We have had a Standard Definition DirecTV DVR for several years which really improved our TV experience.
Last week in Quartzsite, we purchased/leased the newest DirecTV High Definition DVR for $200. Adding HD cost $10 month and DirecTV has a $10/month credit for 24 months when the monthly bill is paid by auto-payment. We just purchased the receiver in town and connected it up ourself.
The new HD DVR model is HR24/500 and works MUCH better than our other DVR. Features have been added and everything works faster including booting up when we are parked. Not to mention how much better the HD picture is.
Last year we installed a full HD TV and Wineguard roof open dish. We did all the work ourselves. Since we ran four coax cables from antenna into the motorhome, we could add the new DVR and keep the original DVR in place, which allows us to watch the programs previously recorded, record 4 programs at the same time, and have a back-up DVR in place if one stops working. In time we may remove the original DVR or replace it with another HR24/500 or a new DirecTV TiVo if DirecTV ever releases TiVo which has been in the works for several years.
I am curious, did you install your Wineguard antenna in front of or behind the forward air conditioner? Where did your route the coax cables? I have a SK3005 antenna due in next week and am considering alternatives.
Steve DeLange
Steve, We mounted Winegard Directv HD open-dish antenna to the rear of our front A/C. Five cables run into fridge roof vent, into cabinet above microwave, over sink cabinet, cabinet over kitchen counter, under floor of cabinets over couch, behind TV to DVRs to right of our 46" TV. We bought RG6 coax from Lowe's and after running cables put compression coax RF fittings on ends. Antenna works GREAT. Alternative would run cables though top of cabinets over couch or run cables into roof near DVR.
We have two dual-tuner DVRs in upper cabinet to right of TV, so we use all four RF cables. Fifth cable is Winegard control cable to the on/off box in side cabinet to the left of TV. We recommend buying the Winegard 'accessory' cable to automatically park antenna when ignition is on. We did put a switch on the accessory cable so we can optionally turn on ignition without having control box park antenna.
There are options to feed both tuners on our newest DVR with a single RF coax cable. In fact because we ran two cables to the DVR, we have to have a special adapter on the end of each cables.
Larger antenna works so well, we could receive DirecTV 500-miles north of the Canadian border up in Fort McMurray (oil/tar sands) Alberta.
BeamAlarm has some photos and dialog of our install:
Direct TV HD Installation (http://www.beamalarm.com/Documents/direct_tv_hd_installation.html)
Barry
Have you had any problem with the antenna contacting the air conditioner or the vent? I thought I read that there was to be nothing higher than 8 inches in a 68 inch circle around the antenna?
I would like to second Barry's comments about the new DirectTV HD receiver/DVR. Great picture and it has worked flawlessly for us. We also have the same Winegard dish which was mounted by FOT (see earlier post). It is in front of the front AC unit and we have not noticed any problems. The crank up antenna for local stations is next to the Winegard and it could interfere with it, but we have not used the two at the same time.
No problems what so ever with touching anything. We were also concerned about that, so we put it up on roof without bolting and ran the antenna with control box on roof to be sure.
George,
Does the antenna rattle or otherwise make noise mounted that far forward? Of course with the flat front the boundary layer could be wide enough to keep the antenna in relatively slow air flow. I like the idea of easier cable runs.
Steve
Barry;
A 46" TV? - And I'm wondering how I'll install a 32" flat-screen in the available space. Any pictures of this install posted?
Steve.... no noise from the Winegard. We did have a new "underway" noise after the Winegard was installed, but it was a noise from the "batwing" antenna cable. That was fixed with additional cable ties. Not sure why it started rattling. Maybe the Winegard changed the flow up there.
Here are a few of them
Front 37 inch LCD TV Replacement - 1997 U-270 (http://beamalarm.com/Documents/37_inch_lcd_tv_install_1997_u270.htm)
Thanks, Barry; I'd seen that 32" installation, (very nice job). We have considered something like it, however Barry and Cindy mentioned, in another post about their Winegard Directv HD open-dish antenna, their 46" TV - which I was curious about. Seems a flat-screen that large would either need to fold, retract, or you'd be driving leaning out the side-window.
