# Dual tuner DIRECTV without two cables?



## alandarren (Mar 14, 2010)

In our living room, we have a standard D11/100 DirecTV receiver that feeds into a standalone series 2 TiVo. We’re hoping to upgrade our setup to be able to record two shows at once. We currently have two cables coming from our satellite dish; one goes to the living room, and one to a receiver in another room. We do not have an HD TV, and don’t plan to get one anytime soon. We do like the TiVo service, and would rather stick with that, but switching to a DirecTV DVR when upgrading is a possibility. We know there is a DirecTV DVR with TiVo features supposedly coming out this year but we're tired of waiting, and aren't even sure that is going to be able to do what we want (record 2 shows at once).

From what I understand, with standard receivers, there is no way to record two shows at once without having two cables for each room for a total of four coming into the house from the satellite dish. Due to the cost of running additional cables and/or the unsightliness of running cables through windows though, we would rather not pursue that option. 

I’ve read about signal stackers & unstackers that might work, but those seem like they would be expensive and prone to glitches.

A technician I talked to seemed to think that we’d be able to receive two signals on one cable if we upgraded to an HD satellite dish. Is this true? Is this the best way to accomplish what we’re trying to do?


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## raoul5788 (May 14, 2006)

alandarren said:


> In our living room, we have a standard D11/100 DirecTV receiver that feeds into a standalone series 2 TiVo. We're hoping to upgrade our setup to be able to record two shows at once. We currently have two cables coming from our satellite dish; one goes to the living room, and one to a receiver in another room. We do not have an HD TV, and don't plan to get one anytime soon. We do like the TiVo service, and would rather stick with that, but switching to a DirecTV DVR when upgrading is a possibility. We know there is a DirecTV DVR with TiVo features supposedly coming out this year but we're tired of waiting, and aren't even sure that is going to be able to do what we want (record 2 shows at once).
> 
> From what I understand, with standard receivers, there is no way to record two shows at once without having two cables for each room for a total of four coming into the house from the satellite dish. Due to the cost of running additional cables and/or the unsightliness of running cables through windows though, we would rather not pursue that option.
> 
> ...


You can get two tuners to work with one cable using the SWiM technology. You must have hd service in order to get it from Directv because I think the only dvrs that can do it are hd ones.


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

The R16 (SD) will also record two channels simultaneously with SWM.


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## doctor j (Jun 14, 2006)

SWM compatible receivers:

HR20/HR21/HR22/HR23/HR24 HD DVR Receivers 
H20/H21/H22/H23/H24 HD Receivers 
D12 / D13 SD Receivers
R16 / R22 / R23 SD DVR Receivers

Doctor j


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## HarryD (Mar 24, 2002)

My son just got DirecTV last week and I was there to watch the install (he had a Dr appointment)... I was shocked... Dish uses a SWM 3 (only three lnbs) and one wire into the house... then that connects to some sort of switch (looks like a splitter on steriods), then it hooks into another device (sorta looks like a signal booster - has to be plugged in)... that's it.. every HD DVR in the house had the ability to record on two channels at once even though there's only one cable in...


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

The device that looked like a splitter was indeed a splitter. The other device was a power inserter to power the LNB assembly.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

doctor j said:


> R23 SD DVR Receivers


I got a chuckle out of this one.


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## Canis Lupus (Oct 16, 2006)

HarryD said:


> My son just got DirecTV last week and I was there to watch the install (he had a Dr appointment)... I was shocked... Dish uses a SWM 3 (only three lnbs) and one wire into the house... then that connects to some sort of switch (looks like a splitter on steriods), then it hooks into another device (sorta looks like a signal booster - has to be plugged in)... that's it.. every HD DVR in the house had the ability to record on two channels at once even though there's only one cable in...


DirecTV uses SWM also - with exactly what you're describing. Was this a new install? What kind of install did DirecTV perform?


