DIRECTV SWM (Single-wire multiswitch) Finally Available
We have finally gotten our hands on the DIRECTV SWM multiswitch. These switches effectively allow you to split a single line from your DIRECTV dish into two, just as you would a line from the cable company. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you have an old house and don’t want to run additional wires down from the dish, this multiswitch solves the problem.
The switch works with the new 5LNB dish, and requires all 4 lines from the dish to run into the SWM. This means that the SWM would have to be installed at the dish or anywhere else in your house where the 4 lines meet.
Once you have the four lines in, you need a special power device (a “power inverter”). From there, you will run a single wire from the output of the SWM, which can split and power multiple receivers, with a single wire feeding TWO tuners!
The SWM will ONLY do it’s magic with DIRECTV’s newest HD equipment–the HR20, HR21, H20 and H21. If you have older “legacy” receivers (including DIRECTV TiVo receivers), the SWM has outputs (legacy ports) for those receivers, but you have to run two dedicated lines out from the legacy ports to those receivers.
We currently carry the SWM8 multiswitch, which can power up to 8 tuners.
3 comments 
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September 30th, 2008 at 8:49 am
they also have other swm switches other than “swm-8″ and it works with standard irds the have (swm-1)by the sat. in tuner not just for “HD” and they have a new lnb that only requires one line to be ran from the dish
October 30th, 2008 at 10:05 am
[...] have previously written about the benefits of DIRECTV’s single-wire multiswitch (SWM). Using a SWM, you can power [...]
August 6th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Why isn’t the SWM switch offered as a standard install item when the situation dictates? i.e. I cannot run additional lines (in this case, one) from the dish to the DVR set box. All I am told is it is an additional $149.99 for the switch. It seems rather amateurish for DIRECTV not to offer the technology available from DISH Network. DISH offers a separator which resembles a splitter……it allows for one line from the dish to the rear of the set box where two jumpers are attached and connected to the two inputs.