High Def TV

[merle&louise]

I just installed a 32" Sony HD flat screen TV in my coach. It has a beautiful picture and I love it. I read on the DirecTV website that I would need a new HD receiver and a HD satellite antenna. Getting the HD receiver is no problem; I can order one from DirecTV when I subscribe to their HD service.

Six months ago I purchased a TracStar SV360 in motion satellite antenna; how can I tell if it is HD?:confused:

[Jim_Scoggins]

They show an SV360 on their web site. Evidently there is a HD upgrade available.


http://www.tracstar.com/

[merle&louise]

Thanks Jim,

I remember reading a post about this subject but I don't think that it was on POG. I will contact TracStar (hopefully they are easier to reach than DirecTV) and proceed with the quest for HD.

[dreamchasers]

I am certainly interested in this thread. We are in the beginning phases of conversion to HD TV.

I will be watching the outcome.

Thanks for you effort.

Hector

[lloyd&pamela]

TracStar is great to deal with. I will email you the file. It is too large for me to attach here.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

I am certainly interested in this thread. We are in the beginning phases of conversion to HD TV.
I will be watching the outcome. Thanks for you effort. Hector


Hector, you might want to call http http://www.satellitesinmotion.com/sim070307/index.htm

They are in your neck of the woods, Lake Conroe, to be specific.

(281) 564-7287 I spoke with Debbie, but still have not done anything yet about HD. It is a lack of $$$, at the moment. They are very informative and willing to answer all your questions.

Gary S.

[Ray Davis]

I'm a little hesitant about HD and the analog/digital switch in February 2009 with regards to my Marathon.

My bus has a Technlink system, which several components are transmitted to the various monitors in the coach via a video to rf converter. The techlink, for example comes on channel 106, while satellite video comes in on 102, DVD player on 104 (I think).

Going to a HD TV, which newer ones have a very good probably of not having a standard NTSC tuner would break some of this stuff.

I have been assuming that my Direct TV receiver would still continue to pick up the satellite transmissions, and deliver them via the same electronics in the bus. Might be worth worrying about ??

Ray

[merle&louise]

TracStar is great to deal with. I will email you the file. It is too large for me to attach here.

Lloyd,

Thanks for the emails. I will try to call TracStar today to see if my SV360 is HD ready. It sounds like it is, but I will call them to make sure. Then the next step will be to get the TracStar 110 adapter which will allow me to get HD on DirecTV channel 110.

Hector,

I will post anything that I learn about this procedure. Hope it helps you.

[merle&louise]

I spoke with TracStar customer service this morning. They suggested NOT buying the 110 adapter for DirecTV now because DirecTV will be changing over to satellites 103 & 99 in the near future. Satellite 110 is KU band (very narrow) and it only has a few channels presently. It would be better to wait for the switch-over.

Or, if you change from DirecTV to Dish Network you can immediately receive all of the High Definition channels now without buying anything. PLEASE BE SURE TO VERIFY THIS WITH DISH NETWORK BEFORE YOU CHANGE PROVIDERS. I am only passing on the information that was told to me this morning.

I am not going to do anything right now; I will wait until my DirecTV subscription expires and then look at my options.:D

[jello_jeep]

Ray, you are right, those are being converted to RF, and I don't know of any solution to transport an HD signal other than HDMI cable, DVI cable, or Component Video (three single ended rca type connectors at either end).

In my humble opinion, the advantage of an HD picture on a <40 or so inch screen is negligible. Especially when seated as close to the monitors as we are in our coaches.

When seated too close, you still get the "screen door" effect, seeing tiny little squares like looking through a screen door.

Rumor is that in a near future dish, you will have the availability of in motion internet service in a dome type dish. Now that would be worth waiting for!

[mike kerley]

Warren,

In my humble opinion, HD is GREAT on our 26" LCD. We only receive a few HD channels on DTV 101, but when at one of our home bases, we use an outside antenna, that picks up three DTV satelittes and allows more HD programming. Soon, we'll need to change receivers to allow more HD channels as we currently use a Hughs TIVO unit that is wonderful to use, but will not recieve the new format DTV is changing to. We can get some HD in motion, but it requires so much data, that it is prone to frequent errors and screen freezes. SD works fine.

