Dish DVR Hookup to Bedrom - Montana Owners Club

jetenbu · 01-21-2012, 03:40 AM

I am having problems with connecting my Dish DVR to the back bedroom television. I had the Traveler dish installed at the dealership before I picked up my 3625RE. They say it was installed and tied in with the back television but for the life of me I can not get it to receive the signal. I connect my living room television with HDMI and was going to use the coax cabling to connect to the bedroom television. There is a coax connection behind the television with the 12volt power supply for the television AND there is a coax connection in the ceiling above the television. I have tried all combonations I can and can not seem to get any signal. I have tried all the variations on the television menu and still no signal. I have verified the DVR is set up for a second television and controls. I have tried moving the connections in the closet for the washer/dryer but that failed as well. I know I can not have the antenna power on on that connector so every connection I tried was with the power off.

If anyone has any pictures to help me understand what I am doing wrong I sure would appreciate it. I feel like I am such a dummy that I can not get it to work.

dmacy · 01-21-2012, 05:11 AM

Does the traveler find and lock onto the sats? Once that happens you need to connect the coax that comes from the traveler directly to the receiver sat in connection. You go to the set up menu on the tv and do a switch test. This may take some time. Once it is done it will down load your program guide depending on what package you have. Once this is done you will see a search for sats. message. This is usually very short it will then jump to regular programming. I would follow the wire from the traveller box to see where it goes. A coax should come through the ceiling or wall the same place as the power cord from the traveller control box goes. That is the coax that needs to hook up to the back of the receiver.

dmacy · 01-21-2012, 05:16 AM

To do a switch test push the menu button on the remote push option 6 (setup) then option 1 (installation) then option 1 (point dish) then run the switch test.

BB_TX · 01-21-2012, 07:26 AM

You will need to find out which (if either) of the coax behind the living room TV go to the amp/ant switch. Some where there will be a coax that will be the source signal to the amp/ant switch, that then feeds the TVs. That coax will need to be connnected to the ant output of the DISH box (assuming it is a vp211k receiver). At least that is how mine is connected.
I am sure mine is wired different from yours. I only had one coax input to my unit. It came in behind the living room TV, thru a jumper, then to the amp/ant switch box, then to both TVs. I simply lifted the jumper and connected a coax from the DISH box ant output to the connection to the amp/ant switch box. I added a second coax input that I ran directly to the DISH box, and an HDMI to the living room TV.
With the above, I can watch sat on both TVs (same program on both), or turn on the amp and watch over the air on the bedroom TV (and on the living room TV by going into setup and changing the source). Actually I went a step beyond and with a bidirectional splitter I set it up to be able to watch sat on the living room TV and either park cable or antenna on the bedroom TV (although I haven't actually tried it yet).

Waynem · 01-21-2012, 11:05 AM

You don't say which DISH receiver you have. If it has, on the back, an RF Distribution Out, then all you need to do is hook the cable going to the BBR to this output on the DVR. Does your Monty have the coax jacks with the little loop in it? If so, connect the RF Distribution out cable to that jack, first one point on the loop and if that doesn't work connect it to the other point on the loop.

Knowing the DVR you have may help us.

With the traveler you should be able to pick up all 3 satellites without any problem. There should be two inputs on the DVR, Sat1 and Sat2, and the traveler will either have two leads to plug into that DVR, or a combination of separator, Switch, etc. (Typical accessories, DPD2, DPP44, DP34, Dish PRo Separator. How they are used depends on the receiver.)

**Carl n Susan** · 01-21-2012, 05:28 PM

The TV wiring in current (post 2010 model) is optimized for satellite signals. There are separate coax feeds from the external convenience center to the entertainment center TV and another to the bedroom/basement TV. The following link contain a schematic of the TV wiring for both pre and post-2010 models.
http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/...ad.php?t=37324

I have no idea if there are multiple satellite input feeds from a Dish Traveler. In any event you may have to ask Camping World for information on how they connected the Traveler feeds before you can figure out how to get the signals to the bedroom TV.

Ideally they routed multiple feeds from the Traveler to the connections in the entertainment center. This is the easiest to use. But if they connected into the wiring elsewhere you could be looking for a long time to get it connected properly.

jrhaman · 01-22-2012, 06:49 AM

We have the 2 room dvr and for our bedroom to work we have to put it on channel 73.

jetenbu · 01-23-2012, 04:22 AM

I tried channel 73, still no signal. I am really confused on this one. I have tried each and every connection I can come up with but still no signal. What a delimma.

jetenbu · 01-24-2012, 02:20 AM

Well, I removed the fireplace and connected the DVR directly to the cable connection. Still no signal back to my bedroom television. I am really perplexed now. I tried station 78 as previously suggested but still no signal. I now wonder if I will ever be able to get any signal to my bedroom television. Any suggestions? Should I plan on running additional cabling? Any and all suggestions appreciated.

