# Equipment required for 942 upgrade?



## dlmorgan (May 14, 2005)

I have a *very* old system that I am ready to upgrade. I am currently on Dish 500 using a 3900 receiver. I have two runs of RG6QS to the dish (the runs are about 300' each) and I am using an SW21 switch at the receiver end.

I did the installation myself (I'm a ham radio operator and computer professional and am very comfortable with things like this) and it is working great. I was interested in the 921 when it was announced but the RF-only remote was a deal-killer for me due to my in house AV distribtion system.

The 942 looks great and so I'm trying to figure out exactly what I'll need. From what I can tell I'm going to need a new DishPRO LNB and a new switch (or two?).

So I'm wondering if I should buy a package with the antenna and LNB (will that be cheaper?). Also can someone give me a basic idea of all the pieces I'll need to complete the installation? Thanks in advance for any help!

-- Dave


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

:welcome_s Welcome, Dave!

I'll try to tackle your question. You don't need a DishPro LNB, but with your 300 ft of wire to the antenna, it might be easier - and cheaper. I'd vote for getting a new antenna/LNB with your system.

The 942 requires two seperate RF lines, one to each tuner. The easiest solution is to use a DishPro Twin LNB to feed your two existing cables right into your 942. No switches are needed. If you wish to add other receivers and/or the Voom HD programming, you'll need to add a DP34 switch and an antenna with a DishPro Dual or Single LNB for 61.5.

There is a good Dish Network reference document at SolidSignal.tv here

You could use your existing legacy Dish 500 but at a minimum it would require a SW42 and that might not work with your long cables. I don't think these are made anymore, and it would really limit your future options.

Hope this helps!


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## dlmorgan (May 14, 2005)

Thanks for the reply Mike!  It looks like a DishPro Twin LNB isn't too expensive. I can't tell for sure from the pictures but it looks like it might not fit into my existing Dish 500 dish. Do you know if it will fit into my "legacy" dish or should I get a new dish as well?

-- Dave


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

Or you could use the new dishpro plus twin lnb.

You can hook up a side sat dish to 61.5 with a dishpro dual lnb and hook it into the dishpro plus twin . The switch is built in to the dishpro plus twin lnb. It has three inputs. Two on the left go to your receivers and the third one is the input for the dishpro dual lnb.

You can then use the dishpro plus seperator to split the coax into your house into two sat tuners. In the end you can power 2 sat receivers with dual tuners and only use two coax runs into your house. I am using mine with a 942 and a 522. Very clean installation and it makes everything so much easier and cheaper than the multi switches like the dishpro 34 or 44 etc.

I got my dishpro plus twin lnb and dishpro dual at www.dishdepot.com . The www.dishstore.com has them too.


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

That DishPro Plus Twin IS cool! Good idea and only around $100.

On mounting to a Dish 500, I don't know for sure if the plastic "y" thingy works for all LNBs or not. I thought it did. Anyone else know?


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## Bichon (Jun 5, 2003)

Are the two LNBs currently in your Dish 500 single or dual? If you're not sure, pull one off and see if they have one F-connector or two. If they are duals and you're not planning to add a second dish for Voom, the cheapest and easiest solution would be to get another SW21 (about $30), hook up both SW21s outside, and use the existing runs to connect to your 942.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

mike_johnson said:


> That DishPro Plus Twin IS cool! Good idea and only around $100.
> 
> On mounting to a Dish 500, I don't know for sure if the plastic "y" thingy works for all LNBs or not. I thought it did. Anyone else know?


 IF you mean the dish 500 arm that holds 2 dual or a quad or twin etc, yeah it will work for the dual . My second dish500 is holding a dishpro dual and it is pointed to 61.5. Since I had the second dish500 already, I just bought the dishpro plus twin and a dishpro dual and a seperator all for 101.97 . No TAX and free shipping since I don't live in Florida. Got to love that www.dishdepot.com site.


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## dlmorgan (May 14, 2005)

Bichon:
My current LNBs are dual and I already have two SW21s (I somehow ended up with a spare at some point) but they won't work properly when installed at the dish end due to the long cable run. That's how I tried to do it in the beginning and it didn't work. I talked to the installer at the place where I bought the hardware and he told me to put the switch at the receiver end and it would work fine. He was correct.

I don't have any plans to add a second dish at this point so I'll probably just pick up a DishPro Twin (not a plus) and use that. Hopefully it will work even though my cable runs are so long  I think I'll ask DishDepot for their recommendation when I place the order.

-- Dave


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

DishPro is supposed to work better on long cable runs of "up to 200ft". The same document I have also states legacy LNBs won't work at lengths of over 100ft due to voltage drop. It will probably work fine, but the experts at DishDepot will be able to help you for sure.

Here's another good reference document on DishPro.


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## dlmorgan (May 14, 2005)

That's an excellent article Mike! Thanks for the pointer


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

The Dish retailer info sheets are really informative. I wish Dish would just post them for all of use to refer to. I try to keep copies of them as I find them on retailer sites. I'm glad some of these dealers make these available to those of us who like to do our own installs.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

dlmorgan said:


> Thanks for the reply Mike!  It looks like a DishPro Twin LNB isn't too expensive. I can't tell for sure from the pictures but it looks like it might not fit into my existing Dish 500 dish. Do you know if it will fit into my "legacy" dish or should I get a new dish as well?
> 
> -- Dave


If your buying/leasing the 942 from Dish directly talk to them, they will usually throw in any LNBFs or Switches you need for free with the purchase/lease. I just leased the 942 and asked for a DPP44 switch and they fed-ex'd it to me, no charge.


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## joebird (Sep 15, 2003)

I've got an SW64 with legacy LNBs. did the new/latest software upgrade fix the compatibility with this equipment and the 942?


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

For most users, L224 (the current version) fixed the legacy issues. For the rest, L225 should do it, or at least that's what I've been told.


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## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

Do you have a subscription to local channels? Do they come on 110 or 119 for Oregon? In SF, they come on 148.

Anyway, you need locals with the 942 to get guide data. If your locals come on 148, it is a *free* upgrade to you.

If you want the voom channels, you can pay Dish $99.95 and they will add a dish pointed at 61.5. I just did that, and they replaced all of my legacy switches and lnbs with dishPro stuff. The materials alone, dish 500, a dpp44 switch, and new lnbs for a dish500 and a dish300 cost a lot more than $99.95. It was a sweet deal for me. You might want to try that route if it works for you.

Also, the 942 has an RF remote as well, nearly the same as a 921. Is that a deal killer for you? The 921, btw, has a learning option for other remotes. The remote itself doesn't transmit the IR codes, but the 921 receiver does. Your AV remote learns from the 921, not its remote. The 921 also has discrete codes listed on the 921 forum if that is what was a deal killer to you.


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## dlmorgan (May 14, 2005)

Mark:
Since you seem to be very experienced with all this stuff do you think I'll run into any issues with my 300' cable run using a DishPro or DishPro Plus LNB (given that my existing legacy LNB with the SW21 at the receiver end has been working fine for several years)?

jsanders:
From what I've seen on the specs for the 942 there are *two* remotes. The first one (for TV1) sends IR and the second one (for TV2) sends RF. Since I'm planning to use the 942 in single user mode this should work just fine for me.

-- Dave


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Dave - the fact is that you _should_ have run into problem years ago with a 300' cable run on legacy equipment, as that almost doubled the accepted maximum length. So, my guess is that you won't have problems with that length of run with Dishpro equipment either, but I certainly can't say one way or the other for sure.


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