My point is, we'll watch a tour of a paper mill in HD and enjoy it, while in SD, we would not give it a glance.

Mike K.

[Ray Davis]

No doubt that HD gives a much nicer picture. I have HD at home, and have had it for many years.

My concerns in the coach are different.

Much of the information in the coach is passed around on a regular television channel, after being converted to RF. This includes things like my techlink, dvd, vcr etc.

Recently, I tried to purchase a VHS recorder for my wife's mom. It was almost impossible to find a simple VHS recorder with standard TV tuner. Because of the digital changeover in Feb 2009, most of the units now do not have standard NTSC (standard TV) tuners built in!

Because of this, I'm concerned that TV's will shortly have the same issue, i.e they won't have NTSC tuners, and all of the electronics in my coach which rely upon converting to NTSC based RF won't work! Perhaps newer TV units will keep both types of tuners, and this won't be an issue, but seeing what happened personally with recorders, I'm concerned.


Then there is the secondary issue, which I believe Warren mentions, is that to get an HD signal from back in the bedroom of the coach, where the satellite recever is located to the front means running some other kind of wiring, rather than coax based wires used currently. That's obviously not impossible, but it's a bit of a pain.

How have you guys with HD done this in your busses, especially if it's a long run from the satellite receiver, to the front (or back) TV?

Ray

[jello_jeep]

Mike,

I have the new 5 lnb setup, and have had it for a few months, they came out and did it for free, as well as swapping out my hd tivo, for the new one that works in MPEG4 so you can watch all the new content. I then sent their new box to www.weaknees.com and had them put a larger drive in it to give it more capicity.

They are supposed to take your old tivo with them. Anyone interested in how to correct that situation PM or cell phone me for a solution.

As for pic quality, HD really shines on large displays. The smaller the display, and the further you are from the optimal viewing distance (too far or too close) the less you would be able to tell an HD signal, from a standard signal.

As for in motion, I still want to see internet injected before I step way up on the mobile stetup!

I am with you on the not watching that much TV in the bus.. Too many other neat things to do while out.. Full timers could be different :)

Later








Warren,

In my humble opinion, HD is GREAT on our 26" LCD. We only receive a few HD channels on DTV 101, but when at one of our home bases, we use an outside antenna, that picks up three DTV satelittes and allows more HD programming. Soon, we'll need to change receivers to allow more HD channels as we currently use a Hughs TIVO unit that is wonderful to use, but will not recieve the new format DTV is changing to. We can get some HD in motion, but it requires so much data, that it is prone to frequent errors and screen freezes. SD works fine.

My point is, we'll watch a tour of a paper mill in HD and enjoy it, while in SD, we would not give it a glance.

Mike K.

[mike kerley]

Ray and Warren,

First, we are full timers and thus do spend a fair amount of time with TV viewing.

We have three LCD units in our bus.

Living room unit has the Hughes 250 HD, direct tv TIVO receiver/recorder. I had Three new coax cables and two cat 5 cables run from the back of the bus to the front compartment two years ago to supply sat feeds to the receiver located behind the tv. Surround sound is also close by, so HDMI cable from Hughes unit to TV and fiber to amplifier for real HD and surround. This unit can be connected to RF feed from the roof top (in motion KVH) by sliding a couple of AB switches which select which antenna coax will feed the front unit. Outside three LNB unit connects to an input on the right side of engine compartment for use at our home bases. Confused yet?

Bedroom unit is a 26" LCD with its own Sony TIVO SD unit, an cabled to the roof top dish with two inputs for recording one show while watching another with the dual tuner.

Outside unit is another 26" LCD with another Sony TIVO SD unit, which can be connected to land based dish or roof top unit. Roof unit has a switch with 8 outputs for all the units so plenty of outputs for all TIVO units.

We own all three TIVO units outright, so we'll never have to give them up. The new Direct TV units do not use the TIVO operating system and for now, we refuse to switch to the new boxes because we love the way TIVO works. Eventually we will have to, but we'll drag our feet as long as possible. When we first started with the Hughes unit, we had about 8 HD channels on sat 101. Now there are three, but by using the outside triple bird dish, we can receive about a dozen HD channels and still get everything on 101 on the other two receivers. With a KVH controller add on, we could reaim the roof top unit to other birds, but as it feeds three receivers with 6 inputs, it gets real complex on which unit gets which satellite. I do love a challenge.

