Hi there!

I've been a DirecTV customer for many years, and am looking up upgrade to their HD line of programming. I have a dual LNB dish on my roof, running two RG6 cables into my house, which is my biggest concern. The route of the cables is no longer accessable until they hit a distribution splitter in the basement, and I understand the new HD dish now requires four coax connections which will never get as far as the basement box after some recent home renovations. I was concerned about this until I found that the SWM8 Multiswitch may be my answer. If I read the specs correctly, it can be used outside, connect the four dish cables in, and then run them through a single RG6 into the house? I also see that it requires a power source, how does this work? Does it run through the RG6 cable, or will it be necessary to run an independent power cable? Are there any other options that I might consider? I currently have two receivers that will be updated to HD, and would like to leave open the possibility of acquiring an additional receiver unit for another room in the future.

Thanks for any input!

:D

"If I read the specs correctly, it can be used outside, connect the four dish cables in, and then run them through a single RG6 into the house?"

Yes but it only works with the H20, H21, HR20, HR21, and D12 receivers, there is still legacy ports for older receivers that require addition runs.

"I also see that it requires a power source, how does this work? Does it run through the RG6 cable, or will it be necessary to run an independent power cable?"

Uses a power inserter via the RG-6 feed back to it.

Check sister site dbstalk for more info on the SWM also.

Another question:

I have two legacy receivers which I plan to use with smaller TVs in the bedrooms, and plan to get a new H20 or H21 for the big Hi-Def TV. I understand the SWM8 has outputs for both the new single wire feed and older legacy feeds. As I have only two coax lines running into my house, I could hook one to the single line feed and one to the legacy feed, but would it be possible to add a splitter on to the legacy line once it hits the access point in my basement to feed the two older receivers? Or is that going to require another coax run from the SWM8 itself?