Note in the FT installation that no mounting plate is needed with the Winegard dish if you mount it in the center of the roof and bed it in silicone caulk. That's the way I mounted mine and have no problems. (I bought one of the first ones CW sold)
Brett, what kind of screws did you use to attach the antenna? My antenna was shipped today, so I hope to intall it next weekend.
Our original TV was a 37" that is detailed in Barry Beam's above posting. Last year our 37" Sharp developed an audio problem and since the 37" was not in the way driving, we wondered how much larger we could fit in the same space. Prices had fallen in the 3-years and technology had improved. We found that we had enough room for a Sharp 46" and it still did not affect driving, so we made a few mods to our 37" TV supports and installed a new tilting wall mount and now we have a 46" to enjoy with our HD Directv DVR. We did the install ourselves in a campground and Foretravel construction makes the job straight forward with its very strong aluminum framing to which we bolted our wall mount.
Our original CRT TV was in a big box over the driver's position. That box and the cabinet across the front / door comes off quite easily. After removing about half of the top cabinet to allow for the wider TV, the remainder of the cabinet went back in the same place using the same screws and screw holes. It is clean secure install that I think most could tackle.
The Winegard HD Directv antenna has terminals for 4 coax cable. I recommend running all 4 into the motorhome, even if currently you can only use 1 cable. Never know what future changes you may want and running cables at installation is much easier than adding more cables later. We use 2 cables for our HD DVR and 2 more cables for our SD DVR which we still use.
The Winegard has large metal gears and special motors that keep mechanism very tight. And when parked flat on roof, a tension is held to roof, so we have no movement when driving or when deployed in wind. Because of this pressure we siliconed a small flat piece of aluminum on roof under stowed roller to spread downward tension from impacting only one small piece of fiberglass.
Barry
Thank you, Barry. I have the identical front cabinet configuration you have. I've removed the old CRT TV and am trying to make a decision on where to go from here; from simple to sublime. Between the DVR, Bose tuner and a dual-deck DVD/VCR I need to retain adequate cabinet-space. I'd originally thought to remove all the cabinets and reconfigure the arrangement to put a 32" LCD/LED in the center. Looking at complexity vs. performance we're also considering leaving the TV where it is while trying to install a bigger screen. Just reducing the height of the old CRT cabinet for a 16/9 LCD still restricts us to a 23"-24" display. Going larger than that means much more involved cabinet work, which I'm capable of doing but evaluating the ROI. You did very nice work from the pictures on Barry's web-site; (Have you posted any pictures of the 46" installation?) I installed a Moto-Sat dome last Spring, so won't upgrade anything on the roof, just the display/layout inside. Again, "nice-work!" And thanks for the input!
For general interest, if one desires to watch HD Directv programs there are no domed antennas to choose from. Directv HD receivers are using a 5-LNB OPEN dish antenna. And if one wants in-motion then at this time, satellite receiver cannot receive HD programs. Only Winegard and Motosat make RV HD antennas. We prefer Winegard.
Our 46" install is pretty much the same as our 37" as far as aluminum braces being bolted to Foretravel welded frameworks and a tilting wall mount bolted to our aluminum braces. Changing from 37" to 46" did not require any cabinet changes. By the way, we did not do any cabinet work to install our 37" other than cutting out the center section. We have no woodworking skills.
Other than our Satellite DVRs, our electronics were moved to side cabinet above driver's chair. Front top cabinet near door has our DVRs. Side cabinet has our video switch, DVD / VCR recorder, Winegard antenna controller. We don't have a Bose console.
