# Dish DVR 625 In house networking TVs and laptops, etc.



## HollyD (May 29, 2006)

:newbie: Please HELP! :hair: I am new to Dish and just got two 625 dual DVRs.

Let me first explain our current set up and reasoning...

Box 1 is at TV1 in the living room (Main adult viewing area)
Box 1 also feeds TV2 in the dining room/kids play room (main kids viewing area)
Box 2 is at TV1 in the master bedroom (currently in single mode)
Box 2 is at TV2 in the kids bedroom (currently not active, due to ancient, non-compatiable TV in kids room)

Sometimes there is two programs on at the same time that both my husband and I want to watch in the living room, so we have to program TV2 (Box 1) to record the second show while the first show is on the main tv (Box 1 - TV1). Sometimes the programming isn't suitable for our 3 1/2 year old son and so we put a dvd on on that tv while it's recording to box 1.

I mainly use Box 2 for my shows (in the master bedroom, upstairs) A lot of the time I would like to watch my programs downstairs, or my husband wants to watch something I've recorded on Box 2, but he hates watching TV upstairs in the bedroom. But I like my TV upstairs for my mommy programs and for morning exercises. I am disabled and have a hard time going up and down stairs, so when I come down in the morning I cannot just run upstairs to set that Box 2 to set something to record or to view something when I have a few minutes to spare.

And needless to say, with kids programming, lots of adult prime time and a multitude of home shows and medical shows, out DVRs are very active and it's not uncommon for us to be recording 3 or 4 things at once during prime time at least a few times a week. 

Please don't think that all we do is watch TV, time is saved a LOT by using that 30 second skip forward button. I LOVE that button!!! So by skipping commercials we save a lot of time and we can also skip propaganda aimed at our son, when we use that button for his programs...cuts way down on the "I wants that"s!

Now for the questions... 

So how the heck can I hook up Box 2 to TV1 downstairs? Can I run a separate cable to from Box2 upstairs down to the TV in the living room. Will I lose any resolution? Would I need a signal booster? If so, where can I get one and what is a normal price for one? I can always bring down Remote1 from Box 2 from upstairs to control what I'm seeing on the screen...but that brings me to another question then...How far away can that remote signal be received? The master bedroom sits on top of the living room, but their's plaster and lathe ceiling in the living room and wood floor in the bedroom. And their is also about 20 horizontal feet difference in the floor plan where the TVs sit from each other from 1st floor to 2nd floor.

Also, I read that we can hook up something to the USB port to feed into our wireless G router system. This would be really handy to view TV on my or my husband's laptops on the porch, garage, basement or kitchen. We already plant to buy a couple of signal boosters. But then that leads me to my final question...How do you control the Boxes from the laptop pc?

If anyone can help me straighten out my networking situation, for optimal viewing pleasure and family harmony I would be eternally grateful!!! 
Thank you ever so much! :gott:
~Holly~


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## brooksto (Oct 9, 2004)

i can answer a few of your questions.

I think your best option would be to run the tv2 output from your 2nd 625 to the living room. The tv2 output is amplified just for that sort of thing so you should not need a booster. as far as resolution well its a coax cable so it will not be as good as the rca or s-vid outputs. You may then consider putting it into dual mode since changing channels on it would then interrupt programming on your bedroom tv while still in single mode. 

Your tv1 remote for the 2nd box is likely IR, so it would not work in the living room. You could purchase another uhf remote to control the tv1 tuner, or use the uhf remote that was supposed to be for your sons room, since the receiver is in single mode it will control the 2nd box from the living room. The tv2 uhf pro remotes have a range of 200 feet so that shouldnt be a problem. You mentioned your sons tv is ancient, i dont know if you were aware but you can probably use a vcr to tune in the modulated channel and then convert it to ch3 that the sons tv can receive. If you went that route you could just split the tv2 output between the sons room and the living room. 

as far as the usb port it doesnt appear to be fully supported yet, and when it is will likely only support usb mass storage devices and digital cameras and not output a live picture across a network.


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## HollyD (May 29, 2006)

Thank you so much for answering a few of the questions. It's going to take a bit of coaxing to get my husband to run the lines thou...Doesn't want two more holes in the siding just for his wifes convenience... :bang:


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## HollyD (May 29, 2006)

Oh I forgot to mention, the technician and my husband tried to use two different VCR in my son's room and the tuner was out on both of the VCRs...go figure...:bang:


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## robert koerner (Aug 20, 2005)

Units that send signals via a TV channel actually generate a TV signal. that can be "broadcasted" when connected to a TV antenna. The signal strength can be increased by using a amplifier/booster.

Quite probably illegal. I do not know what the limits are for low power transmissions.

My house doesn't have either a basement or attic. I'd certainly consider broadcasting a low power TV signal within my house, instead of running coax around my house or over my roof.


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## kf4omc (Apr 11, 2006)

brooksto said:


> as far as the usb port it doesnt appear to be fully supported yet, and when it is will likely only support usb mass storage devices and digital cameras and not output a live picture across a network.


THe USB port on the 625 is for Pocketdish players. No other stoarge device is supported or will ever be supported.


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