[Eazy]

New to Starchoce/Shaw Direct.
Always had Bell and prior to that FTA but now that is gone the way of the dinosaur.
First is everything compatible between old and new company(StarChoice/Shaw)?
First setup at home done professionally. Second setup will be at cabin. I have the new HD Sat Receiver but I went and bought a used Starchoice Dish.
Hooked everything up and am not getting more than 12 on the signal scale and it does go up to 13. Could my problem be that the dish I have is not compatible with my HD receiver? Is there anything different when setting these dishes up compared to setting up Bell? Everything worked good at home base with the receiver when I set it up there.
The dish is different than the new Shaw dishes. This dish has two cans protruding from the arm at opposite angles. Sort of like this. (>
Could this be the reason why my signal is not increasing?
I also read somewhere about linear dishes are a problem with new equipment. How do I know if this is why I'm not receiving any signal?
Sorry for all the questions but I need my TV, Dammit. )
Thanks for all your help.

 

[dmoes]

I cant really answer why you are having troubles. but here is a bit of info

Shaw direct (SD) is just Star Choice (*C) renamed The company and equipment are the same so anything labled Star Choice should be fine with a few differences between HD and Standard reception.

is you dish eliptical? the round ones won't work with High Def but I am guessing that your lnb is probably the older Dual Stacked LNB as you describe it. Was it the original one with the dish and your dish is elliptical. if it is the Dual stacked lnb vs newer Quad version I believe that you need to inform SD as there is a change to the V code needed for the receivers hooked up to that type of LNB. Not sure what you mean by linear. Polarization? as far as I know SD/*C has always been circular polarized. So if your lnb is from *C or SD it will be OK this has nothing to do with the shape of your dish. for High Def you will need the elliptical dish and dual stacked or quad LNB.

the problem is either a bad lnb which is possible since yours sounds like its an older one. or its with misalignment.

there are better qualified people that can give alignment advice than me Ill leave it to them.

 

[classicsat]

FTA is working for me, but it is the legal kind.

Star Choice/Shaw Direct are the same hardwarewise, just a different name. That said, they are in the process of making sigificant hardware changes which will eventually obsolete the older receivers.

As for your problem you have a dual-stacked dish for your cottage. You need to tune to a vertical channel (such as 299) to aim it, and call Shaw to change the V-code to one for that dish.

Your new professionally installed dish will be a Quad (dual non-stacked).

 

[Sirius Guy]

register your cottage with Shaw for $99 and get free service at both locations and avoid the headaches

 

[ae_collector]

Eazy: Did the dish and LNB you bought come with the 2x2 switch? That is a small aluminum block that the two outputs from the LNB attach to andf then it has 2 outputs to feed 2 TV's. If you are just connecting a TV to one of the outputs of the LNB it may not work properly.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

1) I am assuming the DVRs need 2 feeds to the 4 ports on the SC Dish?

Assuming yes, how does one connect up more than 2 DVRs on the SC Dish? Is an additional Multiswitch of some kind available?

2) How many Receivers will StarChoice allow on one's account?

Thanks

 

[QCK]

1) you assume correctly on the 2 feeds, one for each tuner. If you have more than 4 tuners to connect you can use a 4X8 or 5X8 mult siwtch as found on this page: https://secure.shawdirect.ca/english/store/accessories.asp or a Zinwell WB68 multiswitch will work as well. The 4 feeds from the LNB head on your dish go to the input side of the multiswitch and this allows up to 8 output feeds to be available for your receivers.

2) you can have up to 6 receivers on your account. If you need more than 6 then you will need to get a second account.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Thanks. I have an old WB68 so that will work!

I only have 5 receivers, so I guess I will be fine in that area as well.

 

[ae_collector]

And it is 6 receivers (boxes), not 6 tuners. Therefore you could have up to 6 PVR's containing a total of 12 tuners on one account.