# 3X8 multiswitch Dish Network



## cush42 (Dec 5, 2009)

Hello: New to dbs and good to be here. I do have a question to start with and that is that I am looking for a 3X8 multi switch. I have a 1000.4 Dish Network aimed to the eastern ark, a UHF-VHF off air antenna and a Kitz Technologies amp for the UHF-VHF off air antenna mounted in the house to the coax cable. Do they make a multi switch that would work for this and if so I sure would like to find out about it. thanks cush42


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

No can do. All those old DirectTv multiswitches are now obsolete if you are using HD programming.

If you want to share the cables going form the Dish switch to your TV, you need to use diplexers on each cable.


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## cush42 (Dec 5, 2009)

With my 1000.4 eastern ark DISH NETWORK dish with its (3) leads which I assume can feed (3) three receivers its not a problem but I have I have (4) four other rooms that I might want to feed a signal to. I can take (1) one of the (3) three leads and feed it to a _________ to split the digital HD signal to the other (4) four rooms. Also on the UHF-VHF end of things it looks like its a (8) eight way splitter and a lot of diplexers for all this. Still have to figure out which one will work with my amplifier and if I need a splitter with a amplifier to make up for the DBL loss? So my question is > what is out there to split up the Dish Network signal off my 1000.4 dish<?


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## coldsteel (Mar 29, 2007)

You'll want two DPP44 multiswitches working in tandem to offer 8 outputs to up to 8 receivers.


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## PokerJoker (Apr 12, 2008)

Dish does not make a cheap 3x8 switch. They do make some not-so-cheap 4x4 and 3x4 switches that can be cascaded. You may be about to find out that when you expand a Dish system beyond a certain point, things get complicated and expensive.

As an example, I have this setup in my Seattle home:

3 RG6 cables from the dish go to one Dish DPP44 switch, and are fed though to a second DPP44 switch. (the switch is designed to be daisy-chained.) This results in eight 'Dish Pro Plus' outputs, four per switch.

For OTA, as you suggested, I have a roof antenna, fed to an eight-channel commercial grade amplified splitter, from which eight lines feed into eight Holland blue diplexers, one at each DPP44 output.

Overall, this produces eight single-cable outputs, each of which can feed a two-tuner ViP DVR with OTA. (In my case I was absolutely not interested in those Dish dual-mode setups with one box feeding two TVs.)

There are a lot of little details that I haven't gone into here, but that's the general layout. It's probably overkill, but it all works quite well. It is also, as I said, quite expensive. I did mine myself, but if you had to hire someone, I could see it getting up towards $1000. Parts cost alone is in the $500 range (less, if you source them off eBay). I did it this way to avoid the much larger hassle of running more coax in the walls.

I'm not totally sure on this, but you might be able to use the much cheaper DP34 type switch. It is Dish Pro, not Dish Pro Plus like the DPP44. As I understand it, the "Plus" is the ability to run one cable to a two-tuner DVR. With the DP34, you would lose that feature, and you would have to run two cables to each two-tuner DVR. But it would cost way less. There is even an aftermarket version of the DP34 from JVI that has the OTA diplexers built in. You could daisy-chain two or three of those, feeding their OTA inputs with a simple splitter, for under $200 (Right now Sadoun is closing out the JVIs for $55.) 

But either way, setting up a large Dish system is significantly more difficult and costly than setting up a large DirecTV system, probably because large homes and extensive installations are not really Dish's target market. Dish's "meat and potatoes" is simple home setups with one or two receivers that are fed directly from the dish itself. While that also describes the majority of DirecTV's installs, DirecTV does cater to the big-system market, and their large installs are a lot more straightforward and cost-effective. 

Keep in mind also that Dish will not lease you more than a couple of DVRs; after that, you have to buy them. Again, indicative of their desire to avoid large installations.

Hope this helps you,

Keith


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## CABill (Mar 20, 2005)

scooper and coldsteel are correct in their response, but you shouldn't interpret coldsteel's answer as applying to


> I can take (1) one of the (3) three leads and feed it to a _________ to split the digital HD signal to the other (4) four rooms.


You CAN'T take one of the 3 leads and split it to other things. The 3x8 can feed a SINGLE SAT to 8 DTV receivers. It can even be used on DISH receivers where you only want ONE SAT to go multiple places. The 3x8 needs a connection to one LNB for even Tr and to another LNB for odd Tr and optionally to an antenna. The DPP44 needs one connection to each sat location (covers both odd & even) and each of its outputs can pick whatever it wants/needs. As you worded the above quote, scooper's "no can do" still is correct. coldsteel's DPP44 is to use all 3 LNBs on the 1000 as Inputs to the DPP44.


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## cush42 (Dec 5, 2009)

I understand that with my VIP 211 receiver I will need a DPP44 Switch if I am to add additional lines and maybe two DPP44 Switches but what about the Power Inserter? Will I need the power inserter? YES OR NO? IF YES will I need one on each DPP44 Switch or just one? This is coming off of a DP Plus 1000.4 LNBF Eastern ARC. DISH.


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## coldsteel (Mar 29, 2007)

*Each* DPP44 requires a power inserter somewhere on the cable from the #1 output.


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