directv multiple receivers

[saturnalley]

Hi to All,

I have a technical question regarding the distance one can run cable between the rooftop dish and the HD DVR--I'd like to get Directv with three HD DVR receivers and one standard one , and have them install it for free in my father's house, then re-install two of the HD DVR's 1000 feet away in the guest house, myself.

I know that a standard cable signal can be amplified to successfully travel that far--will a similar amp allow the Directv system to function?

My guess is I'll need two amps, two coax cable lines each a thousand feet, and maybe even two phone lines, from the main house to the guest house.

The local directv reps say "get two subscriptions and two dishes"--they also want to be paid to install them. Beyond the obvious reason of saving on the monthly cost, my reason for wanting to do it this way is that the Main House is way uphill from the guest house, and is less hidden by trees--better satellite reception?

A good bottle of Napa Valley red wine will be sent to the person who solves this puzzle for me!

 

[dunigan1]

The best thing to do would be install a second dish on the guest house. You would have to do it though because I don't think D* will, and they definately wouldn't do it for free. Even if you used RG11 cable I think 1000 feet would be too far. And if you have 2 HDDVR's you would need 4 lines. As long as the guest house is not a separate residence you shouldn't need 2 accounts though. If your using the same phone number they shouldn't be considered separate residences.

Richard

 

[saturnalley]

second dish long distance wiring

thanks for the information. I was told (misinformed?) by a local company that the only way to get a separate dish was to have a separate account (which is exactly what I don't want to do--as it is now, I'm paying 57$ a month total, for the standard comcast cable service, which I've successfully distributed to a number of TV's some across a 1000 feet distance--so I'm not going to pay 150$ a month ((the cost after the discounted initial period)) for satellite reception across the same TV's--though I suspect the picture's better...what I'm saying is the only way I'm going to go ahead with directv is if I can solve the 1000 foot distance thing, and pay only one monthly bill).

this leads back to another issue I've never understood: the directv equipment is supposedly leased, not bought. I could I guess go buy a second dish but then would I own it? would it even work without receiving the magic activation "OK" to some built-in microchip?

 

[Zynergi]

The Dish has nothing to do with subscription or even activation (other than a signal focusing device). You can request a 2nd dish from DirecTV, but they may charge you for it. I did a farm once where they wanted 2 HD Receivers in the house, 1 In a Barn and 1 in a Workshop... all about 500' from each other. The workorder had 3 KAKU dishes on it.

DirecTV allows for 100' of cable as a safety buffer, you can take Solid Copper RG6 to about 230' and be fine (80% of the time), but it wont be supported. RG11 can go about 350'. The reason for this is DirecTV (and Dish to some extent) power the LNB (white thingy on the front) from the receivers, with 13v/18v depending on the channels you are requesting. After 100' you start to get signal degradation along with voltage drops and eventually you will either lock the voltage and only get half your channels, or drop out all together.

Cable can accomplish this because they run AC repeaters every so often over hundreds of miles of large solid copper cable which gets progressively down-converted as it gets to your neighborhood/home, generally with RG11 from your street/block node to your house.

Worse case is you can convince the tech to install the second dish and have him do a work order correction (may cost some money) or buy a Dish locally or from the internet.

 

[boba]

Stick with cable you can't do what you want.

 

[jdspencer]

The posters above yours say otherwise.

 

[Bogy]

The posters above yours say otherwise.

Actually, the other posters gave you options to try to make it work, but they also said it wouldn't work the way you wanted to do it.

 

[egnlsn]

Cable can accomplish this because they run AC repeaters every so often over hundreds of miles of large solid copper cable which gets progressively down-converted as it gets to your neighborhood/home, generally with RG11 from your street/block node to your house.

Cable systems have 60VAC power supplies every so often. The only place it gets changed is within the node or amplifier housing, where it gets changed to 24VDC to operate the electronics.

The mainline coax is copper-clad steel, and RG 11 is used only for long drops of a couple hundred feet or more.