multi-room satellite

[hoopcat34]

i've been lurking the board for a while and my dad wanted my help with his satellite dish, so i figured now would be a good time to make my first post.
Here's his problem:
He has a satellite dish now (dish network i believe) that has a receiver in the living room and his bedroom. He wants to add a receiver in two additional bedrooms. He has an extra dish and two extra receivers (he bought them for me to use but i can't put them up at my apartment). He's been getting mixed advice on how to do this - splicing into existing wires, buying expensive converter, etc. What would be the best option for him to do this (the least expensive as well)? He said if he can avoid putting 2 dishes up he would like to do that, but if not it's ok. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bob Wills]

We're going to need a little more information about what your dad already has installed, but what he's most likely looking for is a multswitch. Does he have a single cable running from the dish to his receiver? Does the dish hit one or multiple satellites?

 

[Frank the Tank]

I don't know specifics, but we currently have Dish network in 2 rooms and only one satellite and one box. Of course it is a dual band DVR but dish set it all up for us. Doubt that helps but ........

 

[tbone]

Disclaimer: All of the below info is for my Directv system, but I bet they are similar.

First off, you can't split a Directv signal like you can a cable signal with a simple splitter, unless you do it AFTER the reciever. What you can do is this: Make sure you have a dual LNB satellite dish (it will have two coax cables coming through it) into a Multiswitch. The mutlti switch will turn two signals into 4/6/8 depending on the switch, but it won't split a single signal. Then youcome out of the multiswitch to each receiver. They all end up independent that way.

We have 5 tv's that all have independent directv. We only have 1 dish and an 8 way multi switch.

This might be waht you need. The geek at your loacl Radio Shack should be able to tell you.
The Link

 

[KingKoopa]

tbone is right. a multiswitch (the 4 receiver one, last i recall was about 80 bucks) is what you need, and it will convert your current dish (which should have ports for two receivers already) into a four-receiver dish.

splitting the cables will only work if you do it after you run the cable out of the receiver which means whatever TVs you hook it up to would be watching the same thing.

 

[hoopcat34]

thanks for the help. the multiswitch is the one that will do the job. appreciate the advice.