Can I still use my old HR20 in my new house?

[themather]

Newbie here (as if you couldn't already tell), but I thought you guys may be able to help.

I recently moved to a new home and had DirecTV installed throughout the house. Only problem I have is that I have an old HR20 HD receiver in my basement. At my old house, I only had one input wire coming from the satellite, but in the new installation there are two. I did have the new dish and had the two cable setup in all other rooms, but the basement only had one.

The HR20 only has one input, so I can plug in either of the cables and get standard channels, but can't get HD.

Is there a way to combine these two cables into one that will allow the HDTV channels to work? I figure there has to be some way to do it, since I only had one cable in the old setup and it worked fine.

Just wanted to see if there was a workaround before having to drop $100 on a new box.

Thanks!

 

[raoul5788]

Newbie here (as if you couldn't already tell), but I thought you guys may be able to help.

I recently moved to a new home and had DirecTV installed throughout the house. Only problem I have is that I have an old HR20 HD receiver in my basement. At my old house, I only had one input wire coming from the satellite, but in the new installation there are two. I did have the new dish and had the two cable setup in all other rooms, but the basement only had one.

The HR20 only has one input, so I can plug in either of the cables and get standard channels, but can't get HD.

Is there a way to combine these two cables into one that will allow the HDTV channels to work? I figure there has to be some way to do it, since I only had one cable in the old setup and it worked fine.

Just wanted to see if there was a workaround before having to drop $100 on a new box.

Thanks!

You need only one cable for the dvr to work, but you can't record two channels unless you have a SWM setup. Did you install the bbcs on the back of the dvr? They look like the old converters for 300 to 75 ohm antennas. You need it to get the hd channels.

 

[themather]

First I need to correct myself ... I meant to say that it's the H20 (H20-100 to be exact) ... so the non DVR version.

Not sure how that changes your question, though I'll admit I'm really not even sure what BBCS stands for ... my apologies

UPDATE: Poked around to learn that BBC is a broadband converter, and no there isn't one hooked up. I assume that will fix the problem. Is there a specific BBC I need, or are they all pretty standard?

 

[jdspencer]

Call DirecTV, they will send you one.

 

[raoul5788]

First I need to correct myself ... I meant to say that it's the H20 (H20-100 to be exact) ... so the non DVR version.

Not sure how that changes your question, though I'll admit I'm really not even sure what BBCS stands for ... my apologies

UPDATE: Poked around to learn that BBC is a broadband converter, and no there isn't one hooked up. I assume that will fix the problem. Is there a specific BBC I need, or are they all pretty standard?

They come in different colors, but are all the same otherwise. Yes, it should fix your problem. Let us know how it works out.

 

[themather]

They come in different colors, but are all the same otherwise. Yes, it should fix your problem. Let us know how it works out.

Will do ... thanks!