Forum Discussion

RAS43's avatar
RAS43
Explorer III
May 13, 2020

DirecTV HD w/ 18 round dish

Late last year there were a number of discussions here about Direct's news that they were stopping SD transmissions this year. I have not seen any further news about this but I wanted to see if my HD receiver at home, a HR24-500 DVR, would work in my 5th wheel which has an 18" SD dish. This was a suggestion from some here that it would work.
So, using the SD receiver, a D12-300, that I have been using for years, I aimed my dish and got everything working well. Then I installed the HR24-500 and repeated the aiming procedure. I show good signal strength on one of the hard drives, nothing on the second one, and no picture. I do have a warning saying "B-Band connectors required". I am lost at this point. Directv is so difficult to deal with by phone that I don't want to call them. If someone here has made this receiver work I would appreciate any help you can provide me. Thanks in advance.
  • RAS43's avatar
    RAS43
    Explorer III
    May 25, 2020
    After watching a couple of videos on You Tube and advice here- thanks again all- I was able to use the HR24 in my trailer. It had a decent picture even with the SD dish. So I thought I was all set. But last Friday the receiver died at home. An AT&T tech came here Saturday and confirmed the sad news. So we decided on a new H44 and a mini upstairs for now and I will use the SD receiver on an upcoming trip. The tech suggested that I then order an H24 receiver for our basement which we can use in the trailer and he would set up both locations with the receiver. Hopefully that will work until AT&T decides what they will do with Directv.
  • dryfly's avatar
    dryfly
    Explorer
    May 18, 2020
    I have been using an HR24-500 with an 18" round antenna for years. I am assuming you use the receiver for HD reception at your home, so as Bill says, the key to successful RV use is to be able to make the correct changes in the setup menu.

    I use a single run of coax with no other devices in the feedline. I can only receive SD signals and can only watch/record one program at a time. This works for me.

    I do carry an old SD inactivated receiver because the HR24 does not have an audible signal strength meter. I aim the antenna with the SD receiver and then change the coaxial feedline over to the HR24.
  • RAS43's avatar
    RAS43
    Explorer III
    May 14, 2020
    Should have said 2 tuners, not drives. Thanks so far for the info provided. I will be looking at You Tube as suggested. Taking our first trip this weekend so we may be out of pocket for awhile.
  • CA_Traveler's avatar
    CA_Traveler
    Explorer III
    May 14, 2020
    Nope the HR24-500 has a single 3.5" drive that will record 2 shows. And if you plug in a single external drive it will record 2 shows.
  • Bill_Satellite's avatar
    Bill_Satellite
    Explorer II
    May 14, 2020
    You will also have to go into the receivers settings and change the setup to SHOW SD/Hide HD channels as, by default, the receiver is setup to NOT show any SD channels if HD is available.
    A BBC is not required to receive SD programming. The message you are seeing about needing one indicates the settings above are not correct. You can also install a Dual LNB in your 18" antenna. It looks exactly the same but has 2 (dual) outputs allowing to you connect both tuners. You could also add a SWM8 kit with PI29 if you connect a dual LNB and only need 1 coax running into the coach to power both tuners.
  • RAS43's avatar
    RAS43
    Explorer III
    May 14, 2020
    CA Traveler wrote:
    My HR24 only had one hard drive. Did you mean the 2 sat coax inputs? Did you change the settings to receive SD and the dish to 18" round single input and connect the coax to the SD connector the left one as I recall. You may still need the B Band converter but it's been a long time since I was in that situation.

    Plus it's as clear as mud as what AT&T will do and when and even if...


    The HR24-500 has 2 disc drives so it can record 2 shows at once. The 18" disc has one input coax. I did change the inputs on the receiver. and it does show the transponders signals are good.

    To GTO66- this is not a dome, just an 18' disc.

    I may be swimming upstream.
  • GTO66's avatar
    GTO66
    Explorer II
    May 14, 2020
    In order to make a HD receiver work with the dome you will need to add a 8swm kit to the dome, and also set the receiver to hide HD channels.I did this when my D12 stopped working in order to use a H25 receiver.
  • CA_Traveler's avatar
    CA_Traveler
    Explorer III
    May 13, 2020
    My HR24 only had one hard drive. Did you mean the 2 sat coax inputs? Did you change the settings to receive SD and the dish to 18" round single input and connect the coax to the SD connector the left one as I recall. You may still need the B Band converter but it's been a long time since I was in that situation.

    Plus it's as clear as mud as what AT&T will do and when and even if...
  • 2oldman's avatar
    2oldman
    Explorer II
    May 13, 2020
    There's a lot to explain, so perhaps youtube would be a good resource for this. Try googling "satellite tv setup" which should also be a good resource for hooking things up. I believe DTV has diagrams online.

    Generally speaking, you're swimming upstream trying to use an SD dish.

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