# Can HR10-250 use older dual LNB dish?



## jsevinsk (Sep 14, 2006)

I currently have a older non-hi-def Philips DirecTiVo unit that has a dual LNB dish. I want to be able to also record hi-def local channels using an antenna in the attic. I don't have any interest in any of the HD stuff from the satellite. So, can I just replace my current DirecTiVo with an HR10-250 unit and keep the same dish?

John


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## Budget_HT (Jun 4, 2003)

Yes, and you can specify the single dish in your setup. Of course, you will miss any channels delivered on the 110 or 119 satellites.


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

This is kind of what I would like to do...I also have a dual LNB dish and a OTA antenna......but my DTV service is active....Im pretty sure Im only picking up satellite 101.....my question is will I be able to record 2 OTA shows at one time....and if not...what can I do to record 2 OTA channels at one time? thanks for any help


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

bachj said:


> This is kind of what I would like to do...I also have a dual LNB dish and a OTA antenna......but my DTV service is active....Im pretty sure Im only picking up satellite 101.....my question is will I be able to record 2 OTA shows at one time....and if not...what can I do to record 2 OTA channels at one time? thanks for any help


You can record 2 OTA channels at the same time provided that you have two satellite cables connected and both satellite tuners activated.


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## TimelessTV (Oct 3, 2006)

While waiting for my new 5 LNB satellite dish to be installed I connected my HR10-250 up to my existing dual LNB dish I had been using for my SD DirecTivo. I connected the 2 sat feeds and an OTA antenna and was recording locals like a champ for a week until the new dish showed up.

Actually, besides a couple of Discovery HD shows and a movie off of HDNet I have really only used the locals OTA for HD viewing/recording. So, I think your plan is not only feasible, it actually makes sense and will not cost you as much as my plan is costing me.


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

TimelessTV said:


> While waiting for my new 5 LNB satellite dish to be installed I connected my HR10-250 up to my existing dual LNB dish I had been using for my SD DirecTivo. I connected the 2 sat feeds and an OTA antenna and was recording locals like a champ for a week until the new dish showed up.
> 
> Actually, besides a couple of Discovery HD shows and a movie off of HDNet I have really only used the locals OTA for HD viewing/recording. So, I think your plan is not only feasible, it actually makes sense and will not cost you as much as my plan is costing me.


thanks for the info...this helps a lot!


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

TimelessTV said:


> While waiting for my new 5 LNB satellite dish to be installed I connected my HR10-250 up to my existing dual LNB dish I had been using for my SD DirecTivo. I connected the 2 sat feeds and an OTA antenna and was recording locals like a champ for a week until the new dish showed up.
> 
> Actually, besides a couple of Discovery HD shows and a movie off of HDNet I have really only used the locals OTA for HD viewing/recording. So, I think your plan is not only feasible, it actually makes sense and will not cost you as much as my plan is costing me.


Actually I have one more quesiton....what do you mean my 2 sat feeds?? This is what I have ...a Dual LNB....and just one cable coming from my dish...AND one cable coming from my OTA antenna.....does the dual LNB feed to just one cable before it comes into my house?? thanks for any help.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

bachj said:


> Actually I have one more quesiton....what do you mean my 2 sat feeds?? This is what I have ...a Dual LNB....and just one cable coming from my dish...AND one cable coming from my OTA antenna.....does the dual LNB feed to just one cable before it comes into my house?? thanks for any help.


No, you need TWO cables from your dish to feed the TWO Satellite Inputs on your DVR. Your Dual LNB dish should have an unused output if only one is currently being used. So you'll need to run a second coax cable from the dish's unused output to your DVR's second Satellite Input. The OTA antenna cable connects to the Antenna Input on the back of the DVR.


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

litzdog911 said:


> No, you need TWO cables from your dish to feed the TWO Satellite Inputs on your DVR. Your Dual LNB dish should have an unused output if only one is currently being used. So you'll need to run a second coax cable from the dish's unused output to your DVR's second Satellite Input. The OTA antenna cable connects to the Antenna Input on the back of the DVR.


Well...maybe I will take a trip up onto the roof and see if there is another output on the dish for another cable....then maybe I can get the other satellite feed. I will do that and let you know...thanks for all you help!:grin:


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

litzdog911 said:


> No, you need TWO cables from your dish to feed the TWO Satellite Inputs on your DVR. Your Dual LNB dish should have an unused output if only one is currently being used. So you'll need to run a second coax cable from the dish's unused output to your DVR's second Satellite Input. The OTA antenna cable connects to the Antenna Input on the back of the DVR.


