How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

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Kennedy
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:47 pm

How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by Kennedy »

I want to move my tv and directv box from one room to a second room. I plugged the box into the cable wall outlet thing in room two, and I could see the directv logo on the screen. However, it wouldn't tune to any channel.

I've been waiting on hold for a directv technical support agent for some time. Thought I would check here while I'm on hold. I'm hoping to sort this out myself without having to pay directv to send an installer out. I purchased this home "used" and have never hooked up any cable or satellite tv in room two since I've owned the home. However, I'm assuming the outlet has been "activated" since it seems to recognize the directv box as evidenced by the directv logo on my tv screen, but that's just a guess on my part.
PFInterest
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by PFInterest »

yes but if the cable wall outlet thing isnt connected to the satellite then nothings going to come through.
Topic Author
Kennedy
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by Kennedy »

The box was plugged into the cable wall outlet in room one and worked just fine. Are you suggesting that each outlet in each individual room needs to be connected to the satellite individually? Is this done during "activation" of the outlet?
Madbull
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by Madbull »

How old is the house? Do you have a structured wiring panel, (ie; OnQ), perhaps in the master closet?
Topic Author
Kennedy
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by Kennedy »

Madbull wrote: Sun Sep 02, 2018 6:59 pm How old is the house? Do you have a structured wiring panel, (ie; OnQ), perhaps in the master closet?
The house is ten years old. There is a wiring panel in my laundry room. Any suggestions as to what to look for in the panel?
Madbull
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by Madbull »

See if it has Coax cables in it. If so, and if you’re not planning to use the tv in bedroom one right now, you can just swap the cables from bedroom one and bedroom two.

I likely am not explaining it even close enough to help, and am not an installer, I just fiddled with my own wiring the last two houses. So take what I say with a grain of salt, heh.
Spirit Rider
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by Spirit Rider »

Kennedy wrote: Sun Sep 02, 2018 6:54 pm The box was plugged into the cable wall outlet in room one and worked just fine. Are you suggesting that each outlet in each individual room needs to be connected to the satellite individually? Is this done during "activation" of the outlet?
The coax connector in the current room is connected to the Direct TV satellite dish. The coax in the second room might just be connected to your cable tv distribution. At ten years this is most likely RG-59 and the connection panel combined might be too much attenuation for the satellite signal

Note: The satellite signal strength is lower than standard cable TV signal strength. Satellite signals are usually carried on RG-6/7 with much lower attenuation than the RG-58/59 common in most home cable TV distribution systems.

You should route the satellite signal over a RG-6/7 coax cable in the basement to directly tie into the cable to the second room. If you still have too much attenuation, you might need to run RG-6/7 directly to that room from the basement entry of the satellite coax cable. The fewer the connections the better.
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Kennedy
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by Kennedy »

Madbull wrote: Sun Sep 02, 2018 7:14 pm See if it has Coax cables in it. If so, and if you’re not planning to use the tv in bedroom one right now, you can just swap the cables from bedroom one and bedroom two.

I likely am not explaining it even close enough to help, and am not an installer, I just fiddled with my own wiring the last two houses. So take what I say with a grain of salt, heh.
Hmm. There is a massive jumble of poorly labeled coax cables. It's hard to see what goes where. I see a coax cable labeled for our main family room. This leads to a splitter that splits off to four other poorly-marked coax cables. Further, there are no less than 20 other cables that aren't hooked up to anything.

I'll spend some time trying to sort this out. Thanks so much for your input!
OldLearner
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by OldLearner »

If I remember correctly (it's been a while), the satellite signal comes from the dish into a four or six port hub. Each mini and the main box is connected to that hub. From what you're describing, you have "home runs" to each wall port in the house. All you need to do is determine which cable is is going to the wall outlet where the TV was, disconnect it, and find the wire that goes to the new location and connect it to the hub where you disconnected the other wire. That should be it.
gostars
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Re: How to move Directv box from one room to another without paying directv to come out

Post by gostars »

Spirit Rider wrote: Sun Sep 02, 2018 7:17 pm The coax connector in the current room is connected to the Direct TV satellite dish. The coax in the second room might just be connected to your cable tv distribution. At ten years this is most likely RG-59 and the connection panel combined might be too much attenuation for the satellite signal

Note: The satellite signal strength is lower than standard cable TV signal strength. Satellite signals are usually carried on RG-6/7 with much lower attenuation than the RG-58/59 common in most home cable TV distribution systems.
RG-6 was already becoming the norm 20 years ago, because digital cable, cable modems, and digital satellite were becoming widespread at that point. If a builder was still running RG-59 10 years ago, then I'm surprised the house is still standing because the builder clearly lacked basic competence :D.
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