2 dishes to one receiver?

[mshaffer]

Hi, there are a lot of trees blocking my dish, I can only get the west satellites. I wanted to get the eastern sats and I have a place I could put a second dish, but I'm not sure how much trouble it would be to use 2 dishes. I have a Chapparal Monterey 100c plus right now, but plan on getting a 922 and HD side car so I can get more channels. Anyways, is there a way to run 2 dishes?

Thanks

 

[Anole]

It's a shame you haven't had a nibble in all this time...

I'm no expert, but from what I've read, the receiver usually powers the motor to move the BUD, and keeps track of position by counting pulses from a magnet-driven reed switch.
Haven't seen any receivers with the ability to keep track of two dishes.
Any sort of manual switching seems fraught with problems.
. . . of course, I'd be happy to read how someone has managed this feat! - :up

Would this idea appeal to you . . . ?
Use one receiver for each dish. (possibly two 922's?)
East receiver runs the eastern dish.
West receiver runs the western dish.
That would work, and be easy.
Not sure if you'd be happy with the outcome.

Two possible alternatives:
- move the one dish north enough to see over all the trees
- blow up (or cut down) the trees as you see fit

 

[rv1pop]

I did not think --- about two receivers, that is. I think is a great idea, Anole. Where I use 2 receivers in the same area (regular tuning and DVR set on G25 only), I have one on RF output, channel 3 and the other receiver feeding my TV through the RCA cords: red, white and yellow. That way, I use the input button on the remote to switch between the two.

 

[Anole]

Pop -

Good point. I wasn't considering that as a problem. But you are right - it is.

In the old days, I used the front panel and the rear panel inputs to my VCR.
Today, I have two FTA receivers plugged into a DVD recorder; you select which receiver to watch with the DVD remote.
Or, you can play a DVD. That's reasonably flexible.
(I think it even has a tuner, not that I've ever tried it. Quite a lot like a VCR, really.)

And, my new LCD TV has 10 inputs, of various sorts (2 Svideo, 2 Component, 2 Composite, etc.)
So, if you are upgrading the TV set, do pay attention to how many inputs it has, and how you access them with the remote.
(Mine is a bit clunky in that I have to cycle through the 10, in a forward direction only)
To hook up all that hardware, you might also look on MonoPrice for cables.

 

[Corrado]

The problem with 2 4DTV receivers is that you would need a separate acct. for each to view subbed channels. I think the single dish setup is better.

Speaking of sidecars, a DSR905 would be a natural in a 2 receiver setup. Adding the HD200 into the mix would be interesting.

My TV is like Anole's. I can't simply switch between all the inputs either, I have to go all the way back around and cycle through. But I love the input flexibility of the modern TVs with a dozen or so options. I used to use complex cascaded input switches to cover all the boxes.

 

[Anole]

The problem with 2 4DTV receivers is that you would need a separate acct. for each to view subbed channels. I think the single dish setup is better.

You could be right.
Maybe some 4DTV users will comment.
I think Linuxman (and others) have multiple 4D's on line.

edit: Not to mention the cost of two 4D receivers.
I like your 905 sidecar idea...
Perhaps two Analog receivers and two DSR905 sidecars might be a much better idea! - :up

But, since each of the OPs dishes cover different parts of the arc and do not overlap, I assumed the two 4DTV receivers would not overlap on programming, either.
I made the decision to not go with 4D myself, so haven't studied all the nuances of their subscriptions.
Maybe there's a pricing advantage to having everything on one receiver.

But it was an idea, and there didn't seem to be a solution for getting the 4D box to run two BUDs.