Possible to combine Dish and Cable QAM signals?

[el_triad]

Is it possible to combine dish and cable QAM signals onto the same line - then maybe get a splitter and one to a cablecard or QAM receiver and another to a dish box?

Reason I ask is that my HD local stations are in different directions some are NE, SE, and SW. When I had Voom - it was only possible to get three at a time. The cable company (Time Warner) currently offers HD locals, TNTHD, DiscoveryHD, - all in the clear - so I could get the 6.99 cable package and get these.

Thanks....

 

[goaliebob99]

Good morning and welcome to satguys You would need 2 diplexors. The cable feed would go in on the ant side of the diplexor and the sat side would go on the sat side of the diplexor. and at the other end do the same thing.. sat goes to the sat box.. cable goes to the cable box.

 

[JohnTenn]

I don't believe diplexors will work in this case. The cable signal and the satellite signal both come down at the high end of the frequency. A diplexor is only useful if you are diplexing a UHF signal. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[RandallA]

Yes, you are wrong. Cable digital goes up to 850 Mhz. Satellite signal starts at 950 Mhz and goes up to 2150 Mhz. A diplexer has one leg from 5-862 Mhz and the other one at 950-2250 Mhz (Passing Power).

Some cheap diplexers go as low at 40-862 and those won't work with Cable Internet. The upstream is below 40 Mhz. So if you want to use your cable modem with diplexers make sure it goes as low as 5 Mhz.

 

[DishBacker]

How about combining Digital Cable and OTA Antenna... can you diplex the two of them together? It sounds like from the description above that you can't since they both live in the same frequency.

 

[goaliebob99]

Yes that is correct dish backer

 

[OoTLink]

Actually I think he wants to combine the output of his dish box with the cable stuff, and diplexers would do that but you'd have 2 lines going to your TV.

 

[SatinKzo]

I don't read it that way. The way I read it is he wants to get the dish signal and the QAM signals to his 1 outlet and then split them out again for the sat box and cablecard.

Also, maybe I am misreading your post OoTlink, but if you diplex the channel 3/4 output on a dish box with cable (which will include analog unless the complete channel spectrum is digitral) wouldn't the 3/4 output on the sat box interfere with the cable? Would a diplexer even work with 3/4 output from a sat box and a cable signal? Would the diplexer even pass anything on the sat side if both inputs are below 850mhz?

I know I have done the following setup in my house but only used splitter/combiners

Took the TV2 output from my 522 and combined it with my basic cable. The basic cable is 2-24 and then the higher channels slip through (75-99 with 100+ having digital QAM in the clear stations). My 522 outputs on channel 63 for tv2, so on TV 2, I get 2-24, 63, 75-99 and QAM signals on the LG stb.

Again this is with combiners/splitters, not diplexors, but maybe I am just interpreting it wrong on the diplexer side with a RF output from a sat box and a cable signal. I also realize this is not what the OP was trying to do (if I read his post correctly).

 

[SimpleSimon]

SatinKzo is on the right track.

Diplexers are a pair of band-pass filters in one box - one high (SAT), one low (cable, VHF/UHF). The RF OUTPUT of a satellite receiver is VHF/UHF (depending on model & TV1 vs. TV2). So, it is in the same band as cable - not gonna mix real well in most circumstances.