Installation Questions

[Pinza]

You do not need any kind of switch/splitter if you only have 2 receivers. Just run 1 line to each Receiver and run a "Check Switch", MENU, 6, 1, 1.

[biffripjock]

thanbks for the reply, however i tried that.
i guess im not being clear
the house is new and wired to a central junction box, each bedroom, living room etc all home run to the garage,
i took the feed currently going through the window and ran it to the garage. hooked it up to each line and did not get a signal back in the living room. this leads me to think i need something else. sorry for not being more clear i assumed i needed a switch

[Interceptor]

I'm not familiar with junction boxes but I'd take the junction box out of the picture. Can you connect the line coming from the dish directly to the line running to your bedroom or living room?

[Pinza]

Exactly, you need NOTHING between the LNBF and the Receiver, no switch no junction box nothing. If you have to splice the RG6 together just use F81's (Barrel Connectors) that are at least 2Ghz.

[A128970]

Hi this my first post, I have a Bell dish with dual LNB, no HD. I currently have 2 recievers connected but want to add a 3rd. I was given an SW44 to install. I have it all connected but now only the 1 reciever works. I ran check switch and it says:
1B 1A 2B 2A
91 91 X X
only 1 satellite connected.
The connections were as follows,
LNB to 1B, 1A. nothing on 2A , 2B.
power inserter 1 to 1, power inserter plugged in and powered up.
output 2 to garage ( no reciever connected yet)
output 3 to upstairs reciever (worked)
power inserter output to downstairs reciever..no signal.

I have since put both recievers back to original and they work fine. What am I doing wrong, or will this setup even work?

Thanks

[jdevlin]

Those result indicate everything is OK. What results do you get from the one that is not working?

[Pinza]

If you are not going to add HD receivers I would be buying a $10 2 x 4 multiswitch, connected to the 2 lines from the 91 LNBF. It will not need Hydro so it will cost nothing to run.

[A128970]

A $10 2x4 multiswitch sounds good to me. No plans for HD, just want a 3rd reciever in the shop. Thanks for the advice.

[A128970]

I went to buy the 2 x 10 multi switch and the guy at the source told me that I would damage my equipment if I tried it.

[alebowgm]

Assuming they are legacy dual output LNBs it should be fine.

[Pinza]

I have never seen a 2 x 10 switch......

All you need is a 2 x 4, it should have 2 inputs, one 13v and the other 18v.

Feel free to PM me a part #, I will have a look and verify it for you if you like.

[alebowgm]

Agreed, normally they are in multiples of 4. so 2x4, 2x8, 2x16 etc

[JoeLouie]

Pinza suggested buying "a $10 2 x 4 multiswitch", so maybe it was just a typo on A128970's part.

[dangerdan]

I have a 6131 on a seperate dish that can see LNB 91 and 82. LNB 82 picks up many transponder signals and locks in after completing a check switch. The other dish is connected to a 3100 and when I check LNB 82 I only see a signal on TP 15 and 16. Both dish's are side by side with the same adjustments. I dont understand why.

[alebowgm]

The 6131 is an HD tuner, while the 3100 is an SD tuner. The 6131 is capable of receiving both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 signals, while the 3100 is only able to receive MPEG-2. Since Bell has not converted over to MPEG-4 yet, they use a different and more efficient form of modulations (think broadcast compression/transmission) for transponders that carry HD stations (called 8PSK Turbo). Doing so allows for them to fit more HD stations onto a single MPEG-2 transponder (it works out to being about double, where they could only fit 2 HD stations before, now they can fit 4). The SD tuner can't "see" those transponders, as not only can the 3100 not receive MPEG-4 signals, it don't have the proper "decoder" in the unit to receive the 8PSK Turbo signal. As you can guess, the 6131 does (as does the 9241, 9242). Accordingly, only two transponders at 82w (Nimiq 4) are MPEG-2 and don't use 8PSK Turbo. They are TP15 and TP16, which is why you can see them on the 3100 without problem. If you were to ever replace the 3100 with another HD tuner, the other TPs would appear. So I wouldn't worry, its not a problem with your setup, its a limitation of your 3100 receiver.

Note that none of the TPs at 91w (Nimiq 1) currently use 8PSK Turbo, which is why you are able to see all of them with your 3100. It is likely that at some point in the future, and I am not saying it is anytime soon, Bell will phase out/eliminate/trade-up all SD and early model HD receivers (they are already doing this for HD models, see below) that can't accept an 8PSK Turbo modulation to increase broadcast efficiency. The question is, will they replace the models with tuners that can only accept 8PSK Turbo, or will they seize the opportunity and convert everything over to MPEG-4 (MPEG-4 works out to being about double the efficiency of 8PSK). It is looking more and more like it will be the latter.

Talking of which, a nice look over at Wiki sheds some more light on this...

In 2009, Bell 6000 receivers' owners received letters in the mail that state they must swap to a 6141 or face losing programming as Bell TV deployed MPEG-2 with 8PSK. The 6000 does support the use of 8PSK with an add-in module, but Bell TV decided not to send out these as the 6000 is old and most customers will be wanting to upgrade to a 6141 which can have a hard disk drive added to it to be used as a PVR. The guide for programming information is also updated and stores more information in its database than the 6000.

Later, starting in October 2011, Bell has announced that it will replace all currently active MPEG-2 HD satellite receivers, specifically the 6100 and 9200 models, with MPEG-4 HD receivers. This is to allow current HD channels to be encoded in MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2, providing free space for 43 additional local standard definition channels which will begin airing in September 2012. 6100 owners will receive the latest 6131 HD receiver, while 9200 owners will receive either a 9241 or a 9242. If the 9200 receiver was used for two televisions, Bell will provide either a 9241 with a 5900 or a 9242. Both setups permit the two televisions to watch Bell TV. About 240 000 receivers in 193 000 homes will be replaced

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_TV

Here is a list of all the model receivers that Bell has deployed that are MPEG-2 only:

1000, 2700, 2800, 3000, 3100, 3500, 3700, 4000, 4500, 4700, 5100, 5800, 5900, 6000, 6100, 9200 are ALL MPEG 2 only. There is an adapter made by Dish Network to add 8PSK to the 6000 model but, like the Wiki says, Bell didn't deploy them. All of these receivers would have to be upgraded in the future to receive MPEG-4 signals. Since Bell is still deploying 5900 units, the switch out of the SD units is probably still a ways away.