Upgrade to Genie, or Add Another Receiver?

[bincitybandit]

I have kind of a unique situation. I currently have 3 D* HR22 receivers in my home, served by two separate dishes. Each receiver has 2 coax going to it so I can record one channel and watch another at the same time. I have a "man-cave" with 4 TVs in it. Two of the TVs are served by one receiver. All 4 of the TV's are served by some sort of combination of D*, FTA, OTA, and internet. I want to be able to watch two separate D* channels at the same time on two of the Tv's in that room. I do not have a SWiM set-up.

I considered:

1) Upgrading to a Genie in the man-cave, that way I could presumable have 4 different D* stations on all 4 TV's

2) Adding a second receiver to the man-cave

3) Adding Genie to a different room, leaving one receiver in the man-cave, and getting rid of the other 2 receivers

My concern about #1, is that I really have no need for D* on all 4 TV's in one room.

My concern about #2 is that I believe this would require rewiring my system with a SWiM system which I know nothing about. Not sure which SWiM I need. Looks like they range from $140 to $300 with the power supply.

My concern about #3 (and again #1) is that none of my TVs are RVU capable, so I'd have to get 3 C31 clients which may not be cost effective when all the receivers work fine.

I visited with DirecTV and they said the Genie would be $299 plus $49 for installation. I'd rather do the install myself unless it is so complicated that I'm out of my area of expertise. I've been a D* customer for over 15 years and have never had an installer visit. The gal I spoke with basically tried to talk me out of the Genie. She felt I'd be better off just adding a receiver.

I'm leaning toward adding the extra receiver, but appreciate the insight of others. As I said, I need a tutorial on how to install the SWiM and get them all connected.

Thanks in advance............

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

dtv wont just send you a hr34 in my experience, they will send a tech out to upgrade the system to swm, and get all that said and done, but you are correct where you have the genie installed you are still going to need 3-4 clients since you have 2 dishes, if they are both slimlines it could be an easy switch, if they are not, then things may get difficult, directv does not normally use 2 dishes for anything but international channels, do you know exactly why there are two dishes, did you self install, do you know what type of dishes you have, and what sort of multiswitches? A lot of do it your selfers would much prefer to selfinstall, im a former tech and try to get around having other ppl in my house, but unless you have access to all the supplies, its usually cheaper to just let d* come and set u up correctly. I would need more information, and pictures of your current setup to help you further as far as install goes. but...

Option 1, you would need a genie and 3 clients to watch everything independantly not sure exactly how many wires and from what dish are going to your cave now, need pictures or a more clear description

Option 2, you would need to have another two coax lines run to the cave for the second receiver, they would need to be attached to a multiswitch which may or may not be in your current setup, im still not quite sure where the two dishes come into play.

Option 3, depends how many tvs you have in the house all together. this would get really complicated to type out without seeing it. I think you would leave a hr22 there now, use the 2nd line to feed the c31 (needs to be upgraded to swim) and then combine both of those lines into a swm splitter. then your other tvs would also run to this splitter, the genie on one of them your other boxes on the others, depending on how many dvrs you keep would change where and what switches and if the lnb were to change.


Main things I need to know, how many rooms in your home have tvs (you want d* on) how many recievers you want, and where you want dvrs compared to clients. One thing I will say that I was unhappy with the genie about, is that if you run 1 genie and 3 clients, your going to have less available dedicated tuners to record with than you do now, because the genie's 5 tuners are spread across any and all clients installed. i think you want another dvr or hd box personally.

 

[bincitybandit]

Yes, I am a do-it-yourselfer..............

The reason for 2 dishes: Installed the first when I was single over 15 years ago. That one is currently the older 18 x 20 Phase III (I think). Then I got married and the family grew. Put an addition on the house, and at the same time decided to put HD in and have TV in more than just the living room. So I got new receivers, and a Slimline 5 and put that on the addition. So that's the reason for two dishes rather than a multiswitch. Got the new dish and two receivers as a package from an online vendor a couple years ago. The Phase III has two lines coming to an HR22-100 into a rec room, which has an old SD projection TV, that nobody watches but the kids. This room is the least of my worries.

The Slimline 5 has two lines going to an HR22-100 into a master bedroom, and it serves two HD TV's. I have no desire to get separate channels on these two TVs.

The other two lines from the Slimline 5 go to an HR22-100 in the man-cave. They currently serve two TV's, but I am adding two more TV's, and the main thing I want is to be able to have two separate D* channels playing in the man-cave simultaneously. 4 separate D* channels would be icing on the cake, which is why I am considering the Genie, but I honestly do not NEED it, because I also have FTA, OTA, and Internet feeding all 4 of those TVs.

From what I gather, doing some research, if I added a SWiM to the Slimline 5, I think I could achieve what I want to. All 4 wires from the Slimline 5 enter my garage. So, if understand correctly, I think I could easily tap in a SWiM there, and use the two existing cables that run to the master bedroom, and the two existing cables that run to the man-cave. I am just not sure what all I would need.

