Is it possible to use utv without running a second cable?  

It's NOT possible to do this. I just pulled a 2nd line for mine last night to get both tuners active, not a big deal where I have mine installed but I can see how for some it would be. There is no alternative other than having two separate connections between the UTV and your dish.

I have the 24" dish with 4 outputs, so I can still run my HD box and the UTV with one connection left.

Actually there are a couple of 2 GHz splitters out there. I bought a Monster version at Fry's and it works fairly well. Every now and then one of my tuners will Search for the satellite, but then a couple of seconds later it ends up working.

The "record two shows at once" feature hasn't failed on me yet.

Lon


[This message has been edited by LonVarscsak (edited 03-24-2001).]

Lon

Could you give us more details of your setup. How many LBNs? How many cable from dish? how many input on the 2khz splitters? etc? http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Tom Paulus
a TV nut that's hard to crack.

This might work if the channels you were recording were both on the same polarity transponder, but it should fail if Tuner 1 needs an even transponder and Tuner 2 needs an odd, or vice versa. I don't see how this could be an acceptable solution to the problem...

Okay I have a round dish (not DirecTV plus) with a dual lnb, but only one of the lnb's are being used. One cable comes from the dish into my family room. I used a 2 GHz splitter from Monster (I've even used a cheap $4 2GHz splitter with similair results), to split the satellite into two. During the setup phase (I can't remember on which screen) there is an advanced button. It asks about an "autoswitch", I selected this option, it does some automatic configuration and then informs me that it found satellite 101 on 12V (or 14V?) and 101 on 18V. I'm not sure what all this means...but it seems to work.

It appears that while all the guide data is being fetched right after the initial setup, both video inputs don't work consistently. But after the guide data is done, I don't see any problems...I can record two shows at once no problems. Now I don't actually know that downloading guide data actually causes a problem, it might just be coincidental.

I hope this helps, I'd be interested to hear anyone elses results with something like this. This 2GHz splitters are designed with this purpose in mind. But I'm not an expert, so who knows.

Lon

[This message has been edited by LonVarscsak (edited 03-25-2001).]

LON

Thanks for the info. This blows my mind. Overall it sould not work. If one tuner is looking for odd transponder and the other is looking for even I can't see how it can work at the same time. You may have been lucky so far as long as both use the the same even or odd transponder it would work bu t not when they are different.

Have you ever while one tuner is recording use the other tuner to go thru all the channels and had all good video on all channels? http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Tom Paulus
a TV nut that's hard to crack.

Lon,

While I can understand the temptation to configure the system this way, it simply will not work reliably.

DirecTV only sends half the channels down the coax at any given time; the DirecTV box (UTV in your case) tell the satellite which bank of channels it wants. Presumably, many of the "popular" channels are in one bank, and the others are in another bank. That's probably why you haven't seen a problem yet. But you will. I have no idea how they will manifest themselves, but I suspect you'll suddenly start getting wrong recordings off wierd channels (with the correct description), the channel changing without any remote input from you (when your record something on the second tuner).

You really do need to run to coax cables directly from the satellite, or from a multiswitch. There is no shortcut.

I get what you guys are saying now. For example when I record a show (any show), I can't tune and listen to the music channels...they must be on a different transponder.

Does a multiplexer work because it uses both LNBs? One on odd and one on even?

Thanks for the input,

Lon

[This message has been edited by LonVarscsak (edited 03-26-2001).]

Connecting a two input multiswitch to a dual lbn. one input is always +13 V and the other is +18 v so the lbn connected to it always sent back the correct even or odd transponder. The MS look at the output to see which is sent to it from the receiver and send the the proper input to that output. That way all receiver get the the proper trandsponder it needs. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Tom Paulus
a TV nut that's hard to crack.

MikeT:

No. You MUST have two DEDICATED feeds from a dual LNB OR two single 18" dishes connected to the IRD OR a multiswitch AND you must feed TWO DEDICATED runs to the IRD from the multiswitch assuming they're not direct from the LNBs.

There are NO shortcuts here. You WILL pull another cable in the wall or it won't work reliably. Period. Sorry for the bad news. I don't make the rules but I can explain them and there is NO way around this one. Period. End of story. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/frown.gif

With all due respect to everyone here; you can beat this horse to death and run this thread 100+ posts deep and it's not going to change the end result. This thread should end here (though I'm sure it won't). LOL

I'm not copping an attitude or trying to be a hard-a## but that's the way it is and it ain't gonna change.

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Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket!

[This message has been edited by LearningMan (edited 03-27-2001).]

BTW... I feel a need to interject this here. ONE cable run will work FINE for one tuner and to record material. The unit does not technically "require" two runs. You only need two runs to take full advantage of the system like being able to record two channels at once and being able to watch one channel while recording another for example. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

Why anyone would even consider crippling such a sophisticated system by doing this is beyond me but I guess it could be a short-term solution for those requiring installers to get cable pulled or time to get multi-switches, etc.

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Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket!

[This message has been edited by LearningMan (edited 03-28-2001).]

I hate throwing a wrench in everyones throughts on only running one cable but I was told that doing so will prevent you from getting certain programs active on the tuners depending on the transponder. If it seems to be working, then I hope it continues. If it stops working, then if my information is right...at least we have an idea why.

Newbie

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