KVH & Dish Network Compatibility Issues

[Craig P.]

When I upgraded my KVH roof mounted satellite antenna last year, I had problems getting it to work right. After over an hour on the phone with a KVH tech, he said my Dish DVR was the culprit. The only receivers they guarantee will work with their antennas, are the 211 and 211K. I opted for the 211K, since it would allow an external hard drive for DVR use. Well guess what, I still had the same issues with the KVH antenna after buying the 211K. KVH ended up replacing the antenna. I kept using the 211K to prevent any future incompatibility claims by KVH while I dealt with the issues of their product.

One year later, and I have now gone through two external hard drives. Despite the fact that I purchased an external hard drive shell with cooling fans, the hard drives just can't handle the summer heat, especially when they must be near the Dish receiver, which puts out a ton of heat. My cabinet is small and the had drive cables are short, so there is no other option as far as that is concerned.

I decided that I would swap the receiver in the RV with one in the house that had a built-in hard drive DVR. I have a maintenance plan on the receivers in the house. This way if the internal hard drive gave out, I could have Dish replace it under my plan.

I pulled the 211K out of the MH, and hooked up a VIP712 that was in the house. The 712 is different, in that it has two sat-in feeds. There was a 3-way separator attached to the sat-in jacks, to allow for only one satellite feed, so I took that to the RV as well. I hooked everything up, but I couldn’t get the 712 to work with my KVH antenna. The antenna would move around for about 30 seconds and then just quit. I would call KVH, but I’m sure they’d just tell me again that the 211 is the only receiver guaranteed to work with their equipment.

I hooked the 211K back up in the RV and everything works fine, but I’d sure like to have a receiver with a built-in DVR. Any suggestions?

Craig

[Satman]

You have to decide weather you want DVR Service or KVH dome. No dome will support a DVR. An open face automatic multisatellite mobile antenna will support the DVR fine. Winegard and MotoSat make a system.

[Lug_Nut]

Actually the KVH dome will support a Dish DVR, but it will only get one sat at a time. It will even handle high def. 129, because, unlike Direct, Dish transmits on KU band not KA. All domes are KU. The best set up is to have the KVH and a MotoSat 3 LNB. You can switch to which ever you wish for different applications, in motion, tree blocking MotoSat, etc.
And yes, the 722 does work with a KVH dome.

[Bill Adams]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satman You have to decide weather you want DVR Service or KVH dome. No dome will support a DVR. An open face automatic multisatellite mobile antenna will support the DVR fine. Winegard and MotoSat make a system.

To clarify some bad information here.
First, DVR's DO work with domes antennas.
2nd, DVR's do work BETTER with the DirecTV service.
3rd, DVR's used with Dish Network can cause MANY problems for dome users. If you learn the rules required to make a DVR work with Dish Network you should be able to successfully use a dome but it takes work.

Now, with all of that said, I do not recommend that a Dish Network customer use a DVR with dome. You are going to get the rules wrong at some point and cause a failure. Since a dome antenna can only see one satellite at a time, if you schedule a recording on a channel that is broadcast on 119 and then you want to watch or record another channel which is on the 110/129 satellite this will cause an unresolvable conflict.

[Lug_Nut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Adams To clarify some bad information here. First, DVR's DO work with domes antennas. 2nd, DVR's do work BETTER with the DirecTV service. 3rd, DVR's used with Dish Network can cause MANY problems for dome users. If you learn the rules required to make a DVR work with Dish Network you should be able to successfully use a dome but it takes work. Now, with all of that said, I do not recommend that a Dish Network customer use a DVR with dome. You are going to get the rules wrong at some point and cause a failure. Since a dome antenna can only see one satellite at a time, if you schedule a recording on a channel that is broadcast on 119 and then you want to watch or record another channel which is on the 110/129 satellite this will cause an unresolvable conflict.

Well, I disagree with your statement "Direct works better with a dome" Not if you want to watch high definition. Direct can not Dish can without a problem. When you are operating on a dome with Dish you must do a "Check Switch" You then have no other channels other than the sat you are on.

[Bill Adams]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lug_Nut Well, I disagree with your statement "Direct works better with a dome" Not if you want to watch high definition. Direct can not Dish can without a problem. When you are operating on a dome with Dish you must do a "Check Switch" You then have no other channels other than the sat you are on.

You can disagree all you like, but this was a discussion about DVR's and not about HD. If you would like to start a new topic about HD that would be OK as well. Hopefully, most folks now know that you cannot receive DirecTV HD with a dome. My statements were made to correct the incorrect information posted by Satman and has nothing at all to do with HD or SD.

[Lug_Nut]

Sorry. it was just your statement that "It works better". My way of judging how a sat service works involves what it delivers, a picture and sound. To me, High Def is far better.

[Bill Adams]

Did you see my reference to DVR in each statement?!
By pulling only part of my statement out of a sentence gives it a completely different meaning. If you like HD and you want to use a dome them you must be a Dish Network subscriber. That has nothing at all do to with what I posted. Want to use an HD DVR with your dome and the Dish Network service? Good luck!!!

[Bill Adams]

As an aside to my post about DVR's and Dish Network, there is one way that you can use a DVR with Dish Network successfully. If you only use a single input into the DVR you cannot run into the conflict caused by trying to watch/record programs on different satellites. You would not be able to watch one channel while recording another, but you would still be able to schedule programming to record while you are busy, away or asleep, record movies to watch again later, etc.

[Satman]

DVR's are dual tuner receivers therefore will conflict with the KVH dome for Dish network when one tuner wants one satellite and the other wants another satellite. Ultimately, anyone that uses a dome with Dish Network DVRs (SD or HD) will run into problems like Bill said. This is why I said "domes don't support DVRs".

There is an exception for every rule, living in that exception-world with satellite TV means you won't be watching TV when you want to! You make the choice.

[Craig P.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satman DVR's are dual tuner receivers therefore will conflict with the KVH dome for Dish network when one tuner wants one satellite and the other wants another satellite.

Only the newer DVR's are dual tuners. My old DVR was a single tuner as is my current 211K with the external hard drive, which serves as a DVR.

Craig

[Craig P.]

Bill,

I was hoping you'd respond to this thread. You always provide a wealth of information.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Adams If you only use a single input into the DVR you cannot run into the conflict caused by trying to watch/record programs on different satellites. You would not be able to watch one channel while recording another, but you would still be able to schedule programming to record while you are busy, away or asleep, record movies to watch again later, etc.

That's exactly how I have been using my 211K with the external hard drive. I'm fine with that, I'd just like a DVR with a built-in hard drive to accomplish the task.

That being said, is there any way you know of to get the dual tunner 712 receiver to work with my KVH dome.

Craig

[Bill Adams]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig P. Bill, I was hoping you'd respond to this thread. You always provide a wealth of information. That's exactly how I have been using my 211K with the external hard drive. I'm fine with that, I'd just like a DVR with a built-in hard drive to accomplish the task. That being said, is there any way you know of to get the dual tunner 712 receiver to work with my KVH dome. Craig

I don't know a thing about the KVH domes so I am speaking "in theory". A DVR that is setup to only use one of the 2 tuners should avoid the problems created when you try to schedule 2 programs on 2 different satellites. This is only a problem with Dish Network as all of the SD programming from DirecTV is on one satellite and HD with DirecTV does not work with a dome (choose 1).
If you want to use a DVR to it's fullest capacity and be able to watch one channel and record another I would not recommend using any dome.
Anyone heard of the Winegard Trav'ler! Now that's living right!