Moving Whole Home HD receiver to non-SWM dish setup

[robott]

I had DirecTV installed several years ago (2008?) at my home with (1) DVR, (3) HD receivers, and (1) standard receiver. Sometime later, DirecTV sent an installer to my cabin (150 miles from home) to install a dish and appropriate cabling ($200 for the remote install) so that I could transport my standard receiver between home & cabin. I was also told by DirecTV that the cabin dish installation would support one of the HD receivers when I upgraded from the old cabin standard TV to HD TV. Everything worked like a charm including the local Albuquerque channels, and with children long gone from home, it was just the 2 of us, hence only one viewing location at a time. We would make 7 to 10 trips to the cabin (3 or 4 days at a time), except we did not make any trips to the cabin last year. However, last year we did upgrade to Whole Home here at home, with (2) new DVRs to replace the old DVR, and the Standard receiver. We are totally HD now.

2 weeks ago, we opened the cabin for the first time in about 2 years, took one of the H21/200 HD receivers from home, a small HD TV, and were unable to get a satellite signal to the receiver at the cabin. We got the message,

“Problem communicating with satellite dish 775.” I did not see any problems with the cabling, but I do not have a Power Inserter up there.
Rather than trying to reset (other than just rebooting) the receiver, and not knowing what to do, I documented the dish and cabling there, in hopes of getting some help on a forum back here at home (I registered for this forum yesterday). Having searched your forum and reading several entries, I now know there is an issue between the SWM dish at home, and the non-SWM dish at the cabin.

Cabin setup: Slim Line dish with Integrated Ka/Ku LNBs Model SL5PIG-WNC

There is (1) arm with (3) knobs (LNBs?) (2) COAX and (1) ground integrated cables from dish

One of the COAX cables from the dish is coupled to the only RG6 COAX going into the cabin for a single tuner

WHOLE HOME setup: Slimline-5 Slim Line LNB integrated SWM (5 LNB), (1) COAX coming from dish

P121 Power Inserter for SWM Integrated LNB. 8 Way splitter

(2) HD-DVR HR24/100

(3) HD H21/200 receivers, each has a COAX/Ethernet splitter behind it.

Having tested and read the satellite signals from DirecTV here at home, I see that I get satellite signals:

101-(29 transponders, non-zero) fast reading

110-(3 transponders) fast reading

119-(10 transponders) fast reading

99c-(14 transponders) fast reading

99s-(4 transponders) slow reading

103s-(8) slow reading

103ca-(16) fast reading

103cb-(14) fast reading

For the few times we go to the cabin now, my wife and I would like to watch local news & channels, and a few of the 200+ channels for a reasonable amount of money. Suggestions & options might be:

· Use an existing H21/200 at home and at cabin. If needed, add appropriate power inserter?, filter?, BBC? It would be nice if we could remove H21/200 from Whole Home, use at the cabin, then place back in Home Network.

· If placing it back in Whole Home is not feasible, we could live with the mobile receiver only showing live TV, not recorded shows at home.

· Replace cabin LNBs (dish, cable, power inserter) with compatible SWM technology. The dish that’s already installed is mounted on vertically aligned post, so I would try to do it myself rather than shell out another $200+ for an installer. This solution might be worth the additional hardware one time cost if the portable receiver could easily be removed, and then rejoined to Whole Home.

After searching and reading the forum, this seems to be a common situation, maybe the details are slightly different.

Thanks

 

[harshness]

When transitioning from a SWiM setup to a legacy setup, you have to go through the "guided setup" to tell the receiver that it is now connected to a legacy LNB. The BBC you've been using all along would still be required at the cabin.

Upon return to home, the receiver should recognize the SWiM setup and adjust on its own.

 

[dfergie]

I use my HR20-700, camping, simple to get an SL3 LNB and Inserter then it's seamless changing back and forth ... (SWM16 at house)your receiver will recognize signal unless dish has moved. (no locals here South of Carlsbad, spotbeam ends north of town)

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

A simple repeat sat setup will fix you up providing you still have a BBC to use at the cabin. Menu settings settings satellite repeat sat setup. You may need to hit exit first if the box locks up during boot. When you get home you will need to repeat the process but leave the BBC at the cabin and reattach to the receiver deca that should be at your house.

 

[robott]

When transitioning from a SWiM setup to a legacy setup, you have to go through the "guided setup" to tell the receiver that it is now connected to a legacy LNB. The BBC you've been using all along would still be required at the cabin.