Am I understanding correctly, that if I put in a SWiM, I could use one existing cable that goes to the man-cave for one receiver, and the 2nd for the other receiver? Can I use a splitter to serve each receiver so that I can still preserve full recording functionality in that room? By that I mean that if I had two receivers in the man-cave, would each receiver still be able to record and watch one show at the same time?

And regarding the Kids' rec room, I just figured if I put in the SWiM and Genie, I could eliminate the old Phase III dish, correct?

Regardless of whether I add a receiver, I am going to have to add a SWiM, as far as I can tell, because the Genie will not work without one..........?

 

[bincitybandit]

I've decided to just add one more receiver. I was hoping somebody could let me know if I am ordering everything that I need............

-DIRECTV SWM-8 Single Wire Multi-Switch With Power Supply

-DIRECTV SWS-2 Satellite 2-Way Wide Band MRV Compatible Splitter (2 -2150 MHz) ------- Quantity of 4

-DIRECTV SWS-4 Satellite 4-Way Wide Band MRV Compatible Splitter (2 -2150 MHz)

If I am correct, this should allow me to hook my 3 current recievers plus one new one up to my Slimline 5. Then I could just use one wire going to each reciever, and then use the SWS-2 to split the signal off that one wire and feed each receiver and it should retain the full functionality of the DVR's. Do I have all that right?

Unrelated question: I don't have Whole-Home-Service right now. What would I need to do to set it up? I currently have ethernet cable running from the office router to two of my three recievers.

 

[Mr Tony]

bin
I know its now moot but yeah Directv requires a tech for the HR34/Genie. When I upgraded everything was all set to go. The tech literally showed up, hooked up the cable and Ethernet and was done. He kept walking around the house thinking there was something more he needed to do.

I went from 2 R22's to the HR34

 

[Mr Tony]

I've decided to just add one more receiver. I was hoping somebody could let me know if I am ordering everything that I need............

-DIRECTV SWM-8 Single Wire Multi-Switch With Power Supply

-DIRECTV SWS-2 Satellite 2-Way Wide Band MRV Compatible Splitter (2 -2150 MHz) ------- Quantity of 4

-DIRECTV SWS-4 Satellite 4-Way Wide Band MRV Compatible Splitter (2 -2150 MHz)

If I am correct, this should allow me to hook my 3 current recievers plus one new one up to my Slimline 5. Then I could just use one wire going to each reciever, and then use the SWS-2 to split the signal off that one wire and feed each receiver and it should retain the full functionality of the DVR's. Do I have all that right?

Unrelated question: I don't have Whole-Home-Service right now. What would I need to do to set it up? I currently have ethernet cable running from the office router to two of my three recievers.

The LNB needs to be a SWM too....all you need in terms of the other stuff is a 8 way splitter and a Power inserter. Since you have 8 tuners total setup is easy and wouldnt need all them splitters

splitter like this
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...tible-splitter-(2--2150-mhz)&sku=874409002084

and the PI
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...er-for-swimline-dish-(pi-21)&sku=185463000894

cable from LNB to splitter
one cable to each DVR
on the red painted output of the splitter is where the power inserter gets put in line...

basically its output from splitter------cable------power inserter----cable-----receiver

 

[bincitybandit]

The LNB needs to be a SWM too....all you need in terms of the other stuff is a 8 way splitter and a Power inserter. Since you have 8 tuners total setup is easy and wouldnt need all them splitters

splitter like this
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...tible-splitter-(2--2150-mhz)&sku=874409002084

and the PI
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...er-for-swimline-dish-(pi-21)&sku=185463000894

cable from LNB to splitter
one cable to each DVR
on the red painted output of the splitter is where the power inserter gets put in line...

basically its output from splitter------cable------power inserter----cable-----receiver

OK, so my LNB has 4 cables coming from it. I need to change that out with the SWM one that only has 1 wire? Then I forget about the SWM-8 and the splitters that I thought I needed?

 

[Mr Tony]

you could go with the SWM8 (the old style) but its kinda overkill
Switching to SWM with the LNB is much easier (and probably cheaper)

Here is a fleabay auction for the whole setup (LNB, splitter and PI)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-DIRECTV...ellite_LNB_Downconverters&hash=item35c2efabed

I just searched SWM5

 

[bincitybandit]

All right, thanks. So would I still need two wires going to each HR22 receiver, or just 1, so that I could still watch and record different channels at the same time?

 

[Mr Tony]

with SWM you only need one cable per receiver. SWM is "magical" as it stacks everything. As example on my Genie/HR34 it can only use SWM. So one cable with 5 tuners working
When you get set up the cable goes into Satellite 1 input. You will have to rerun the satellite setup to change from NON-SWM to SWM but its pretty easy