Help setting up Direct TV at Home and Boat

[Hampton]

We are getting ready to install Direct TV at home and on the Boat. We plan to have the main service at home. The boat is being fitted with the HD-7.

Goals:

1) Run as much on the boat as is physically possible under DC power only - It will be HD
2) All remotes will probably be RF
3) We would like to use the "Whole Home" DVR feature at home, and then another set on the boat.

Questions:

1) What do I need to order from Direct TV as far as DVR's, Remotes, receivers go... I want to order as little as possible and flat out buy as much as possible (I think).
2) Can I buy DC powered boxes for the boat?
3) What do I tell Direct TV I am doing? Home and Boat?
4) What do I need to tell my HD-7 installer regarding the "Whole Home" feature?
5) Does anyone know what kind of receiver comes with the HD-7? I understand it comes with one DVR.

 

[fwebster]

I've been a DirecTV customer for about 15 years and can help with some of your questions........

1. Don Not say the word "Boat". Their people are not flexible and can only check boxes on an order form. The word you need to use is "RV". They will allow 1 RV receiver on your primary home service for $4.95/month extra. Say "Boat" and you will have 2 contracts, 2 minimums, 2 basic plans etc....and double the cost.

2. You add DVR service to the account and then lease the DVR's from DirecTV. There is usually an initial charge for receivers, but no per month lease cost. You do not own the receivers...........and I've found that to be a good thing since we've had several go DOA and DirecTV replaces them via FEDEX in about 2 days.

3. I think you are going to be out of luck on 12VDC receivers and DVR's. Are the TV on the boat dual voltage?.......I doubt it since most larger boats have bigger tV's than you can economically run on 12V.

4. Try your best to keep the boat system as simple as you can so that you can install it yourself......or have Shaun at the marina do it as apart of the delivery or dish installation. DirecTV wants to use their contracted installers who will cut every corner they can to beat the lunch crowd to Taco Bell. I've had to force them to run cables where I wanted them instead of diagonally up a brick wall and on 2 installs here I've had to get my local AV guy to come "fix" what the DirecTV guy did. You don't want those guys anywhere near your boat.

5. The receiver comes from DirecTV; the dish comes with the KVH .

I don't use the whole house feature since we still have an old TIVO non-HD setup for one low use location.

That might get you started............


Maybe some of the audio/video-philes on the site can help more...........

 

[Russ Calasant]

Frank has given great advice, coming from personal experience. Although I have had no experience with DVR on the boat i do have three 12 volt receivers but they were expensive and i purchased them from KVH although that was a few years ago- one came with the dome. I will say that i probably used 12 volts once in the last 3 years, better off buying 110 sets. I also added the boxes as additional sets on my home account, don't talk to KVH about service just call Direct and add.

 

[tdschafer]

I've been a DirecTV customer for about 15 years and can help with some of your questions........

1. Don Not say the word "Boat". Their people are not flexible and can only check boxes on an order form. The word you need to use is "RV". They will allow 1 RV receiver on your primary home service for $4.95/month extra. Say "Boat" and you will have 2 contracts, 2 minimums, 2 basic plans etc....and double the cost.

2. You add DVR service to the account and then lease the DVR's from DirecTV. There is usually an initial charge for receivers, but no per month lease cost. You do not own the receivers...........and I've found that to be a good thing since we've had several go DOA and DirecTV replaces them via FEDEX in about 2 days.

3. I think you are going to be out of luck on 12VDC receivers and DVR's. Are the TV on the boat dual voltage?.......I doubt it since most larger boats have bigger tV's than you can economically run on 12V.

4. Try your best to keep the boat system as simple as you can so that you can install it yourself......or have Shaun at the marina do it as apart of the delivery or dish installation. DirecTV wants to use their contracted installers who will cut every corner they can to beat the lunch crowd to Taco Bell. I've had to force them to run cables where I wanted them instead of diagonally up a brick wall and on 2 installs here I've had to get my local AV guy to come "fix" what the DirecTV guy did. You don't want those guys anywhere near your boat.

5. The receiver comes from DirecTV; the dish comes with the KVH .

I don't use the whole house feature since we still have an old TIVO non-HD setup for one low use location.

That might get you started............


Maybe some of the audio/video-philes on the site can help more...........

