Larry: that's what I figured. Which leads to my next question: where can a person (in Canada) BUY a cable box? I've seen lots of "questionable" ads for boxes, but as far as I know, the law here does not restrict a subscriber of any kind of service to relying on rentals from the provider. It's just something that most people do, because they don't know or care, and because there is nobody selling locally thanks to lobbying by the providers themselves. ... Mike

Mike, Nobody can guarantee anything you buy from an ad, but....

I'm an avid electronics magazine reader, and I see ads all the time in the classified ads for cable boxes. Electronics mags such as Nuts & Volts, Poptronics, and even some mainstream A/V mags have them. Go to your local bookstore and scan the magazine racks.

Larry

The Hughes 4532 has coax and optical DD.

Thanks to all who responded.

Yesterday, I purchased two Philips DSR6000's at Circuit City for $99 each, got a dish for a penny, and a five-year extended warranty on everything for $45 more.

Came home, screwed the mount on a porch column, got everything hooked up in 10 minutes (one DSR, temporarily located on a table), aligned the dish for an average 95 signal strength in 10 minutes more, called in and got services on in another 10 minutes, downloaded the 2.5 software today (took a lot longer than 10 min!) which enabled the dual-tuner function.

The service we signed up for was the sport package promotion, which includes the Platinum Package (everything!) free for four months for $45. We're not that into sports, so we'll downgrade in Jan, '02. Meanwhile, we're loving it! Only hitch is that we're in a city (Richmond, VA) that doesn't offer local channels on satellite, so we either will pay for local-only on cable, or get the clip-on antenna with the built-in combiner; probably the latter.

Tonight, my fiance and I compiled a channel list, sorted alphabetically, so it's easy to find desired channels. Anyone want a copy, let me know. The last hurdle is finding an optical-to-coaxial adapter for the digital sound.

I'll probably run a bunch of coax this weekend. Since I have four TVs, and two dual-tuner tuners, and will no doubt get one or two more tuners, I'll need a 3-in, 6- or 8-out multi-switch. Time to go to PartsExpress.com.

Larry

Good for you Larry. You've done your homework.

Larry,

How 'bout an update here. How did you make out?

Tom

Okay, okay! Update time.....

Here's the poop: I moved the temporarily-table-mounted receiver to the top of my stack, ran the dual-coax I have (a few hundred feet on a reel I brought with me from Fairfax Co, where they use dual coax for 120-channel cable w/ dual-input tuners) from the dish to a downstairs closet.

There, I installed a 3-in/8-out multiswitch ($59 from Parts Exp.), ran dual coax (because 3 of the 4 tuners I bought are dual-tuner DSR6000's) from there to each of 4 TV locations, and mounted a Terk amplified antenna in my attic. I know that outdoor is better, but I'm in a 3-story house, and on a hill, which makes my roof the tallest one in the neighborhood.

Oh, by the way, Parts Express also carries a pair of digital converters for $38(!!), one for coax-to-optical, and one for optical-to-coax, so my AC-3 pre-pro (B&K AVP-4090, no optical inputs) is having no trouble with DD. In fact, that's the only audio connection I have from the DSR there.

I happened upon Band of Brothers last night on one of the HBO's, which was in AC-3. Wow! The explosions were inCREDible!

Interesting sidenote: not all of the Dolby Digital programs listed in the channel guide (there are only a couple at any given time, anyway) trigger the AC-3, some only come through as Pro-Logic. Hmmmm.....

Overall, I'd have to say that I'm very happy with the switch. Anybody who is even a little handy can mount their own dish. Over 90 signal strength on all transponders, so, let it rain! Who needs a free install? Nobody would do it as well as I did. I used the F-plugs with the O-rings in them outdoors, too. Even inside the LNB arm.

Thanx again for all the help!

Larry

Thanks for the update Larry. Now here's hoping you get your new toy in time for the weekend ;-)

As a matter of fact, I just got an email from the Harmony Toy Co. stating that my beta is on the way and should arrive tomorrow, but tommorow is Saturday, so it might be Monday. No problem, I can wait.

......I think!

Larry <----desperately gritting teeth in anticipation

This message was edited by Larry Fine on 10/19/01 15:59.00.

Larry,

Some DD is 2.0 and will not trigger the 5.1 circuit and will go to the default processing, which, in your case appears to be DPL.

I am glad you are happy with the switch! I think cable sucks (except for the cable modem which is OK most of the time). It sounds like you learned a lot and had a lot of fun, which is what this is all about.

Hopefully you ran extra feeds for the LNBFs at the dish (or it is easy to add on) since DirecTV currently uses 4 for all programming and is expecting to go to 6 in the near future. At that time you will have to change your multiswitch, but, depending on your programming preferences, it may be a few years so you will get the use out of the 3X8 in the mean time.

randy