Can anyone give me some tips on the best brands of stationary or in motion satellites. I have been looking at the KVH and King Dome.
Thanks, Rosie
Nick is one of our satellite guru's and a dealer for a major manufacturer.
I'm sure you'll hear from him once he has a chance to read the board.
HTH
Jay
87 SaftLiner
Quote from: Rosie on July 27, 2008, 07:50:30 PM
Can anyone give me some tips on the best brands of stationary or in motion satellites. I have been looking at the KVH and King Dome.
Thanks, Rosie
Hi Rosie,
Which programming will you be useing? Direct Tv, or Dish?
Do you want Standard, or HD quality?
How many recievers do you need?
Thanks
Nick-
I have had a King Dome stationary unit for 2 years. I use this with Dish network. I have had no problem with the quality of the unit. I had to call customer service one time, there response was excellent!!!
Mine is a manual system. It does not find the satellite automaticly. Depending on the channel package you buy, you may have to mannually change sattelites when channel surfing. King also has in motion and automatic systems.
I also carry a portable dish with 150 foot of cable. No matter how much you pay or how sophisticated your system is, they dont work behind buildings or under trees!!! If I am sitting for more than 2 days I always set up the portable. YMMV Jim
if you are going to have Directv and want high definition, none of the bubble types will work in the near future. you will need something like Winegard's Slimline sd-3005 which has 5 lnb's and hold's up to 8. totally automatic. they run around $2000 + install.
KVH nor kingdome sell anything that will do highdef.
The slimline also has 4 connectors so you can have 3 receivers and a DVR if you wish. obviously, you can split those to handle additional receivers.
(full disclosure requires we mention that we are a satellite dealer/installer for Winegard/Hughesnet/KVH/Directv and others. :) )
We got high def at home. The installer gave us a real ear full on satellite and High Def. We have Directv. You are not receiving 1080. They are not transmitting in 1080 and will not in the near future. They don't have the band width. So if you have a tv that shows 1080, the receiver is somehow taking their signal and transforming it. Directv's high def is actually 720. He said that the picture would actually be better if the tv was set to 720 because the box wouldn't be converting the signal. If you use a high def dvd, the picture will be 1080 and have a lot better sound. It seems also, that if your tv is under 40", you probably won't be able to tell the difference in the 1080 and the 720 picture.
So much for paying a fortune for HDMI for Directv.
Don and Cary
GMC4107
Neoplan AN340
Check out Motosat Freedom.
Nice features
Nice price
Easy install
redbus usually isn't, but this time he is right (just joking, Terry). The freedom is a nice unit. but it doesn't do Directv HD either. Not saying you have to have HD, but i am making sure you understand that bubble systems can't do HD becuase of the KA band lnb soon to be required, that they don't have inside.
as far as quality, there is definitely a difference in HD versus non-HD, both in sound and visual. My TV's are both under 30 inches, so the std vs enhanced vs high definition isn't worth the money to me, but my brother swears by his picture quality as does my son.
Folks I have been a long time lurker...
I have a KVH slimline A5 system on my H345.. I have 3 receivers in the coach and want to make the change to HD..
KVH says that this unit will not accept the HD signal with Direct TV but with Dish and a upgrade to a A7 system it will work.
The question that I have is, what is correct or are we stuck with 480p?
no you are not stuck with 480p. if you do upgrade your TV or if you already have an HD television, you will see a higher resolution screen and better stereo surround sound. a new HD receiver from Dish and the upgrade to your KVH will give you HD (1080) or EDTV (720) resolution Dish HD on your new HD television.
as i said and KVH confirmed, you'll need to switch to Dish to get HD on a bubble system. If HD is important to you, then get the upgrade to the KVH, change to Dish and get the HD tv's if you don't have them.
Dish doesn't have, and won't have, as many HD channels as Directv because they don't currently have the capability that Directv does with their new KA satellite. But they still have a lot on Dish.
Thanks Tom.. I guess I need to rip the A5 off the roof and stick it on the "bay" and upgrade to the A7 series.. I'm told today that the A5 won't work with the Dish HD system.
b4 you rip it off the roof, keep in mind that you are already on Directv, your picture is good and you may be able to live without HD.
or you may want to consider either a Winegard or a Motosat antenna with the large automatic 5 lnb system that will lock onto all the satellites directv has, and can have up to 3 more lnb's on the same antenna when needed. both Motosat and Winegard use the modified antenna from Directv, but there is a little difference in cost and weight. Winegard is much less heavy and expensive, about 20# and $300.
depends on KVH upgrade cost compared to new Directv antenna vs getting Dish and a bubble .
We also do seminars on DTV requirements for Feb 2009. I'm a government certified DTV Deputy ;D.
Manasst,
Several questions along this line.
I do not currently have a satellite system, and do not spend a lont of time in the bus each year, no more than 3 or 4 weeks out of the year total. As such, I do not want to start up another monthly bill for service, or if I do, I want to keep it as low as possible. Internet access would be a real plus although I do have an IPhone now. I get cable for free, since a relative works for them.
Acquisition cost is not a big one, but monthly service charge is.
I don't mind waiting, if something better is on the horizon (pun intended)
I really want Hi definition.
Do you have any recommendations?
