Connecting 2 Satellite Receivers - one Cable

[TXBobcat]

I have the Bighorn 3400RE. It has a Satellite cable coming into the entertainment center. There is a cable from the Entertainment center to the bedroom.
I have been using one Directv receiver with one Satellite, one cable from the Satellite and watching the same shows in both living room and bed room.
A friend of mine gave me a Satellite splitter from Radio Shack and told me how I could run both receivers independently with the Splitter shown below and not have to pull a second cable from the satellite.

I brought in my old second receiver I kept from the sticks and bricks, connected up the splitter and both receivers, called Directv and had them activate the old bedroom receiver. And just like that, I now have two independent receivers to watch the SiFi channel while DW watches Rachel Ray.. I can also watch Spike .

I hope this is helpful for someone else that would like to use it..

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Thanks for the good info Bob.

 

[TXBobcat]

Update on Splitter

Well the splitter works, however I think there is a bit of a problem. For some reason one receiver seems to loose the signal then after a bit it comes back on and the other looses the signal. I am wondering if the splitter is reducing the voltage output and the receivers go into searching for the satellite.

Not happy with this problem. It is intermittent but not what I like and DW is getting fed up with it..

I have another solution, but I will test it out longer and let you know..

 

[htneighbors]

She's fed up cause you're on the computer and not fixing her TV!

 

[TXBobcat]

That is the truth.. When she can't see Rachel Ray I am in trouble..
But I have to watch, Stargate Atlantis, Starship Enterprise, Dog Whisperer, and what ever is on Spike.

 

[Tankie]

TXBobcat, we have one receiver that has dual mode w/two seperate remote on Dish that allows us to watch 2 seperate programs works great that only needs one cable, otherwise I think you need a seperate cable for each receiver but a call to Directv will answer that for you

 

[cjbearden]

Sounds like an upgrade needed to me!

This is from J.D. (so you understand the 'humor') so don't shoot the messenger. He says get the new Slimline Traveler KU/KA satellite with separate HD Tivo boxes - makes Directv installers smile real big and defintely solves the problems. Now we can record two channels at the same time on each TIVO box. DW gets all the "real TV" she can stand and I get all the sitcoms I like. We really impressed our Colorado installer when he brought out new HD Tivo boxes for us and saw we already had the Slimline installed.

Hope you get the problems worked out Bob.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

I think there is a splitter available specifically for sat receivers. It is called a diplexer. A little more expensive than a basic splitter but there is not supposed to be any signal loss.

 

[sJv]

I think there is a splitter available specifically for sat receivers. It is called a diplexer. A little more expensive than a basic splitter but there is not supposed to be any signal loss.

A diplexer is used to combine or split apart a satellite signal and a cable TV signal. It is not used to split a satellite signal. I know a little bit about satellite signals (just enought to be dangerous!), and they are very different from cable tv, and a simple spitter won't work.

Each satellite receiver needs to see it's own LNBF antenna. You can not share two receivers from a single LNBF. They will fight each other trying to control it. However, most antennas nowadays have dual LNBF's built in. There is a way to combine these two signals and split them apart later. My guess is this radio shack splitter is one of these combiners. These will only work if you have a dual LNBF antenna and the two signals are combined already.

-steve

 

[TXBobcat]

I talked to Brian at RV Capital Service and he gave me the idea to use the cable that is in the ceiling for the roof Sat Dish that is coiled up. If I can find it I can take that connection and pull it over to the outlet for the Booster and the Sat connection in the bed room from the entertainment system in the living room. I can disconnect the run from the living room and connect the one from the roof. Now I can connect both LNB cables to the distribution center. I will probably make an additional connection and keep the run from the living room..

I have already tried the Splitter and Diplexer neither will work with a single cable. SJV is correct.

I need to also look into the Slimline Traveler KU/KA.. and the
receiver that has dual mode w/two separate remote on Dish that we can watch 2 separate programs using one cable.

Thanks for all the comments. This has always been a valuable Forum.. You guys are great...