So I went onto my roof to look at my dish feed....and my Dual LNB dish only as one output......I unscrewed it off of the dish and looked at it...it only has one output..no room for a second...so now if I want to get two outputs which will enable me to use the HR10.....do I have to get a new LNB....and if so....will I be able to do that with my current dish........and if I can...were can I get one from? thanks for you help....


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

bachj said:


> So I went onto my roof to look at my dish feed....and my Dual LNB dish only as one output......I unscrewed it off of the dish and looked at it...it only has one output..no room for a second...so now if I want to get two outputs which will enable me to use the HR10.....do I have to get a new LNB....and if so....will I be able to do that with my current dish........and if I can...were can I get one from? thanks for you help....


You must have a pretty old dish if it only has one output on its LNB. You have two choices ....

1. Replace the single output LNB with a new dual output LNB. But for the price of replacing the LNB, you might want to consider ....

2. Upgrade your dish. In fact, DirecTV might upgrade your dish for free to a newer Phase III 3-LNB dish or AT9 5-LNB dish. Both of those dishes have integrated multiswitches with four outputs.


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

litzdog911 said:


> You must have a pretty old dish if it only has one output on its LNB. You have two choices ....
> 
> 1. Replace the single output LNB with a new dual output LNB. But for the price of replacing the LNB, you might want to consider ....
> 
> 2. Upgrade your dish. In fact, DirecTV might upgrade your dish for free to a newer Phase III 3-LNB dish or AT9 5-LNB dish. Both of those dishes have integrated multiswitches with four outputs.


Well here is my dilemma......I really don't care about all the the technology coming out from DTV......I like my OTA HD just fine..and thats pretty much what I watch ...are just my locals...I just want to be able to record them!.....so whats my cheapest route...just go and buy a dual output LNB and purchase the HR10-250 over E-Bay.....this way..I can recieve and record my locals with my OTA antenna....if I get the new DVR 700....the tuner are not activated...thus I can't watch or record my locals...so whats the point in updating my dish right now...I know eventually I will have to but that won't be probably for a couple of years before they turn off the MPEG-2...........I saw the dual lnb on the internet for 35$.....might just go that route....my only question is will my old dish pick up both the satellites......101 and 119??? thanks for all your help


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

If you go through D* to upgrade your dish or anything like that, you will be locking into a two-year commitment. I believe that if you upgrade your LNB to a Dual (on your own), you should be able to activate the HR10-250 without agreeing to a two-year commitment as D* has not "invested" anything in your set up.

If anyone KNOWS that my logic is flawed regarding the commitment, please chime in so bachj doesn't get bogus information. I just think if you have D* upgrade you to a Phase III, your on their hook for two years worth of programming. Now, if that doesn't bother you at all and the price is right (you'd have to contact D* about what they would charge), then I'd say upgrade to a Phase III to at least be able to take full advantage of that the HR10-250 can offer.


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

JLucPicard said:


> If you go through D* to upgrade your dish or anything like that, you will be locking into a two-year commitment. I believe that if you upgrade your LNB to a Dual (on your own), you should be able to activate the HR10-250 without agreeing to a two-year commitment as D* has not "invested" anything in your set up.
> 
> If anyone KNOWS that my logic is flawed regarding the commitment, please chime in so bachj doesn't get bogus information. I just think if you have D* upgrade you to a Phase III, your on their hook for two years worth of programming. Now, if that doesn't bother you at all and the price is right (you'd have to contact D* about what they would charge), then I'd say upgrade to a Phase III to at least be able to take full advantage of that the HR10-250 can offer.


I think all I would like to do is purchase (on my own) a LNB with dual outputs to replace my sinle output LNB....then i would recieve satellites 101 and 119 ...which would enable me to record two shows at one time with the HR10-250....MY QUESTION IS THIS......will my Phase II (original DTV dish) pick up the 2 satellites 101 and 119 if I replace my single output LNB with a dual output LNB?? thanks for any help


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

I don't know exactly, but I would imagine it all has to do with the pointing of the dish. It may need to be tweaked if you install the Dual LNB and are not picking something up.


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

JLucPicard said:


> I don't know exactly, but I would imagine it all has to do with the pointing of the dish. It may need to be tweaked if you install the Dual LNB and are not picking something up.


