[Krusty]

So I'm moving in to a rental house next month and, after scanning all the various cable/satellite options, it looks like Dish Network has most of what I'd like. Unfortunately, I am a cable/sat idiot as I've never purchased either (did without or, most commonly, my roommate would handle the cable and I would handle getting the high speed internet). I've looked at "regular" comcast cable, directTV, and Dish Network and Dish network looks to have the least expensive options for 100 basic channels + locals and they have "dual tuner" boxes which means you can feed two TVs off a single box.

I am vaguely familiar with the way directTV works in that the run the satellite feed into your home's pre-existing cable wiring and they you put a box at each cable jack where you want to hook up a TV. But, from what I can tell, with Dish Network, you have to have to run an independent line from the box to each TV that you want to feed (e.g. if you have a dual tuner box and set it in one room with one TV, in order to feed the other TV you'd have to manually run a line from the box to the 2nd TV wherever it happens to be).

Can someone with a Dish network dual-tuner setup let me know if this is correct ? Do you have to run the second feed physically ? Does it use pre-exiting cable wire in your house ? Does the main feed from the satellite have to go straight to a box or can it "energize" the pre-existing cable in your house so you can put a tuner on the end a normal cable jack. I've done some web search but I'm a little unclear still on how this all works. Anyone know of a good link or have the info I need?

Thanks!

[JMan09]

The way it is setup in my house is that the satellite is outside obviously then it runs through the cable inside. The main box is in the living room and they have the cable from the wall plugged into the back of the box. The cable from the wall in my room is plugged directly into my t.v. without a box, and I use an rf remote it sends a signal to the main box in the living room to change what I see on my tv. Sorry if this isn't very clear I'm just trying to describe how I see it plugged in.

[MacosNerd]

I have Direct-TV and you need to run a line for each tv/converter box you want to use. You cannot (they tell me) use a splitter.

So for my setup, I have two tvs, one of them has a DVR connected to it, so I have three lines (two for the dvr component) coming from the satellite dish into my house.

I'm disappointed in direct-tv. I've seen the weather impact my viewing and the price savings over cable is not enough for me to stick with them. I'll probably dump them shortly. I also didn't like the heavy handed approach they take to manage my account.

Because of an oversight, I was late on one of my months payments and direct-tv called me stating that if I didn't pay now, they would turn off the signal. It wasn't like I was one , or two or three months late, I missed it by a couple of weeks. While I accept responsibility for my slip-up (it was an honest oversight on my part) I didn't particularly care for the threats. I mean if I was a couple of months late, I could understand that but only a couple of weeks - sheesh

[MichiganRich]

I've got Dish Network and I'm happy with it. The DVR in the ViP-622 receiver is superior to my sister's DirectTV.

The ViP-622 is a triple tuner, and the output for the second TV is a standard cable jack. You can plug it into your existing wiring and it broadcasts to any other TV in your house on the existing wiring on channel 75 (default channel, you can change that).

[Krusty]

Thanks for all your help folks. I thought this thread was dead. I've done a little more research and it does appear that I'll need a direct line from the satellite to each box or have to run a secondary cable from a dual tuner box. Looks like I'm just going to have to wait until I actually get in the house before I can map out the logistics of how to accomplish this. Hope I'm not stuck with regular cable. Way too expensive for what you get :-(

[MacosNerd]

Take a look to see if Verizon Fios is in your neighborhood, that might be an inexpensive alternative

[MichiganRich]

With the Dish Network HD receivers, they 'broadcast' on channel 75 out the jack. If you plug them into the pre-existing wiring in your house, you can plug a TV in anywhere and it will catch the signal on channel 75. Does that make sense? I thought it was a pretty cool capability, as I wasn't expecting that. The dish uses its' own wire down to the tuner, and the tuner plugs into the existing cable wiring in the house and broadcasts through it. No other tuner boxes needed, just connect TVs.

[Krusty]

Thanks fellows. If it broadcasts across channel 75 on house cable wiring, I think I'll be in good shape as long as I can rig a long-distance remote.

No FIOS in my neighborhood I'm afraid :-( ... looks sweet.

[MichiganRich]

The Vip622 receiver comes with two remotes, one is UHF so it doesn't have any problem with long distances...