New HD antenna

JBroadaway · 09-07-2010, 10:57 AM

Getting serious about having a new Winegard HD antenna installed so wife can watch and record her favorite shows. I installed an HD flat screen TV up front last year and it works well. Should have known that once I installed an HD TV, she would want HD!!! I am going to Camping World to see what is required but would appreciate any hints/suggestions on what to look for and what to expect if I have it installed. I think I will buy new receivers rather than use the non HD Directv receiver I have installed now. Also want to have a receiver installed in the rear tv so I can upgrade to an HD TV later. I have an older Winegard antenna installed now and it doesn't lock on like it is supposed to; I have to turn it off when it reaches a good signal strength. Would appreciate any comments.

RickO · 09-07-2010, 11:33 AM

When you refer to "antenna" do you mean satellite dish or the crank up batwing. Winegard makes both. I suspect you're talking about the dish so you'll probably need:

1) HD service from Directv...
2) HD DVR from Directv if you want to record.
3) An HD satellite dish... brace yourself for the cost... >$1500 installed.
4) Four RG6 Coax cables from the roof. Two for each of your DVRs you want.

It's not a cheap conversion but for us it was sure woth it!

JBroadaway · 09-07-2010, 01:08 PM

Thanks for the info; I am looking at the satellite antenna. I already have Directv service; can I buy a DVR(s) rather than use one from Directv?

McDuff · 09-07-2010, 02:00 PM

Afraid not, all the providers encode their signals so only their equipment will work.

Good news possibly, if you have been with Direct for awhile, you will be eligible for a free upgrade to a DVR box. But then bad news of course, they will charge you a monthly fee for both DVR "service" and for HD broadcasts.

RickO · 09-07-2010, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBroadaway

Thanks for the info; I am looking at the satellite antenna. I already have Directv service; can I buy a DVR(s) rather than use one from Directv?

Technically yes you can purchase your own DVR. TIVO is a popular choice for that and you can probably find a lot of info on that topic with a search of this forum. I think the problem is the programming service for it but I get over my head quickly talking about the non-DTV Tivo stuff so I'll have to defer to others on that.

As an alternative to running coax from the sat dish to our bedroom TV, I ran a 50' HDMI cable from the HDDVR in the living area directly to the TV in our bedroom. The down side is that we can't watch different channels in different rooms at the same time but we don't do that anyway. The DTV HD DVRs offer remotes which can operate on IR, RF or both so we can control the DVR from anywhere inside or outside the coach. I'll be upgrading our outside TV soon and will simply run another HDMI cable out to it and purchase a third RF remote from ebay ($15) and we'll have HD throughout the coach.

Good luck...

RickO · 09-07-2010, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McDuff

Afraid not, all the providers encode their signals so only their equipment will work.

Good news possibly, if you have been with Direct for awhile, you will be eligible for a free upgrade to a DVR box. But then bad news of course, they will charge you a monthly fee for both DVR "service" and for HD broadcasts.

Is this really true? Does this mean that no TIVO boxes can be used with either Direct of Dish any longer? I realize one wouldn't get their DVR service but was under the impression that many people were still actively using them as DVRs.

McDuff · 09-07-2010, 02:53 PM

I was under the belief that it wouldn't work, seems like there is a halfway. Found this on the Tivo site:

DIRECTV TiVo - DIRECTV DVR with TiVo service - TiVo

Not sure of the date of that, but it appears that DTV will be the only place to buy it.

beaverjim · 09-07-2010, 03:40 PM

RickO, i'm planning on the same thing, running an hdmi cable from the front receiver to the bed. tv. my question is how are you going to supply your outside tv with hdmi? am i right in saying you have one hdmi output along with a set of componet outputs? and an s video out. whats your plan for the outside tv? just picking your brain

thanks! jim

RickO · 09-07-2010, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beaverjim

RickO, i'm planning on the same thing, running an hdmi cable from the front receiver to the bed. tv. my question is how are you going to supply your outside tv with hdmi? am i right in saying you have one hdmi output along with a set of componet outputs? and an s video out. whats your plan for the outside tv? just picking your brain

thanks! jim

Good question Jim... the answer lies with HDMI splitters which I didn't mention. I bought one on eBay which split one input into two outputs for something like $30. I'll probably just duplicate it to split the signal again. This run is only 15' of cable since it's just straight down from the receiver/splitters through the slide floor and into the storage bay where the tv is located. I wouldn't even think about trying any "remote" connections with anything BUT HDMI. Running the 50' HDMI was the adventure... now it's all down hill.

