Community Forums

Jack Foster · 07-21-2005, 04:59 AM

I want to install a second receiver in the bedroom of my 04 Mountain Aire and Direct TV tells me that I need to have a dual LNB and ALWAYS be connected to a telephone land line. I don't have a problem with the dual LNB, but obviously, I won't always be connected to a phone line. Direct TV tells me (on three different telephone calls) that the receiver won't work. If it does work, it will not have the TVO capability. Has anyone who has installed a DVR / TVO system in their RV ran into problems? If so, what problems have you had?

Thanks in advance

Jack

Jack Foster · 07-21-2005, 04:59 AM

I want to install a second receiver in the bedroom of my 04 Mountain Aire and Direct TV tells me that I need to have a dual LNB and ALWAYS be connected to a telephone land line. I don't have a problem with the dual LNB, but obviously, I won't always be connected to a phone line. Direct TV tells me (on three different telephone calls) that the receiver won't work. If it does work, it will not have the TVO capability. Has anyone who has installed a DVR / TVO system in their RV ran into problems? If so, what problems have you had?

Thanks in advance

Jack

Cruzer · 07-21-2005, 06:34 AM

There's lots of disinformation out there regarding DirecTV. Frankly, I'm surprised you got the same answer each time from 3 different people. Generally you'll get 3 different answers.

I have two of the DVRs at home and I can take one, or both of them, with me in the RV. The telephone line thing is bogus information. DirecTV would "like" them connected to a phone line. They will make daily calls that way. These calls are used to upload any pay-per-view requests, see if any firmware upgades are available, and (most importantly) verify that you don't have your DVR at a neighbor's house. DirecTV charges a given package rate for the first receiver. The second receiver is mirrored to that same programming at a $5.00 monthly fee. DirecTV does not want you placing any extra receivers at other locations so that they can get service for less than the going rate.

Once I initially installed my DVRs at home I was able to disconnect the phone lines. I have left them disconnected for as long as 6 months without any problems. Of course I don't use pay-per-view so that's not an issue for me. After 30 days a little "nag" screen appears when you first turn on your system. It reminds you that you are not connected. You just clear it out and continue on. If I have mine in the RV I just bring it in every once in a while and hook up the phone line. Any new firmware upgrades will then be downloaded and the nag screen goes away for another month. However, the system will work just fine (after you initially set it up) without the phone line. All of the program schedules are downloaded over the bird so your TV guide will work just fine.

The DVRs are nice because they are dual channel. You can watch (or record to hard drive) one program while recording another on the second channel. They do require two coax feeds from a dual LNB dish. My Kingdome does have dual LNBs and I added a 2x4 multiswitch and ran two extra lines to the bedroom so I can run a second DVR. Technically, I can record 4 different shows at the same time, not that I'd ever have the need to. If you only run one cable to each DVR you won't have the ability to watch one show while recording another on the same DVR. However, you can program the DVR for either single or dual cable operation.

Tom Williams · 07-21-2005, 12:20 PM

Cruzer,
Can you run 2 tv's from 1 DVR with DirecTV?
My son has Dish TV and their DVR. He has 1 DVR and can run 2 Tv's and it came with 2 remotes. Each TV can watch different channels at the same time. Just courious if Direct's works the same.

Thanks

Jack Foster · 07-21-2005, 02:24 PM

Mark,

Thanks a million. That's what I thought, but I needed to confirm itwith someone in the know.

Jack

Cruzer · 07-21-2005, 04:27 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Tom Williams:
Cruzer,
Can you run 2 tv's from 1 DVR with DirecTV?
My son has Dish TV and their DVR. He has 1 DVR and can run 2 Tv's and it came with 2 remotes. Each TV can watch different channels at the same time. Just courious if Direct's works the same.

Thanks </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have the Hughes DVR2 as supplied by DirecTV. IT's about 2 years old. It has dual inputs but only a single output. I guess the reasoning is that you can only watch 1 show at a time but might want to record two shows.

I'm not sure what kind of DVR your son has. Maybe the newer ones can do that. In that case I would expect that the remotes would be RF rather than infrared. That way the second TV could be in another room and the remote could shoot through the wall to control it's half of the DVR. I don't see too many setups with 2 TVs in the same room but a two room setup would make sense.

I do know that there are newer DVRs out there than mine so that may be a possibility. I'm just not familiar with any changes to the newer ones - but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Tom Williams · 07-22-2005, 06:21 AM

Yes his TV's are in 2 different rooms and the remotes are RF. Maybe having 2 outputs on a Dish DVR is only avaiable with Dish. I will look on Directv web site to see what I can find

Thanks

Bob in Dallas · 07-26-2005, 05:19 AM

I have a Dish dual Receiver with DVR. The receiver has two Receivers with inputs from the two dual LNB's (Each dual LNB receives from two satelites.) The Dish capability is to watch one receiver output and record it or not. To watch the second receiver output while recording the first, you must use the second TV, or the second Video input, if you have a TV with multiple video inputs. You can not watch one channel and record another on the same receiver input. If you are watching the second receiver input on the primary TV video 2 input, you must use the RF remote (#2) to control the second Dish receiver input. The first remote (#1) is a IR remote and only operates by Line of Sight, while the #2 is UHF and works through walls.

The remotes control the individual Dish receivers, plus the individual TV's they are set to control.

I was very dissapointed that I could not watch one and record one on the same receiver, but was able to do this because I have multiple Video inputs to both TV's used in the system.