I Did It My Way (D* Upgrade)

[Stanley Kritzik]

Well, as a long-standing DirecTV customer, with custom needs, such as buried cables from dish to house, I did my own upgrade to a Slimline HD-capable dish plus a Winegard SS2000 OTA antenna.  It was an interesting experience -- rewarding, but it took a lot of time, even with a couple of helpers.

I went with an SWM-8 single line per set installation, and the DVR is their HR21-Pro plus the OTA add-on.  Lots of RG-6, splitters, diplexers, etc., but when the dust settled, I had (and have) three receivers with a zillion HD channels plus the locals for the occasional rain-outs, if any.

Picture and sound quality are excellent, D* keeps upgrading the firmware, and I also have D* "on demand" via a Road Runner connection to the HR-21.  All-in-all, it's been going well, but it took a few days to get it done.

Stan

[basshive]

Stan,

Sounds awesome. I see you deployed the SWM setup. I am in a 3 story town house and aside from my main living room dvr, I have 2 others only using 1 tuner currently. I am considering setting up SWM myself so I can use the dual tuners on each box. Can you post some pictures and would you be open to having your brain picked about the deployment and equipment needed?

[Stanley Kritzik]

Stan,

Sounds awesome. I see you deployed the SWM setup. I am in a 3 story town house and aside from my main living room dvr, I have 2 others only using 1 tuner currently. I am considering setting up SWM myself so I can use the dual tuners on each box. Can you post some pictures and would you be open to having your brain picked about the deployment and equipment needed?

I'll do it soon.  The nice thing about the SWM and related "stuff" is that it's all inside work.  That assumes you have a Slimline dish and four RG-6 cables coming from the dish to the house.  You also need receivers capable of using the SWM, such as an H20, H21, HR20, or HR21.  The SWM also has so-called "legacy port" outputs, so you can feed an older receiver or two.  I had to do that temporarily to get an H20's firmware up-to-date, so it then could recognize the SWM.

Also, if you receive OTA signals as well, the SWM will diplex in the antenna signal.  I used an external diplexer instead, as I have long cable runs and wanted an amplified signal.  One last point is that each receiver, including the HR21, only needs one RG6 line, even if it has two receivers, as the receiver's firmware recognizes the SWM and routes signals internally.  (A local diplexer takes care of OTA signals.)

All will be clear in a few days.

Stan

[Stanley Kritzik]

Stan,

Sounds awesome. I see you deployed the SWM setup. I am in a 3 story town house and aside from my main living room dvr, I have 2 others only using 1 tuner currently. I am considering setting up SWM myself so I can use the dual tuners on each box. Can you post some pictures and would you be open to having your brain picked about the deployment and equipment needed?

I'm not sure the JPG file has been uploaded, but, on the assumption that it is there, here goes.  In the picture, center-left, is an SWM-8 with four RG6 leads from the dish at the bottom.  On the upper-right corner of the SWM is the power and signal input, plus the SWM's output -- just one wire at the SWM's upper-right.  The blue-gray box above right from the SWM is the SWM's power supply.

At the bottom of the power supply are two cables.  The one on the right has a fifteen-foot loop, because DirecTV says it has to be there.  It then goes to a Sonora LA141R amplifier.  The amplifier wiring goes up to a Sonora AD14 active diplexer.  That, in turn goes over to the SWM.  So, that's how DC power gets to the SWM and the Sonora products, and how the SWM's output gets diplexed and amplified.  On the AD14, but not in the picture at the top, is another input.  This is for the OTA antenna.  Stay with me, now!  So, while the power and other signals go up the line to the SWM, the SWM outputs the requested video channels from the dish antennas.  They get stacked on the same SWM line, are diplexed and amplified with the OTA channels, and all that video goes into the power supply.  All but the DC power come out the other cable from the power supply, and go to a splitter, on the right.

The splitter is connected to my three receivers.  The receivers each have diplexers to split off the OTA signals.  So, each receiver gets the satellite channel (or channels for the DVR) from the cable, and each one also sends its channel request up the line to the SWM.  The SWM does all the hard work to select the antenna and specific channel, and stacks up to eight requests on its single output cable, destined for the requesting receivers.

There are just a few points to make: one is to note that the receivers must not "see" the DC power -- it goes one way to power the SWM and Sonora products.  Any DC mistakenly sent to a receiver would destroy it, I'm told.  A second is the the 13 and 16 volt signals normally sent by the receivers to the dish are no longer sent out by the receivers, but are sent by the SWM.  (The receivers are all "SWM-aware, and know how to behave.)  The receivers only send out a channel request to the SWM, and it does the rest.  Also, since the requested channels are all decoded and stacked on the RG6 output from the SWM, no external BBC is needed at the receiver end.  Also, for an HR21 with two tuners, it is "smart" enough to pick both signals off of one RG6 cable, connected to receiver input number one.  Finally, if I didn't want the OTA signals, I'd have a simple one-RG6 cable connection to each receiver.  With OTA, I have a local diplexer, and the regular video is split off and connected to the AD14 add-on to the HR21, or to the OTA input on the H20.

I hope for a few things: one, that the picture gets there; and, two, that my explanation has been half-way clear.  I'll be happy to answer questions, of course, to the best of my ability.

Stan

[Bebop]

Any good reason not to use SWM-8's built-in OTA diplexer?

[Stanley Kritzik]

Any good reason not to use SWM-8's built-in OTA diplexer?

Whether right or wrong, my understanding was that the Sonora product gave 10 db. of amplification for the OTA signals, but the SWM-8 did not.  Since I was having some pixelation problems with 4-1 and 4-2, I gave it all I could.  My cable run from the antenna to the house is about 100 ft.

Anyway, TMJ still pixelates a bit.  In the interest of science, some day soon, I'll try it the SWM-8 way and see if the numbers change.  Also, Sonora products look great and mysterious on the plywood board.  Each Sonora product, when powered up has a small red led light showing : --)

Stan

[opfreak]

did you ever have the twc on demand? so that you could compare the 2?

if not, whats the selection of on-demand programing?

[Stanley Kritzik]

did you ever have the twc on demand? so that you could compare the 2?

if not, whats the selection of on-demand programing?

I never had TWC in any flavor, so I can't compare.  My current impression is that D*'s On Demand is relatively weak.  They need to do a deal with the likes of NetFlix and get an unlimited library in HD to really compete in that area.  With a huge "film" library, plus all their satellite channels, they could be formidable.

Stan