Dish Wiring - Need advice please

[spaceace414]

I have been a member here for a long time, but have never posted. I once had Dish but moved over to cable because of a great promotion involving cable, phone, & Internet.

We built a new home two years ago. I did all the wiring in the house, including multiple coax drops in all the rooms and ethernet ports. All of the coax wires come down to the basement where I have a very nice amplified cable splitter. Basically the main coax from the cable company runs into the basement into a splitter...one end is for Internet, the other runs into my amplified splitter for distribution throughout the house. It is an 8 way splitter...so there are a lot of cables that are not hooked up...only used when needed.

So...I have been having some issues with my cable service...HD to be more direct. I am thinking about switching back to Dish....but I am worried about how the receivers would be distributed through the house. The wife will NOT want more cable installed...especially from the outside coming into the walls.

I was wondering if all of the Dish receivers could sit in the basement. The cabling from the LNB could be routed down there, and then split to all the receivers (I may have 2-4 receivers). I know that these receivers are 2-room capable...so I could run signal to many rooms in the house. I see the only draw back being with the remote. I know that the second room remote is controlled using RF (?)...but can the main room be controlled that way also? If that could happen, I could have a Dish distribution center in the basement running signal to all the rooms in the house. All you would need is your remote control.

Do you guys think this is possible? If not...what could I do to help the situation?

Hopefully I have been clear with this post...if not, please let me know. I will do my best to further describe what I want to do.

Thanks a ton.

Troy

 

[boba]

Yes TV1 can be RF. How many TVs or tuners are you planning to connect? How are you going to distrinute the HDTV signals?

 

[spaceace414]

I would probably start with 1 HD TV, then three SD TVs. I would want the DVR functionality if possible...but not totally necessary on 2 of the SD tvs.


So you believe that I could run all four rooms with just the remotes (all through RF)?

 

[Lifterguy]

You probably could do this, because I think you could set different remote codes for each of the boxes and remotes. But I think there's one possible problem with your plan: HD.
The Dish network boxes will only feed SD signals over the Coax you already have installed. You will need to run an HDMI or Component from the HD box to the HD TV. Termination point in the basement is close to the room with the HD set, that might not be too difficult, but if you have to fish the lines through multiple walls or floor, it could be a challenge. (Believe me, I know - I've done it.) If it's a long run, HDMI is dicey, and you'd be better off going with Component - but Component cables are larger. If you decide to go ahead with this, and you need long HDMI or Component cables, you can get them from monoprice.com for a price far cheaper than most other places.

 

[spaceace414]

You probably could do this, because I think you could set different remote codes for each of the boxes and remotes. But I think there's one possible problem with your plan: HD.
The Dish network boxes will only feed SD signals over the Coax you already have installed. You will need to run an HDMI or Component from the HD box to the HD TV. Termination point in the basement is close to the room with the HD set, that might not be too difficult, but if you have to fish the lines through multiple walls or floor, it could be a challenge. (Believe me, I know - I've done it.) If it's a long run, HDMI is dicey, and you'd be better off going with Component - but Component cables are larger. If you decide to go ahead with this, and you need long HDMI or Component cables, you can get them from monoprice.com for a price far cheaper than most other places.

I had forgotten about HDMI...I use that now with my Insight HD service. Hmmmm......so what if I moved the HD receiver next to my tv in the living room. Could I connect that receiver to the DISH splitter in the basement using my coax that I previously run? I actually already have another coax ran from the living room to the bedroom (I was thinking about DISH when I first started wiring the house but decided not to run "room to room" drops after the first one).

If this is possible...I would be running my HD receiver in the living room (connected to tv with HDMI) using an existing coax line that is hooked up to the DISH splitter in the basement, then running a SD tv in the bedroom from the 2nd tuner backfeed using the "room to room" cable I installed. The other receiver(s) would sit in the basement and feed whichever rooms I choose at any given time...I would just need to go down there and switch cables.

You guys think this would work?

 

[Lord_Vader]

I had forgotten about HDMI...I use that now with my Insight HD service. Hmmmm......so what if I moved the HD receiver next to my tv in the living room. Could I connect that receiver to the DISH splitter in the basement using my coax that I previously run? I actually already have another coax ran from the living room to the bedroom (I was thinking about DISH when I first started wiring the house but decided not to run "room to room" drops after the first one).

If this is possible...I would be running my HD receiver in the living room (connected to tv with HDMI) using an existing coax line that is hooked up to the DISH splitter in the basement, then running a SD tv in the bedroom from the 2nd tuner backfeed using the "room to room" cable I installed. The other receiver(s) would sit in the basement and feed whichever rooms I choose at any given time...I would just need to go down there and switch cables.

You guys think this would work?

Yes, but you could use diplexers as well. When I built my house, I was a long time Dish person as well. I ran 2 coax drops to the rooms I planed to hook up my VIP DVRs. When the installer came out, he just hooked up the diplexers to backfeed everything. Over the same cable, I have all 3 Sat signals coming in, and the backfeed to "TV2". Works pretty well. I've also read on this forum about people carrying other signals in addition, but I'm not the pro on that.

My suggestion would be to have the installer put the tuners / DVRs next to the TVs using HDMI. You need to put them somehere with a good amount of air. They can get noisy if they get hot. Then backfeed TV2 using the diplexers. You will have one at the DVR and one on the basement. You then join that output to whatever feed the other TV (TV2) is on.

Two DVRs would cover 4 TVs and you could switch the backfeed to the other TVs as you like, so you may not need other tuners.

 

[vegassatellite]

DISH's dual tuners can operate with just a single coax coming to them. That single coax can carry both tuners' necessary satellite signals as well as sending the TV 2 feed back to your basement panel. You would only need two wires from the dish back to the basement panel. If you plan on more than two dual tuners, you will need more wires from the dish to the basement panel.