Frank,
I have to respectfully disagree on some points here.
First, I have added the receiver as my "Boat" and there is no additional cost. You have to call KVH first once it is installed to help activate it. I call each spring and say "Activate my boat receiver" then call each fall to shut it off. No problems.

When I had Directv installed in my house 2 years ago I got ALL of my equipment for no charge. This included the dish with installation (The SLIM set-up) which is Single Line Mutliswitch (The HD7 comes like this). This allowed the installer to utilize my existing in-wall wiring to run my DVR's. Somehow this switch allows the DVR to utilize it's 2 receivers with only the one wire going into it. This prevented the Hack's from drilling all of the holes into rooms with dvrs to add a second line! I also received 1 HD DVR and 5 other receivers.
2 months later I called back because I wanted to add a second home receiver to the boat (This required some additional electronics to make compatable). I told them I wanted another for the house. They gave me another HD DVR and second receiver because I hadn't been a customer for more than 90 days and was still considered new.

I would recommend that you order an extra DVR for your house on the initial order as they will give you the moon to get a new customer. There should be NO CHARGE up front for any of your home equipment. I don't really see any benefit to buying the equipment as I didn't pay for mine. Maybe I am missing something here?

I pay 4.99 per month, per box, excluding the primary box, for my home. I know that I lease the home boxes and pay a couple dollars (Total) more a month for the service plan on all of the boxes that I lease.

I do own the KVH M1 dish and receiver on my boat and installed it myself. I still have to pay 4.99 a month to activate it so I don't think there is anyway around that charge.

The reciever I recieved with my KVH, came from KVH! Some of the more pricey KVH satellites are compatable with multiple satellite providers and therefore can't be "Directv" exclusive boxes.

Hampton,
I don't think you get a DVR with your basic package. A quick check of the website and it says you get the controller/receiver with your dish and can purchase this optional:

19-0614 : DIRECTV HR23 HD/DVR Receiver with IR/RF Remote Control (110 VAC) HD7

This I believe is a home DVR and you can see it is 110 vac.
There may be additional electronic components needed to make home receivers compatable but I am not sure with the HD7. This was the case with the M1, but we are talking a boatload of $$ difference so, I hope your dish is more user friendly in this aspect!

You can find most of the info here:
http://www.kvh.com/Leisure/Marine-Systems/Television/High-Performance/TracVision-HD7.aspx

I don't know if Directv even offers marine installation. The fellows that came to my house seemed to struggle with the basic home installation. They were all paid by the job, not by the hour so they were motivated to leave but ultimately were here 3 days. I certainly would NOT let them touch my boat. Directv actually has nothing to do with KVH, so you are in no way obligated to let them touch your boat, and I wouldn't. If you are not comfortable doing the install, I recommend hiring a marine electronics installer.

As Frank said, I think you are SOL on 12v DVR's and thus, would plan accordingly. I must say though, you will have one impressive set-up when you are done!!

I know the "Whole House" DVR is a new feature from Directv so, I have really no idea about it, sorry.

Good luck with your purchase!

 

[vandal]

I have a 2000 340 sundancer with a KVH M3DX with 2 12 volt recivers bought first one for $495.00 from turtle marine 3 years ago and second one refurbished from Defender for $380.00. Second one is for E80 screen but no sound. Run a jensen 12 volt 19 inch tv so dont have to run Gen when away from dock and at ancor with DM31 blue tops batterys. Direct TV will not touch KVH . Call KVH teck support for answers they are very good. You can find 110 volt recivers for KVH on ebay KVH for $110.00.

 

[jerryd5515]

I just spent this weekend at our boat slip trying to get a Direct TV disk installed. I had called Direct TV and was first given the info about KVH and mounting the HD7 on our boat. I told them I wanted to mount a dish at our slip and was transferred to the movers connection department. They understood I was adding a second HD TV dish at the slip. They were going to supply another HD receiver, free of charge and waive the $19 delivery and handling fee. When the tech arrived he told me there was not way to mount the larger HD TV dish (3 LNB) and I would only be able to get the standard dish. I said OK as long as he contacted Direct TV and had them change the order so it showed everything would be standard, not HD. Then the tech started to mount the dish bracket at eye level. I stopped him and showed him the rest of the dishes in the marina were mounted at least 10 ft high. I told him having the dish that low would contact the side of my boat if the wind blew me toward the left side of the slip. He left to call his manager and came back to say another tech that has installed dishes in marinas would be contacting me to install the dish. I never heard from them again. I am now leaning towards the HD7 for on the water reception and the Glomex for slip coverage. With the Glomex antenna, I received 10 digital stations while in the slip and that was the major networks.

