New to DirectTV Questions - Installation and networking requirements

[tblair]

I am new to the world of DirectTV and was wondering if someone could help answer some questions I have before I pull the trigger.

I have experience with two other providers in the past 10 years, Comcast and ATT Uverse. I had a good experience with Uverse but sadly it is not available at my new house. Comcast, on the other hand, has been a terrible besides its internet offerings. The only two choices I will have at my new location are DirectTV or Comcast but I am slightly nervious about signing up for two years to DirectTV when I really do not have any experience with satellites.

My house is new construction but is at the point where I can not longer easily pull additional wiring (drywall is up and painted, etc). I will be getting my high speed internet access from Comcast. I am looking to get 1 HD DVR Home Media Center box and two additional HD boxes.

1. Do the DirectTV boxes need to be physically networked (ie cat5/6) together to allow watching DVR'd programs from any TV?

2. Do the boxes support wireless connectivity for the OnDemand functionality or do they need a wired connection?

3. How much additional wiring (if any) would be needed assuming I already have coax jacks in all the rooms I already want? It is a new house and I do not want to have an installer come in and start making it look like swiss cheese.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. I have tried to read up on various locations but nothing has seemed to answer all of my questions.

 

[cj_views]

I don’t own an HR34 Media Center unit but I was still curious.

This article may help you with your Home Media Center setup.

Solid Signal Blog - Hands on with DIRECTV+Samsung's RVU solution!!

It says:

“Note: DIRECTV recommends using a coax line for best results. A regular ethernet cable connected to a high-quality router or switch will also work if you're confident of your networking skills. Don't bother with trying wireless or homeplug, it just doesn't work.”

Although DTV is claiming that you cannot use wireless as stated above I still think wireless connection should work since RVU server uses IP based connection (requires a unique IP address) and as long as your wireless connection has sufficient bandwidth like an 802.11G (54 mb/s) or 802.11N (150 mb/s) you shouldn’t have any problem.

Matter of fact, you may be able to avoid wiring totally by deploying multiple wireless routers (such as Belkin, Alcatel, Linksys, etc.) to bridge the IP network between wireless routers. If you have any connection issue once everything has been physically (wirelessly) hooked up you can always use the “wireshark” software to debug the RVU activities by plugging your PC into one of the routers in promiscuous mode.

Good Luck.

 

[caseyf57]

Hello tblair,

Welcome to SatelliteGuys. To answer your question about watching programs from any TV the answer is somewhat of a yes/no. It is somewhat difficult to get whole home with ethernet approved and you will pay the same $ 3 per month fee but if anything goes wrong you are not able to call on DirecTV as they provide no support for this method. The easiest way is with DTV DECA (Direct Ethernet Coaxial Adapter). This replaces the ethernet wiring. As a suggestion you need a SWM (Single Wire Multiswitch) setup which requires a single coax cable to each receiver/dvr. Since you didn't mention whether the two additional HD boxes were receivers or DVR's I am going to make a recommendation that you get a SWM 16 setup that will allow for future expansion. Each of of the two outputs of the SWM 16 multiswitch can handle 8 tuners (not 8 receivers/DVR's). A receiver has 1 tuner, a regular DVR's has 2 tuners and the HMC (Home Media Center HR34) has 5 tuners. You should have a CCK (Cinema Connection Kit) to bridge from your router to your DECA wired system. It will be easier for DTV support to assist you if things are not working properly as this is the preferred method of wiring by DTV.

 

[tblair]

Hello tblair,

Welcome to SatelliteGuys. To answer your question about watching programs from any TV the answer is somewhat of a yes/no. It is somewhat difficult to get whole home with ethernet approved and you will pay the same $ 3 per month fee but if anything goes wrong you are not able to call on DirecTV as they provide no support for this method. The easiest way is with DTV DECA (Direct Ethernet Coaxial Adapter). This replaces the ethernet wiring. As a suggestion you need a SWM (Single Wire Multiswitch) setup which requires a single coax cable to each receiver/dvr. Since you didn't mention whether the two additional HD boxes were receivers or DVR's I am going to make a recommendation that you get a SWM 16 setup that will allow for future expansion. Each of of the two outputs of the SWM 16 multiswitch can handle 8 tuners (not 8 receivers/DVR's). A receiver has 1 tuner, a regular DVR's has 2 tuners and the HMC (Home Media Center HR34) has 5 tuners. You should have a CCK (Cinema Connection Kit) to bridge from your router to your DECA wired system. It will be easier for DTV support to assist you if things are not working properly as this is the preferred method of wiring by DTV.

