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Muddypaws · 11-18-2012, 08:57 PM

I bought my first DirecTV Tivo in 1999. It's a Sony Sat T-60. I've upgraded the disk, added a second disk, and gone back to one even bigger disk, and replaced the cooling fan at least twice.

Last week it started crashing & restarting randomly. Friday night it finally died completely. The power supply is dead. I could repair it with a rebuilt supply for $49 + tax & shipping but when I found out that I could get another HR24 HiDef recorder and network it with my existing HR24 as a 'whole house DVR' for $149 I jumped on it. I'm also getting a new non-recording receiver that I will move between the house and the RV.

And therin lies the question: The RV only has a standard def dish. The DirecTV rep said it will work but I will have to change the satellite type and selectivly hide all the HD channels every time I move it.

If anybody out there has done this I'd appreciate your input. Is it worth the effort or should I keep the SD receiver in the RV as it is?

Thanks!

450Donn · 11-18-2012, 09:10 PM

I have two different systems. SWM at home and two wire for the trailer. It is fairly simple to change in program setup. I have actually made a label that is in the trailer that has the setup info on it for the trailer. When we get home the receivers automatically switch to SWM. Other than that the only thing you will need is two B band converters for your RV. They are a black box adapter on your coax inputs necessary to get the signal. To make matters worse, I have a HD dish on the roof of the trailer and a portable tripod mounted dish for those times when the roof top antenna is blocked by trees. So I rewired my trailer adding two cables to each receiver location. We travel with two HD DVR's so this allows my system to record even on the road using dual tuners.

CoCoDave · 11-18-2012, 10:09 PM

I felt your pain, Muddypaws. I too started with the Sony Sat T-60. When it died DW dispatched me to the world of retail to find a replacement before being allowed back in the house. This past March our then-current SD DVR died from heat exhaustion because it was installed in the compartment above the coach driver's seat with inadequate ventilation. Fortunately we were in Long Beach, CA at the time. I was able to drive to Culver City in the toad and procure one of the then-newish THR22 DVR's. "Procure" as in pay $200 for the privilege of leasing the box.

It replaced the SD DVR seamlessly. We have a single LNB dish on the motor home with one coax. Just plugged it in to "Sat 1", configured the DVR for single LNB, round dish and away we went. I think we did eliminate HD channels from the guide via a couple of button pushes on the peanut remote. Same when we got home and put the THR22 in the house and hooked it up to the HD antenna with two coax cables. Same deal with the guide - eliminated the redundant SD channels.

We love the THR22 because it has close to the same graphical user interface (GUI) that the old Series II TiVo boxes had. We did not/do not like the DirecTV GUI. So now we are back to an all-TiVo world in the home and the motor home. Moving the DVR from one to the other is easy. We don't have HD in the coach or the ability to record on two channels at once. But we can play a prerecorded program while recording a live program. That suits us fine.

FWIW

Muddypaws · 11-19-2012, 08:47 PM

DirecTV installed my whole home DVR this afternoon. The installer told me that the receiver I intended to share between the house and the RV would not work in the RV with a single LNA dish so I ended up cancelling the order for that receiver and kept the old one.

450Donn · 11-20-2012, 10:04 AM

Too bad you did that. A swap to an oval dish with multiple LNBs would have cured your problem easily.

Muddypaws · 11-20-2012, 10:45 AM

DirecTV said they would be happy to send me a HD receiver that will work well in the RV whenever I'm ready to upgrade. Probably a free (manual)dish too. We've been with DirecTV for as long as they've been in business.

Someday...........