Dual Tuner Newbie: Agile Modulated Coaxial Output Question

[duncanfogg]

Hi guys,

I'm seriously considering switching from Comcast to Dish TurboHD in the immediate future and want to begin by saying that this forum is my primary source of enlightenment on the blackhole of information that is Dish. So, thank you! Now on to my confusion.

I know that RG-6 should be used to connect dishes to receivers, say a pair of ViP222s, but do I have to use RG-6 to connect SDTVs via the receivers' coaxial outputs as well? FYI, all the cabling in my house is currently RG-59 and I'd like to maintain use of them if possible.

Also, am I correct in saying that there will be no problem in connecting the coaxial outputs to my PC's ATSC tuner card?

Thanks again.

 

[Agonizing Fury]

Although I would recommend using RG-6 for all cable runs, RG-59 is fine to use from the modulated output for TV2 to the actual Television. Coaxial outputs working to your ATSC tuner on your PC depends on whether or not it supports analog? The coaxial outputs of the dish receiver are not digital. It would be great if they were, but unfortunately Hollywood feels that anything in digital without DRM is a threat to their obsolete buisness model, and therefore is evil. So since there is no broadcast flag, there is no DRM on ATSC signals, so dish can't make coax outputs digital without losing the majority of the channels.

 

[RandallA]

"Also, am I correct in saying that there will be no problem in connecting the coaxial outputs to my PC's ATSC tuner card?"

No problems at all. If you use RG59, your cable run better be short. How long is the cable run that you want to use?

 

[chainblu]

If the picture is good with Comcast on those TV's, you should be fine.

 

[boba]

PC with ATSC Tuner is a no go. PC with a NTSC Tuner will work with DISH TV 2 outputs With RG59 picture on CH3 VS. CH60 will be better the higher the channel number the higher the frequency and more loss per foot of cable.

 

[RandallA]

boba is right, if your PC has an ATSC tuner only it's not going to work. I completely missed that. My PC tuner has NTSC/ATSC and QAM so it works for me.

 

[duncanfogg]

My TV card is actually a dual-format card so it can do analog as well, so it will work then. Thanks for the info on the coaxial outputs being analog. I talked to a Dish rep earlier and he said that the outputs were digital--it's definitely not the first time Dish has given me false information.


As for the length of the RG-59 runs, the longest one is about 50-60 feet. Currently, Comcast looks fine on the SD sets connected to these runs; I guess they will, at least, look decent with Dish?

 

[duncanfogg]

I have another question about the dual tuner receivers, specifically the ViP222. Say I have a HDTV connected as TV1 with HDMI. Then, I connect a SDTV using composite video as TV2. Can I then connect a third device using the agile modulated coaxial output and have all three outputs in use at the same time? In other words, will the use of the TV2 composite output "switch off" the coaxial output or vice versa? Thanks again.

 

[RandallA]

I have another question about the dual tuner receivers, specifically the ViP222. Say I have a HDTV connected as TV1 with HDMI. Then, I connect a SDTV using composite video as TV2. Can I then connect a third device using the agile modulated coaxial output and have all three outputs in use at the same time? In other words, will the use of the TV2 composite output "switch off" the coaxial output or vice versa? Thanks again.

All outputs are active on the E* receivers. You'll get the same channel on TV2 though.