RickO · 09-07-2010, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McDuff

I was under the belief that it wouldn't work, seems like there is a halfway. Found this on the Tivo site:

DIRECTV TiVo - DIRECTV DVR with TiVo service - TiVo

Not sure of the date of that, but it appears that DTV will be the only place to buy it.

Holy Smokes, I hadn't heard anything about this. Very interesting. Considering how much I loved my original Tivo and how much I hate the DTv HD DVR I think I'm going to look into this.

Thanks much!

tderonne · 09-07-2010, 08:39 PM

If you're looking to get ALL your DirecTV HD channels via a Winegard dish, looks like that isn't going to happen.

From the Winegard site about the In Motion Roadtrip antenna:

DIRECTV - all standard programming and limited HD programming. Toggles between 101° and 119° (will NOT receive HD programming located on 110° or KA-band satellites 99° and 103°

I don't don't think anyone has figured out HD and rooftop dishes completely yet, at least the domed ones.

RickO · 09-07-2010, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tderonne

If you're looking to get ALL your DirecTV HD channels via a Winegard dish, looks like that isn't going to happen.

From the Winegard site about the In Motion Roadtrip antenna:

DIRECTV - all standard programming and limited HD programming. Toggles between 101° and 119° (will NOT receive HD programming located on 110° or KA-band satellites 99° and 103°

I don't don't think anyone has figured out HD and rooftop dishes completely yet, at least the domed ones.

Hey Tim... I didn't see where he mentioned he wanted an in motion dome. We get ALL our DirecTv HD channels via our Winegard Slimline Travlr and just LOVE the dish. We lived through the nightmares of the old ASC2003 and I never thought I'd go with Winegard again but sure glad we did.

AA4WP · 09-07-2010, 11:02 PM

Hey, you all...

Have you not heard of Dish network? We have a leased 211K stand-alone receiver with an additional external hard drive, linked to our Winegard in-motion rooftop dish antenna; we get good serivce occasionally while in motion (we use the vcr a lot in motion)

While stopped, we set up a 2K1 dish on a tripod (get it on e-bay or your local satellite store). Works FB for a couple of years now. We have Dish Network service at home and while on the road; no extra charge.

We have HD on the front TV with HDMI connect; in the bedroom we have SD via the secondary output on the 211k. We get to sleep fast so the HD is not missed after we turn off the front TV. Less expensive than running an HD cable to the rear bedroom.

Wendell

Stevegd007 · 09-07-2010, 11:40 PM

How do you guys run 50ft of HDMI through the RV. This I would like to know.

beaverjim · 09-08-2010, 03:07 AM

thanks rick! jim

RickO · 09-08-2010, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevegd007

How do you guys run 50ft of HDMI through the RV. This I would like to know.

Very carefully!

Seriously, it's quite a job but very doable. I have an entertainment center located in the wall slide just behind the co-pilot's seat. My HD DVR is there. I ran the HDMI down through the slide floor right through the wire pass through where the other wires exit the slide at that point. I had to chip out some foam insulation which they used but there was room.

Wherever the cable is exposed to the outside elements I protected it with 1/2" cable wrap... the heavy plastic stuff which is split lengthwise to all the cable to be inserted into it.

The flexible cable channel (a thing that looks like rubber railroad tracks and protects/guides the cables while operating the slide) is right below where the cable exited the slide floor and I routed the HDMI in there with the rest of the cables installed by Winnie. That protected the cable during slide operation.

At the chassis rail, I tiewrapped the cable to others hard mounted to the rail running it all the way back to the storage bay located under the water heater. That bay is "heated", meaning it has open air passage into the coach. I drilled a hole in the back of that bay to route the cable back into the coach. From there it was pretty simple to find the air passageway into the water heater cabinet, then joined up with some other cables running under the bedroom slide... but on the floor of the b/r. \

My TV is located on top of my chest of drawers so removing all of the drawers opened up great access to the area. Sure glad it'd done but I did learn a lot about my coach in the process.

Good Luck

rick