Smart Home hub with Adelphia and DirecTV

Does anyone have both a satellite dish for TV and Adelphia for Internet all connected to the house through the Verizon Smart Home hub? I have DirecTV right now, and I am quite satisfied with it. It is about $8 less than cable per month, plus it provides more channels.

I have reluctantly decided to return to Adelphia for internet service, and I was checking out the Verizon smart home panel in my house last night. It has 2 coaxial-style inputs marked "feed", and both of these are used by my DirecTV connections (I have 2 receivers). There is one input marked "spare", but it is a telephone style connector.

I can't for the life of me figure out how I'm going to reconnect the cable feed to my hub. Now, I haven't checked out what is in the box that's attached to the outside of my house. It was too late and too dark to do that last night.

I was wondering if anyone else has 2 providers -- one for TV and another for Internet access in a house that was wired with the Verizon Smart Home hub. I presume I would be facing the same dilemma if I was planning to use Verolan for Internet access as well.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I can keep both TV receivers operating AND have internet access too?

 

I have a very similar cable infrastructure as you do, except I do not have a "Verizon" smart hub. Mine is more of a patch panel, built by a contractor we hired during the house build. (You could probably build one yourself for a few dollars)
I have dual RG6 cabling running through my home (sounds like you do to, the cable is actually a pair, not 2 singles) and all the end to end runs terminate in the basement at a patch panel (probably comparable to your hub). At that point, I take my Satellite feed and split it via the patch panel to all the TV points. I then take my adelphia internet feed cable and can either terminate it to the cable modem there and output to my router/switch and then to all the CAT5 connections to the house from that same patch panel (the patch panel accomodates RJ45, RG6, and phones throughout the whole house and I can control all the feeds there) to all the computers, or run that specific RG6 (adelphia internet) up to my office and can terminate into the Cable modem there, then out to a switch, then pump it back down to the patch panel to connect to all the computers from there. Many many designs to choose from for me.
My understanding is that the adelphia internet and Satellite feeds can actually be multiplexed onto one cable since they ride different frequencies. They should not interfere with one another, I do not know if this is true, nor do I know anyone that has tried this, but it may be yet another option in design for you. It may also be the only viable option if your cable runs are not dual RG6 cabling, but rather single runs.
I wonder what others have done as well.
G/L

DwArFlOrD

 

Just push another cable through the same opening your two outside cables use. It's really easy to do, if your basement isn't finished.

I also have the Verizon hub and two cables with only one DISH receiver. When I first moved here, I used Starband for my Internet along with DISH for TV and an outside antenna for the locals. Starband uses 2 cables (1 transmit, 1 receive) and DISH used a 3rd cable, so the installer pushed the 3rd cable through -- no problem.

You can combine an outside antenna signal with the DISH (or DirecTV) signal on the same cable and split it at the hub or at the TV, but I don't know about a satellite signal and PowerLink signal. Check the local Radio Shack to see if they have anything for such a combination.

 

I'll check out the outside box tomorrow afternoon. I took another look at the interior panel, and the DirecTV installer bypassed the hub. He connected the feed directly to the coaxial cable that connects to the receiver. I'll try to route one of the feeds through the "ANT / CATV In" connector and then out to the receivers. I suspect I'll have to tinker a bit with the outside box, too. Too bad the manual doesn't describe how that's setup.

I wish I could take your suggestion, GCyr, but I don't have a basement. The interior panel is in my utility room which is probably 15 feet across the rec room from the outside panel.

If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know. I'm open to all suggestions!

 

What Satellite do you have? I've got the Smart Hub and I tried to put multiple Dish receivers on one of the lines to hit all of my taps but it seems that Dish receivers may send signal back b/c all receivers get foobar when I do it. Now I'm using up both my multimedia taps (coax) and I had to do a third through the wall.

 

I have direct TV, but Im not sure I follow what you are trying to do with your setup? Are you splitting your signal from one signal source going to multiple receivers?
I can either split my signal as it comes from the dish, to all my receivers. Or I can send the signal to one receiver from the dish, then have the output of that one receiver go back to my patch panel, then split it to all my tv sources. Only problem with that is everyone watches the same thing.

DwArFlOrD

 

I'm trying to split the signal on one source among all of the receivers.

 

Homer, it sounds like you have the same "issue" I have. Each of my DirecTV receivers is connected to a different feed. The installer used the feeds provided by the hub, but then he connected each feed directly to one of the multimedia taps bypassing the hub's collection and distribution points. SInce I have 2 feeds and only 2 receivers this worked fine for TV purposes.

I had been thinking of trying what you did, but it doesn't sound like it worked for you. In the short run, I suppose I could just not use one of the TVs/receivers, and use that feed for Adelphia, but that's not a good solution in the long run.

My hub is located 15 feet or so from the outside panel -- as the crow flies. To get to it, the cable would have to go through or around my finished rec room. It's a far longer distance if the cable is laid around the baseboards and doorways. The doorways have no moldings around them so there's no place to hide it.

Does anyone have any idea who I can contact to have another cable installed properly (behind the drywall)? What kind of companies do that sort of work?

 

I did some research this morning. If I knew this before I had it installed I would be in good shape. The installer can put the the four split near the hub and have the each connection go to an individual tap. My splitter is probably on the roof with the dish. I'm thinking about calling a Dish installer to come and do it right. The only problem is that two coax cables are needed to go to the hub and that would take up the outside connection and put me in the same situation for cable modem. So I think I can drop the cable through the roof, down the HVAC shaft (not in it, just the frame) to the basement where my hub is. Then I would split to the taps in the living room, kitchen, BR#1 and Basement. Then I could put four receivers on and have broadband .

This is the multiplexer:
http://www.smarthomepro.com/7792.html

Related Links:
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-1631.html
http://www.futurehomesystems.com/w261.shtml

Side note: Do a google search on: dish smarthome and you'll see our forum in fifth place!

 

How do you handle changing the channel if you're in another room than the receiver? Do you have multiple UHF remotes or that IR pyramid extender?