Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Splitting a satellite signal

I hope this is the correct forum for this post. I didn't see any where else that mentioned satellite systems, so I chose this one.

What I want to do is rather simple, at least to me. I want to split the signal coming out of the satellite receiver to more than one tv. Not all tv's would be watched at the same time.

Actually, what I really want is a switch, similar to the old cable A/B switch, where I can send the signal to whichever tv I want to watch. I've tried an A/B switch but it doesn't work.

I recently bought a Digital 4-way splitter, 5-2300MHZ, but it didn't work well. It split the signal but the picture was really noisy and fuzzy...not good for watching.

Anyway, here's my scenario if anyone's interested. I have a Dish network dual tuner, dual outlet receiver. It can be connected to two different tv's at the same time and each tv can watch a different channel. It came with two remotes and it works fairly well. The second remote is UHF, so it can talk to the receiver in the other room upstairs. The picture on the second tv just isn't as good as the main tv cause the signal to the second tv is transmitted via coax and then the tv is tuned to a particular channel to receive the signal.

Usually, I have the second signal connected to my tv in my downstairs family room, which isn't watched that often. When my son comes home from college we wants to be able to watch tv in his bedroom so what I do is go to my head end and disconnect the cable from the family room and reconnect it to his bedroom cable.

This works ok but it would be a lot easier if I could just install a switch to select which tv I want the signal to go to.

Sorry for the long winded post but I want to be sure everyone knows that I am NOT trying to split the signal coming down from the LNB, which I know requires a special multiswitch.

Thanks...Randy

It sounds like your set up is ok.Seems though you may have a bad cable before you get to the splitter.Try switching the outs on the reciever and see if the picture is still good on the downstairs set.If it is then the box has to be good.That leaves the cable as the bad picture culprit.

The previous answer make well be correct.
Just thought I'd add, Radio Shack sells a Satellite splitter, not to be confused with a cable tv splitter.

Many times when you split the modulated output for tv2 the signal is compromised and you may need a basic signal amp (25 dB) usually work alright.
Another thing, lower your tv2 output to air channel 22, the default is air 60, - lower channels work better.

fred

Randy, as stated, go to Radio shack and purchase as many splitters as you have tv's on the single cable. How many LNB's do you have? Satellite signals carry two voltages and can't be split like cable. You daisy chain the splitters to get good signal at all the sets.

Larry

If your splitting the output of the receiver which connects to your antenna in of your TV, (coax) then a regular splitter will do the job. If you have several satellite receivers and want to split the satellite signal going to each receiver, then you need a multiswitch.

Randy, as stated, go to Radio shack and purchase as many splitters as you have tv's on the single cable. How many LNB's do you have? Satellite signals carry two voltages and can't be split like cable. You daisy chain the splitters to get good signal at all the sets.

Larry

This is an incorrect and misleading statement.:wall:

Sat signal can ONLY be split after passing throught the Sat receiver. No voltage here.

Sat. signals from the dish/lnb cannot be split using normal splitters. A multiswitch DP33, DP34, or DP 44 is required.

The OP is concerned with TV2 on a Dish Twin tuner receiver.
Read my previous post re TV2.

fred

I have the same Dish receiver.

The main TV is wired to TV1, but it first hits my VCR/DVD recorder using the S-video and RCA audio outputs.

The house cable wiring (with three TVs total) is connected to TV2's RF output. That output doesn't put out a lot of power -- only +3dB as I recall. I installed an 11dB inline amplifier bewteen TV2's RF output and a splitter in reverse (combiner) with the other tap connected to my roof antenna.

An added benefit of this hookup is that I can record one Dish program while watching another by changing the main TV from the AV input to the Antenna input -- in my case, on channel 53 -- and using TV2's remote.

As Fred said, the lower the channel the better because RG cable attenuates higher frequencies more than lower frequencies. If you're combining an antenna as I am you'll have to choose a channel for TV2 that has at least one channel open above and below so it doesn't interfere. In other words, if there are local stations on 22 and 26, choose 24. That's why I had to use channel 53: Living on the US/Canadian border makes the OTA TV band quite crowded.

Dish is pretty popular in my area and as you know, TV2's remote is a UHF. When I first got the system my neighbor and I were changing channels on each other's TVs. I switched the remote to another UHF channel and all is well.

Lastly, don't split the signals at each TV. Rather, use a single splitter after the amp if you can to feed all the TVs. The reason is, each two-way splitter will drop the signal by 3dB. The effect is additive: Two splitters = -6dB. Three = -9dB, etc. Better to use one three-way splitter in your situation since the loss would be -5.5dB.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to all these replies, and thanks to everyone who replied to my problem, I appreciate it.

I tried lowering the channel selection to 22 as Fewalt and Rick Johnston suggested and that did improve things somewhat. It's still not great, but then I'm probably just spoiled by my main TV with its hi-def picture.

Actually, it's just like the TV I used to watch 10-20 years ago. It doesn't look too bad unless the picture gets dark, then it's really noticeable. No lines or anything, just video noise. Maybe sometime I'll pick up an inline amp and see if that helps anymore.

Thanks again guys...Randy