Home DVR players in 5ers

[ACZL]

Had a buddy ask me this question as he just bought a '14 TH 5er. Came w/ a DVR player but wanted to know if he could take the DVR player from his house (it's Dish or Direct satellite), put in his 5er and watch it instead of the one that's in the 5er? Told him I'd ask as I didn't know and we hardly watch movies as it is in camper wether it's a VHS or DVD. News, NASCAR or perhaps a tv show--that's it.

[CWSWine]

Dish on their webpage has a "Hopper Go" for 99 bucks that says it's "Coming Soon" that will fit in the palm of your hand and hold 100 hours of recordings. It works wireless with you Hooper dumping recordings to the device then you can attach up to 5 dives to it and watch movies. No dish or receiver required.

[lanerd]

Gearitis wrote:

ACZL wrote:
Before I get back to him, I think he just wants to take the DVR from the house and put in 5er and hook up to his tv. No connection to any kind of antenna or dish. From what I'm seeing for replies is that the DVR from his house which is fed via a satellite needs to have the same kind of set-up on his 5er in order for him to watch whatever he's recorded. All he wants to do is watch what's on his DVR and not worry about being hooked up to the dish.

Can he do just that though?

No, not with Dish. If you take the External HD from the 211 or 722 you must have the Dish Network satellite box to connect to because of the format that was recorded. Now I have moved the External HD from my 211 to my 722 and even my Hopper and was able to watch what was recorded. But No, you cannot just plug usb external hd into TV and watch, you must have the Dish box to plug into and watch thru that. You do not need a satellite dish as I have watched what was on the external HD thru my 211 without sat dish connected.

He didn't mention anything about an "external HD"...he's talking only about a DVR. I think you are not realizing that a DVR is a "Dish Network satellite box".


Ron

[lanerd]

ACZL wrote:
All he wants to do is watch what's on his DVR and not worry about being hooked up to the dish.

Can he do just that though?

Yes, he can. If the recordings are on a DVR (not external hard drive), he can connect the DVR to a TV and watch all the programs that has been previously recorded on the DVR. No antenna required.

When we have DiSH blackouts (no signal)... i can still watch any of my recorded programs. Same thing as having no antenna at all.

Ron

[mbrower]

I watch tv shows on my directtv DVR all the time without connecting it to a dish. It's the receiver from my garage I swap into the camper when we take off. Hardly ever hook to a dish. I have never tried to record from antenna or cable and I have my doubts that it would. No problem at all watching previously recorded tv shows.

[Gearitis]

ACZL wrote:
Before I get back to him, I think he just wants to take the DVR from the house and put in 5er and hook up to his tv. No connection to any kind of antenna or dish. From what I'm seeing for replies is that the DVR from his house which is fed via a satellite needs to have the same kind of set-up on his 5er in order for him to watch whatever he's recorded. All he wants to do is watch what's on his DVR and not worry about being hooked up to the dish.

Can he do just that though?

No, not with Dish. If you take the External HD from the 211 or 722 you must have the Dish Network satellite box to connect to because of the format that was recorded. Now I have moved the External HD from my 211 to my 722 and even my Hopper and was able to watch what was recorded. But No, you cannot just plug usb external hd into TV and watch, you must have the Dish box to plug into and watch thru that. You do not need a satellite dish as I have watched what was on the external HD thru my 211 without sat dish connected.

[ACZL]

Before I get back to him, I think he just wants to take the DVR from the house and put in 5er and hook up to his tv. No connection to any kind of antenna or dish. From what I'm seeing for replies is that the DVR from his house which is fed via a satellite needs to have the same kind of set-up on his 5er in order for him to watch whatever he's recorded. All he wants to do is watch what's on his DVR and not worry about being hooked up to the dish.

Can he do just that though?

[goducks10]

Arcamper wrote:

goducks10 wrote:

Gearitis wrote:
Yep, I do it all the time, in fact I have a Dish VIP211k and added the DVR feature and purchased an external HD, plugged it in and wa, la, DVR.

Not to derail this topic, but I was thinking of doing the same and was wondering if you can fast forward and rewind with the added external HD? I realize that you do have to record live.

Yes you can.

Cool,
Thanks.

[lanerd]

Nope doesn't happen to our DISH DVRs. We take both of our 722 DVRs and put them in the motor home that has a DISH equipped Wineguard Trav'ler. All the programs that we have recorded at home stay on the DVR and we continue to watch them at our leisure in the motor home.

When we get to Oregon, I delete all the set recordings for the local channels at home (LA stations) and then go through the program listing and then set up the recording of the same programs but from the Portland local channels. I keep all the non-local channels that I have set up for recording as the channels don't change.

Works for us.

Ron

[outlaw85]

Just throwing this out there because I didn't see it mentioned.

We use cable provider with "whole home dvr".

What has happened to us..
The box lost power for x time (I think an hour or so..). Guess what wasn't on the DVR when it booted back up?

You got it, all the shows/movies that were on it. I don't know if this will happen for all box types but something to be aware of as a possibility.

[dedmiston]

lanerd wrote:

ACZL wrote:
Had a buddy ask me this question as he just bought a '14 TH 5er. Came w/ a DVR player but wanted to know if he could take the DVR player from his house (it's Dish or Direct satellite), put in his 5er and watch it instead of the one that's in the 5er? Told him I'd ask as I didn't know and we hardly watch movies as it is in camper wether it's a VHS or DVD. News, NASCAR or perhaps a tv show--that's it.

Yes, "if" the sat antenna (either on the roof or a portable one) is compatible with the DVR. The antennas are brand specific, but some can be "reconfigured".

So if his DVR is a DISH DVR and the antenna on the rv is DISH, then the answer is YES. But if the antenna is DIRECT and the DVR is DISH, then NO.

Ron

And if the DirecTV DVR is HD, then the antenna needs to be HD too.

[ACZL]

Thanks folks. I too am not sure if "home" DVR's have to be "mated" to their home systems in order to play any recordings. Never tried it w/ours as ours is FiOS.

[lanerd]

ACZL wrote:
Had a buddy ask me this question as he just bought a '14 TH 5er. Came w/ a DVR player but wanted to know if he could take the DVR player from his house (it's Dish or Direct satellite), put in his 5er and watch it instead of the one that's in the 5er? Told him I'd ask as I didn't know and we hardly watch movies as it is in camper wether it's a VHS or DVD. News, NASCAR or perhaps a tv show--that's it.

Yes, "if" the sat antenna (either on the roof or a portable one) is compatible with the DVR. The antennas are brand specific, but some can be "reconfigured".

So if his DVR is a DISH DVR and the antenna on the rv is DISH, then the answer is YES. But if the antenna is DIRECT and the DVR is DISH, then NO.

Ron

[djgodden]

I use my home HD DVR with my King on every trip. No worries. The King isn't HD but the DVR doesn't care.

[Me_Again]

I think I read that a DTV DVR will not work as a stand lone device. It needs to see the dish. Chris