DIRECT TV FOR RV'S

Boxer Lovers wrote:
We have the Directv HD digital recorder that we planned to take with us this summer. We have the HD tripod mounted dish for the RV. Any reason the recorder won't work under these conditions?

Not a bit...you may have to go thru a setup in your receiver...but not hard...Just know if the dish is different at home vs. what you are taking with you to setup the receiver...

consumeratlarge wrote:
I just grab a receiver from on of the kid's rooms. When you first turn it on (in our case) it will be set to SWM in the setup menu. But you can't change it until it gets tired of looking for the satellite, about 5 minutes or a little longer.

Hit the "EXIT" button on the remote and you can then go on to the setup screen immediately.

The OP is not going to be able to grab a spare and leave the rest, they are going out full-time! They will need to take (or return) all of their receivers as the RV will be the only place service will exist.
The OP has not returned but hopefully will read my post and let us know if he has any additional questions.

Boxer Lovers wrote:
We have the Directv HD digital recorder that we planned to take with us this summer. We have the HD tripod mounted dish for the RV. Any reason the recorder won't work under these conditions?

It will work just fine. That's specifically what I recommend in a post above.

double post by mistake, sorry.

We have the Directv HD digital recorder that we planned to take with us this summer. We have the HD tripod mounted dish for the RV. Any reason the recorder won't work under these conditions?

Get a HD dish...it can either be on the roof or manual on the ground setup...Not a big thing...We take our receivers with us...all over creation...same programs, etc.All HD...

I just grab a receiver from on of the kid's rooms. When you first turn it on (in our case) it will be set to SWM in the setup menu. But you can't change it until it gets tired of looking for the satellite, about 5 minutes or a little longer. Then, you go to setup and redo the satellite setup, making sure that you change the SWM designation to multi=switch. There will be many types of dish sizes to choose from, but I've found that the only critical thing is that it is changed to Multi-switch.

Continuing on with setup, it will look like only 'some' of the transponders are working when the dish is in the right place, but that is probably because you can't get the HD ones. As others have said, we don't get our local channels, because they are on a 'spotlight' beam, or a very focused feed that is only a couple of hundred miles wide. I just read that one of the posters had DirecTV put on the national networks as a workaround. We will try that on the next long trip.

When we get home, it still takes the receiver at least 5 minutes before it will let me get to the setup menu to redo the satellite setup. Going back to SWM for home, it seems to reconfigure itself by auto selecting the SWM option. But, you have to get it into the setup menu.

You do not need to change anything - just bring along your spare SAT RCVR from your bedroom and connect a tri-pod type SAT DISH to it at the camp ground... This is NOT cheating and is condoned by DIRECTV. They don't have any problem with where you use your equipment once you have signed up with them. I would bring along the ACCT INFO and CARD INFO with you so you can have DIRECTV reset your SAT RCVR. Sometimes mine loses the setup info when I unplug it and I have to call DIRECTV to get it turned back on again. I taped all my info on the SAT RCVR case. You will lose youe LOCAL TV coverage when you get outside your assigned ZIP CODE but that can be filled in at the camp ground by using the OTA ANTENNA and tune in the local NATL BROADCAST HDTV signals being transmitted from the local towns.

Run the RG cable from the SAT DISH head into the trailer and connect to the SAT INPUT on the SAT RCVR. Then I run VIDEO CABLEs from the SAT RCVR to a VIDEO INPUT on the trailer TV set. Now I can use the TV REMOTE to switch to the SAT TV or CABLE/OTA TV.

Worked great for us when we was doing years back. We actually ran two RG cables into the trailer and brought along two SAT RCVRs form the house. This way we had TV in the living room and also in the bedroom both watching different SAT TV signals.

I use the BIRD WHISTLER to find the SAT in the southern sky



I also found a portable SAT DISH "DUAL HEAD" setup from local RV place that looks like this. Made setup real easy...


Worked great for us. We finally stopped using SAT TV when the Natl Broadcast came on line. All we like to watch are the CBS-NBC etc channels anyway and they are being transmitted in full HIGH DEF TV mode. We use the OTA BATWING antenna to tune thenm in from the local towns where we are camping- Usually get 6-36 digital channels from the local towns just about everywhere we camp here on the EAST SIDE of the US.

good luck

Roy Ken

I don't think you're going to like a steady diet of SD after having HD.