Community Forums

smlranger · 05-09-2017, 08:29 PM

We have Direct TV in our lake home (not our permanent residence) and use that service in the coach. I have a HR54 HD/DVR in the coach and it is the one 'genie' that Direct allows on a single account.

In our lake home we have an older HR24 DVR and a non-SWM dish (three coax cables coming from the dish). The issue is the DVR can only record two programs simultaneously and, if doing so, you cannot watch a third live program. So, I want to get Direct to upgrade the dish to SWM and upgrade the DVR. Will they let me have another HR54 DVR in the house if I already have one in the coach? We do not need to have whole home DVR capability in the lake home.

ernieh · 05-09-2017, 08:37 PM

I you have one account, I think that you answered your own question.

Bob&AnnaMari · 05-09-2017, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smlranger

We have Direct TV in our lake home (not our permanent residence) and use that service in the coach. I have a HR54 HD/DVR in the coach and it is the one 'genie' that Direct allows on a single account.

In our lake home we have an older HR24 DVR and a non-SWM dish (three coax cables coming from the dish). The issue is the DVR can only record two programs simultaneously and, if doing so, you cannot watch a third live program. So, I want to get Direct to upgrade the dish to SWM and upgrade the DVR. Will they let me have another HR54 DVR in the house if I already have one in the coach? We do not need to have whole home DVR capability in the lake home.

As it stands today, the answer is no. When the Genie servers were first offered, the SWM LNB only supported 8 channels and the Genie had 5 tuners. (Each channel supports one tuner.) So, you could not have 2 Genie servers on the same SWM LNB.

Newer LNBs have 13 channels, but DirecTV still maintains that they will only install one Genie per account. From there perspective each account is supposed to represent one and only one address. (This was further reinforced with the new [updated] customer agreement that was just issued last month.)

Over the years, they have allowed customers to have separate receivers at vacation homes (where there is an assumption that the family is not in two places at the same time) and/or recreational vehicles. These variances technically violate the terms of agreement on your subscription, but DirecTV has openly allowed this variance. Putting two Genie servers at different locations on one account, however, pushes their acceptance of agreement violations too far. So, this is just a long way of saying, they are not going to allow it.

They will, of course, gladly install a Genie at your lake house if you open a separate account with them.

smlranger · 05-10-2017, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob&AnnaMari

As it stands today, the answer is no. When the Genie servers were first offered, the SWM LNB only supported 8 channels and the Genie had 5 tuners. (Each channel supports one tuner.) So, you could not have 2 Genie servers on the same SWM LNB.

Newer LNBs have 13 channels, but DirecTV still maintains that they will only install one Genie per account. From there perspective each account is supposed to represent one and only one address. (This was further reinforced with the new [updated] customer agreement that was just issued last month.)

Over the years, they have allowed customers to have separate receivers at vacation homes (where there is an assumption that the family is not in two places at the same time) and/or recreational vehicles. These variances technically violate the terms of agreement on your subscription, but DirecTV has openly allowed this variance. Putting two Genie servers at different locations on one account, however, pushes their acceptance of agreement violations too far. So, this is just a long way of saying, they are not going to allow it.

They will, of course, gladly install a Genie at your lake house if you open a separate account with them.

I had intended to bring the HR54 from the coach to the lake house but forgot to do so. Even if I do that next time, without a SWM dish set up with SWM splitter, will the HR54 work as designed? If not and I call Direct to have them upgrade my dish set up so I can use the HR54 here (they currently show it as my 'Living Room RV' receiver), will they balk?

docj · 05-10-2017, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smlranger

I had intended to bring the HR54 from the coach to the lake house but forgot to do so. Even if I do that next time, without a SWM dish set up with SWM splitter, will the HR54 work as designed? If not and I call Direct to have them upgrade my dish set up so I can use the HR54 here (they currently show it as my 'Living Room RV' receiver), will they balk?

The HR54 is a SWM-only device, but it's not all that difficult to change your lake house installation from non-SWM to SWM. It's pretty much the same thing that many of us have done in order to convert our Trav'lers to SWM. All you really have to do is install a SWM8 switch (or SWM16 if you wish) and a power inserter. Which power inserter you use depends on exactly what LNB you have on the roof. If it's a couple of years old the dish was probably a Slimline 5 which means that you would need a PI29 inserter. All the parts can be obtained from Amazon and lots of other places.

If you have any technical savvy whatsoever, the following document should help you better understand what needs to be done. Even though it was written for Winegard hardware, the basic premise is "I have a non-SWM installation which I want to convert to SWM". It doesn't really matter what hardware you have, the approach is the same: http://www.winegard.com/help/images/d/d1/2452242.pdf

BTW, once you change the installation to SWM, you will have to reset the HR24 if you wish to continue to use it. It is quite capable of working with SWM, but you would need to go through the Setup menu once again. It's easy--just follow the prompts and for Antenna Type you would use the selection Slimline 5 SWM (or something like that). For Switch Type you would enter SWM, although the device may self-detect the presence of SWM.

smlranger · 05-10-2017, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docj

The HR54 is a SWM-only device, but it's not all that difficult to change your lake house installation from non-SWM to SWM. It's pretty much the same thing that many of us have done in order to convert our Trav'lers to SWM. All you really have to do is install a SWM8 switch (or SWM16 if you wish) and a power inserter. Which power inserter you use depends on exactly what LNB you have on the roof. If it's a couple of years old the dish was probably a Slimline 5 which means that you would need a PI29 inserter. All the parts can be obtained from Amazon and lots of other places.

