how many stb's ?

[zmiles]

I have, up to last week, been receiving cable directly without a stb. This runs into my sage server with 2 analog tuners. I have a media extender to watch tv. I am switching to direct tv and need to know if i need 2 stb's for my 2 tuners and does this work well with the mvp?

[chughes]

If directTV is satelite, then yes you will need 2 STB's. I don't have an MVP, but I believe those are extenders, so as long as Sage is able to control the STB's then it shouldn't be a problem.
You will need some way of switching channels on the STBs though, so you might want to look into IR blasters. Another discussion altogherher.

[zmiles]

this has become a mute point for me as the satelite company needs a landline connection, which i dont have - back to cable i guess.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by zmiles

this has become a mute point for me as the satelite company needs a landline connection, which i dont have - back to cable i guess.

You can use VoIP to fufill the landline requirement for directv.

[mattdcknsn]

Just to let you know, if its DirectTV I never had my STBs hooked up to the landline phone. I did drop them a year ago so maybe its changed.

[matt91]

Wasn't there an issue at one point with VOIP playing nicely with Sat TV (and alarm systems)? I recall that it had to do with proper DTMF tone generation.

I just cruised though DSLreports.com and didn't see anything, so maybe things have changed.

Matt

[ke6guj]

My friend wth DirecTV never hooked up her basic STBs to any phone line and they have worked fine for years.

Her DirecTivo box does need the phone line hooked up and Vonage works fine for that.

I've heard that if you don't have the phone line hooked up on a standard STB, you can't over PPV via remote, and you can't watch stuff like NFL sunday ticket (since they want to physically know where the box is, for blackout rules).

[zmiles]

I just called and they said i only needed it (landline) for ppv. now i have to figure out the media extender and how to make that work...

[CollinR]

Works fine with MVP, this is essentially the same as having digital cable.



You will need a method of controlling the STBs, use either RS232 serial control or IR control. If you choose serial you will need an RS232 port and some knowledge of your sat box. If you choose IR you'll need an IR blaster or IR transceiver, I prefer the transceiver and use the USBIRT. If you do choose the USBIRT you will also need the IR flashers (2) connected to e stereo headphone jack.

Once you have that setup just configure Sage for the IR control, you will need to manually edit and duplicate the config file. Duplicate it first renaming the config Sat-1 and Sat-2 or whatever you like. In the config at a z1 to the end of each line controlling the first STB and z2 to every line in the 2nd sat box config (usually the duplicate as the boxes are probably the same).

HTH and reply if you have troubles setting it up.

[sdsean]

I have a setup like this with directv. I don't wan't repost the whole thing but heres a link to a smilar discusion and my reply on snapstream's (BeyondTV) formums.

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/show...8&postcount=10