One Satellite Box, two locations

[DougMac]

We're in the process of building a dedicated Home Theater. We're also planning to buy a medium sized LCD TV to be put in a nearby den for casual watching. While I was pondering getting two Satellite boxes and the added one time and monthly expense, I thought of an alternative and wondered if anyone else had tried it.

The den is roughly 30' from where the HT satellite box will be installed. There's just us two empty nesters and we would never watch TV separately. I'm thinking of getting an HDMI splitter to put between the sat receiver and my av receivers. I could then put an IR receiver in the den to change channels on the sat receiver. If needed, I could put a simple switch to change the IR receiver back and forth between the two rooms. Would this work?

Doug

[mechman]

Doug,

Which satellite service?

DirecTV comes with IR remotes. You can buy a RF remote an antenna separately. As long as you're using the newer HD receiver.

I'm uncertain what Dish uses nowadays but I know in the past they had RF remotes.

If the box has RF capabilities, I'd do it that way over the repeater business.

[Sonnie]

My Dish 622 comes with a pair of remotes as well. RF at that... and we can set it for all TV's to view the same channel (enable PIP at the receiver) or set it to view different channels on the different displays, which is the way we have it now.

[MatrixDweller]

I had a HD PVR (ExpressVu 9200) for awhile that had two tuners and could run two independent zones. It came with one IR and one RF remote. One of the zones however would have to be standard def. If you didn't want a PVR then a normal HD receiver and a SD receiver together would be cheaper ($20/month vs $10+$2.50/month).

The other option you pointed out is viable also. You could you a RF remote like the Logitech 890 which comes with IR repeaters, or wire IR repeaters and use an IR remote.

[DougMac]

Mech and Sonny,

Thanks for your replies.

I had originally planned to go with the Dish VIP 722. It has the ability to hook up and external hard drive. We don't save many programs we record, so the 622 may be the better option for us. Thanks for the info, Sonny. My understanding is the other display is SD, is that right? The idea for the LCD was to save lamp time. Of course, what we would watch in HD (Discovery, PBS), we'd probably want to watch on the huge screen anyway. The good news is that I'm all pre-wired for coax.

I did a little more research (which I should have done first) and found that the IR repeaters is no big deal. I've found 4x2 HDMI switches for ~$150, which would do the trick for me. I need to get an HDMI switch anyway.

Mech, I'm still working on the visual testing of the Seymour screen. I've been spending any spare time finishing framing.

Doug