How to distribute dish signal in home?

[Bijan]

It seems to me once you get the cable form the dish into the house, you should be able to make it available at all cable tv outlets in the house. How would you do it?

[bobkat]

Originally Posted by Bijan

It seems to me once you get the cable form the dish into the house, you should be able to make it available at all cable tv outlets in the house. How would you do it?

Its not quite that simple. Unlike cable TV or off-air antenna feeds, satellite feeds cannot be split. You must use a multiswitch to feed more than one satellite receiver. Multiswitches are available in many styles and configurations depending on what you want to do. Below is a typical hookup using one dish, pointed at one satellite and allowing the feed of up to 4 receivers. Note that you must use a dual output LNB and you need 2 separate cables coming in from the dish to the multiswitch. The multiswitch can be mounted indoors or out, depending on where all the various cables feeding each room are located (often in the basement near the electric panel for newer houses; for older house they could be anywhere).

This is assuming you want a separate satellite receiver at each viewing location. Another way is to have one satellite receiver serving all viewing locations. The big drawback with this setup is that all TVs must watch the same channel -- major bummer -- unless only one person lives in the house and there will be no fights about what to watch... :roll: ).

kat

[Bijan]

Unless I am missing something, this diagram seems to indicate that I need to run individual cables to individual receivers. What I really like to do is somehow plug the satellite feed into the home cable wiring at ONE point and make it available everywhere.

[bobkat]

Originally Posted by Bijan

Unless I am missing something, this diagram seems to indicate that I need to run individual cables to individual receivers. What I really like to do is somehow plug the satellite feed into the home cable wiring at ONE point and make it available everywhere.

Well you can't.... period. At least not if you want separate receivers. If however you think only one receiver is OK (read the disadvantage in prior post) then what you want is possible. You would then locate the satellite receiver in a central location and feed the RF output down through your internal house cabling to each room. Again, you are limited to watching the same channel on each TV at any given time; plus you will have remote control problems unless you have a satellite receiver with UHF remote capability. Plus -- you cannot use the internal house wiring for cable TV (assuming you want CATV as well as satellite). The only way around this problem is with a combiner. The whole thing gets very complicated and frustrating.

Satellite signal feeds cannot be split... that's just the way it is. It all has to do with polarity switching to the LNB. Cable TV signals can be split. Don't think of satellite signals as the same thing -- they are totally different.

The only way to achieve your goal is separate wiring to each satellite receiver.

kat

[swampthang7]

bijan; bobkat's hit the nail on the head...you can't.Why don't you tell us what you are trying to do,and remove some guesswork for us?there could be another alternative(IR wireless signal transfer or a dipler setup). 8)

[swampthang7]

that should read..RF wireless transfer or diplexer setup 8) !...too early,where are my glasses??

[Bijan]

Originally Posted by swampthang7

Why don't you tell us what you are trying to do...

Funny, this reminds of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer was pretending to be the movie guide on the phone. Anyway, I'd like to add a second receiver in the bedroom upstairs. Currently, the cable from the satellite exits in the family room where the first receiver is. Next to it is the cable TV outlet. So I am looking at the cable coming from the satellite and also looking at the cable TV outlet next to it and asking myself if I could somehow feed the satellite signal into home cable wiring and pick it up in the bedroom upstairs. I can also access the TV cabling at the point that it enters the house.

[swampthang7]

your best bet is to run anotherb sat line to the receiver upstairs.