Direct TV sattelite - runs how many TVs ?

In the previous posts a number of people have tried to relate the number of LNBs on a dish to the number of TVs it can serve. That is not the case and hasn't been for many years. It is purely happenstance that the Winegard Trav'ler for Dish has three ports and has three LNBs. The three LNBs are there because the system is tuned to three different satellites at the same time; the multiswitch makes possible the connection to multiple receivers, not the number of LNBs.

The typical DirecTV Slimline 5 dish which has been in use for several years and which is what is used on the Winegard Trav'ler SK3005 looks like it has 3 LNBs but it really has 5. Before SWM technology this dish could serve 4 receivers; now with SMW it can serve 8 or 16 depending on whether a SWM8 or SWM16 switch it used.

wa8yxm wrote:

DISH: (The antenna matching your service, should be a "Triple" with dual out) see "DUAL" above.

The Dish antennas with three LNBs have three outputs. Also, some of the Dish receivers can feed two TVs, so one antenna could feed six TVs.

We have 3 TV'S in our Phaeton. We have a receiver in the a LR and bedroom. The last time we were in Red Bay, Alabama, we had Nick (can get you last name if you need it) install a Winegard Travler. We bought the Genie Receiver from Direct TV. We have HD, and we can watch any channel we want, on any TV. We can record up to 9 channels. It is exactly like it is at home. There is NO hassel anymore.

On DirecTV there are 3 different types of antennas (Dishes)
Single: One antenna, one receiver
Dual: One antenna, As many receivers as you want using the proper switch (Well up to 8 as far as I know if you need more than that in an RV you are strange or a TV producer).

NOTE: DUAL means one Lens, 2 outputs.

SWM or other HD antenns: See Dual.

That simple.

Dishnetwork it is a bit more complex
Domes: One per receiver
DISH: (The antenna matching your service, should be a "Triple" with dual out) see "DUAL" above.

IN my older days you needed a single dish with four heads on it to feed multiple TV channels to multiple TV sets.. Four heads would run four TV sets.

Then they came up with the MULTISWITCH technology. You could feed this with ONE SAT TV DISH signal and switch it at high speed to any number of TVs.

This is where I got off the technology upgrades.

They have digital ways today to be able to run multiple TVs from a single RG cable coming from a single Dish. Something called SWM or something like that.

The last time I was bringing along my DIRECTV with me on trips I brought two SAT RCVRS and one portable SAT DISH setup with two port heads. I ran two RG cables from the SAt DISH with one going to a SAT RCVR in the living room area and the other RG cable going to the bedroom area SAt RCVR. Then I ran video outs from these SAT RCVRs to the VIDEO inputs on the two TV sets.

Each TV set then could watch different TV channels. Using the VIDEO 1 inputs then the TV set could watch SAT TV, OTA TV or CABLE TV by just using the remote control unit.

Have no idea how the modern SAT TV hookup operate these days... I quit SAT TV and started watching NATL BROADCAST high def TV from the local towns using the BATWING OTA antenna. Don't bring the SAT TV stuff along with me anymore.

Roy Ken

I have 4 receivers on my DTV RV account.

One dish, one box = many TVs, but all same channel
One dish, box for every TV = different channel on each tv

more to it than that, but that is basically what you get.