Ya Im not really sure either...... it would be great if all I had to do was tweak it a little to pick up both satellites......but Im just now sure if the satellite is big enough to pick up both satellites?? Hopefully somebody will read this and help me out.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

bachj said:


> Ya Im not really sure either...... it would be great if all I had to do was tweak it a little to pick up both satellites......but Im just now sure if the satellite is big enough to pick up both satellites?? Hopefully somebody will read this and help me out.


I'm not quite sure I'm following your string of questions ....

You can use the HR10-250 HD DVR with any DirecTV dish, including a single LNB round dish, dual LNB oval dish, triple LNB oval dish, or the new 5-LNB dish. Perhaps you can look up your dish here and tell us exactly what you have or are planning to purchase ....
http://www.solidsignal.com/satellite/directv_dish_antenna_types.asp

If you want to receive DirecTV's current nationwide HD channels, you need at least a 3-LNB dish to "see" the 101, 110 and 119-deg satellites. But if you're happy with just SD channels and your local OTA HDTV channels, you can get by with a round single LNB dish.

Also note that the single LNB dish only has two outputs, so if you have more than one DirecTV dual-tuner DVR you'll need a multiswitch to feed additional receivers/DVRs. The oval dishes have four outputs.


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

litzdog911,

I think bachj has the older single LNB round dish that has only one feed off of it.

bachj, you can most likely buy (somewhere) a single LNB assembly that has dual feed off of it (which is what I think you were planning on doing).

Now, back to your question... I am not sure if the round dish has the proper design (surface area, width necessary) to pick up both the 101 and 119 satellites. Do any of my learned brethern know the answer to that? Or to be able to pick up both the 101 and 119, is an oval dish necessary?

.......................

OK, after going back and re-reading the thread, I have another question for bachj. The answers I was giving I was giving based on thinking you had a single LNB dish that had only one coax connection inside it. I have a very old dish that is like that. From there I "evolved" to a single LNB assembly dish that actually had two coax outputs. The LNB assembly was basically identical on the outside except for having an additional coax connection inside the assembly (where the LNB assembly connects to the "arm").

After re-reading, you are talking about a dual LNB dish (meaning two white "pucks"???). Is that correct? I guess I've never heard of a dish with two LNB assemlies that had only one output.

If what you have is a round dish with one "puck" that has a single coax connection inside, you should be able to get ahold of basically the same LNB assebly that has two coax connections inside (and I think the term that was used for that way back when was "dual LNB"). The second line could then be connected to your HR10-250, and OTA recording of two different programs would be possible.

bachj, I am also a little unclear on why you would need to pick up both 101 and 119. I think if your intent is just to have both tuners active so you can record two OTA programs at one time, as long as you've got the two feeds for the satellite connected to the satellite inputs on the HR10-250, I believe it doesn't matter what satellite it's actually seeing, just that it gets signal from both satellite inputs.

Finally, and this may already be understood, but post #12 makes me just a little curious. For the HR10-250 to be able to record anything (satellite or OTA), you must have it activated on a DirecTv account. That is stepping way back to basic, but I'd hate to see you go through all the trouble thinking this would work even if you did not actually have a DirecTv account. My guess is that you do and this whole paragraph is meaningless.

All that being said, if the dish truly is a round dish, is it possible to pick up 101 and 119?


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

JLucPicard said:


> ...
> All that being said, if the dish truly is a round dish, is it possible to pick up 101 and 119?


No. The round single LNB dish can only "see" one satellite.

The original oval dish only had two LNBs, though .... one for 101-deg satellite and one for the 119-deg satellite. It had an "empty" slot for the middle LNB if someone wanted to add reception of the 110-deg satellite. The link I provided shows all of the various DirecTV dishes.

We need more info to adequately answer bachj's questions.


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

litzdog911, that's right, I remember that dish now (never had one myself). Did they really make those with only one output at some point?

I agree, more info from bachj is needed to accurately answer his questions.


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

litzdog911 said:


> No. The round single LNB dish can only "see" one satellite.
> 
> The original oval dish only had two LNBs, though .... one for 101-deg satellite and one for the 119-deg satellite. It had an "empty" slot for the middle LNB if someone wanted to add reception of the 110-deg satellite. The link I provided shows all of the various DirecTV dishes.
> 
> We need more info to adequately answer bachj's questions.


Its sounds like maybe I have confused everybody....and if so..I apologize.