We prefer a larger TV mounted far left, with TV in the open, not in a cabinet so the TV stays cooler. We also have access to cables and can easily remove TV from mount to have access to wiring spaces behind TV. We just removed our TV for a couple of hours today, so we could run some new solar cables
Sounds like a very nice set-up Barry. I installed the MotoSat Dome understanding HD wasn't an option. I do have a DVR that up-scales to 720P - and my thinking was our aging eyes weren't likely to detect the difference. I "think" we're going with a Samsung 32" LED display, which will likely be installed over the Captain's chair, where the old CRT/Cabinet was. I'm going over to look at a friend's FOT upgraded TV/cabinets before I decide. They put there's in the center. In either location there is likely going to be "some" trim on the sides of the TV, but it will be relatively open otherwise. Biscuit fans are going in the cabinets; the LED TV generates little heat, but the DVR/Tuner-Amp/Deck do. Still pondering the finite details of what I want to do and how. Does your tilt-mount stay-put on the road? Haven't selected a mount yet and wondered about that.
FWIW, we switched to Dish Network last fall for two reasons, first was that you can get HD on most antennas. I even get HD on my Winegard Carry Out portable automatic dish. I had heard the Directv was considering changing their HD signal again, obsoleting all of the current Winegard and Motosat Directv antennas.
The second reason we made the change was the Dish Network RV program. We have a month to month program that can be cancelled when not using the coach and simply restarted when we need it. Also, we can call Dish and give them our address wherever we are and we get local channels, news and weather within 15 minutes. I have changed locations two times in one week with out a hitch.
We had been a Directv customer for over 10 years and so far I am perfectly happy with Dish and their simpler programs. It's about $20 per month less expensive. They also have the best rated HD DVR's. You Directv users might want to check it out before committing to a new 24 month contract with Directv. Directv didn't seem to like the RV customer last year when I quit using them. I had to sneak the DVR out of the house to the coach.
Kent, I get a big laugh out of the Dish vs Directv battle, I also have switched back & forth, both Dish and Directv have gone through the anti RV cycle, why I switched. Neither outfit wanted to provide an unlimited telephone cable to keep the phone in communication with their computer, I gave up and switched again.
Currently with Directv, but am certain we will get on Dish again in near future, in fact we had agreed on a contract, a Dish rep showed up late evening, would be dark in about 20 minutes, he ran around, could not seem to find a proper location for the antenna, I American English was not his native tongue and my mexican is very limited, so I suggested we just cancel the entire mess, he seemed happy to agree. SO maybe next time we might get an American who speaks English.
I signed up for and then cancelled Dish 5 times before finally signing up this last time. The first four times they had a heart attack when I said I wanted to use their service in my motor home and I frankly felt their advertising and sign up procedures were a little sleazy. However, when I learned about the Pace RV program things went pretty smoothly and now the Customer Service people seem to know that RV use is OK, at least most of them.
Steve,
I did the install in the CW parking lot, and don't remember anything special about the screws, so I think I used what came with the dish.
Kent,
when you change address, do you have to call or is this possible online? Do you change your home address, or just tell them where you are? As you can tell I have the RV package from Dish, but wasn't aware about changing the address..
Thanks for your help, Dave Abel
Dave, I would guess that it can be done online but I have never done it. I just call and tell them I am on the RV program and I need the local stations for whatever address I am at. If I am in a state or national park camp ground I just look up some address in the nearest town to me to give to dish. I do not change my home address.
Give it a try.
Howdy Kent,
Thanks for the feedback...I'm going to give it a try...Do you get your home address local stations, or the local stations of where you are??
Thanks for your advice, Dave Abel
Dave, you can give Dish whatever address you want to get those over the air stations as long as you are in the same region. You cannot be in Dallas and get local stations for Chicago but you could get them for Houston as an example.
Kent, I'm really curious about this statement. I tried to see if I could find anything
official (ie,
online from DirecTV) on this... but, nada. Where did you hear/see this?
