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Genie and seven minis configuration

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  • Genie and seven minis configuration

    Good morning, I wanted to know if someone could help me with the proper SWM configuration for a DirecTV Genie (HR54) and 7 minis (C51). I am a low voltage contractor and am familiar with DirecTV and the SWM system. It has been a while since I have done a Genie and this is the first time with more than 3 minis.

    First, I know the limitations of this kind of system. There is only five tuners available and that only three minis can watch live TV/recordings simultaneously. This is going in a large house where only two people live, with TVs in eight different rooms. But, they will only ever be watching two TVs at the same time. They also understand that if the Genie DVR is recording four shows at once, only one other TV can be watching a live program. The current set up is a four wire 5 LNB dish, a Zinwell 6x16 multiswitch, 4 HD DVRs and 4 HD receivers with Whole Home Sharing over ethernet. The main reason for changing to the Genie system is because they want to streamline the process of setting up recordings. He doesn't like having to go to four different rooms/DVRs to set up the recordings. He wants to be able to set (and watch) recordings from any room. Also, there is some lag time when controlling a recording from a DVR in another room (press FF and nothing happens for about 5-6 seconds) and we are hoping that the Genie system will resolve this.

    But I digress, my question is what is the proper configuration with the SWM switch and splitters? I'm pretty sure that a SWM8 is sufficient, or do I need a SWM16? I know that the HR54 uses seven tuners, but do the 7 minis count as tuners also? My thought is that the HR54 should be on SWM port 1 with a 1x2 splitter and the PI. Then the 7 minis will all be on SWM port 2 with a 1x8 splitter with 1 connection capped off. One last thing, I do not need a CCK because we already have a network connection at the Genie DVR.

    Thanks you in advance for your help!

  • #2
    Thanks for the complete info - makes answering easier!

    You really only need a SWM8 there. The HR54 uses only five tuners (I know some are marked for seven, but the use only five, currently anyway). The Minis don't count as tuners. Glad to see you are aware of the Mini restrictions with that many (and this sounds like a perfect use of a lot of Minis).

    As far as what goes on each port, that's very flexible, but I'd consider the house wiring in mapping that out. Basically, the you can think of SWM1 and SWM2 as a 1x2 built into the SWM. They are, save for potential power inserter use, identical. So try to minimize the home wiring by put splitters as close to each true split as possible. But, for example, you could put all of the equipment on SWM1 if that made sense.
    Been here a long time . . .

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    • #3
      Thanks for the quick reply Michael.

      I am aware that the HR54 is only using 5 tuners currently. But I had read that the other 2 might be used for 4K recording in the future. I just wanted to be prepared for that, but it looks like that shouldn't be a problem.

      So if I understand you correctly, you are saying that best practice would be to divide up all of the connections according to distance from the SWM8 so that I have close to equal total wire length on each port of the SWM switch. But ultimately that really doesn't matter, as it will still work even if the Genie DVR, PI and minis are all connected to port 1 of the SWM8.

      All of the wiring in the house is homerun to a closet that is near the center of the basement. The furthest wire run is approximately 80'. All of the others are about 50' or less. So I would guess that for all 8 TV locations I have a total wire length from the SWM switch of about 400'. So if I split them up so that I have a total of about 200' on each port, I should be good? And it doesn't matter what combination of DVR and minis are on each port, correct?

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      • #4
        Actually, it isn't about getting equal length on each port; it's about minimizing the total amount of cable in the system.

        But, with homerun wiring, there's really no way to lessen the cabling. My point was, if you had this run in the room-to-room way that many older houses were originally wired for cable, you'd want to use as little duplication as possible locating splitters around the house.
        Been here a long time . . .

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