Comments on: Update on (maybe) ditching cable for satellite

By: Mike Beckham

Mike Beckham — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 03:02:59 +0000

Boy I wish we had some of that stuff here in Australia we have generic PVR’s and a paytv suppliers FoxtelIQ and thats it.

We Dont even have bloody TiVo

By: TDavid

TDavid — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 21:20:11 +0000

Apparently the switch is different for cable and satellite (?), Eric. The installer told me that it was and showed me the switch (I would have to buy) I’d need to use to split through our existing coax for our other rooms. Ideally, this would be switched outside where all the cables feed in from the source, but I’m all ears if there is a way to splice inside for cable and satellite without having to use two different sources. I don’t believe that this is possible without a switch box on each TV to determine which source is used.

By: Eric Gunnerson

Eric Gunnerson — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 21:08:54 +0000

Note that unlike cable, satellite needs a dedicated cable from the tuner (one per receiver unless you have a dual-tuner DTivo) back to the dish to select which channels come down. That means you can’t use a simple splitter the way you would with cable TV.

If all your cable feeds come into a central area, you can run 4 lines from the dish to that area and then use a multiswitch to run out to the various rooms. But you still need a receiver for each TV and have to pay the $5/month per receiver charge.