Multiple Receiver question

[SD04]

I currently have Dish 500(Twin) that is running to a 501 in the living room, and a 2800 in the office downstairs. I have added a 3rd TV in the downstairs rec room that I am running off the 2800-s-video out put to the LCD, and coax to the office tv. While that works most of the time, it would be nice to be able to watch different programs at the same time. My first thought had been to add a dual tuner receiver downstairs and be done with it. Maybe even an HD one. I went to the local dealer and was told I could do that and that my current dish would work. The current state of confusion about HD programing, and receivers, and now paying a monthly fee for pvr's made me think that if I can get a dual tuner receiver to work, why not buy a used 501 or 508 and hook it up to the new TV, leave the 2800 and the 501 where they are and wait for the dust to settle on hd receivers. Can I do this, and what will it take to accomplish this?
I've owned this system for 5 years, and with the exception of the lethargic menu response on the 2800, it has worked fine,, so I didn't really keep up with the changes that have been going on.
I appreciate all suggestions and help.

 

[boba]

The fact that you have a 2800 means you have Legacy electronics on your dish. You will need three feeds from the dish for three receivers. The simplest possibly cheapest thing will be to buy a used Legacy Quad for your dish 500 and run a new cable from the dish to the third receiver location.

 

[SD04]

Thanks for the reply. I have located some Legacy Quads. They seem to be plentiful. If you all could bear with me for 2 more dummie questions: In searching for the Legacy Quads, I ran over a SW-44 switch that claimed to do the same thing? What is this switch for? Also, my local rep said I could add a dual tuner without running another cable-are they capable of splitting a single coax signal? All of the pictures of dual tuners I have seen have 2 coax inputs one for each tuner. Thanks for the help. Hopefully I will get back up to speed on all of this soon!

 

[HCI]

The possibility of splitting the single coax to the dual tuner stands on you upgradeing your lnb to a DPP. Thats what I would probably do in your current situation. You will have to get a dish pro adaptor for your 2800 for it to work correctly, or you can upgrade the 2800 to a 625 or a 622 if you do want to go ahead and get HD now and it will work both TV's downstairs.

 

[SD04]

So if I upgrade the lnb to a DPP, I could add a dual tuner like a 622 downstairs, get rid of the 2800, and not have to run any more cable? Would this dish pick up the Digita channels?

 

[HCI]

Correct.

It will not pick up the voom channels only the one's on 110 and 119 which are in the regular HD package.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Depending on where you are, a Dish1000 would bring in the Voom channels along with 110/119. It normally comes with a DPPlus-Twin which will drive the 622 and 501 just fine.

 

[SD04]

Thanks for answering what I meant instead of what I wrote (HD not digital). Before I commit to Dish's HD packaging and hardware, I guess I'll see where the company is going. Maybe we will learn more tonight.