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Why is it better to have more than 1 satellite?

Why cant these cable guys split the satellite feed coming into my apartment?

  • I live in an appartment building. I had cable with TimeWarner, but i switched to DirecTV so i could have nfl sunday ticket. The satellite dish is on the roof, so directv goes through a company in order to install satellite. anyway, the cable guys came and were supposed to install two DVR's. but...they couldnt because they said "only 1 satellite feed was coming into the unit" and they couldnt split it. i talked to the property manager and he says that they cant run down an additional feed. my question is this: why cant they split existing satellite feed? how can i solve this problem?

  • Answer:

    Drago_65 explains WHY you need TWO lines per DVR (Or 4 Lines for 2 DVR's) pretty well. So follow his advice on getting more lines run if possible and/or see if DirecTV can change the Multiswitch to a larger 4x8 switch or Qty 2 4x8 MultiSwitches. The reason the 1 line CANNOT be split is that the DirecTV DVR's/Receivers require a certain voltage coming in from the dish, if the coaxial cable is too long you will lose quality or signal at all. This is why a Multiswitch is connected from the Dish to Multiswitch to your DVR. Secondly the coaxial lines CANNOT be split due to the same reason, if you split the coaxial line with splitter then it is CUTTING the signal voltage in half and the DVR will NOT get a good enough signal to work at all. Another note is that CABLE companies usually use RG-59 cable, and DirecTV uses RG-6 cable. The RG-59 cable "may work" if it is not too long but it cannot supply enough signal voltage so your picture quality again will either NOT work or be DEGRADED. I hope this explains to you why and why not, if you have any further questions please feel to send me an email..

mohawkmo... at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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you just asked this question. You need another line from the multiswitch which is probably located on the dish itself since it is feeding multiple apartments. Even if you landlord said you could run another wire your multiswitch on the building might be maxed and a replacement with more out puts would be needed. Ask the satellite guys what kind of switch is on the roof, then if there is a free output beg you landloard to run another line. Otherwise you will be stuck with one receiver. The one reciever could be hooked up to multiple rooms in your apartment but you would be watching the same thing at the same time on both sets. Also each DVR requires 2 lines to record and watch something different, so if you wanted 2 DVRs you really would need 4 lines to your apartment if you wanted to fully use the receivers.

Drago_65

if the landlord says no, then its NO. the LMB on the dish on the roof only talks to 1 unit. I have a quad LMB on my dish but only have 2 units hooked to it via 2 wires. The problem comes down to the fact your landlord is preventing you from running an additional Coax wire down the building/house/apt/etc to your unit. I dont see a solve to the problem unless your landlord agrees to allow them to add another cable run

Ravin

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