DPP44 Switch and satellite priority (72 & 129)

[n9cqs]

Greetings.

I have 3 HD receivers (VIP-211, VIP-211k, VIP-222) connected to 3 dishes through a DPP 44.

I live in a very wooded area, so I have to find very small slices of open sky to receive the various signals. A single dish won't even come close to doing what I need, as there is no way to see more than 110/119 from the same spot on a very small property (mobile home park).

One dish is a Dish 500 receiving 110/119.

One is a large (26") wing dish with a single Dish 500 LNB for 129. It is aimed to the side of tree growth that I cannot control, and each year has less signal.

The third dish is aimed at 72.7. Great signal there.

I recently aimed the third dish to 72.7 when I found out that many of the same HD channels that are on 129 are there. I have a very clear view of the sky to pick up 72.7, and when I pointed that dish I have good signal.

The problem is that I receive my local stations on 129, and so far, the spotbeam is stronger than many of the transponders, and so it gets through the tree cover reasonably well. The problem is that there are other transponders on 129 that do not come in so well.

The 72.7 satellite seems to have a good signal on all the HD channels that are very weak on the 129 satellite.

The current configuration I am using on the DPP44 switch is as follows for satellite inputs.

connection 1 - 110 LNB
connection 2 - 119 LNB
connection 3 - 72.7 LNB
connection 4 - 129 LNB

I am wondering how I should connect this setup so that the HD channels that are available on both 72.7 and 129 will come FIRST from 72.7, and then if 72.7 doesn't have them, will go to 129. So far, it seems that it wants to get the channel from 129, even if the channel is too weak to be received.

If it weren't for needing 129 for locals, I would just abandon using it in favor of 72.7... unless someone can suggest some sort of laser tree arson!

thanks
Jeff

 

[dvrexpander]

Sounds like a pain in the butt to start with, I'd take care of the tree problem into 129 however I could and abandon the 72.7 as they will only fight each other which pretty much answers your question. There really isn't any alternate configuration or priority thru the 44 switch to do what you are wanting so just go with what I said at first and remove the tree issue however you can.

 

[mike123abc]

The switch will not affect which satellite your receiver chooses. No one really knows 100% but past trials seem to indicate the receiver picks the satellite based on the channel's position in Dish's master channel table. As Dish adds and removes entries (i.e. moves channels around) they can reorder the table and the receiver will switch satellites. In other words you want USA network in HD, it looks through the table to find USA network and the first entry that has a satellite that the receiver can see is the one that the receiver will pick. It will not fail over to another satellite, unless you do a switch test and the satellite is no longer available.

 

[boba]

Remove 129 from connection #4 then run a switch test. For a couple days use the system without 129 connected to see how it performs. If it works maybe an OTA antenna can get your locals.

 

[Tampa8]

I have two dishes. One aimed at 119/118, and one aimed at 61.5/72. They go to the DP44 switch. 118/119 on a Dish Plus dish, and 61.5/72 on a Turbo HD dish. Slot one and slot four are 119/118, slot two and three are 72/61.5

Thus on the receiver the order is 119(device Dbnd) 72(device 1k.4) 61.5(device 1k.4) and 118 (device Dbnd) When hooked up this way any HD channels from 119 are received from 119 such as USA or HBO (300) etc.. and all else from 72. If I change the order to 72, 119,118,61.5 then all HD comes from 72 consistently, but not 100%. Of the many times I have tried it, there were a couple where I did get one or two from 119, but it obviously does make a difference on my system how they are hooked to the switch.

Just a note - I have to have one of the dishes hooked up so that both satellites show next to each other on the receiver from one DISH. (Either one) So it does not work correctly if I go 119,72,118,61.5 or 72,119,61.5,118 etc... I lose 119 for some reason, and get, 110! I do not know enough to know why or how that is possible.

And one other quirk, if 119 and 72 are not hooked up next to each other on the DP44 switch, where the HD comes from appears to be not consistent but I have not played with that more than a couple of times.

I just recently started playing with it, and over the the last three weeks that's what I get.