Dish 500 questions for portable use

[Steve St.Laurent]

I'm a newbie at this satellite TV thing. I purchased a Dish 500 dish off of ebay for $20 to use when camping along with my secondary Dish Network box. The dish supposedly has a switch built in to the dual LNB's. I assumed that would mean there would only be one coax connector there to run the RG6 cable to my box but there is two - one on each lnb. Do I just need to run a splitter to connect to it or was the seller wrong and I need to get a switch yet? Thanks in advance.

 

[John - K5AWO]

Steve,



Dual LNB's just means that you can feed two receivers at the same time. That is to allow recording on one while watching the other, or whatever, two rooms, etc...



Now with the TIVO box, it isn't needed quite so bad, as you can record two channels and watch one that is already recorded. Still, the TIVO is using both of the LNBs so that it gets two feeds.



In your case, just leave one of the two connectors open. Not to worry, it will work just fine.

 

[Chipstien]

Steve, if it is a Legacy LNBF then yes the switch is built into the LNBF. However if there is two separate LNBF, (110 and 119) then you will need the SW21 (switch). You will know if it has two singles because you will have 4 coax connectors. I am using a SW64 and running three dish's. 110, 119, and 148. I get all kinds of neat channels.



John, I wasn't aware that the TiVo worked with the satelites companies. Or are you referring to Dish Networks version of the TiVo.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

It has two connectors but they are marked 110 and 119 which is why I thought I had to connect to both of them - 110 and 119 are the 2 different satellites correct? DirectTV has TiVo because a friend of mine has it - but he told me the other day it looks like they're going to go bankrupt because of the lifetime subscriptions they offered at the beginning. I have Dish Networks DVR on my main set and the bedroom and it's AWESOME! I won't be taking that one on the road though, I have a second unit in the basement that I'll use for that.

 

[John - K5AWO]

Guys,



I am subscribing to DirecTV and purchased the TIVO from them. I also have read that TIVO's business model is having a problem. But since DirecTV is using them, I just kind of based my purchase decision on direcTV not letting them go kaput...



The author Brian Livingston wrote up a lengthy article on TIVO some months back. Haven't followed the news on them though.

 

[rblomquist]

On my spare dish 500 we take on the road we don't use the switch (no need). About a year or so ago they apparently mirrored most of the channels on 100 and 119 so we only need to point at either of them to get our channels. Now, our neighbor gets local channel feeds as part of his subscription so he needs to run through the switch to get them.



Kinda confusing to me but I do know that we get all our channels while out camping w/out using the switch box. BTW, if you guys haven't switched your trailer outside connection to accept the Sat signal vice cable TV signal, it's real easy and makes it nicer than running the cable through a window or something.



Rich

 

[Chipstien]

It has two connectors but they are marked 110 and 119 which is why I thought I had to connect to both of them - 110 and 119 are the 2 different satellites correct? DirectTV has TiVo because a friend of mine has it - but he told me the other day it looks like they're going to go bankrupt because of the lifetime subscriptions they offered at the beginning. I have Dish Networks DVR on my main set and the bedroom and it's AWESOME! I won't be taking that one on the road though, I have a second unit in the basement that I'll use for that.

Yep you have the Legacy LNBF. just hook to either one and be happy. Just remember to go to "installation dish and signal" in the menu and click "check switch".

 

[bombero]

Ive had direct TV for about 6 years. Not too many problems. Never heard of TIVO. Dish and Direct are both owned by the same large commo company. It might be Time Warner, cant remember. . I dont see anyone of them going broke. Maybe combining.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

TiVO is a digital video recorder. Dish Network has a DVR - close to the same thing but not quite. I have the Dish network DVR which stores up to 100 hours of video. It records live TV as you are watching it so you can pause and rewind it. You can easily program it to record shows you want to see (2 or 3 buttons), can program it to record regular shows, etc. TiVO is a little more advanced in that it learns what you like to watch and records programs that it thinks you would like to see in addition to those that you ask it to specifically record.

 

[PHeadings]

Tivo was a sister company to direct Tv. Tivo has been dropped from Direct Tv and is no longer offered in there line up. You will soon have to buy a standalone to coinside with your Direct Tv receiver.

But to stick to the main question in this post there two lines of Dish Network equiptment. There is pre 2002 which would be the Lagacy line which is compatiable with all there receivers past to present ,the only down fall is the 1 to 38 switch test which takes some time, but if you buy the same lnb that you have on your house for camping then you don't have to do the switch test.

There newest line is the Dish Pro lnb's which are only compatiable with the 2002 and newer receivers. The lnb's are easy to tell by the large (DP) logo on the front of them. These lnb's only do a 1 to 2 Switch test which takes a lot less time form a installers viewpoint.

I would suggest to stay away from the older dual and single lnb's which require switches inline. Stick with the twins and quad lnb's.

Here is a link to there channel lineup which shows you need both 110 and 119 to receive all dish channels even with American Top 60 Pack.



http://ekb.dbstalk.com/dishlist.htm

 

[Sherman]

dish

Tivo was a sister company to direct Tv. Tivo has been dropped from Direct Tv and is no longer offered in there line up. You will soon have to buy a standalone to coinside with your Direct Tv receiver.

But to stick to the main question in this post there two lines of Dish Network equiptment. There is pre 2002 which would be the Lagacy line which is compatiable with all there receivers past to present ,the only down fall is the 1 to 38 switch test which takes some time, but if you buy the same lnb that you have on your house for camping then you don't have to do the switch test.

There newest line is the Dish Pro lnb's which are only compatiable with the 2002 and newer receivers. The lnb's are easy to tell by the large (DP) logo on the front of them. These lnb's only do a 1 to 2 Switch test which takes a lot less time form a installers viewpoint.

I would suggest to stay away from the older dual and single lnb's which require switches inline. Stick with the twins and quad lnb's.

Here is a link to there channel lineup which shows you need both 110 and 119 to receive all dish channels even with American Top 60 Pack.



http://ekb.dbstalk.com/dishlist.htm

Interesting- I was told by a dish dealer that the new generation recievers are notcompatable with the older style 500 dishthat has 2 coax cables that require the switch, Iound this out when I bought a dish to take on the road with the horse tr.

 

[John - K5AWO]

Tivo, Inc is not part of DirecTV

Tivo was a sister company to direct Tv. Tivo has been dropped from Direct Tv and is no longer offered in there line up.

Uh, you don't quite have your facts straight. TIVO & DirecTV are very much alive. There is a new player is town though. And, TIVO was never owned by DirecTV. Proof of that is at: http://www.tivo.com/5.1.asp



REF:Reuters

August 2, 2004, 2:26 PM PT



New Player:... NDS Group, a British digital TV technology company, said on Monday that it plans to ship digital video recorder technology to DirecTV in the first quarter of 2005. NDS, like DirecTV, is controlled by media conglomerate News Corp.



And TIVO: TiVo, which has a contract to supply digital video recorders (DVRs) to DirecTV through 2007...

Article: URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5293873.html



And for a company that has been "dropped by DirecTV", well, I must be looney and imagining things... . the box I just received from DirecTV says TIVO on it.

 

[SHobbs]

I have dual LNB's on my dish system with the switch built in. On the back of the LNB there are two connections, one for each receivers. The LNB's are'nt seperate they are one big unit. Looks like a big box with two white eyes on the dish side. The dishnet tech put this on last year he told me it eliminated the switch for better performance and less trouble.

 

[Sherman]

It depends on whether or not,that you have the new or old generation dish,the old needs the switch the new one does not,both have dual LNB's.