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

alandarren said:


> In our living room, we have a standard D11/100 DirecTV receiver that feeds into a standalone series 2 TiVo. We're hoping to upgrade our setup to be able to record two shows at once. We currently have two cables coming from our satellite dish; one goes to the living room, and one to a receiver in another room. We do not have an HD TV, and don't plan to get one anytime soon. We do like the TiVo service, and would rather stick with that, but switching to a DirecTV DVR when upgrading is a possibility. We know there is a DirecTV DVR with TiVo features supposedly coming out this year but we're tired of waiting, and aren't even sure that is going to be able to do what we want (record 2 shows at once).
> 
> From what I understand, with standard receivers, there is no way to record two shows at once without having two cables for each room for a total of four coming into the house from the satellite dish. Due to the cost of running additional cables and/or the unsightliness of running cables through windows though, we would rather not pursue that option.
> 
> ...


With your setup of using a receiver to feed a standalone Tivo, a single wire solution is not possible. IF you got an R16 DVR from D* then you could record 2 shows at once, but you wouldnt be using your standalone Tivo anymore.


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## Rico47 (Mar 14, 2010)

Would a Dual-Tuner TiVo work?


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

All of this would also have to be a DIY as DirecTV will not provide a SWM on an upgrade.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

Rico47 said:


> Would a Dual-Tuner TiVo work?


Not with SWM.


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## raoul5788 (May 14, 2006)

doctor j said:


> SWM compatible receivers:
> 
> HR20/HR21/HR22/HR23/HR24 HD DVR Receivers
> H20/H21/H22/H23/H24 HD Receivers
> ...


Okay, so there are sd dvrs that will work with SWiM, but will Directv install the SWiM without an hd dvr?


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

raoul5788 said:


> Okay, so there are sd dvrs that will work with SWiM, but will Directv install the SWiM without an hd dvr?


No


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## Newshawk (Sep 3, 2004)

Canis Lupus said:


> DirecTV uses SWM also - with exactly what you're describing. Was this a new install? What kind of install did DirecTV perform?


CL, I think he was referring to the Slimline dish with a SWMline 3 LNB, not to an E* install...


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## erosroadie (Jan 9, 2007)

An HR10-250 (TiVo) HD DVR is still available from some people looking to upgrade to the HR2X models. It requires two feeds, but it will record two shows at once and has a huge hard drive. Mine works very well. Unfortunately, the HD satellite feeds for this will be turned off at the end of March, so it is essentially a very large capacity SD DVR, though HD over OTA is certainly possible…

Which makes me wonder...if the MPEG-2 feeds are shut off by April 1, would D* require the HD package to activate one of these?


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

erosroadie said:


> An HR10-250 (TiVo) HD DVR is still available from some people looking to upgrade to the HR2X models. It requires two feeds, but it will record two shows at once and has a huge hard drive. Mine works very well. Unfortunately, the HD satellite feeds for this will be turned off at the end of March, so it is essentially a very large capacity SD DVR, though HD over OTA is certainly possible&#8230;
> 
> Which makes me wonder...if the MPEG-2 feeds are shut off by April 1, would D* require the HD package to activate one of these?


Id think they'd almost say we arent going to allow activation of those anymore.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

erosroadie said:


> Which makes me wonder...if the MPEG-2 feeds are shut off by April 1, would D* require the HD package to activate one of these?


HR10-250's can be activated without HD already. But you might need to escalate or try a few CSRs before you find one who knows what they are.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

If you have all owned HD receivers you only need to keep HD Access for 12 months. If you have any leased HD equipment then you must keep it as long as the receiver is active on the account.


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## HarryD (Mar 24, 2002)

Canis Lupus said:


> DirecTV uses SWM also - with exactly what you're describing. Was this a new install? What kind of install did DirecTV perform?


It was a new residential install... two HD DVRs and a regular SD receiver in the bedroom... Oh and I forgot to mention, the DirecTV tech could not activate any receiver until the signal was over 90%... He couldn't activate one receiver in the basement, until he replaced an existing cable... the signal was 88... after he replaced the cable... signal went to 97/98...


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## raoul5788 (May 14, 2006)

HarryD said:


> It was a new residential install... two HD DVRs and a regular SD receiver in the bedroom... Oh and I forgot to mention, the DirecTV tech could not activate any receiver until the signal was over 90%... He couldn't activate one receiver in the basement, until he replaced an existing cable... the signal was 88... after he replaced the cable... signal went to 97/98...


Hmm, I thought the threshold was 80%.


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