Last question, will the converters from analog to digital have a channel changer on them and the TV must be tuned to channel 3 or 4, or will they just convert the entire channel spectrum and the user will use their TV set to select channels? If the former, will have remotes?
Hi ZeroClerance,
I have the A-7 on my coach and KVH has used my coach as a demo unit many times now. I have alot of extra equipment onboard
to recieve Direct Tv HD with my A-7. It works, and in 1080 but, they are going to switch me over to Dish in september because
they claim Dish will be the leader in HD channels real soon.
I will keep you informed
Nick-
digital to analog converter boxes do have some differences. we bought 3 as all 6 of our current tv's are analog tuners. we have a magnavox from walmart which we bought first. absolute junk, but cheap. it works but the tuner is below average, no volume control and no passthru. if you just want something to use for a year, i guess it's ok.
next we bought a sansonic. $60 less the coupon. good tuner, remote will control sound and channels, has the usual other bells and whistles. i'd pay the extra $10 again.
we just bought an insignia at Best buy cause their the only source i found easily. $60 less the coupon and seems to work well also. has everything but pass-thru, tuner works good and the remote controls sound and channels. watch best buy. they are trained to upsell you to all sorts of junk, but don't seem to understand the converter boxes, other than their new TV's are better and they tell you to get a new antenna. BS!
basically, plug the antenna wire in, run the "out" cable back to the TV or use the video/sound RCA jacks. run the setup which will search for digital channels. i use the rca jacks so i can just switch back to analog channels easily. the new digital stuff is on my "video 1" channel which i tune with the converter box. all the rest i use the tv remote. i used a splitter to bring the antenna to both the converter box and to the back of the analog TV.
Digital does not seem to go as far as analog. the government hosed us again. make everyone buy a new TV or boxes or something, but nightly news worked and works still the best on analog for a few channels.
whew! that's the over the air stuff.
for Internet for just a few months, get a verizon phone with broadband and a tethering cable. i call them up and pay $2 per day to use it for my connection. if i didn't need it everyday, i'd turn it on once a week, tell the kids where i am, check my maps and fuel prices, then turn it off again. Internet for $8 month. Trust me, if i didn't need it for work, i'd only turn this notebook on once a week, if that.
as far as satellite and HD, i'd still bet on Directv with their KA satellite. i don't know if Dish has any plans or the money to orbit one. if i were KVH and sold bubbles, i'd be pushing Dish HD as the best future bet. the question is, whose future are they looking at.
i borrowed my brother's receiver and i just pay him the extra receiver cost each month. HD satellite for $7/month. what a deal. i use it to demonstrate the antennas.
i hope i answered the questions.
Nick, I converted to Dish because DTV wanted to upgrade me to there new HD sat retro, but required me to pay $200 per every Tivo HD receiver that I have. I have 4 that I purchased at $800 each and now they are scrap. Yes, they would give me one for the 6 or 7 years that I have been with them. On top of that, you have to lease each new unit plus pay the fee. It left a sour taste in my mouth. Talking with KVH, they said that I would have more options for HD with Dish.
I wish that KVH would offer a rebate/upgrade offer.
i requested info from our Distributor who sells us Dish, Directv, Winegard, KVH stuff concerning KVH and HD for DTV or Dish. His answer is below>
>"Since the majority of KVH's equipment is geared towards DTV that shows what they corporately think. This is the channel tally:
DIRECTV Dish
National Channels in HD 61 64
24/7 RSNs in HD 11 0
PPV Channels in HD 15 5
DNS/Locals in HD 8 4
Total National Channels in HD 95 73
Games-only RSNs in HD 17 25
Total with Games-only RSN's 112 98
I haven't seen anything on the KA bubble in some time."<
His comment about the KA bubble was in response to my questions becuase at one point KVH was trying to make a bubble that could handle the 2 different LNB's required.
This is to somewhat document what works and what doesn't. we don't sell Dish or Directv at this point. We just sell and install the automatic and manual antennas to get satellite Internet or TV.
Just providing info.
zeroclearance, that sour taste would have caused me to upchuck all over my rep. whew!
Hi Tom,
KVH is no longer favoring DTV, infact they are pushing Dish more then ever.
His comment about the KA bubble was in response to my questions becuase at one point KVH was trying to make a bubble that could handle the 2 different LNB's required.
I have seen with my own eyes, a duel band, 5 lnb 12" high inmotion Dome at KVH in operation! The reasons I was given that it's not in production yet
was ISO certifacions and Pattens. We think they are also holding back because they have not milked enough porfits out of the current line yet...
Nick-
Quote from: Nick Badame Refrig. Co. on August 01, 2008, 03:01:50 PM
His comment about the KA bubble was in response to my questions becuase at one point KVH was trying to make a bubble that could handle the 2 different LNB's required.
I have seen with my own eyes, a duel band, 5 lnb 12" high inmotion Dome at KVH in operation! The reasons I was given that it's not in production yet
Nick-
That's what they (our Disti) told us also, 3-4 months ago. "wait on it, we've seen it"
we had a similar instance when 3 years ago, we certified with another company that said they had an Internet dish similar in appearance to the A7, but with Internet. Hasn't shown up yet, either.
But who knows, KVH is a very qualified company. maybe they can make magic.