DIRECTV’s H26K commercial receiver is the new, hot product for businesses. After years of working with the older H25, businesses now have a new receiver that’s more reliable, faster, and offers features like 4K that businesses have been asking for. News of the H26K leaked out to the internet about a month and a half ago, and an internal document has been circulating online that has been confusing folks.
Let me be clear, this internal document was never meant to be in the hands of anyone but commercial installers so there’s a lot of detail that was left out of it. The thought there was that commercial installers would already have a lot of the backstory. However, regular folks have been picking apart this document for several weeks now and it’s led to some incorrect information circulating.
Let’s talk about the DIRECTV SWM-30
DIRECTV’s SWM-30 is the only multiswitch intended for today’s commercial installations. It replaces the SWM-8, SWM-16, SWM-32, and even the SWM-13 which was rarely seen outside hotel installs. It comes in a regular version and a high-power version which is only intended for commercial installers. (Seriously folks, if you don’t have an AIM meter to test output levels, do not use the high-power version. You’ll fry your receivers.)
Like older devices, the SWM-30 is named for the number of devices it can support. It supports 15 devices from each output. However, conventional wisdom says you should never connect more than 13 tuners to it. Why is that?
The problem isn’t the SWM-30. It never has been. Older DIRECTV boxes like the H24 and H25 are not capable of seeing SWM channels 14 and 15. Therefore, if you have an H24 or H25 anywhere in your commercial install, you should plan on 13 tuners per SWM leg.
Later devices, like the H44 and the new H26K (as well as all of DIRECTV’s Genie hardware) don’t have this limitation so you can use the full 15 tuner capacity from each output of the SWM-30.
Let’s make it easy
If you take only one sentence away from this article it’s this. If you are installing H24 or H25 anywhere, plan on 13 tuners per leg. That’s really the bottom line. It’s not a bad idea to leave some capacity in your SWMs anyway but if you want to use H26K or H44 devices, you can fill those outputs up with 15 receivers.
Here’s another way of looking at it:
| If you installation includes… | Plan on using this many receivers per SWM output |
|---|---|
| H24 or H25 only (or earlier) | 13 |
| Mixed H25, H25, H44, H26K | 13 |
| H44 only | 15 |
| H26K only | 15 |
I think that pretty much says it all. As we move into the future, those earlier receivers will naturally fall out of use. I’m guessing a lot of people will want to upgrade to the H26K for its speed, reliability, and features. So, this article probably won’t be really necessary for very long.
Get your Commercial DIRECTV equipment from Solid Signal
Solid Signal has all the same commercial equipment that pro installer use. Shop at Solid Signal for DIRECTV-approved receivers, customer premises equipment, cables, and more. If you are ready for an upgrade, call the experts! We are DIRECTV’s Commercial Dealer of the Year, ready to help you no matter how big or small your installation is.
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