KVH Trackvision in motion sat dish will become obsolete!

[Snomas]

I just talked to a tech support person @ KVH and they told me that my KVH trackvision sat dish "Model LM" will not work with MY Direct TV Model D10 SD receiver by the end of 2013.

Has any one heard of this?

DTV is aparently going to make my receiver obsolete by the end of the year and the newer receivers will not work with my LM Trackvision forcing me to buy an new RV satelite dish system.

[bobpie]

Mine is still working. 8-4-2015

[Herewego]

Our system is still working just fine. Trip to Fla last summer and once we got south of Richmond, it held the signal and would reacquire if lost. But, in order to acquire the signal the first time, we may have to push the button to move it back into search mode, on average 3-5 times.

Still using the same receivers DirecTV sent me in 2013 while we were at Fort Wilderness when I made posted my original response.

[JimM68]

11B is 100% right. Those guys are reading a script, not intelligently analyzing your problems.

We "had" a tracvision R4, with a Dish 211k receiver.

It SUCKED. Couldn't get a signal anywhere that had a tree within a quarter mile. And switching satelites, forget it....

I googled, I searched, I bought cables and hooked my laptop to it. no matter, it ALWAYS took me more time to get a signal than it was worth.

Fast forward... Bought a Trav'ler from PPL for $1200 shipped, screwed it to the roof. I power that bad boy up, it has locked onto all 3 dish satelites within 90 seconds. Trees? Rain? Hail or snow? it don't care. LOCKED ON.

Best $1200 I ever spent (that I can recall right now)

[bobpie]

Still working as of june 2015

[bobpie]

I will have 2 try out my Trac vision ant. As it is in suspend mode right now. I love 2 drive and watch TV as I travel.

[11B]

I get a kick out of you guys and DTV tech support. You are talking to a bunch of collage kids that work part time for a large Global company that operates DTV and many other major companies support call centers.

Once you ask your question of them they can only type it in a computer and read back to you what info it gives them right or wrong.

If you called in 10 times with the same question but asked it 10 different ways you'd get 10 different answers.

I know this to be fact because my son has been a VP of call center operations all over the world for this company for the last ten years.

If you call for tech support for Microsoft, Verizon, Direct TV and a 100 other major companies this is what your getting.

[Bill_Satellite]

Take a look at the antenna itself and it should have a label somewhere with a number or manufacturer. If that doesn't work, take a picture and post it here for a good start on what you have.
You can also look at the controller inside and take a picture or give a good description and we can likely tell you what you have. It may just be difficult to give you an exact age.

[Owldancer]

My friend just bought a rig with a sat already installed. however, the dealer did not have any info on it. the rig is a 2008, so, we figure it maybe isnt too old.

So, how does one tell what kind of sat it is?

[Herewego]

The L2 and new receiver worked amazingly well on the road. Seemed to find the right satellite rather quickly if it lost the signal. Had to press the button maybe five times on the day we left Florida to find the right signal and if it lost it during the drive north, it reacquired it quickly without having to press the locate button.

Once we got into Virginia, finding the satellite was a challenge so we didn't use it the rest of the trip.

The satellite is higher in the sky, the further south you go. We don't really use the in-motion while on the road in the northeast much, but we're fine with it once we're parked with this new system.

Not spending $2000 on a newer model so this will serve us just fine, going forward. 🙂

[w4phj]

My L2 works well with the old old old obsolete Phillips DSX-5500 receiver which has a aiming tone. DTV will provide cards for them.

[Lobstah]

DirecTV seems to have the worst product/technical support of any consumer company I know of.
Things too quiet around the campfire w/you and your camping friends?...just look up and say "Hey...has anyone called DirecTV lately?" and you're good for a 2hour rathole. You can call them 3 times with the same exact question and get 3 different answers, that usually contradict each other.

I've been working in tech for over 35yrs...I've never seen anything like it.

Jim

[Herewego]

Well, as with most things, it depends on WHO you speak with. Here's where I'm at.

DirecTV receiver arrived. It did NOT automatically track satellite 101 which is what I'm on with DTV.

DirecTV "senior technician" sent me to purchase a $36.00 usb-pda 232 cable which I purchased at Best Buy. Said THAT was what I needed to auto-track 101 sat. Basically the new D12-100 receiver they sent does not have a low-speed data port, and instead has a usb port. The other end of the cable i purchased is a 9-pin connector that connects to the back of my on/off, sat switch.

Well, Rusty at KVH said "Nope. DTV is wrong. That cable is NOT needed." Rusty wants $40.00 for 90 days of technical support and I told him I'd call him when I returned home.

Well, I had 30 minutes to kill last night and used the manual switch to find the right satellite and then I shut the KVH off, and the guide loaded and the receiver "verified configuration". I have DTV now, but it's not going to automatically find the satellite until Rusty walks me through whatever it is he says will work.

I called KVH this morning and the tech I got said Rusty is wrong, this dish will no longer auto-track. He said he would have Rusty call me back shortly. Rusty never called back and I will call him back at KVH next week when I have time.

So, for now, I remain a skeptic on the auto-tracking.

From what I can see, the L2 is not yet obsolete. You just need to manually locate the satellite which can take time.

There you have it. Will update next week after next call to KVH.

[pusherpilot]

Herewego wrote:
Ha! Go Noles!

So, I'm on the phone with DirecTV. They are telling me that in order to continue using my KVH Tracvision L2, they need to send me a new receiver and it WILL in fact work with the KVH Tracvision L2 in the same fashion as the receiver with the low-speed data port.

So, according to DirecTV tech, this receiver will lock onto the right satellite and I will not need to press the button to try to find the correct satellite.

They are overnighting the receiver to me for delivery on Tuesday. I will let you know how I make out.

I'd be interested in knowing how you make out too. I sent an e-mail to DTV asking about that and the answer I got amounted to doubletalk mixed with a heavy dose of "if we change it we'll tell you if we think you need to know" kind of a response. I figured I'd wait, we arent going anywhere till we leave for Calif in the Fall.
Ron

[MaryRod58]

Would love to know how this works for you. I purchased an 2005 Safari that has the L2, but no receiver. I tried using the HD receiver from the house...but no luck. When I call DirecTV I can't get a tech that knows anything about it.