Upon return to home, the receiver should recognize the SWiM setup and adjust on its own.

Thanks for the response. Being new to the cabling/accessory- names/parts, I don’t know what the BBC is. The problem may be that I never had an HD TV at the cabin until this year, only took the Standard receiver and connected it to the old tube TV. I noticed Amazon has a couple of them for not much money, but I'm not sure which one would work.

 

[robott]

I use my HR20-700, camping, simple to get an SL3 LNB and Inserter then it's seamless changing back and forth ... (SWM16 at house)your receiver will recognize signal unless dish has moved. (no locals here South of Carlsbad, spotbeam ends north of town)

Carlsbad NM? Sounds interesting. Who would you recommend I go to get the correct LNB and Power Inserter? Solid Signal, ...?
Thanks

 

[dfergie]

Yes, South of town, Solid Signal or Amazon, I went with Amazon as I'm a prime member.

 

[robott]

A simple repeat sat setup will fix you up providing you still have a BBC to use at the cabin. Menu settings settings satellite repeat sat setup. You may need to hit exit first if the box locks up during boot. When you get home you will need to repeat the process but leave the BBC at the cabin and reattach to the receiver deca that should be at your house.

Thanks for reply. From what I've read regarding BBC, it is required for HD, non SWiM network, DT H21-200 receiver. I only used SD TV/receiver at cabin until I tried HD at the cabin this year. I'm looking at a DirecTV B Band Converter SUP-2400 for $7, with connections to put inline between dish Coax in, and Coax pig tail to connect to receiver. Would this do the trick?

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

Yep that sounds about right if you happen to spot a directv van in your town any tech would give you one of these for free.. they're pretty worthless to us I have around 100 on my van.. or throw them 5bucks.. just fyi

 

[robott]

Yep that sounds about right if you happen to spot a directv van in your town any tech would give you one of these for free.. they're pretty worthless to us I have around 100 on my van.. or throw them 5bucks.. just fyi

Will do. Thanks for your help. It will be a couple of weeks before we get back to the cabin, but will let all know how it goes.

 

[robott]

Yes, South of town, Solid Signal or Amazon, I went with Amazon as I'm a prime member.

I talked to Solid Signal and was told I should have professional installer aim/set the dish if it is not already lined up correctly.
1) If it is lined up now with the non-SWM 5 LNBs, would it still be lined up correctly for the SL3-SWM LNB (assuming I don't jar the dish when I replace the LNB)?
2) What meter do you use to line up your dish when you go camping, and is it very difficult? I don't want to spend another $200 to get another professional install.
Thanks again.

 

[texasbrit]

If it's lined up with the non-SWM LNB, just replacing the LNB with the SWM one will work fine if you are careful.

 

[raoul5788]

I talked to Solid Signal and was told I should have professional installer aim/set the dish if it is not already lined up correctly.
1) If it is lined up now with the non-SWM 5 LNBs, would it still be lined up correctly for the SL3-SWM LNB (assuming I don't jar the dish when I replace the LNB)?
2) What meter do you use to line up your dish when you go camping, and is it very difficult? I don't want to spend another $200 to get another professional install.
Thanks again.

Like texasbrit said, if you are careful, exchanging the lnbs shouldn't require a realignment. You can use the signal strength meters in the receiver to align the dish. Just make slow adjustments and allow the meter a few seconds to recognize the changes.

 

[dfergie]

I actually just use the signal meter on the dvr, between that and compass I can usually hit pretty quick, but I'm only traveling 30 or 40 miles to the west as the crow flies ... (Guadalupes) to camp.

 

[robott]

Will do. Thanks for your help. It will be a couple of weeks before we get back to the cabin, but will let all know how it goes.

Finally got to the cabin and inserted the BBC, repeated the sat setup with correct dish/switch type and after about 10 or 15 minutes we had programming. Returning home yesterday, went back through sat setup with SWiM and reconnected to Whole Home network and programming. Thanks again for the help.

 

[robott]

When transitioning from a SWiM setup to a legacy setup, you have to go through the "guided setup" to tell the receiver that it is now connected to a legacy LNB. The BBC you've been using all along would still be required at the cabin.

Upon return to home, the receiver should recognize the SWiM setup and adjust on its own.

When I got home, the receiver did recognize the SWiM during setup, but still had to go through the rest of the setup. Everything got back to Whole Home and DirecTV programming. Thanks.