Newbie - ?'s about install/equip/cable internet

ajcrumble

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Original poster
Sep 4, 2005
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I have been researching dish for quite awhile; after much debate finally decided on a local retailer who self installs. He seems very nice; but I wanted to run his install plan by you guys to make sure it's the best way-before install date.

We are getting AT120; hbo/Cinemax pack -with Louisville ky locals
Want DVR in 2 rooms/ standard in 2 more
Chose 625 and 322 receivers

We are currently in 2 year old home; prewired for cable. Although we are dropping cable; we do need to keep Cable Internet; but cable co. installed separate line of cable directly from box to study specifically for our cable internet, when it was installed last year.

Installer says we will be getting a dish 500 antenna; and that he will probably have to run all new lines, because of our cable internet. But that whether he has to run new lines or not; he will still have to run new separate coax from our TV1 sites to TV2 sites for both of our dual receivers. This seems like a lot of coax and outlets to me; but I'm definately not an expert. When we asked about outages - we are in storm central here - he suggested some $5 piece he could put in our line to increase signal. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
$5 piece to increase signal? That's a new one to me. The only way you'll get less chance of rainfade is with a bigger dish than the 500, seriously.

Dishnet's setups seem alright with rain/wind, being in North Cal my testimony is probably worthless, but it held up really well since November (I haven't had any "outages"), sooo yeah.

The dual tuner receivers work like this: 2 coax wires run from the satellite dish(es)'s switch to your receivers. From there, you have a few options on how to output. TV1 has Svideo, composite, and of course 2 channel stereo, not to mention the typic RF output (coax) that you plug into a TV without any of the above..

TV2 can do all of the same except svideo. The receiver box was designed to sit on/around the "TV1" it's plugged into, since the "TV1" remote is just a run of the mill IR remote.

The 2nd remote is a UHF remote, since the 2nd TV can be anywhere, it doesn't require line of sight. Clever, huh?

Anyway, it does make the whole wiring thing sound a little more complex, since you have 2 coax wires going to each of your 2 boxes, and from there another 2 coax wires going to each of your TVs, however 1 is right there since the box is right by that TV, the other.. well it's wherever you want it.

Generally it's just easiest to have that second line run straight to the TV, however if the receiver is placed by the house wiring, it isn't being used by anything, and it might be possible for it to go to the 2nd TV, well might as well use that -- you won't have a wire laying around!

Honestly, there's a vast majority of options. Of course, you can always invest in some really long RCA cable and use that too, though I think at a longer distance, the coax will have better results.

Oh yeah, one more thing -- both those boxes need a phone line going to them, erm so a phone jack nearby for each one will be handy!

If anything though, if you really wanted to use your house's wiring, and you knew of a centralized point where every TV's cable wall jack went, you could simply put your boxes in that closet, for example, get UHF remotes for both the "TV1s", and voila, no additional wiring except the 2 sets of 2 coax wires for the receivers.

Then again, having a ghetto coax run to the 2nd TV can be worth it, considering the first TV can just have a *grin* svideo signal! Man that totally kills even a marginally good cable setup.

PS: Lucky you! You got your cable wiring done right first! Now the satellite guy can run his own runs for the satellite stuff and you don't have to worry about lazy cable installers blaming your house wiring already being used on the satellite company and trying to pull a fast one. Thanks to the idiot installers comcast sent out here, I have to pay $80 a month for DSL starting next month :mad:

Oh well, at least it's only for 2 months!
 
Ok with the way you desribe your cable setup. With the computer having its own run, you should not have to run any new wiring. That is if all your cable runs from your tv's go back to a central location ( i.e. they are all home run back to the electrical panel or service closet).

With a Dish500 and a 625 - 322 setup, the installer should only need one cable at each tv to do the install. They would have to use a DPP Twin on the dish. Then they would have to use a diplexor and a seperator at the location where the receivers will sit. At the TV2 locations you will just have the cable come out of the wall and go right into the tv.

Another option as mentioned above is to put the receivers in the location where all you cables join up. Pay the extra to get UHF remotes on TV1's (this would run you about $70.00 for the two remotes). Then you would just have cable go into your tv's and the boxes would be out of site.
 
The problem with diplexers/seperators is while DP separators are probably included with an install, the diplexers are not.

If you use a DP Plus LNB on the dish, only 1 wire needs to go from it to the dual tuner receiver. There, you plug in a DP separator and then 2 cables from there to the box. You will, however still need a coax run to the 2nd TV, and if your house wiring consists of "dual coax runs" (2 coax wires put together to every jack), then you can use that 2nd wire to go to the 2nd TV (with a little creative routing)..

I think the 322 and 625 might not even need the DP separator though, IIRC that's for 2 receivers not one dual, because the dual tuner ones can do the separation themselves, but I'm not sure on that one, anyone want to confirm that?

Still, if the wiring guy is able to run a wire run for free (which they are from dish to boxes), but charges ~$10-20 for the diplexers, let him run the cable *grin*. Most diplexers cost $2-5, especially in bulk, so if they try to gouge on that (when well, you'd think their time was worth the price of the diplexers), let them do the work anyway haha.
 
Nope he'd need to have the dpp separator installed even on the 625 and 322 units (well any dual tuner unit actually) in order for the receiver to work. I've also noticed that some technicians are on the generous side and won't charge to have the diplexors installed. This is mainly because it helps to cut down on the install time which is saved money for them.
 
nsafreak said:
This is mainly because it helps to cut down on the install time which is saved money for them.

Bingo. The ones that charge for it are well... a little annoying. The ones that charge more than the diplexers are worth are morons, though.
 
OK. Here's the straight talk. Too much half-truths above.

Assumptions:
  • Cable modem has a 100% dedicated feed from cable entry to computer
  • New coax will be run from DPP-Twin to each receiver
  • Existing house wiring can be isolated from all other systems
Results:
  • TV2 RF outputs are plugged into the nearest existing wall cable
  • Any TV in the house can now access EITHER receiver's TV2 output
Change assumption:
  • Installer wants to use existing coax to drive receiver(s)
  • Installer isolates existing coax from TV to "central"
  • Installer uses diplexers to get TV2 signal to "central" and then plugs that into rest of house wiring
Results:
  • Same as above
  • If installer tries to charge for $1 diplexers, slap him upside of head
  • If installer nicely mentions he's doing a bit extra for you, he's right - tip him nicely
 
OoTLink said:
I think the 322 and 625 might not even need the DP separator though, IIRC that's for 2 receivers not one dual, because the dual tuner ones can do the separation themselves, but I'm not sure on that one, anyone want to confirm that?
I can confirm you have this a little bit backwards. :)

The DP Separator can be used only with a dual tuner receiver, it can not be used for 2 single tuner receivers. The separator is not built in. If you don't use the separator each tuner will have to have its own run of RG6 to the switch.
 
Thanks So Much For All Advice

We have had dish for 2 days now and are loving it. Thanks for all the help/suggestions. We are up and running with our cable internet still intact. We are having some phone line difficulties with the 625. no line by tv - so we bought one of those wireless phoneline things/ but it works intermittently. Some times it can dial up and recieve caller id ; some times only one or the other and sometimes nothing. We can't figure it out. We've tried different outlets/setups - still very confused as to what is happening. My husband is talking to his phone guys at work about it today; but if anyone knows "The Trick" - let me know.

Again - Thank you so much! Y'all (You guys - I'm from KY :) ) are great!
 

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