This doesn't sound at all Sling related. But if I had to venture a guess, you're trying to use a splitter to connect one cable from the dish to both inputs on the DirecTV box? Or you only have one cable connected?

You need *TWO* cables run from the dish to the receiver, you CANNOT use a splitter on satellite runs. Period. It isn't like cable or antenna, there is bidirectional communication going on between the receiver and the LNBs on the dish. Each tuner on the receiver needs a dedicated run.

For situations where it is not possible to run two cables, there are devices called 'stackers' which can 'stack' two signals onto one coax, then 'de-stack' them at the other end. Basically it shifts one signal into a higher frequency band 'above' the other, then reverses that at the other end. But these are fairly expensive, not cheap like a splitter.

-MegaZone, Sling Media Beta Manager
Slingbox Pro, HD Connect, TiVo Series3, TiVo Pioneer DVR-810H, SPM Treo 680, SP WinXP
(I also run GizmoLovers.com)