winegard video distribution center

[tanman32225]

I recently purchased a used motorhome. The prior owner had a dish satellite system in it. I can tell because the roof mounted antenna is for a dish tv.

I currently am using DTV system on a tailgater satellite antenna. But this is not the issue only information.

My three tv's work well with the local tv antenna as does the connected dvd player. All pass through a winegard vs53/vs5312D distribution center then to the TV. This is where the problem lies.

When I connect the Sat box out to TV to the Sat in coax on the rear of the distribution center I cannot get any Satbox signal. What I mean by that is "searching for satellite" or when I press the menu button on the satellite remote I get nothing from the sat box on the tv screen. I should get a menu from the satellite box but I do not. NOthing.

I have tried every input on the TV and still nothing. Of course I called Winegard. They were less than useless and offered no help telling me I needed to contact the tv manufacturer.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to the problem why my satellite box signal will not pass through? Any suggestions at all? I am stumped at this point.

As a further note, the sat box is a SD, not HD box I use only for my camper so it does not have HDMI on the rear only a coax connector. The coax cables are all good and new.

My only other test would be a direct connect from the sat to the Tv coax connector but that would involve an hour of taking apart the built around the tv trim. Then I am sure I would find it works there since it did in my last RV. I am at a HELP here...

[billyboy]

I am having the same problem with the box of many buttons, only it's my magnavox recorder that won't work. The dish sat works great, but the sharp tv just won't find the recorder.

[turnkey2]

I have a Direct TV standard definition. The receiver is connected to the video distribution box and from there to the TV's. The modulator on distribution box is set to Channel 3 so the TV's must be on Channel 3 to receive Sat. signal

[wa8yxm]

What sat receiver do you have? Some do not do RF-Out now days the RF-out jack on the Sat receiver may be a OTA pass through.

[turnkey2]

I don’t have that model but another brand. The TV needs to be on channel 3 or 4 to correspond with the modulator selector switch on the distribution center. Hope that helps.

[tanman32225]

well, folks, I got mad and figured it out. I changed the TV inputs from air to cable and viola.. the satellite came in. It works much the same as the past RV I had to do the same. For some reason, the TV doesn't see the sat even with the distribution box.

Thanks for those who gave thought or input

[1995brave]

The input for SAT is the coax output from the SAT receiver, it cannot pass the power for the Sat antenna. You then set your TV to chan 3 or 4 depending on what you set your Sat receiver up for. So setup will be: Sat antenna to Sat receiver, then Sat receiver coax output to switch box.

[SCClockDr]

To test direct connect SAT > TV insert a coax barrel connector between the SAT IN & TV OUT cables @ the rear of the distro box. I'm assuming the distro box is the multifunction box with many buttons.