Direct TV question
 

I have Direct TV with one receiver in my basement. My wife wants a small wall mounted TV in our living room. I was wondering if I'm able to splice my basement connection to the upstairs. I think how it will work is whatever is on my basement receiver will be on upstairs. Is this correct? Is it doable? And most important - is it ethical? I don't want to "steal" service.

I don't know about splicing to mirror the signal. doesn't seem like a very useful setup.

just get a second receiver and have DTV install it - they'll put in the multiswitch for you so that the TVs will operate independently.

Can it be done? Yes.

Are you much better off just getting another box. Definitely. They charge a fee for a second receiver, but if you don't use another receiver, your signal can really suffer on both TV's.

You should just look into adding a second receiver in that room, unless they have changed pricing it is 5.00 per month to add.

Call me cheap or pissed that I have to spend so much for basic TV (I know I could go through cable but I like Direct TV) but I was trying to by pass the $5 for the extra receiver.

I didn't know that the signal could suffer using two TV's.

For a long time this was actually the point of having an RF remote. Run the receiver into two separate TVs, and use the RF remote to control the receiver wherever it is.

The big issue here is you can only watch one channel at a time, so if you want to watch one thing while the wife watches something else, you need to pay the $5 and get the second receiver.

RF remote?

I wouldn't care if we could only watch one channel. We would either be watching TV upstairs or downstairs - not both. She just wants to see me sometimes on Sunday during the football season ;)

Anytime you split a signal, you're cutting the signal strength in half. You may only see a very minor reduction in quality on the existing TV since the signal doesn't have to go too far, but the second line going to a different TV is going to see some quality issues. They do have signal boosters that you can purchase at an electronics store, but you're going to be much happier in the long run just getting a 2nd box.

Take this from someone who might or might not have done a similar setup for one of their friends, only to have them complain about their signal and end up buying a second box in the end. ;)

With this subject being brought up, is it possible to have two HD DVR's with DirecTV in one house?

Yes.

Wicked. Now an ethical question... would it be obscene to put a 52" TV in my bedroom? :) I have a 65" in my living room so it'll be smaller.

I just called Direct TV and it's going to cost me $148 for a standard receiver with installation and $178 for a receiver with DVR :eek:

Just did a quick Google & there are several DirectTV HD H21 with DVR available for around 95.

after John Madden's half-time interview last night, no, I don't think that would be obscene at all

Yeah, that is one thing that really pisses me off about DirecTV now. You pay up front AND a monthly lease fee. How do they get away with that? Plus, if you get another receiver, you'll have another commitment.

As to your original question - can you split the signal. The answer is yes - I did this for years. That was when tv's were all analog, and the only output on the receiver was a coax labeled "out to tv." But, as long as you are using the coax output using the more modern label of "composite" yes, you should be able to split it.

Also, I think you could also use multiple outputs from the back of the receiver. Does the tv near the receiver have any other input besides coax? You could hook that up, and then run a coax to the other set.

With one receiver, you will indeed be limited to the single channel set on the one receiver.