HR20 Setup Help

[ndc123]

I have very little knowledge about this subject and am in need of much help! I have had DirecTV for about a year. I started out with four standard receivers. About two months ago, I got a new HDTV and called DirecTV out to put a new standard HD box in to replace one of the standard boxes. They came out and put a 5 LNB slimline dish on my roof and set up the box and it has been working fine. Yesterday, I acquired a HR20 HD DVR to replace the standard hd box I have. I hook it up using the cables that were there from the previous hd box and then realize that I only have one cable and I need two for the dual tuners. I call DirecTV and the only help that they will give me is that they can send a technician out to my house in mid April. I then do some research online of other people that have had this problem and find out about the multi switch. I then figure that I could find the multi switch and just run another cable from that to the other tuner. I locate the multi switch (its a 3x4) and see that this is only being used for the standard receivers in the house. I then notice that there is a separate cable coming from the dish directly to the back of the hd receiver. My question is, what do I need to do to get the dual tuners on the HR20 working. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[damaged]

Are you saying they installed a 5 lnb dish and used a 3x4 multiswitch? If so, that doesn't sound right, see, for 4 tuners, you should not need any switch, the four coax coming from the dish itself can drive all 4 tuners, if you have need for more than 4 tuners (i.e. 3 standard receivers and one DVR), then you should have a WB6x8 (all four from dish go into the 6 side of the 6x8, and the 8 side feeds your tuners) which is the only switch that I know of that's used with the new 5 LNBs, since they support the higher freq requirments of the Ka/Ku signals.

 

[ndc123]

Are you saying they installed a 5 lnb dish and used a 3x4 multiswitch? If so, that doesn't sound right, see, for 4 tuners, you should not need any switch, the four coax coming from the dish itself can drive all 4 tuners, if you have need for more than 4 tuners (i.e. 3 standard receivers and one DVR), then you should have a WB6x8 (all four from dish go into the 6 side of the 6x8, and the 8 side feeds your tuners) which is the only switch that I know of that's used with the new 5 LNBs, since they support the higher freq requirments of the Ka/Ku signals.

When the guy came out, he said something like "I dont want to run more cables, so this is what im going to do" I didnt know any better, and I ended up with the direct cable from the 5 LNB to the HD and two cables from the dish to the 3X4 multiswitch that was already in place from the standard dish setup. It worked, so I figured he knew what he was doing.

 

[damaged]

When the guy came out, he said something like "I dont want to run more cables, so this is what im going to do" I didnt know any better, and I ended up with the direct cable from the 5 LNB to the HD and two cables from the dish to the 3X4 multiswitch that was already in place from the standard dish setup. It worked, so I figured he knew what he was doing.

Depending on your area, It'll work until D* starts using the sats to full Ka and Ku capacity, when that happens, then you're going to have a bad time.

Call D* and complain to get them [the installers] back out and demand it be done right, free.

It happens, you just got a lazy-ass installer, possibly figuring when the Ka/Ku kicked in and you start missing HD channels you'd call him back and he'd get to charge you.

 

[ndc123]

Depending on your area, It'll work until D* starts using the sats to full Ka and Ku capacity, when that happens, then you're going to have a bad time.

Call D* and complain to get them [the installers] back out and demand it be done right, free, you just got a lazy-ass installer.

That would be fine except that they said they couldnt have a technician in my area until mid April. Is there any way that I could do it myself?

 

[damaged]

That would be fine except that they said they couldnt have a technician in my area until mid April. Is there any way that I could do it myself?

Yes, purchase the WB68 yourself (I think one of the gold sponsers has them, maybe D* will give programming credits to make up for the cost), and take the four lines from the dish, put ALL FOUR into the 6 side of the 6x8, and then run a coax from each of the ports on the 8 side to each tuner as needed.

You should have also gotten a converter that goes inline for the Ka/Ku stuff, you won't need it now, but you will when it goes full capacity.

Also some installers will do what they did to you, then take the switches (or other equipment) they were supposed to give _you_, and sell it to someone else (a non-free customer), or sell em on ebay.

 

[ndc123]

Yes, purchase the WB68 yourself (I think one of the gold sponsers has them, maybe D* will give programming credits to make up for the cost), and take the four lines from the dish, put ALL FOUR into the 6 side of the 6x8, and then run a coax from each of the ports on the 8 side to each tuner as needed.

You should have also gotten a converter that goes inline for the Ka/Ku stuff, you won't need it now, but you will when it goes full capacity.

I got two little boxes that came with the HR20 that say SUP-2400 "B Band Converter (BBC) Module" (for Ka-Lo band up-conversion). Are those the converters you are talking about?

 

[damaged]

I got two little boxes that came with the HR20 that say SUP-2400 "B Band Converter (BBC) Module" (for Ka-Lo band up-conversion). Are those the converters you are talking about?

Yessir.

By the way, before you start pulling coax out from the receivers/switch, make sure you unplug (shutting them off is NOT the same, unplug them) the power from ALL receivers before connecting/disconnecting coax, not doing so may risk damage to the LNBs.

 

[ndc123]

Yessir.

Thank you so much for the help. 1 hour on this forum has given me more help than DirecTV could have ever given me.

 

[damaged]

Thank you so much for the help. 1 hour on this forum has given me more help than DirecTV could have ever given me.

No problem, re-read the post above your last, I added important information. Let us know how it goes.

 

[ndc123]

No problem, re-read the post above your last, I added important information. Let us know how it goes.

Alright, will do.