Alas, the popular DIRECTV H25 receiver is SWM-only. By that, it means you can only feed it directly from a SWM-enabled Slimline dish or from the SWM outputs of an external SWM multiswitch. The legacy ports on an external SWM are to be used for feeding older receivers that can’t use SWM technology.
DIRECTV SWM technology is completely different from the L-band technology used before, and in order to do both, a receiver must have two completely separate types of tuners installed. The H25 was the first receiver in DIRECTV’s line to be SWM-only, meaning that in only has a tuner for the SWM system. Connecting it to a traditional dish won’t work at all, nor will connecting it to an older multiswitch.
It’s true that there are some folks out there who still cling to the older technology as a way to get a little more use out of an older setup. But really, as I’ve said many times before in this blog, the time has come. We’re talking about giving up a technology that is about as old as 3.5″ floppy disks and older than recordable CDs. (You don’t still burn a lot of those, do you?) It’s a technology that was dependable at its time but limited in the way people could use it, and SWM technology was designed to make installations easier and faster. It works, too.
I know, it’s tempting when you need to add that 17th H25 to your bar or restaurant and you see those Legacy ports just sitting there with their pretty little dust caps, but unfortunately they may look enticing but there’s nothing there for you.
You can run a DIRECTV H24 receiver from the legacy port if you wish, so long as you use a B-Band converter to get HD service. It’s not optimal but it can work. Just know that the H24s out in the market at this point are all fairly old refurbs and while they should be reliable, they’re not going to be as fast or as efficient as an H25, which is the most energy-efficient receiver in DIRECTV’s line.
