# FTA and Dish Network Connections



## lgriffi (Feb 4, 2008)

[Hello, 
Can a FTA receiver be connected to a dish system with out disconnecting a receiver. If I connect a FTA receiver and disconnect a D-N receiver, the TV in another room will not work.

Regards, lgriffi [


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## garys (Nov 4, 2005)

Don't see why, FTA sats are in different locations in the sky plus most Dish lnb's will not work with FTA.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

You're probably running into a limitation of the switch. You can't put two receivers on the same line from the switch or LNB (even if they are both DISH) without asking fro trouble. (There are exceptions, but considering what most FTA equipment can do - legacy connections - you're really confusing the system having two receivers.)

There isn't much FTA on DISH satellites ... unless you like the shopping channels!


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

It depends on whether the Dish Network LNBs have built-in switches or not. FTA systems tend to dislike modern Dish LNBs.


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## unclehonkey (Jan 3, 2008)

James Long said:


> There isn't much FTA on DISH satellites ... unless you like the shopping channels!


nope. Those are scrambled


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Wow ... I knew they just put them into free mode - I didn't realize they left them scrambled.


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## unclehonkey (Jan 3, 2008)

yep. Channels you can get free on a FTA box legally

Dish 101/480/490
PPV 103 & 500
Nasa
Angel One
DVR thing (the loop they download onto a DVR)
Dish 100

the music they scrambled before x-mas. Heckuva present from Dish


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

I'm surprised the music stayed unscrambled as long as it did ... perhaps it was a limitation of Muzak's equipment? Muzak sells that content ... if people could get it free with a FTA receiver it would be hard to enforce their subscriptions.


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## unclehonkey (Jan 3, 2008)

James Long said:


> I'm surprised the music stayed unscrambled as long as it did ... perhaps it was a limitation of Muzak's equipment? Muzak sells that content ... if people could get it free with a FTA receiver it would be hard to enforce their subscriptions.


I know some businesses would get a FTA system just for that instead of paying for it. So Muzak probably made Dish crack down on it


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## area904 (Jan 3, 2008)

Do not connect two receivers to the same LNB connection without a physical disconnect. Both receivers put out 18vdc on the coax to power the LNB. The LNB should only receive power from one receiver at a time. The FTA 18vdc output can sometimes be turned off in the menu, but neither receiver is designed to receive power from the coax.

One solution is to use a dual LNB (two separate LNB's in the same housing that can be powered by two separate receivers.) If you are using a Dish 500 or similar (two satelites on the single antenna), dual LNB's may not be available for it. You would then be forced to use a separate antenna for each satelite, with dual LNB's for each. Each receiver would be connected to both antennas through separate switches, but It's just as easy to add a second dish 500 antenna for the second receiver.

BTW, I'm currently watching two FTA sats on two Dish LNB's!


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

FTA Michael said:


> It depends on whether the Dish Network LNBs have built-in switches or not. FTA systems tend to dislike modern Dish LNBs.


FTA receivers work with DPP LNBs. The problems is that you cannot point the dish to get both FTA and Dish satellites.


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## unclehonkey (Jan 3, 2008)

FTA receivers work with DishPro LNB's too. Its a pain as the bandstacked technology but some boxes have a OCS-DP option which does the work for you when it comes to bandstacking

But the best for DBS are legacy LNB's with no switch


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## PTown (Aug 18, 2007)

Yup the old superdish FSS lnb's are DP technology.

You can always modify your tp freq's to work with dp lnbs also.


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