Thanks for the help so far. So if I understand correctly, the easiest way for watching programs from any TV would be via coax with DECA. If that is the case, what exactly would be the advantage besides storage space to get a HD DVR vs a DVR Home Media Center. Does the home media center allow recording of more programs at one time or would you still be limited to one recording program per DVR? To clarify, the other two HD boxes in the house would not be HD DVR. Would anything need to be hard wired to my wireless router or can they all connect wirelessly (CCK and DECA?)?

Thanks for the help again! It is all completely foreign to be and I would really like to feel comfortable about everything before signing up for two years.

 

[wildbill129]

If you get an HR34 (Home Media Center)or an HR24 they have DECA built in. No adapter required. (All other HR series boxes require the DECA adapter) The HR34 has five tuners and is capable of recording 5 programs at once. The HR24 can do two. There are two internet connection kits, a wireless version and a wired. If you have a cable outlet close to where your router is, that is one option. When you order DirecTV, tell them you want Whole Home DVR service and the Cinema Connection Kit.

The advantage of the DVR's at each location, is you can pause and rewind live tv. If you have an HR34 and non-DVR's at your other TVs, you can watch and schedule recordings from the HR34, but you cannot pause and rewind live TV unless you start recording it. Getting the HR34 and a couple of H series boxes will be the least expensive route.

 

[tblair]

Thanks for all of the explanations. Things are starting to make a bit more sense now!

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

The SWM LNB(SL3,SL5) has a single coaxial cable that connects to a splitter(if you have more than one TV to hook up) & then to each of your TV's,with one output connected to your power inserter then your TV. The SL3-SWM/SL-5-SWM LNB handles up to 8 tuners. The HR34 counts as 5 tuners. Depending on how many HD TV's you want to hook up,the HR20/21/22/23/24 HD DVR counts as 2 tuners & the H21/23/24/25 HD receiver counts as 1 tuner. Like the HR34,the HR24 HD DVR & the H24,H25 HD receivers have internal DECA adapters so that you can run your network connection through your coaxial cable using a Cinema Connection Kit that would be attached by ethernet cable to your router & coaxially to your splitter(4-way or 8-way green labeled splitter). If your router is nowhere close to any direct coaxial cable hook up using the Cinema Connection Kit,DIRECTV has a wireless version that you hook up one end to your coaxial cable input & then the other end to one of your HD DVR/HD receiver. You then set up your network connection wirelessly to your wireless router.
If you get a HR34 & your router is close to it,you can hook up your HR34 to your router by ethernet cable & it would provide network connection to your other HD DVR/HD receivers through coaxial cable connection. As long as your network connection is provided by either a wired or wireless Cinema Connection Kit,or by you HR34,you do not need to attach an ethernet cable to any of your other HD DVR's/HD receivers(in fact the H25 HD receiver has no ethernet input,so you can only connect it to your router through coaxial cable). Because it can happen,if you get a HR20,HR21,HR22,or HR23 HD DVR,&/or H21 or H23 HD receiver,they need a DECA adapter which connects to both your satellite input & ethernet input from your coaxial cable.

All you need to do is,by calculating how many TV's(HD TV's) you have with what kind of receiver you want for each(HR34=5 tuners,HR20/21/22/23/24= 2 tuners,& H21/23/24/25= 1 tuner) to determine if you'll get a single cable SL-3(99,101,103 satellites)/SL-5(99,101,103,110,119 satellites)-SWM LNB or a 4 cable SL-3/SL-5 LNB along with SWM 16 multiswitch.
The absolute most important thing you need for satellite TV is unimpeded line-of-sight of the southern sky. If you have trees or tall buildings that block your LOS,then you won't be able to get DIRECTV.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Oh yes,if you want whole home multi-room viewing,do not consider the THR22 DirecTiVo in any mix of HR34,HD DVR,HD receiver set up. The DirecTiVo does not support multi-room viewing & would be a waste of 2 tuners if you want to view programing on one receiver from another DVR/HR34 you recorded on. Just don't get the THR22 DirecTiVo,that's the bottom line.

 

[SolidSignal]

I wrote the article...

If you set your wireless network up as 5GHz 802.11N only you might have some success, but don't count on it. It's not the raw bandwidth, as you really only need about 12Mbit to do the job. It's the other issues with wireless. You need a really strong smooth signal with few errors, and wireless, no matter what, is not going to provide that terribly consistently.

I'd also think that bridging routers would add additional latency that might contribute to slow remote response, which is already a problem.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

If you have the HR34 DVR and a HR24 DVR those two device will count as 7 tuners and will be able to share content between them. If you add the Directivo it will not be able to share (that I get) but can it still be added?

 

[trevorjd]

If you get the HR34 is the Cinema Connection Kit included for new customers?

 

[Hutch1814]

If you get the HR34 is the Cinema Connection Kit included for new customers?

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