When we began full-timing (sold our home) in 2/11, we moved our only DirecTV receiver (HD DVR) out to the coach. At the time, there was no mention from DirecTV that their HD signals would be changing and there would be new antennas required. Since we wanted HD capability, we installed the Winegard SK-3005 Trav'ler Slimline KU/KA (5 LNB) in 3/11 on the coach - and when talking with DirecTV to set up the new dish, there was no mention of pending satellite changes.
There is a great forum for Dish/DirecTV discussions (DBStalk.com) and I found a little relevant information regarding DirecTV's birds:
- D12 is Directv's "newest satellite" and it is not currently being used to capacity (it was launched 12/28/09 and became operational 5/19/10)
- D14 is the next planned launch sometime in 2013 (no D13 bird... this number won't be used)
Beyond that, I really can't find anything related to planned DirecTV changes... so I'm hoping the $$$ spent on that snazzy new satellite dish won't be for naught! :o
Pat,
That was an outstanding piece of "investigative reporting." Thank you. And yes I am kissing up since I was a bad boy a few weeks ago and posted a poorly-worded response to your post. But I do mean it. That was a good reply.
It just does not make sense that DirecTV would totally alienate so many of their customers by making that change.
Hi Gang I don't know much about posting so bear with me. My Directv system has 2 rec and 2 DVR's. I installed a "SWM" switch just after the antenae and I only need 1 wire to each unit.Just thought you might be interested. Have a good day. JES
Pat, its evident that you have more information than I did. My information goes back to September, 2010. The Directv Satellite change was a rumor on the Directv boards and several other forums.
The program I mentioned was originally advertised somewhere, sorry I don't remember where but one of the sub contractors of Dish Network called Pace introduced the program. I talked with them first and they set me up with Dish. It is my understanding that Dish Network's customer service is now aware of the program. When I called in, all but one of their CS Reps has known what I was talking about. Try this link: DishForMyRV.com: Mobile Satellite Dish Systems, Guides, Antennas, Receivers, (http://www.dishformyrv.com) or this one: Pace International (http://www.paceintl.com/mobile/dealer) for more detailed info.
It works for us.
Our tilt mount has friction knobs on each side that keep the TV at the angle we want. We also have the TV mount 'locked' to the wall mount so it cannot pop off.
Smitty... wow! the SWM switch is amazing, and news to us. I'm fascinated by the fact that one cable can provide the two-cable input to a DVR to feed the two tuners. While it's not something we currently need in the coach (2 TVs, but just 1 DVR), it is good information to file away for future reference. And it's certainly not something DirecTV ever talks about! For those who want to know a little more, here's a good site: DirecTV SWM 8 General Information (http://www.swm8.com/swm-general-info.php) ^.^d
Kent... I'm thinking there's pros and cons related to
both DirecTV and DISH. But as you correctly point out, one should check out both to see which meets specific viewing needs better - especially before committing to a 2-year contract. Good point! Or perhaps before deciding which HD antenna to put on the roof, since the dishes are not interchangeable (between the two services) without some antenna modification and $$. (BTW, I really didn't have more information... being retired simply means more time to Google! ;) )
George... thanks for the compliment on my "Googling" skills - and I do agree that, as you say, "it just does not make sense that DirecTV would totally alienate so many of their customers by making that change." It is often hard to get the most accurate information from the internet, or from marginally helpful/marginally knowledgeable customer service reps (from
either DirecTV or DISH)... which adds to the complexity of decision-making when trying to determine which service would better suit individual needs. I recall that I went through a number of CSRs at DirecTV before getting the RV service that we wanted. George (the other) referred to it as "customer service rep roulette" every time I would hang up and call back to get a better answer from a more knowledgeable rep! :))
DirecTV's latest HD DVR model HR24-500 has SWM built-in so the receiver only needs one wire to run both tuners, if the antenna also is SWM capability. SWM stands for Single Wire Multi-switch and comes in several styles, all of which are designed to reduce the number of coax cables required from the outside antenna.