# Thinking of switching to DTV



## dalucca (Feb 5, 2005)

I am a current Dish customer and have been since 2003. I am contemplating a switch over to DTV. I have some questions which my local dealer seems to not be able to answer which is a concern if they were to come out and provide the work.

I currently have a Dish 1000.2 I believe which has three feeds being fed into a On-Q module which also accepts an OTA feed. This is a really nice and clean install in my On-Q box as it then only requires one feed per room. The signal is then fed into a diplexer and then into a Dish Pro Plus seperator at the receiver location. I currently have two 722's and one 622 and have really not encountered any major issues lately.

My questions are:

1. Can I utilize the exisiting three feeds and the On-Q module to supply the signal to each room or do I need to install a multi-switch with the DTV dish?

2. I am thinking of leasing two HR24's and one HD receiver. Could all three receivers accept an OTA signal with one feed?

3. Can I roof mount the DTV dish?

I would greatly appreciate anyone's input.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

You will NOT be able to diplex OTA onto your DirecTV lines and none of the receivers come with OTA tuners in them anyway (though you can purchase AM21 tuner modules for about $60 each). But you'll have a pretty complete set of locals via satellite, so unless one of the odd-ball locals is *real* important, I'm not sure why you'd bother.

You would only have a single coax line coming into your On-Q box from the dish (i.e., they'd use one of the ones already there), and one line to each receiver. That will support MRV/Whole-Home DVR too.

Assuming you have standard asphault roof shingles, the dish will go on the roof just fine.


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## dalucca (Feb 5, 2005)

I have tile roof, but I thought I heard there was a way. Also, can't a switch be mounted near the dish and still utilize all three exisiting feeds?


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

BattleZone said:


> You will NOT be able to diplex OTA onto your DirecTV lines and *none of the receivers come with OTA tuners in them anyway* (though you can purchase AM21 tuner modules for about $60 each). But you'll have a pretty complete set of locals via satellite, so unless one of the odd-ball locals is *real* important, I'm not sure why you'd bother.
> 
> You would only have a single coax line coming into your On-Q box from the dish (i.e., they'd use one of the ones already there), and one line to each receiver. That will support MRV/Whole-Home DVR too.
> 
> Assuming you have standard asphault roof shingles, the dish will go on the roof just fine.


That is not true. HR20's do.


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## dalucca (Feb 5, 2005)

So if there is only one feed coming into the On-Q, does Direct TV provide a multi-switch?


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

With a SWM LNB, there is only one connector coming out of the LNB and only one line going into the house or to the junction box. There, a high-quality coax splitter is used to split the signal to enough lines to get one line to each receiver, up to a maximum of 8 *tuners*. DVRs use 2 tuners, non-DVRs use one.


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## dalucca (Feb 5, 2005)

BattleZone,

Thanks for the visual breakdown. So is the splitter provided by DTV? Also, what is the DECA and can they all be installed in the On-Q box?


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## dalucca (Feb 5, 2005)

I think I am close to converting over to DTV. One last question, if I was to install three HD-DVR's, will I still be able to take advantage of the MRV/Whole-Home DVR setup?


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Absolutely. You could view one program from each remote DVR on any other DVR. Plus, you can view something different (or swap between two live feeds) on the DVR that is serving to the other rooms. 

What you cannot do is view two different programs that were recorded on the same DVR, on two different remote DVRs, if you understand what I'm saying.


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## dalucca (Feb 5, 2005)

So basically it sounds like you can only watch one pre-recorded program from one DVR from another TV at a time.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

That's right. That's the only limitation if you've got three receivers involved.


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## dalucca (Feb 5, 2005)

Also, if you are utilizing the MRV/Whole-Home DVR setup, are you still able to connect an ethernet line to the boxes and utilize internet features?


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