I currently have the 4 way multi on my oval dish, but I'd like to add more sets (HD tivo will end up taking up 2 of those outputs). Has anyone bought any of the 6 or 8 output switches? I saw one that needed to be powered and thought that would logistically be a pain. Any advice or reccomendations? Also can I take an existing coax run split it and put an amplifier on it?

Any help would be great, thanks!

Doug

This one does not require any power:

http://www.goelectronic.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=GE&Product_Code=STEREN+202-058&Category_Code=SATELLITE+ACCESSORIES

Thanks for the link. I'm a little confused though. This switch and another I've seen have inputs for the OTA signal as well. Does it put the OTA onto the Coax with the dish to allow me only one run combining both OTA and D*? Will I still have all the same functionality that I currently have with 2 runs, one for D* and one for OTA? WIll it degrade my signal on either?

Thanks!

Doug

Not sure about signal degradation - I think that's more a function of the length of the run. That unit (and most others I saw) combine the OTA antenna signal (or regular cable signal IIRC) with the Sat signal. On the receiver end you use a diplexer which splits out the Sat and OTA signals. The purpose is to allow both to be run over one RG-6 line avoiding the expense and hassle of running an extra line.

You can do the same thing with 2 diplexers on each end of a single RG-6 line. The multi-switch just has the diplexer built into the input side.

I combine my signals with out a problem. My receiver will accept the OTA combined or separated. I use one cable to my receiver.

Do the multi switches that combine with ota with dish come with the diplexer to separate the signal again at the STB or is that typically a separate purchase as well?

Thanks

Doug

They're separate. Not everyone uses the OTA input so not everyone would need the diplexer. You also only need one for each receiver. Any place that sells the multi-switch should also have the diplexers.