On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 6:39 PM, Dewey Smolka <<a href="mailto:dsmolka@gmail.com">dsmolka@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hello all,<br>
<br>
I've recently moved, ditched Comcast, and got Directv set up and<br>
running yesterday. So far I'm very impressed. I got serial control of<br>
the D12 box without a hitch and far easier than I had imagined thanks<br>
to the wiki instructions and the authors of directv.pl. Thank you.<br>
<br>
But within hours of getting it running, I had already started spinning<br>
my wheels about expansion. I hope some folks here have enough<br>
experience with directv to answer a few questions.<br>
</blockquote><div><deletia> <br></deletia><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
4) I asked the installer a number of questions, but wasn't really<br>
convinced by any of his answers so took all of it with a grain of<br>
salt. For example I asked him if I got another box if it would be<br>
enough to add a coaxial 2-way splitter at the end to connect both. He<br>
didn't think that would be too good an idea, and said that if it was<br>
another standard box, I should call service and tell them my picture<br>
was out, then when a guy showed up to fix it offer him $10 to drill<br>
another hole and run a new cable from outside. He also said that if it<br>
was an HD box I was adding they'd have to add another piece of<br>
hardware outside. But either way, splitting the signal inside wouldn't<br>
work very well. Thoughts or opinions?<br>
<br>
I won't ask the one the one has been beaten to death with no clear<br>
answer yet. I won't ask when the wondrous new Hauppage HD capture<br>
device will be supported, or what the playback requirements will be. I<br>
won't ask whether or not my horribly outdated P4 2.5 will support the<br>
native H.264 format when the thing is fully Myth-compatible. But if I<br>
were to ask, would anyone have any answers?<br>
<br>
Thanks in advance.<br></blockquote></div><br>Hey...I found a question that I can kind of answer!!<br>
<br>
I can tell you, for number 4, that NO, you cannot split the signal with a splitter. I know this from setting up 2 boxes in my RV.<br><br>There are channels that require Left Hand Circular Polarity and some that require Right Hand Circular Polarity. You need a dual LNB minimum to have more than one box. The box sends different voltages to tell the dish which polarity it wants. If you have more than 2 boxes, you need a multiswitch, which will make one LNB use the RHCP and the other LNB use the LHCP. Then, when a box sends the different voltage to select which polarity, the multiswitch will connect it to the correct LNB.<br>
<br>I hope this makes sense, but if it doesn't, take a look at <a href="http://www.solidsignal.com/tech_faqs_04.asp">http://www.solidsignal.com/tech_faqs_04.asp</a> for a better explanation. You can Google on DirecTV polarity and find other explanations as well.<br>
<br>Hope that helps...with that question.<br><br>Ken Williams<br>