BB_TX · 01-24-2012, 04:03 AM

What DISH receiver do you have? Is it a dual channel receiver or a single channel receiver?
Or do you have two receivers?
Mine is a vp211k single channel receiver. The coax output of the receiver (labeled "ant out" I think) is connected to the existing coach coax cable that goes to the switch box in the bedroom. That sends the signal thru the existing wiring. The bedroom TV has to be on channel 3 (I think, or maybe 4) to get the sat program. Being a single channel, the bedroom TV always receives the same sat program that is showing on the living room TV.
My home DISH receiver is a dual channel receiver and the bedroom TV has to be on channel 60. But being a dual channel, the bedroom TV can get channels independent of the living room.

Pugtracker · 01-24-2012, 04:08 AM

I have direct Tv and have to use a modulator to get signal to bedroom

jetenbu · 01-24-2012, 04:45 AM

BB-TX - My dvr is VIP722K which I think is dual channel. I tried channel 60, no signal. Channel scan finds no channels unless I have the bedroom antenna cranked up. Maybe I need to get a very long coax cable and connect from dvr to bedroom television and just lay it on the floor. I am so confused....

jetenbu · 01-24-2012, 07:27 AM

Pugtracker - Mine is Dish. No modulater required.

7.3Ford · 01-24-2012, 02:06 PM

Jim,

PM me your phone #, what timezone you are in, I will see if I can you going.

We have VIP-722K in the house, you need to check the receiver is setup for two TV first. On the main TV Press the Menu button, followed by 6 ((System Setup), 1 (Installation), and 5 (Modulator Setup).

This screen will tell you which channel is set, and weather it is enable (you want the TV2 side enable).

If the above is set correctly, I would run coax from TV Output on Dish receiver to TV, just to make sure the receiver is talking. Once that is verified you can proceed to figure out the reset of the wiring.

If you can't get the TV cable wiring figured out there is always Wireless Audio/Video Sender. I have one, and it works very well.

http://www.amazon.com/Nyrius-NY-GS32...7456802&sr=8-2

Waynem · 01-25-2012, 04:30 AM

As 7.3Ford said on the modulator.

You also have to go into the menu on the bedroom tv and make some changes to accept what the modulator is putting out. example: if the tv is on air you can only receive signals up to about channel 69, so 73 will not work you will have to switch it to cable for 73 to work. There may be a few other changes needed using the tv menu. I also have the VIP-722 which I take out of the stick house and put in the SOB.

Since you hooked directly up to the DVR and could not get a signal at the tv, I really suspect a mismatch in the menu set-up.

Good luck.

jetenbu · 01-25-2012, 05:23 AM

Waynem - I have checked the bedroom tv and for source I have TV (which it is set to), AV1, AV2, Svideo, HDMI, component and VGA. The cable on the back is connected to TV. As for on the menu, I scan channels with AUTO and Cable. Nothing comes up as detected. I have checked the DVR and it IS set up as DUAL MODE. Is there something I have missed? I would be happy if there is. Maybe then I can then get a signal.

I too moved my DVR from my house into my trailer. I made no changes other than hooking it up to a different DISH. Everything works great on the living room tv. I am still confused. I think I have everything hooked up correctly but obviously, I do not.

Could the problem be with the internal cabling in the trailer? I know we are supposed to have RG6 cabling but I have no way of knowing if the trailer was cabled with RG6 or not. Maybe I need to replace the cabling in the trailer with RG6.

Any other ideas?

Waynem · 01-27-2012, 04:00 AM

Hey Jim,
I'm only a hunert-forti miles from you, come on over this way and we can trouble shoot together.

Another idea: Auto-scanning may not pick up the channel that the DVR is broadcasting on. I say that because at this time we do not know if the DVR is broadcasting, and I have experienced auto-scan before not picking up the channel. What I had to do was go into the television setup menu and manually add the channel. If you go into the DVR setup menu you will find the "modulator" set up. (I'd run a cable directly to the television input for this test) The modulator setup on the DVR will tell you if you are on air, cable, and the channel. Typically air will be channel 60, and cable will be 73 or 75. I always use cable. Turn the volume up on the bedroom tv or have DW watch it, and try the different combinations of air, cable, and channels. The television will have to be readjusted for channel changes on the modulator, but that give you an idea - which you may have already tried.

Using a separate RF cable will eliminate a bad cable throughout the RV. If you achieve success you can then start substituting cables. If going through the "switchbox," it could be that the box is malfunctioning. You should not need the antenna amplifier on for satellite viewing.

Get a flash light and look at the outside of the cable. the RG# should be on the cable. Most likely you will have either RG-59/U or RG-6/U, but there are many others that have the characteristic of 75 ohms. The better choice is a system that has matching cables. I really think that you will have RG-6/U.

Sometimes it is hard to put in writing all the options, or know all the options tried, so if you want, give me a holler at 409-948-6843. Maybe talking will let one of those little men running around in my head loose.

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