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General discussion

New Beginner in need of help

Jul 12, 2005 3:20AM PDT

I finally moved out of the stix and got "The Dish". I am looking to grab a big screen for the great room - however - I think I have a problem. The sat. comes into a single DVR/receiver ( on my main floor. From there the signal goes (via coax) from the receiver back through the walls back up to the great room (where I want the big screen). Is there any way - aside from rebuilding my walls) to use the existing coax and ""boost"" the signal prior to going into the new big screen? (is this what a home theater receiver can do? go from coax to something like S-video??) Or do I need to re-think how the signal is coming into the house?

Discussion is locked

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Simple fix.
Jul 12, 2005 4:06AM PDT

Hello,

The easiest fix for your problem would be to get a couple of coax couplers and one small (3ft or less) coax cable. Make your connection down on the main floor. This will send the signal straight from the dish to your location in the great room.

Then you will want to connect your DVR/receiver to the in coming coax then output to either the TV or a A/V receiver then back to the TV.

The home theater receiver cannot except coaxial (RF) signals directly. The signals need to be either Optical (audio), Digital Coax (audio), composite left/right stereo (audio), S-Video (video), composite (video), DVI or HDMI (which is both audio and video).

In order to be able to process 5.1 (6.1, 7.1 etc..) surround sound you need either an Optical, Digital Coax or HDMI cable from your DVR/receiver to the A/V receiver.

That should take care of your problem. If you have any other questions, let us know.

Take Care,

Shawn Mosqueda
WireSmart LLC
www.wiresmart.com
shawn@wiresmart.com

How To Build A Home Theater PC ebook coming soon! Includes 2 years of FREE revised editions that come out every 6 months. visit www.wiresmart.com

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Poor quality
Jul 12, 2005 2:27PM PDT

If you are talking about running the coax output from the Dish receiver to your TV, you will be disappointed. You get a lower grade picture and no surround sound (maybe not even sterio) plus you must watch the same program on both TVs. Either hook the receiver to your best TV with the S-video or component outputs if it has them and you will need a digital audio cable for surround sound, or get another receiver from Dish and you will be a lot happier

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: New Beginner in need of help
Jul 13, 2005 2:00AM PDT

I would do what the other post said, Get a second reciver, beter yet get the Disk HD reciver. John

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Isn't getting a new receiver missing his point?
Jul 13, 2005 8:45AM PDT

Hello John,

Do you think this guy will still need to use a splitter or coupling to get the signal to his upstairs unit and by pass the receiver downstairs?

The new receiver won't solve the fact that the cable installer has probably daisy chained the coax instead of homerunning everything to a central location like a media panel. (Which home running everything is the proper way of doing things today.) Irritates me when these builders don't research the proper way of running audio and video through the home. (Providing of course this is a newer home)

It seemed that the problem he is having is that he did not want to send the signal through the receiver downstairs then to the receiver upstairs.

What are your thoughts?

Take Care,

Shawn Mosqueda
WireSmart LLC
www.wiresmart.com
shawn@wiresmart.com

How To Build A Home Theater PC ebook coming soon! Comes with 2 years of FREE revised editions that are available every six months. visit www.wiresmart.com

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second receiver would be my choice.
Jul 13, 2005 10:27AM PDT

Receivers are not expensive. If you move the receiver you have right now to the "new" TV room, you loose your viewing on the old TV (Are you keeping a TV downstairs?)

So to make things easy (if you want to keep the old TV room going too) Can you get another line from the dish to either room? If so, you get a dual LNB for your dish, run the new line to the new room, add second receiver and your done. If the line has to go to the lower room, output 1 coax goes to lower TV room satellite box, and use second coax and connect to coax that is going up, for second box. If your new big screen TV is going to be High def, then check with dish network for HD channels and how to receiver them, it may require a slightly different set up, but it will be close to what is described above.

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RG-6 ?
Jul 14, 2005 1:16AM PDT

running any satalite signal through your present cabling successfully over the long term is also going to depend on the quality of the coax. Ive seen RG-59 carry a sat signal for several months and then suddenly stop working for no apparent reason. Whatever you choose to do...if you add on more coax make sure it is RG-6. Your sat installer used it to go from the dish to the receiver but there is no garantee that the remaining wire in the house is the higher standard.

grim

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New Beginner in need of help
Jul 14, 2005 4:48AM PDT

After rereading, you want to send the signal from you Dish reciver to you big screen TV?? I would put the Dish revicer in the great room with the Big Screen and use the RF output of the Dish to send the signal to the other TV's in the house, this is what I did before I got the second reciver. You should have the reciver by the best TV so it gets the best signal form the reciver.
All Dish recivers are hooked directly to the dish to get thier signal with RG6. But you can use RG59 from the RF output of the reciver to go to other TVs.
Now if you want to move your reciver just run RG6 from the dish to where you want the reviver to be and hook it up. John
Keep in mind that Dish has deals on mulit-room installs.

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Upgrade
Jul 17, 2005 1:47PM PDT

You could uprgrade your dish to support two receivers and get a wireless receiver for your great room.