If you have any technical savvy whatsoever, the following document should help you better understand what needs to be done. Even though it was written for Winegard hardware, the basic premise is "I have a non-SWM installation which I want to convert to SWM". It doesn't really matter what hardware you have, the approach is the same: http://www.winegard.com/help/images/d/d1/2452242.pdf

BTW, once you change the installation to SWM, you will have to reset the HR24 if you wish to continue to use it. It is quite capable of working with SWM, but you would need to go through the Setup menu once again. It's easy--just follow the prompts and for Antenna Type you would use the selection Slimline 5 SWM (or something like that). For Switch Type you would enter SWM, although the device may self-detect the presence of SWM.

Thanks for the info. The dish is probably 8 - 10 years old. Direct upgraded us from a single LNB dish to one with 3 LNB's when they started offering more HD programming. The splitter/switch in the basement is huge with the three coax cables coming from the dish and then outputs to 4 locations in the house. We lived in this lake house full time for nearly 20 years.

Bob&AnnaMari · 05-10-2017, 11:18 PM

smlranger,

Could you post a picture of your current LNB? I am willing to bet it is a standard LNB on a standard Slimline dish just like my old dish. All you would have to do is carefully remove the existing LNB being sure not to move the dish, connect one of the coax lines to a new SWM LNB and put it in the mount. If you don't move the dish you are golden. You would then just have one lead connected to the SWM head and remove the other lines. With SWM you only need one coax wire going to each receiver in your house. All those other wires are gone.

The only other part you will need is a four connector DirecTV green label splitter for the four receivers you mentioned. The key on the splitter is that there is a "DC Power Pass" marking line on the splitter. These connectors are also marked by red centered coax connectors on the splitter. The single connector on the side of the splitter always goes to the SWM LNB. Your HR54 is your power source to the SWM LNB so your connections from this receiver must go from the receiver to the other red barrel on the splitter. This assures a clear power path to your LNB. The other splitter connectors -- with milky white centers -- go to your other receivers.

This should work just fine.
Bob

smlranger · 05-11-2017, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob&AnnaMari

smlranger,

Could you post a picture of your current LNB? I am willing to bet it is a standard LNB on a standard Slimline dish just like my old dish. All you would have to do is carefully remove the existing LNB being sure not to move the dish, connect one of the coax lines to a new SWM LNB and put it in the mount. If you don't move the dish you are golden. You would then just have one lead connected to the SWM head and remove the other lines. With SWM you only need one coax wire going to each receiver in your house. All those other wires are gone.

The only other part you will need is a four connector DirecTV green label splitter for the four receivers you mentioned. The key on the splitter is that there is a "DC Power Pass" marking line on the splitter. These connectors are also marked by red centered coax connectors on the splitter. The single connector on the side of the splitter always goes to the SWM LNB. Your HR54 is your power source to the SWM LNB so your connections from this receiver must go from the receiver to the other red barrel on the splitter. This assures a clear power path to your LNB. The other splitter connectors -- with milky white centers -- go to your other receivers.

This should work just fine.
Bob

Bob, here is the pic:

A couple of questions if I do as you suggest (seems simple enough):

1. my HR54 is a 6 hr round trip from me so not going to bring it here until next time we come. We will be here until mid June. If I switch the LNB and add the SWM splitter, will I need a power inserter since I only have the HR24? If yes, will the power inserter I used in my coach with my SWM3 system work (I removed the power inserter when I upgraded to the HR54)?

2. will changing the LNB address the current limitation I have with the HR24....that is only being able to record two programs at once and not being able to watch live TV if doing so? If this is not going to change, I will wait until I have the HR54 here to make the change.

Thanks for the help.

Bob&AnnaMari · 05-11-2017, 11:37 AM

1. my HR54 is a 6 hr round trip from me so not going to bring it here until next time we come. We will be here until mid June. If I switch the LNB and add the SWM splitter, will I need a power inserter since I only have the HR24?

Ans: If you are only connecting the HR24 you do need the power inserter. But, you do not need a splitter. Just run the coax from your SWM LNB to the "to SWM" connection on the power inserter and the other coax from the power inserter ("to IRD") to the HR24. You only need a splitter if you are going to connect the other receivers you mentioned in post #6.

If yes, will the power inserter I used in my coach with my SWM3 system work (I removed the power inserter when I upgraded to the HR54)?

Ans: Yes, it will work great.

2. will changing the LNB address the current limitation I have with the HR24....that is only being able to record two programs at once and not being able to watch live TV if doing so? If this is not going to change, I will wait until I have the HR54 here to make the change.

Ans: No. You only have 2 tuners in the HR24. You can only record two shows at a time. Now, you can record two shows and watch a third from a recording. But, that is the limit for that unit.

Just to be clear, that is an LNB5 in the picture. i doubt you need to replace that with a SWM LNB5 since most programming on the 110 and 119 satellites have devolved into specialty programming and some international channels. So, an LNB3 would probably serve your needs very well. But, if you are uncertain, you should replace that unit with a SWM LNB5.

And I like your mount better than mine. You have the two screws holding the LNB in place. My dish has a lever friction mount that makes removing the head a bit more difficult if you don't want to move things around. You should have no problems taking that LNB off and replacing it. (You may want to spray some penetrating oil on the joint just to make things easier for the removal.)