Hdtv

M

mawyatt

New Member
Dec 13, 2007
1,001
Clearwater, Fl
Boat Info
2008 Sundancer 38DA
Engines
8.1L Mercruisers
I know some have installed an HDTV. Could you provide the details, things like will it work from the standard TV antenna on a 340 for local stations, special tuner, or any other requirements.

Thanks and Happy New Year,

Mike
 
As long as your set has a built in ATSC tuner, just plug your Glomax antenna into it and it'll work fine. The HDTV signals are essentially broadcast over the UHF band.

If you have a TracVision sat dish (or other vendor), it's a completely different story and you are essentially screwed until the marine antenna vendors support both the Ku and Ka bands.... and it won't be a "software" upgrade.
 
If you are looking at replacing the galley TV, there is a model made by Polaroid that fits perfectly. I have only seen it at Circuit City. It is fairly inexpensive and has a better picture than the Zenith that came with mine.

If you are talking about adding a larger TV, it is a little more complicated. I added a 27" TV in the location that Sea Ray does. I think you could fit a 32" there if you wanted.

You need to run AC power to it as well as the antenna. I an an antenna cable around the boat in the space occupied by the rest of the major wires.

The Glomax works quite well for OTA HDTV. It doesn't pick up any VHF SD stations in my area.
 
Does anyone know how well the glomax antenna works on Long Island, NY - what other equipment is needed for the TV??
 
Teekster, You said that you Through bolted your new TV into place, how did you get behind the Helm......To Through bolt it, I will be doing this in the Spring as well and I'd like to through bolt this TV with a Slin Line bracket as well............ Please let me know when you can....
 
2 channels is hardly worth the effort

Thanks
 
boltman said:
Teekster, You said that you Through bolted your new TV into place, how did you get behind the Helm......To Through bolt it, I will be doing this in the Spring as well and I'd like to through bolt this TV with a Slin Line bracket as well............ Please let me know when you can....
Click to expand...

The 340 has a hinged access panel to the helm electronics. It is exactly situated behind the TV location. Just make sure your bolts are short enough to not interfere with the cabin door.
 
TV stations do not orient their signals to cover much over the water. Any money you spend trying to improve this will most likely be a waste. You're better off going with a DVD player and a Netflix subscription. Or use something like the Slingbox and a laptop over a cellular data card to stream from your home TV. I've used orb.com to stream stuff I've already got recorded (and stored on a PC) and it works reasonably well. I'm considering a slingbox as it allows streaming from a live source. Alternatively you could get a KVH motorized satellite dish and a DirecTV subscription. Talk about expensive though...

When I pose these options to the admiral she rightly points out netflix as being MUCH more cost-effective.
 
I'll say it again... the KVH sat antennas that are currently out there do NOT support Ka band DirecTV transmissions so buying or using the current models of KVH antenntas for HDTV is a total waste of money right now. You can get a couple of HDTV channels on the Ku band with a converter box but everything new DirecTV is putting out right now, including their expanded HDTV channels, is NOT supported by ANY of the current Sat antenna vendors. If (or when) they do support Ka band, you have about a 99% probability of having to toss your current KVH in the dumpster as it won't be a software upgrade. It's sorta like trying to get a FM signal on an AM radio (figuratively not technically)
 
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Ah! Thanks for clarifying the lack of HD support on the portable dishes. We just had Verizon FIOS TV installed here and will be canceling DirecTV. They dropped support for HD on the Tivo-based units and the admiral flat-out rejected their awful in-house developed replacement. So it's off the FIOS we go. Since it has 5MBps upload speed it'll be more than fast enough to stream full video back out to the boat. I've already tested it a with a Verizon cell data card and it works nicely. It doesn't plug straight into the TV but between now and the return of boating I'm sure I'll figure a way to do it.
 
A little update on this topic...

I just got word this morning that DirecTV is moving *all* of their HD programming to the Ka band satellites in 2009 so *none* of the marine antennas will get DirectTV HD programming by next year. This even includes the few channels you can get with the expensive converter box most vendors sell at this moment. KVH still says they have no plans to support Ka band... huh?

I guess this would be a bad time to go plunk down 3-5K on a sat dish for the boat.
 
We are planning on purchasing either the M2 or M3 system in the next week or two. Can I understand correctly that if I purhcase the M3 with HD, I will not be able to recieve HD programming next year, or is this for older systems? I am just starting to research this...so I am not too familiar with everything, and any input would be appreciated.
 
Teekster:

Can you send me the identifiers for the Polaroid Television that you mentioned in a prior post? If you prefer, you can repond to bill.gillespie@sbcglobal.net I assume that it is the small tv that was standard issue in the late 90's and early 00's.

Thanks

Bill
 
B-Rock said:
We are planning on purchasing either the M2 or M3 system in the next week or two. Can I understand correctly that if I purhcase the M3 with HD, I will not be able to recieve HD programming next year, or is this for older systems? I am just starting to research this...so I am not too familiar with everything, and any input would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Personally, I wouldn't be buying a KVH antenna right now until they give some clarity on their relationship with DirecTV with regards to Ka band and HD Programming. DirectTV has stated they are moving all their programming to Ka band eventually and the current models of KVH *only* support Ku band. This will *not* be a software upgrade and the current hardware on the market will not work either. This is from KVH's website:

DIRECTV has recently placed Ka band satellites into service to provide high-definition local channels to their home users in select markets. To enable this, DIRECTV is installing new, larger dishes for their subscribers to receive the Ka band content as well as the current Ku band high-definition and standard-definition programming. KVH and all mobile satellite antennas support Ku band reception only, due to size constraints and other technical complexity. As a result KVH cannot support reception of Ka band high-definition locals.

The current high def channels you get from DirecTV over the Ku band are on three different satellites so you'll have to have a special converter box to switch satellites and decode the signal. That being said, the HD channels on these three satellites are very few and they are listed here:

http://www.kvh.com/hdlineup/

All the new HD channels are being added on different satellites (Ka band) and they are also moving their regular programming to the new birds as well...

I wouldn't waste your money on a KVH right now... You'll be tossing it in the dumpster within 3 years if not sooner.
 
Carefull Gary....your beanie prop is spinning a little fast again...you're likely to lift off and hurt yourself....:grin:
 
Well.. I've seen people on other forums go off and say they hooked up their brand spanking new HDTV to their KVH and it's all in high-def... bzzzt... still the old signal but just on a better TV....
 
Any other options right now for satellite TV on the boat? The admiral really wants to get the satellite TV this year, and it would help to keep our 5 year old occupied at night. I am just starting to look into this...and as always.....this board is a huge starting point! Thanks for any input!
 
Well.. just go buy a "cheap" one. I understand what you are saying. I have a KVH on the boat and the kids (and myself) love it so me telling someone not to get one is hypocritical. I guess I'm just miffed about not having any visibility into this HD thing and KVH won't step up to the plate on it. If you look at the HD lineup on the KVH site via Ku band, it's a joke...

As long as you know what you are getting into if you get one...
 
I appreciate the heads up....Our plan was to have this new boat for at least 3-5 years, and replacing the satellite TV 2 or 3 years down the road was not something we were planning on. Does anybody have any experience with the Raymarine Satellite TV? I talked to a guy at the boat show about it...and they were really pushing the KVH, and pushing us away from the Raymarine....but that could have been just a sales pitch.
 
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