivers.

If you have a professional install the dish, running additional cables isn't such a big concern for them. Drill Drill Fish Fish Done Done Already.

New dish has skew so it needs to be aligned. Worst case it might need to be moved since the 82W satellite is in a different location than the 91W satellite (not likely).

The installer is coming over shortly for my 9200. I already have a dish and HD, so no need to install the sat. My question is: This box contains an SW44 switch. Is this necessary with only one HD dish and one receiver? It seems to me that two cables need to be run from the dish to the receiver. With the addition of the SW44, there seems to be a need for a third line running into the house for 'power booster'. I thought 2 cables runnng through my balcony door would be bad enough, but three? Can someone confirm if I need to use the SW44?

You will definately need the Sw44 or two Sw21's in order to have the dual tuner function with both satellites. The switch will combine the two satellites onto one cable to feed each tuner.

Alt

You will definately need the Sw44 or two Sw21's in order to have the dual tuner function with both satellites. The switch will combine the two satellites onto one cable to feed each tuner.

Alt

Okay, so I need the SW44. Does this mean that this 'power inserter' cable needs to be on it as well? Would this mean a third line running into the house? Everyone has been telling me I only need two lines running into the house, and so I only bought two 'flat coax' cables to splice into the regular coax to get through the balcony door. Please tell me I don't need a third cable through the balcony door.

If you mount the SW44 outside, you will need 2 lines to the 9200 and one to the 3100.
Macsat

Ok you need 4 lines going into the SW44...that is not to say that the SW44 needs to be inside (apparently some are saying you can mount it outdoors), the power inserter (the installer will have to make sure the power inserter & power supply are out of the elements) goes to output #1 and a cable goes from it to tuner 1 and the second cable goes to the other tuner on the 9200. You then run a check switch so the 9200 recognizes the SW44 and you are done.

Alt

I'd like to add that before I bought the 9200, I was using a 6000 Bell HD with a 21 switch. I figured since I was just going to use TV1 on the 9200 (only one TV in our place) that I could just plunk the new receiver in the old 6000's place, and still use the 21 switch. Works fine except for one little problem. When you shut off the 9200 and then turn it back on, it nags you that there is no sat feed to TV2 and you have to go through a series of cancels to clear the nag. It was quite annoying, and since the 44 switch was thrown in and I happened to have another line in, using it clears the nag.

Thanks for the replies guys. As I see it my options are.

1. Ditch my MCE box and the extra 3100. This provides the 9200 without any additional cabling. On the flipside I loose the ability to watch my recorded shows anywhere in the house on any computer or anywhere I have my Xbox extender installed.

2. Run TV2 into the MCE box. I don't know if this will work though, I seem to recall reading earlier that the channel change feed for TV2 is UHF, not IR so my IR Blaster for my MCE box won't work.

Any thoughts, in particular to #2 can anyone confirm that?

TV2 is only UHF as far as I know.

OK, talking it over with a co-worker how about this. A quick refresher on how my stuff is cabled.

Home theatre in the basement with a 6200 and 3100 both feeding back to a SW44 that is in the same room, just in the back. A 3100 in the living room on the main floor and a 3100 on the top floor running back to the same SW44.

Here's what I'm thinking.

Remove the 3100 from the living room on the main floor, run a new cable from the wiring closet to the TV2 output on the 9200 and join the new TV2 output cable to the now disconnected living room cable. I would then use the UHF remote on the main floor to control that TV and my Harmony remote in the basement to control the 9200 locally.

To retain the use of the 3100 in the home theatre, run another cable from the SW44 and the empty output vacated by the living room 3100 and run that back to the rack and connect the 3100.

So in all I'd have to do 2 short 20 foot runs of RG6 and a joiner to connect the TV2 output to the living room drop in the closet. I think this would work, I guess the only question is will the UHF remote work that far away? It's a the next floor up and about 15-20 feet diagonally in a regular 20 year old wood frame house.

This is unless of course the TV2 output isn't coax, in which case I'm screwed. :P

*Edit* Just looking online I see the back panel appears to have Coax and RCA outputs so my idea should work in concept, assuming the UHF remote works that far away. Another question that comes up, will the picture be wonky at all on the TV2 output? It would feed into a newer Toshiba FST 27" 4x3 CRT.

My 5900 sends a signal through 30 feet of coax to a splitter, then another 30-60 feet to each TV. PQ is good; better than Shaw's best analog channels.

UHF remote range- Make sure you have fresh batteries. I'm looking at getting rechargable AAA's for my upstairs TV's UHF remote. Currently I cycle the batteries through the remotes; the living room remote doesn't need to be powerful.

The TV2 coaxial F-connector RF output is adjustable between UHF channels 21 to 69 (or cable channel numbers equivelent) - it isn't ch. 3/4 like most other gear.

You can actually mix (splitter in reverse) another ch. 3/4 output along with the 9200's UHF output and provide two feeds on one cable. I do this so that in the other room I can watch my old 4500 receiver on channel 4 and the new 9200 on channel 22. Sort of useful.

Cool, so it sounds like that'll work. I will give Bell a ring here today/tomorrow and get one ordered in.

Thanks!

I currently have a 5200 system installed and would like to add a 9200 system to this. Could you please tell me what I need to do. Do I need to install 2 more cables from the dish into the house or can it be done with only using the exsisting 2 cables and splitters or other boxes?

Thanks

Paul

Paul:
When you buy the 9200 it comes with a SW44. You will have to run another set of cables to the SW44 as the switch requires a cable for each of the odd transponders and the even transponders from both satellites. You will then need to have two cable runs the 5200 and the 9200.

The other option is to get a DPP-Twin LNB and two DPP separators that way you will have only two cable runs into the house, one runnning to the 5200 and one running to the 9200. The separator is used at the receivers to separate the cable to feed each of the tuners on your receivers. This option will cost you about $65 USD (about $100 CAN), but makes a cleaner installtion and saves a bit of work.

You can get the items I mentioned at Dishstore (http://www.dishstore.net/index.php?cPath=40) .

Alt

Just to add to Altaman's response, a DPP Twin is a much cleaner installation and the corresponding hardware can be bought on ebay for very cheap. I paid $23 US shipped for an Lnb and separator.

I have a 5200 and 9200 and I have installed as explained above.

Right on, thanks guys :)

Paul

Thanks all for the good work on here.

I am going to be attacking my install tomorrow, and am planning to put the sw44 inside right behind my TV set, where my current single cable enters from outside for my 3100. My biggest question so far (before I get into aiming issues) is about grounding the sw44 switch. It is going to just be sitting (probably on top of my sub) in my living room, behind the TV. Any suggestions on grounding, and how important it is to even have it grounded :eek: ? There is obviously no easy way to run a copper line into that spot.

Thanks.