 

[alnav]

John, to provide the capability to run 12V-only, you could wire small inverters at each receiver/TV location; the dish is already 12V.
Looks like KVH is running a promotion that provides a free DVR in addition to the standard receiver that seems to come with the dish: http://www.kvh.com/Pages/Promotions/Promotions/Marine-Offers.aspx.

 

[Odyssey]

I just spent this weekend at our boat slip trying to get a Direct TV disk installed. I had called Direct TV and was first given the info about KVH and mounting the HD7 on our boat. I told them I wanted to mount a dish at our slip and was transferred to the movers connection department. They understood I was adding a second HD TV dish at the slip. They were going to supply another HD receiver, free of charge and waive the $19 delivery and handling fee. When the tech arrived he told me there was not way to mount the larger HD TV dish (3 LNB) and I would only be able to get the standard dish. I said OK as long as he contacted Direct TV and had them change the order so it showed everything would be standard, not HD. Then the tech started to mount the dish bracket at eye level. I stopped him and showed him the rest of the dishes in the marina were mounted at least 10 ft high. I told him having the dish that low would contact the side of my boat if the wind blew me toward the left side of the slip. He left to call his manager and came back to say another tech that has installed dishes in marinas would be contacting me to install the dish. I never heard from them again. I am now leaning towards the HD7 for on the water reception and the Glomex for slip coverage. With the Glomex antenna, I received 10 digital stations while in the slip and that was the major networks.

Jerry - I'm not sure I follow your post. Are you saying that you're installing a KVH dish on your boat and a Direct TV dish on the dock? Why would you need to do that? You can use the KVH unit at the slip too.

RB

 

[fwebster]

One thing is obvious.......the interface with DirecTV is different in different locations, with different promotional pricing they have going on, and with what call center you talk to. I didn't want to deal with added cost and a separate account, so I added my RV receiver from my home in Tennessee. No competition here to speak of, so I have no leverege.

And my primary receiver is a high capacity HD and the cost was $225.......secondary regular non-HD receivers were free+ shipping, but they add them to the account immediately @$4.99 ea./mo.

 

[alnav]

A couple more things:
- I got curious about the HD7 and downloaded the manuals from the KVH site. It seems the antenna control unit is 110V so you would need to plan for 12V power to that to operate on batteries. I'd be careful about providing the right source for that other than 110V.
- The HD7 looks like it's got a great deal of capability such as ethernet/Wi-Fi and you may want to fully understand how to utilize/leverage that before starting to install.
- DirecTV operates on a "leased equipment" model and even if you "buy" a piece of equipment from somebody else (which is becoming less and less common), they will always charge you the monthly lease fee per box after the primary which is free.
- I think it would be well worth finding a very capable installer who do more than just wire things together. I think you need an integrator who can help you get the most out of an expensive system including the existing TV's. For example, whoever installed the M3 system on my boat (I think it was actually the SeaRay factory since it was delivered originally from there) used the existing coax for the Glomex external antenna to distribute the satellite signals but managed to disable the antenna in the process. That cabability is useful at times and it took me quite a bit of time to understand what they had done and how to fix it. You also might want to consider distributing video by HDMI vice coax as another example, that would provide some added capability and seems to be where things are going. To Frank's point, this person ought to be able to help you navigate the DirecTV maze to get the best package as well.

 

[Hampton]

While you guys were typing, I flew to San Fran. So much info to process.

Thank you all. Keep the advice coming, please.

Frank - Sean is doing everything.

 

[Hampton]

There are HDTV receivers avail for DC power from KVH. I'll have to check on the AC power for the controller. The boat will have 3 HDTV receivers and 4 HDTVs - 2 on 1 receiver - not buying HD-7 and putting standard receivers on board.

This is all great info. Thanks to all again.

