WHITE PAPER: Do you need a single-wire upgrade?

It's fun to look at old pictures... but it's not always fun when technology moves on without taking us with it. If you are a longtime DIRECTV customer who hasn't upgrade in a while, you may be in danger of being left behind.


It's called SWiM technology and it's been standard for DIRECTV installs for about three years. Before SWiM, every receiver needed a separate line all the way to the dish or multiswitch... and and DVRs needed two lines. This made it hard for installers working with homes pre-wired for cable TV, increasing costs and install times. Homeowners who had cables running through the walls didn't like the idea that they needed more wires, often outside the walls, to get basic service.

DIRECTV SWiM technology was developed to address this. The goals were simpler installation, a single wire to each receiver, and the ability to use splitters across the line in order to make installs go faster.

SWiM technology was introduced with the HR20 DVR and rapidly moved across the equipment line, By 2009 all new DIRECTV equipment was SWiM-capable, but could still be used with the older setups. However, starting in 2012, DIRECTV started making receivers and DVRs that required SWiM technology: the HR44 Genie DVR and the H25 HD receiver. What can you do if you want to upgrade, but don't have SWiM technology?

This article is available in PDF format and has been completely revised and updated for 2015! Click here to download!