Switching to Dish and have DVR questions?

[Shipper]

Switching from DirecTV to Dish in my home. Anyone use the Hopper at home and standard DVR in RV? Have Winegard dome which I will have to reconfigure from DirecTV to Dish and understand that the Hopper won't work. I've had problems talking to customer service until I described myself as a "snow bird" (which I'm not) and told them I needed a Hopper for the main TV and a standard DVR for bedroom (RV). I want dish so I can get HD and local channels (which I can't get with direct). Once this is set-up can I still get waivers for East/West locals? Any suggestions to help me insure I can explain this to Dish? Any comments appreciated!

[Bill_Satellite]

Not 2 DVR's as mentioned. 2 single tuner receivers (2 coax required), yes but not 4 tuners required for 2 DVR's.

[TechWriter]

Shipper wrote:
. . . if the RCVR 612 HD solo DVR I'm getting won't work then can I not use a DVR on my Dome with Dish? Need some advice here pretty quick-the installer is due Monday.

You can try this kludge (drawing on the bottom of the page).

This shows how to hook up a G2 to a dual-tuner receiver. Since you have nothing to lose at this point, you can try hooking up to your dome.

But I'm guessing that -- at best -- you'll just get one tuner working . . . which means if you're recording a program on one sat (say 119), and you try watching a program on a different sat (say 110), then your recording will probably stop as your dome switches sats.

[Shipper]

TechWriter wrote:


Your Winegard dome supports two single-tuner receivers -- the VIP211, not a dual-tuner receiver.

If you really want DVR capabilities with a dome, stick with DirecTV.

Too late, but if the RCVR 612 HD solo DVR I'm getting won't work then can I not use a DVR on my Dome with Dish? Need some advice here pretty quick-the installer is due Monday.

[TechWriter]

Shipper wrote:

TechWriter wrote:

Bill.Satellite wrote:
You can do 2 DVR's with a dome as long as you have the additional splitters (DP44 IIRC).

If you mean one of these guys (a DPP44 below), it's not needed.

Current rooftop domes (Winegard RoadTrip Mission, King Dome KD2000/3000, TracVision RV1 & A9) all support 2 (or more) receivers without external switches.

I have two cable inputs from my Winegard dome, but only currently using one with my DirecTV single receiver setup. When I switch to Dish with the two tuner DVR do I connect both input cables into the one DVR or is only one cable needed with the other cable used for another receiver?

PS: Just found out that my DirecTV incentives expired, so I'm more motivated to switch to Dish.

Your Winegard dome supports two single-tuner receivers -- the VIP211, not a dual-tuner receiver.

If you really want DVR capabilities with a dome, stick with DirecTV.

[Shipper]

TechWriter wrote:

Bill.Satellite wrote:
You can do 2 DVR's with a dome as long as you have the additional splitters (DP44 IIRC).

If you mean one of these guys (a DPP44 below), it's not needed.

Current rooftop domes (Winegard RoadTrip Mission, King Dome KD2000/3000, TracVision RV1 & A9) all support 2 (or more) receivers without external switches.

I have two cable inputs from my Winegard dome, but only currently using one with my DirecTV single receiver setup. When I switch to Dish with the two tuner DVR do I connect both input cables into the one DVR or is only one cable needed with the other cable used for another receiver?

PS: Just found out that my DirecTV incentives expired, so I'm more motivated to switch to Dish.

[TechWriter]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
You can do 2 DVR's with a dome as long as you have the additional splitters (DP44 IIRC).

If you mean one of these guys (a DPP44 below), it's not needed.



Current rooftop domes (Winegard RoadTrip Mission, King Dome KD2000/3000, TracVision RV1 & A9) all support 2 (or more) receivers without external switches.

[lynndiwagon]

Are you getting waivers for East/West coast now? Have you switched yet? If you decide you need a Trav'ler then I would just retain what I had as you can get Directv HD with the Trav'ler. I sure hope this is relevant.....

[lanerd]

As added info, and as I understand it, the dome antenna can only look at one satellite at a time and when you switch channels (that's broadcasted from a different satellite) there will be a very slight hesitation. This is also the reason (as Bill explained above) that with the dome, all tv's channels available will be from one Satellite. DISH uses three satellites.

We do not use the Hopper/Joey (but I've been looking into it) scenario, as we use two dual DVR VIP722k; however, we do have the Wineguard Trav'ler for an antenna. This gives us two tuners for each of the tv's that allows each tv to be totally separate from each other and each can watch a prerecorded program while recording two new programs...or watch a live program while recording another.

We have this system at home, and it's quite simple to move the DVRs from the house to the motor home.

Hope this helps

Ron

[Bill_Satellite]

While you might believe this is the case, it is not. You can do 2 DVR's with a dome as long as you have the additional splitters (DP44 IIRC). HOWEVER!, it is absolutely NOT a reasonable scenario. You will still be restricted to watching (on all tuners) the programming coming from only 1 satellite.
With all of that in mind, how badly do you need to be able to watch/record whatever you want whenever you want? If you want to be able to do what you do at home then you need a Trav'ler and if you need a Trav'ler then you can use your Hopper in your RV. If you can accept the extreme limitations involved with using a dome style antenna then so be it.

[TechWriter]

Shipper wrote:
Thanks for the replies! Can I get two standard (dual tuner) DVRs from Dish (no Hopper)?

Sure, but in order to use those 2 tuners, you'll need either a rooftop Winegard Travler ($1200) or an open-faced portable dish like the 1000.2 or 1000.4.

Since this is the case, you would be better served with a Hopper and a Joey in your RV.

Finally, contact a local DISH installer, not DISH directly. You'll probably get better results.

[Bill_Satellite]

Shipper wrote:
Thanks for the replies! Can I get two standard(dual tuner)DVRs from Dish (no Hopper)?

Yes. The Hopper setup is awesome but it does have some serious restrictions. You still can't get the E/W feeds, however.

[Shipper]

Thanks for the replies! Can I get two standard(dual tuner)DVRs from Dish (no Hopper)?

[BB_TX]

We have a Hopper at home but not in the RV. We have a Hopper in the living room and a Joey in the bedroom (actually 3 Joeys thru out the house). The Hopper serves one TV and each Joey serves other TVs. The Hopper is also the DVR that serves the Joeys as well. There is no "standard DVR" or separate DVR associated with the Hopper. We have a Dish vip211k receiver (using an external hard drive to make it a DVR) in the RV. That set up is completely independent of the Hopper setup. That sounds like what you are trying to do.

Once you have a home Dish account set up, you can add an RV with a separate receiver to the home account for an additional $7/mo.

[Bill_Satellite]

Dish will not allow you to add one of their dual tuner DVR's to your Hopper account. The only thing you can currently add is a single tuner 211 series receiver. You can add a hard drive to this to make it a single tuner DVR but that's not even close to what you might be used to.
There is NO East/West DNS feeds available with Dish. Your only options for the Network channels is to call (online chat is even better) and have your service address (not billing address) changed each time you leave a particular spot beam.