SWiM, any truth to this?

[coinmaster32]

Well the tech came out to put up a new 5 Lnb Dish.

Actually had to install a new reflector, somehow the wind bent the old one a little, and it could not get all 5 sats at once.

Another plus was the reflector was a couple years old and had some rust on it.

The only 5 lnb he had was a SWiM, aka single wire multiswitch.

He sad that the power inserter amplified the incoming signal from the dish, making it a little more rain fade resistant.

Is this true?

 

[coinmaster32]

Also, right now im watching one show while recording another, is this a new thing that SWiM can do?

 

[stardust3]

No, it just powers the extra voltage needed for the swm equipment.

 

[stardust3]

Also, right now im watching one show while recording another, is this a new thing that SWiM can do?

That is 1 advantage with swm, it only requires 1 wire to dvr to watch 1 while recording another. The 4 wire lnbs require 2 wires to the dvr to do the same thing.

 

[harshness]

No to both questions. Some say that the SWiM gear may have better gain characteristics, but none of that comes from the power inserter.

If you were previously set up with a single cable, you were set up incorrectly. All SWiM capable DVRs have two tuners and have always been capable of watching and/or recording two channels of live programming.

 

[Mr Tony]

all the power inserter does is power the LNB

 

[Mr Tony]

Also, right now im watching one show while recording another, is this a new thing that SWiM can do?

you can also record two shows and flip between them. But if you've had a DVR before you should have been able to do that before

 

[coinmaster32]

My bad on being able to record two shows while watching another channel. I did not look at my guide correctly.

Thing is, if they can pipe two channels on input, why can't they pipe 2 more on the 2nd input. You would be able to record THREE shows while watching another one live, or record 4 at once.

 

[Mr Tony]

Because the receiver can only record two streams at once...no more
In the receiver setup SWM basically allows you to use one cable and the signals are then "split" inside the receiver whereas the older setups required one cable per tuner

 

[stardust3]

My bad on being able to record two shows while watching another channel. I did not look at my guide correctly.

Thing is, if they can pipe two channels on input, why can't they pipe 2 more on the 2nd input. You would be able to record THREE shows while watching another one live, or record 4 at once.

That would be a question for Directv's engineers..........

 

[coinmaster32]

Because the receiver can only record two streams at once...no more
In the receiver setup SWM basically allows you to use one cable and the signals are then "split" inside the receiver whereas the older setups required one cable per tuner

I thought it takes a duplication of the output from the lnb and stacks it on top of the other, allowing two streams to be pulled from tuner one, as the 1st stream tunes the normal band, and the 2nd stream tunes above it into like 2100 mhz.

 

[Mr Tony]

nope. All SWM does in terms of that is automatically puts the HD channel frequencies (which are KA Band) and downconverts them to the right frequencies that the receiver can see them. Older setups required BBC adapters on each tuner

But D* receivers are stuck on two streams being recorded regardless of setup
old LNB setups..2 streams
SWM setups....2 streams
added a AM21?...still 2 streams total

The HR34 is suppose to have 5 streams availability but that isnt available yet

 

[coinmaster32]

So how does it pipeline two streams into one coax?

 

[Mr Tony]

via the SWM setup which is a giant bandstacking setup. Its just like Dish Network and their DishProPlus setup where you only need one cable to a dual tuner setup. Dish uses a separator on the back of the receiver to go to both inputs. Directv's is built in

 

[Mr Tony]

nice website on SWM and probably has most answers to questions
DirecTV SWM 8 and SWM 5 Multiswitch Information

also with the SWM setup just because you have 8 outputs on the splitter if you use a DVR it takes up two of them. So as an example I have 2 DVR's and a receiver. I have 3 cables in my 8 way splitter but that really takes up 5 ports on the splitter

 

[coinmaster32]

I find it out the tech installed this without a multiswitch, but the diagrams show one being used even for a one receiver install.

BTW, does anyone know where I can get a directv hat? I searched high and low for one.

 

[Mr Tony]

If you have just one DVR there would be no multiswitch or splitter. Thats for multiple receivers. It would be one cable from LNB to PI (Power inserter) then to receiver

so I have to ask...on the "old" setup you had there was only one wire coming in to the receiver? If so that installer did it wrong.

 

[coinmaster32]

Originally there was just one coax running to the dish. I had a 31" Sadoun dish and a generic D* lnb. Made for a really good dish, did not go out near as often as a regular 18" Dish.

After I came to like D*, I wanted to go with a SD DVR, So I strung another coax out to the dish, (the lnb was a dual output).

I had that setup for a year before I went to HD DVR, and the tech came out and just yanked the two single coax cables and installed dual from the dish to the receiver.

When the tech came out today, he just used one of the dual lines for SWiM.

 

[Mr Tony]

so you had access to record one show and play another or record two shows when you upgraded to the DVR (since you ran two cables)

 

[coinmaster32]

I can't wait until the HR34 comes out. Sometimes I want to record 4 shows at once.

If my HDTV had enough inputs I could just put another HD DVR on top of it and do it that way.