 

[Turtlesboat]

I just spent a week on the phone with directTV getting mine setup. I own my box, but it took 5 phone calls to convince them of this. they wanted me to un-own my box and lease it. Finally added my boat, with my owned box for $5. Persistence pays.

 

[HUMPH]

While you guys were typing, I flew to San Fran. So much info to process.

Thank you all. Keep the advice coming, please.

Frank - Sean is doing everything.

How long are you in town for John?

 

[jerryd5515]

RB,
I have Direct TV HD at the house and when I contacted them, I wanted an HD dish at the slip. There were no problems ordering the install until the tech came to slip and said the HD dish was too big to mount and I could only get standard dish (No HD). Then when he tried to mount the standard dish at eye level, I told him to stop because my boat could hit the dish on windy days. Now I am considering the KVH instead of all the slip dish mounting. First it was a free solution with the HD dish, that turned into a more expensive undertaking with the KVH, but I got the Admiral's approval, so I am good to go. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Hampton]

How long are you in town for John?

Sorry, already gone.

Al from Alnav is the winner. Controller is 110 - Moving up to the big boat means moving up to AC powered stuff - In many ways, it's a big relief. Probably will only need small tv's that are DC for watching off-the-air HDTV and DVDs. The main system will be 110 AC.

It makes more sense. How long can you power an almost full sized Refrig/Freezer on 12V batteries (and a small outside one too)?

 

[Woody]

Sorry, already gone.

Al from Alnav is the winner. Controller is 110 - Moving up to the big boat means moving up to AC powered stuff - In many ways, it's a big relief. Probably will only need small tv's that are DC for watching off-the-air HDTV and DVDs. The main system will be 110 AC.

It makes more sense. How long can you power an almost full sized Refrig/Freezer on 12V batteries (and a small outside one too)?

So the genny hrs end up being => engine hrs if you have beer in the fridge all the time. How many hrs can you put on those gennys?

 

[Odyssey]

So the genny hrs end up being => engine hrs if you have beer in the fridge all the time. How many hrs can you put on those gennys?

On larger size boats, genny hours are usually double what the engine hours are. But, they are diesel so they last a long time. I have 3000 hours on my genny. In our neck of the woods (summer time), AC is not optional so the genny runs all the time we're not in the slip.

RB

 

[black pearl]

KVH will not work in a covered slip, can not get a signal, Thus for the dish @ the dock. KVH for the open water.

 

[Hampton]

Update:

We went to Best Buy today to sign up for Direct TV. We signed up for 5 boxes, 2 std and 3 HD DVRs. 2 of the HD DVRs will go on the boat with the 1 that comes from KVH for a total of three. At home, we will only have 1 HD DVR and 2 stds. On the boat, we will network the boxes with cat 5. They will all be stacked together and hidden and controlled with RF remotes. Here is a quote from a KVH technician, "In your house, networking can be done by using DTV SWiM system, but the KVH does not use this system, so you have to network the receivers via cat5, (assuming you will have at least one HDDVR and one HD.)

Still need to start replacing TVs with HDTVs. We plan to articulate the one in the cockpit and the one in the salon with these Sanus mounts unless someone has a better solution: http://www.sanus.com/eu/en/products/visionmount/full-motion-mount/

I plan to mount the bridge TV on the port side arch. The mount will allow me to swing it forward or aft to view from the helm or the aft seating (or just leave it for both). Then, when we want to hang out in the water, we can swing it back and tilt it down to view from behind the boat.

The salon TV mount will allow us to swing it out and spin it around to view that tv from the back deck (cockpit). We don't watch a lot of tv on the boat, but, with this set up, we will never have the excuse to not go out on the boat due to a big game or whatever. Also, since we will begin to live aboard next winter, we will be able to keep up with events just like at home.

Comments/suggestions?

I tried to get Direct TV to not charge me installation for the last 2 boxes, but, they said they couldn't do that. I mentioned an RV, but, I didn't dwell on it. $70 one time fee to never tell them I am watching at 2 locations? Priceless (well actually, $70). I don't think they mind this type of set up anyway.

For 5 boxes and the 2nd to the top package, it costs $389 initial fee and $69/month for the first year and then $99/month after that. That includes 3 HD DVRs and 2 std DVRs.