So maybe this explanation will help....after reading all the posts..and going up onto my roof to check out my dish..and reading my signal strength from my DTV reciever.....I have the following informatoin to share: Im pretty sure I have the one of the very first dishes...the smallest DTV dish...and I know its round...made by Panasonic..now for the LNB....its a DSS LNB....I took it off the dish arm and observed it to only have ONE OUTPUT....and there is no slot to add an additional cable so I believe this is a SINGLE OUTPUT LNB CORRECT???. Now onto my reciever....I have a HD DTV reciever because I have an OTA antenna which allows me to watch HD locals using my DTV reciever. I checked the signal strength on my reciever...and this is what Im seeing.....98% strength on satellite 101...thats all that my reciever is picking up...JUST ONE SATELLITE...which sounds accurate..because I only have one line running from my dish.
I hope this helps....so the question of the century is...IF I were to get a HR10-250...and if I were to go out and purchase a DUAL LNB...that has TWO OUTPUTS and then of course wire a new cable from my dish to my reciever....will my round dish pick up two satellites which will enable me to record two shows at one time? Im not looking to purchase any HD channels from DTV..I don't need all their new hoopla and new MPEG4...Im a very simple person..all I want to do is watch my OTA shows, record them...two at one time....watch shows that Direct TV offers in my package every now and then and CALL IT GOOD!

thanks for all your help you guys...you have been great.....im going to keep my fingers crossed and wait for the answer...then hopefully I will find a decent HR-250 on e-bay to purchase and be happy for awhile until they turn off the MPEG2


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## bwaldron (Oct 24, 2005)

Yes, replacing the single LNB with a dual LNB, then running the second line from the dish to the second satellite input on your HR10-250 will allow you to record two programs at once (any combination of satellite and OTA).


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## bachj (Sep 24, 2006)

bwaldron said:


> Yes, replacing the single LNB with a dual LNB, then running the second line from the dish to the second satellite input on your HR10-250 will allow you to record two programs at once (any combination of satellite and OTA).


Ok...hoping your right....because Im going to spend a lot of money for a HR-250 on e-bay and a new dual output lnb...thanks for you help!


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## bwaldron (Oct 24, 2005)

bachj said:


> Ok...hoping your right....because Im going to spend a lot of money for a HR-250 on e-bay and a new dual output lnb...thanks for you help!


You should be able to find a dual LNB pretty cheaply, I would think.

It will work. When I first purchased my HR10-250, I used it with an (old) round dish (dual LNB) to record HD OTA and the basic SD stuff via satellite. I eventually upgraded to the phase III dish, mainly so that I could get ESPN/2-HD...but what you want to do is fine and will work once you run a second line from the new LNB.

Good Luck!


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

bachj,

Sounds like you're on the right track. Best of luck, and I hope you enjoy the HR10-250 for many years to come!


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## dgordo (Aug 29, 2004)

You should be able to find a 3 lnb dish pretty cheap. Why not get one of those so you can pick up the 101, 110 and 119 sats?


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## wkearney99 (Nov 30, 2006)

Ok, so if I've already got RG6 and two cables running to the dish, and it has only two LNBs on it, can I simply replace that 2 LNB unit and run another cable? Or do I have to replace the entire dish assembly (and of course run the 3rd wire)?

I've already got a 3x4 multiswitch, feeding two DVR40 SD DirecTivo units. I take it I'll also need to replace the multiswitch? 

If I "have directv do this" and they charge me ($49 quoted) I take it I'm going to get slapped with a two year commitment?


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

wkearney99 said:


> Ok, so if I've already got RG6 and two cables running to the dish, and it has only two LNBs on it, can I simply replace that 2 LNB unit and run another cable? Or do I have to replace the entire dish assembly (and of course run the 3rd wire)?
> 
> I've already got a 3x4 multiswitch, feeding two DVR40 SD DirecTivo units. I take it I'll also need to replace the multiswitch?
> 
> If I "have directv do this" and they charge me ($49 quoted) I take it I'm going to get slapped with a two year commitment?


What are you trying to do? Add an HR10-250 to your system?

If so, you'll want to upgrade your dish. The older 2-LNB dish cannot receive many of DirecTV's HiDef channels. $49 to DirecTV is the best and easiest way to upgrade your dish, unless you enjoy installing satellite dishes (and you won't find a new dish for less than that anyway). Plus, DirecTV will replace/upgrade your multiswitch as part of the deal.


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## Dan_ed (Sep 28, 2006)

Litzdog, can't he simply add the Sat C kit to the dual lnb dish and then run a second pair of coax to the dish? Or is this a really old dish?


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