King Dome and DVR

[loydt]

Does anybody here have a king dome sat system and use a DVR with it?

Loyd
2006 Camelot

[beaverjim]

loydt, i've been using that combo for about 3 yrs. (standard def) jim

[loydt]

Thanks. Do you have Directv or Dish?

[beaverjim]

loydt, direct tv. jim

[Bob (WA0MQE)]

I've also been using our King Dome Automatic w/ DirecTV DVR. As long as your dish has two outputs it should work.

[CoCoDave]

Originally Posted by loydt

Does anybody here have a king dome sat system and use a DVR with it?

Loyd
2006 Camelot

We used our King Dome with an older DIRECTV-TiVo standard definition DVR. Our King Dome had only a single LNB (one coax). The system had all of the normal functionality except that you could not record two different programs at the same time or record one program while watching another on a different channel.

When we travel we just take one of the DVR's from the house and put it in the coach. We lose local channels at about 200 miles from their transmitter sites.

We just traded coaches and now have an exposed dish antenna. It automatically finds the satellite like the King Dome but is not an in-motion system.

My neighbor had a devil of time getting his King Dome to work with a DIRECTV DVR until he looked at the installation manual which had a procedure to adjust the elevation setting of the dish antenna inside the dome based on the latitude of the coach's location. Once he did that, it all worked fine.

FWIW

[wa8yxm]

Domes and DVR's 101.

Domes come in basically 2x3 flavors..

The 2 refers to: Single or Dual (Refers to the number of coax outputs, NOT the number of LNB lenses) With a DVR, which is normally Dual input, you need a dual output Dome.. King Controls makes both I belive)

Flaver 3: Refers to the ability of SOME models (and again King makes all 3) to see only one, or 2, or 3 different satelites under receiver control.

DirecTV (not DirecHDTV) everything is on one satellite (101W) for most customes, Domes love this type of system.. DirecHDTV however uses 3 birds, and the other two can not be received by any dome currently out there.

DISH uses either two (SD) or 3 (HD) birds. Some domes can switch between these 3 or 2 birds but.. They can still only see one at a time.. This is the biggest limit of domes.

With a DVR, if it should happen that of one of you wishes to record say Halmark channel (on 110) and the other wants CSI (on 119) one of you is out of luck.

(I have used both DISH and DirecTV DVR's with Domes)

However a multi-sat dome works well with a SINGLE Dishnetwork receiver.

That said: Dishnetwork DVRs are the best, DirecTV's.. The worst (Again in my opinion, but then I'm spoiled, I use Replay TV, When Echostar came out with DVR's. they got sued for copyright infringment by ReplayTV, Lost too as I recall.. Direc went with TiVo's unit.. They settled out of court.. There is hope though, DirecTV bought ReplayTV)

Whatever you do,, if you go with any rooftop mount.. Put a low cost A/B switch in the line near the receiver (DVR) "A" goes to the roof antenna up A-bove, B goes to either a ground B-lock or a B-ulkhead connector down B-elow.. So when you are parked under the evil signal eating tree... You break out your tripod and dish, Hook it up, slide the switches over to "B". and then

Direc: Reset the receiver, aim the dish and enjoy
Dish: Aim the dish, perform a CHECK SWITCH (Sounds harder than it is, easier to do than to type in fact) and enjoy.

When you disconnect, First slide to A, then disconnect and stow, move out into the clear and either reset or check switch.

[Wayne M]

Had a King Dome in the old 3400RL. It was a dual output. Hooked both out to the VIP-322 Dish DVR. One into Sat 1 input, and one into Sat 2 input. As long as I was on the same "bird" I could record and watch, or I could playback and watch. I would record a lot of movies and tv shows before we left. Now in a Coach, I do not have to set up the portable antenna and I can watch the pre-recorded programs. I liked the King Dome, but as stated it is limited in its ability to receive only one satellite at a time. Going with one of the newer systems you can have all at once, but not with any dome on the market at present time.

Happy trials.

Where's Bill when you need him.

[wa8yxm]

That is why I covered both Dish and DirecTV .. With DirecTV.. Odds are you only get programming from one bird

DirecHDTV, however, it won't do.

[Robi.1014]

Jim & Bob,
What is the receiver model number of your SD DirecTV DVRs? Some older SD DVRs needed a phone land-line to work. Some newer ones need Internet connectivity. My question is: Did your particular model DVR not need any external connectivity?

[mrschwarz]

With a dual tuner DVR, having two domes would work. I have a Dish ViP211 with an external hard drive that makes it into a DVR that is connected to my Kingdome. It works great.

[wa8yxm]

Originally Posted by Robi.1014

Jim & Bob,
What is the receiver model number of your SD DirecTV DVRs? Some older SD DVRs needed a phone land-line to work. Some newer ones need Internet connectivity. My question is: Did your particular model DVR not need any external connectivity?

I do not recall but I got it in 2006 and no, it did not need a phone line.

In fact no DirecTV unit needs phone line less you want PPV..

Dish charges you more if you don't have a phone line for it to "phone home"

[srzak]

I have a kingdome 9702 with dishnetwork using a 508 dvr. Everything works fine. I record programs when the RV is at my house and watch them later.

[kjburns]

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

Dish charges you more if you don't have a phone line for it to "phone home"

Dish dropped that charge early last year.