Signal Weak? Can't Split Cable

[nogard2008]

Hi,

We live in an apartment that supplies one main satellite. Our service is DirectTV. Last December I bought a DirectTV DVR and hooked it up. After a little chit chat back and forth with DirectTV the DVR worked.

Our Setup:
We have the cable from the wall going to a splitter, out of the splitter to both the SAT 1 and SAT 2 so we can record two shows at one time.

It worked ok for about a few days and then I notice that it kept losing the signal. Then the picture would get scrambled slightly with sound issues then the signal would be lost off and on again. Mostly I saw this with the lower channels but it really affected all the channels in the end.

I would reset the DVR unplug it and plug it back in. Sometimes that worked for about a day or less.

This last time I plugged it back in after I had the issue again and the DVR would not find the signal at all.

After removing the Splitter and only plugging into SAT 1 it worked great and has had no problems at all. But of course we can only recored one program and not watch anything while it is recording.

I have tried moving the DVR to other TV's to see if the issue is just with the cable in the main room, but with the same outcome.

Is the signal too weak to use a splitter?

Thanks for any help in getting this to work right.

Nick

 

[chuckg]

You better have at least two cables going into the "splitter" and the "splitter" better be a multiswitch which is vastly different than a splitter.

 

[nogard2008]

How can I have two cables going into a splitter? There is only one cable coming from the wall?

 

[Hemi 6.1]

You can't use a splitter . As you can see it doesn't work. You need 2 wires running from your dish to your DVR.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

And its not that your signal is weak ,its because your splitter is feeding the same signal through 2 wires into your DVR .That doesn't work! You need 2 seperate wires for a DVR no matter what! Whether its strait from your Dish or from a multiswitch. And a multiswitch needs 4 wires from your dish to the multiswitch. Throw your splitter in the garbage!

 

[nogard2008]

Using a splitter was direct instructions I had from DirectTV. If they gave me wrong information I will need to talk with them.

I will keep this post updated with what happens.

 

[nogard2008]

I contacted my DirectTV Service. They told me when they hook up their DVR's in our Apartment they use a splitter. They basically said they do that since there is only one cable coming from the wall unlike a personal satellite dish.

So I am back where I started.

 

[iwc5893]

I contacted my DirectTV Service. They told me when they hook up their DVR's in our Apartment they use a splitter. They basically said they do that since there is only one cable coming from the wall unlike a personal satellite dish.

So I am back where I started.

Then they're idiots.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I contacted my DirectTV Service. They told me when they hook up their DVR's in our Apartment they use a splitter. They basically said they do that since there is only one cable coming from the wall unlike a personal satellite dish.

So I am back where I started.

I told you what you need to do! A splitter will do you no good. Then you'll never have a fully functional DVR. Might as well put a non DVR back in.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Then they're idiots.

Really BIG Idiots! They should be Fired!

 

[Bob Nielsen]

Perhaps the apartment installation uses a MFH-1 stacking system. In that case a splitter would be used. It would need to be rated for a wider frequency range. Many of these are being replaced with MFH-2 systems which won't require a splitter, just a single line to the DVR (but these are not compatible with older receivers).

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Perhaps the apartment installation uses a MFH-1 stacking system. In that case a splitter would be used. It would need to be rated for a wider frequency range. Many of these are being replaced with MFH-2 systems which won't require a splitter, just a single line to the DVR (but these are not compatible with older receivers).

Last I knew Dishnetwork was the only one with a 1 cable solution DVR

 

[moghedien14]

I live in a MFH-1 complex...

Instead of a DVR, I have two receivers in different rooms. And they had to install a "Wideband Customer Device" instead of a regular splitter to make it work. Refer to the diagrams of the SCD-4P5W, SCD-4P52W, SCD-4P54W on this page to see what I'm talking about...

PDI-SAT 2008 Catalog

Look under DIRECTV MFH1 products

 

[nogard2008]

Perhaps the apartment installation uses a MFH-1 stacking system. In that case a splitter would be used. It would need to be rated for a wider frequency range. Many of these are being replaced with MFH-2 systems which won't require a splitter, just a single line to the DVR (but these are not compatible with older receivers).

I will have to check on that. The splitter I was using is also old. I could try buying a newer one.

But thanks for the answer, I was looking for a more detailed explanation on why they might be saying to use that.

 

[charper1]

I will have to check on that. The splitter I was using is also old. I could try buying a newer one..

"Splitters" as such, do not work with DBS; new or old.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

Splitters work with the SWM, but those are still in very short supply. Some MDUs are upgrading to the MFH-2 system which uses the SWM technology.

If it is a stacked system, a splitter followed by two destackers should work. It would have to be a very wide bandwidth splitter.

 

[nogard2008]

I emailed back and told them about the comments in this forum, to see what I could find out. Here is what they said:

"We do have a stacked system, in your forum people are mostly referring to a individual setup. This is where you have a individual satellite dish running straight to your apartment. We have a individual dish running to several different apartments. Our system is different than the average setup."

As for the 'Destacker' they said that would not be needed as the DVR Plus does not require it. They said they do it all the time with this type of apartment setup.

Doesn't help fix my problem, as whenever I hook the splitter up I get signal loss. So I am still stuck.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

I recall seeing somewhere that the R15 had a built-in destacker, but don't know if that was an accurate statement.

 

[nogard2008]

Yep that's the one. For now it is still better than a VCR to record shows even if I can only record one show.

But I would love to get this working how it should.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

Did you get the DVR from the MDU operator? They should be able to provide support.