Dish Network BTV and multiple tuners.

[rxnelson]

I'm thinking of getting Dish Network because they have more HD channels than Direct. My assumption is that the picture quality will be better than cable? Right now I am on cable. I have the cable split out of the wall with one going straight to a pvr150. The other goes to the digital cable box which goes to another pvr150. I also have OTA HD DVICO card installed.

So the question is how do I duplicate this setup? I understand I won't be able to record (dish) HD with my current setup and will need to buy thier hardware for that.

I do want to be able to record two SD shows at once or watch one while recording another. How is this done? From what I have read it sounds like I will need two DISH receivers on one TV/PC. Does DISH frown on this? I have also read reports of varying success on being able to control them independently/seemlessly.

Another thing that has come up is can I just buy a used "ebay" receiver as my second receiver to save some money?

Please give some background/links on this. I have a pretty basic setup now as everything is controlled with my hauppauge remote.

Thanks.

[AdmA]

my wife and I had a used eBay receiver for a while. Worked great and saved a ton of money...its all YMMV, you could end up buying a piece of crap. Also, with Dish, each additonal receiver = additional $$ on your bill (mebbe $5 per receiver a month I think) You can have as many dishes as you want, but it comes down to the little LNBF on the dish, which needs a corresponding receiver. So if you have 2 dishes with 1 LNBF a piece, or 1 dish with 2 LNBFS a piece, you will need 2 receivers in either case...you cant simply split the signal, like with cable because this needs to be digitally decoded, ie, needs that smart card. Don't worry, they have their butts covered.... anyone feel free to correct me if I got any of this wrong

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by AdmA

you cant simply split the signal, like with cable because this needs to be digitally decoded, ie, needs that smart card.

Actually no, the decoding only happens in the receiver... The reason why you can't use a splitter is that about half the channels from a satellite are received using one polarity, while the others are received using a second polarity. So a voltage is sent on the coax cable to switch the LNB to the proper polarity. Once you get 2 or more receivers, then you can simply use a double LNB, keeping each fixed on a single polarity. That's why you only need 2 coax coming from the dish, and then can use a multi-switch to feed 4 or 8 receivers from those 2 coax cables coming from the dish...

[AdmA]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Actually no, the decoding only happens in the receiver... The reason why you can't use a splitter is that about half the channels from a satellite are received using one polarity, while the others are received using a second polarity. So a voltage is sent on the coax cable to switch the LNB to the proper polarity. Once you get 2 or more receivers, then you can simply use a double LNB, keeping each fixed on a single polarity. That's why you only need 2 coax coming from the dish, and then can use a multi-switch to feed 4 or 8 receivers from those 2 coax cables coming from the dish...

thats why I said you can't simply split the signal

[rxnelson]

Ok. Can't split the signal just as I suspected. Does anyone have an easy way of connecting two receivers up to one BTV machine and being able to control them with one remote? Anyone have that working?

Also it sounds like they always run two coax cables to the house, correct?

[instigator]

I know that with DirecTV you have to use a multiswitch to run more recievers. I would guess that Dish is the same way.

[Jeepkeeper]

Hi

I have two sat receivers with my BTV and it works very well. Search the forum, there's allot of info on doing this. Here's an example that talks about cable receiver but can be applied more or less to sat dishes.

Multiple Digital Cable Receivers?

hope this helps you. Cheers.

[rxnelson]

I still haven't moved on this because I am trying to get a good handle on what I need to do/get before I switch. Another thing that came up is that I won't be able to record any HD broadcasted on satellite via BTV. With 25 HD channels via Dish this could be many many shows. Unfortunately, this would mean additional cost to get an HD DVR and having to manage two recording depots. Does anyone know if you can get the HD off of the Dish DVR via USB or Firewire? If I could somehow automate this as a daily batch job and play it through BTV it may be worth it. I saw another thread that sage can go through some kind of R-5000HD box mod and record HD. Anybody able to do anything similar with BTV? I have seen other threads and I don't think this is a top priority for snapstream. Hell, I don't even know if they make cards that can record the satellite HD stream. Is it possible to record satellite HD as SD via BTV?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by rxnelson

With 25 HD channels via Dish this could be many many shows.

Well, you would be recording an SD version of those if you connected to the s-video output of the Dish receiver...

Does anyone know if you can get the HD off of the Dish DVR via USB or Firewire?

In this age of DRM, they don't want you to be able to get them out of the box... There were some hacks to get the recordings out of TiVo, but no idea about Dish and others... Typically satellite receivers don't have Firewire ports and if they have USB ports it's not for outputing anything.

I saw another thread that sage can go through some kind of R-5000HD box mod and record HD. Anybody able to do anything similar with BTV?

BTV does not have the "network encoder" interface that makes this possible on that competitor's product. The R-5000HD modification basically uses your existing box, and outputs the SD/HD signal through the USB port, it would probably be possible to come up with some work around like for the Firewire recording, but...

[rxnelson]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Well, you would be recording an SD version of those if you connected to the s-video output of the Dish receiver...

So what does the SD look like? Is it even worth it or just manage the HD DVR and BTV?

Is it even theoretically possible to record these in HD via anything but Sage? Do they make cards that can do it?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by rxnelson

So what does the SD look like?

Connect your TV through the s-video output, you'll see...

Is it even theoretically possible to record these in HD via anything but Sage? Do they make cards that can do it?

If you check the R-500HD site at http://www.nextcomwireless.com/R5000/home.htm they support Dish and have their own software for recording. They added the Sage support only a few months ago.

DirectTV did announce its own version of a card to record on a PC, not sure at which point it is by now or if Echostar has something cooking in that regard.

[jkirk]

Originally Posted by rxnelson

Ok. Can't split the signal just as I suspected. Does anyone have an easy way of connecting two receivers up to one BTV machine and being able to control them with one remote? Anyone have that working?

Also it sounds like they always run two coax cables to the house, correct?

each reciever needs it's own coax. i used to run with two dish receivers. i had each receiver in it's own tuner through the composite(have not tried hd recievers) rca jack. i used a usbuirt and changed the remote address for one of the receivers. this way one usbuirt could control both receivers.

[rxnelson]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Connect your TV through the s-video output, you'll see...

Are you saying that HD converted to SD will look no better than cable does through S-video? One of the main reasons I am thinking of doing this is for the theoretical better picture quality in HD and SD over analog cable.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by rxnelson

Are you saying that HD converted to SD will look no better than cable does through S-video? One of the main reasons I am thinking of doing this is for the theoretical better picture quality in HD and SD over analog cable.

If your SD channels are really crappy, the downconverted HD signal might be better, but otherwise, SD straight from SD or SD from downconverted HD, it is still SD...