DirecTIVO install question

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Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

I have a Hughes DirecTIVO unit with two tuners. I am moving to a newly
built apartment unit that has a DirecTV satellite already installed and
wired to each room. This is nice and all, however, this is good for a
single tuner. Is there ANY way to get the 2nd tuner going without having to
run a 2nd line from the satellite?

Thanks in advance
 

seth

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Apr 6, 2004
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Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"Muskett" <rg@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:xfGoe.24753$J12.16674@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...
>I have a Hughes DirecTIVO unit with two tuners. I am moving to a newly
>built apartment unit that has a DirecTV satellite already installed and
>wired to each room. This is nice and all, however, this is good for a
>single tuner. Is there ANY way to get the 2nd tuner going without having
>to run a 2nd line from the satellite?

Depends on how the complex is wired.

Often times they use stacked system in an MDU installation. If it is
stacked, then all you need is a high-freq splitter and a pair of de-stackers
(some MDU receivers have the de-stacker built in).

You can get these supplies either from the MDU installer, or from
www.9thtee.com
 
G

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Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

>I have a Hughes DirecTIVO unit with two tuners. I am moving to a newly
>built apartment unit that has a DirecTV satellite already installed and
>wired to each room. This is nice and all, however, this is good for a
>single tuner. Is there ANY way to get the 2nd tuner going without having to
>run a 2nd line from the satellite?

Yes, but it's often expensive, and it requires installing extra
equipment at the dish or at an upstream "multiswitch".

To do this, you need a "stacker" system. This takes the independent
signal feeds from two LNBs on a dish (or from two outputs of a
multiswitch), frequency-shifts one of the feeds and multiplexes the
two onto a single cable. You then need a dual-output "de-stacker" to
feed the two tuners on your receiver/recorder from a single cable.

The cost is nontrivial - figure around $100 for the stacker and $100
for a dual de-stacker, speaking very roughly.

Some buildings are already wired up with a stacked feed. It's popular
in apartment and office buildings, because you can amplify and split
the "stacked" signal and feed numerous outlets with it - you don't
need a bunch of cascaded multiswitches. In such large installations
it's cheaper than using multiswitches. In fact, there are some
special-purpose satellite receivers which have built-in single-tuner
destackers (or, extra-wide-frequency-range tuners, which adds up to
the same thing).

Check with your apartment manager, and see if the DirecTV feed
provided to you is a standard one, or a "stacked" feed. If the
latter, you'll need a de-stacker to use it, and you might as well buy
a dual-output destacker and run both of your tuners.

If it's a standard single-receiver feed, from a multiswitch, then the
answer is 'no' - you cannot run two tuners from this single feed
without having the setup malfunction.

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
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