Splitting a Sat signal

[Tuna]

Hey all, I want to split one of my incoming signals to go to 2 different Sat boxes. Other than the obvious (some signal degradation and only being able to watch the same channel on each) anyone see any issues? It's a temporary measure but wouldn't mind trying it out.

[luunta]

Re: Splitting a Sat signal

isn't it illegal? i thought you had to pay for two boxes or it was like.. stealing something you already paid for.

[Tuna]

Re: Splitting a Sat signal

isn't it illegal? i thought you had to pay for two boxes or it was like.. stealing something you already paid for.

Try and contribute something useful to this forum before the 300 post count please? Otherwise you'll be asked to leave.

[Tuna]

Re: Splitting a Sat signal

Only reason I'm wondering is the splitter seems to work for high frequency (1ghz) but it specifically says not to put it between the dish and receiver, which is a little silly as where else do you put it?

[Kordain]

Re: Splitting a Sat signal

the problem with splitting a sat signal is it isnt like a cable signal. the set top box actually sends power down the cable to the sensor on the dish which then returns the signal. This is why you cant easily split these. I honestly dont know if there is a device to break the return signal out but it would be dicey as you may run the risk of draining too much power from one box and blowing it.

Now on the other hand, if you want to just split the TV signal out of one box between two TVs that would be as easy as paralleling the wires but then you have to be careful that the two TVs = drawing twice as much power from the box and this could blow something again.

Overall i dont think its doable safely but ive been wrong before. (edit: without a complex electronics splitting box)

if you can stand only having the one box (ie same channel on all TVs) then one of those 'share your tv channel around the house by wireless' may be an option


nto sure where you would put it but the power supply may be why they tell you not to!

[niXon]

Re: Splitting a Sat signal

You need an HFPP (High frequency power passing) splitter to accomplish this properly.

[Stonewall]

Re: Splitting a Sat signal

You are better off running another line, it is likely you have a dual LNB. There are other ways to do it but it isn't worth the money or the hassle.

[Tuna]

Re: Splitting a Sat signal

Well I scratched the idea. My plan was to run my old receiver into my media center and the new Hi-def receiver straight to the TV. This would allow me to switch between the 2 and I could keep recording my shows to watch later. I'll go the hi-def route eventually but I need to get the Hauppauge box plus I'm not sure my PC will handle Hi-def.

I probably need a faster CPU as I only have a dual core 2ghz, which means going to a new motherboard which THEN means I probably need new RAM (current ram is DDR2). So might wait for a while.

Thanks for the replies, I had a feeling it wasn't that easy.

[Stonewall]

Re: Splitting a Sat signal

The real problem is the receiver puts out different voltages for different channel ranges so you can't just split the signal.