Mike

[merle&louise]

Mike,

Can you receive HD when you are in motion?

[merle&louise]

Below is DirecTV's response to my inquiry:

Dear Mr. Gaidry,

Thanks for writing. I’m excited that you’re interested in upgrading to HD. As you’ve heard, now is a great time to upgrade because we’re in the process of expanding our HD programming; you can now get up to 60 HD Channels with your HD Access fee and we plan to have over 100 HD channels soon. Also, our state of the art HD and HD DVR receivers will deliver you the best TV viewing experience.

Please know that while your RV is in Motion you will be unable to view these channels. Your RV dish must be able to tune to satellites 110, 119, 99, and 103 to receive all of our HD channels.

To get HD channels, you need:

- A DIRECTV Plus HD DVR (model number HR20 or HR21) or DIRECTV HD Receiver (model number H20 or H21) with B-Band Converter module attached

- A 5-LNB satellite dish. If your satellite dish was installed prior to October 2005, you do not have a 5-LNB dish. If you don't remember when your dish was installed or if you're just not sure that it is a 5-LNB, go take a look at your dish and see if it matches either one of the images on our web site at http://directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=P4370040.

- A programming package that includes HD Access

I realize that you may have some other questions, so we have set up an HD info page at directv.com/hd where you can learn everything you’ll need to know about getting DIRECTV HD. In addition, our best equipment offers can be found online, just sign in at directv.com/mydirectv and click on Upgrade Equipment to see what offer is available. You can also call us at 1-800-531-5000 to place an upgrade

Thanks again for writing.

Sincerely,

Amanda B. 400514
DIRECTV Customer Service

[jello_jeep]

Mike, I know own both the tivo and direcTVs dvrs. The tivo is far easier to operate and I like the system better overall.

The DTV unit does have one advantage, the OS is very fast. Where the old tivo would have to think quite awhile when changing recording settings or recording series programs, the new one does it immediately.

I did also manage to argue them into giving me free service fees for the life of the box, because I had paid for lifetime programming when I bought the tivo. This took a bit of arguing, but it was well worth it! I mean the 5 or 10 bucks a month they charge for the ability to download the channel guide, not the entire programming package. The guy had to talk to his supervisor and all but I stuck to my guns and won... So when you get around to it, give it a try!

[mike kerley]

Tuga,

Yes we do, but because it needs so much more data (bandwidth) it is more prone to freezes and screen pixelation (forgive my spelling, the little squares that appear when rain clouds are getting thick between you and the satellite). We prefer not to use it in motion, but on a clear day, good road, no trees, it works great.

Jello_Jeep, I'll give that argument a try when the time comes to give up my TIVO. Mama is not going to be happy on that day!!!

[merle&louise]

Mike, glad to hear that you can receive HD while in motion.

I have just returned from a weekend camping trip with my 13 year old grandson and 4 of his friends. This was the first trip that I made with the new HD TV, and although I don't have a HD receiver or antenna the picture is so clear I don't think that I am going to bother with HD. I don't see how a HD picture could be any clearer than the one I was viewing this weekend. My antenna is HD ready but my receiver is not.

[flyu2there]

I have had direct TV HD in my home for several years and after losing the HD channels, a few each month, I finally called them for their upgrade. They not only installed a 5 LNB dish but also re-wired to a newer flavor of coax, plus, of course, a new receiver.

The new dish is much bigger than the old one, about the size of the direct-way internet dish and although the picture is truly splendid, I am curious as to just how viable this would be in the bus. I suspect that the dish is aimed at several different satellites which means that tracking while mobile might be a challenge. I guess my real point here is that Direct Way was insistent on the cable change "for proper performance" it would also mean that even if someone is able to conjur up an antenna, all of the cables in the bus would have to be changed out as well (others have mentioned this).....might be a nightmare, maybe not....thoughts??

John

[jello_jeep]

John, still think it is a good time to hold steady until they wrap internet service onto the dish as well. But that is my opinion.

Also according to the local gurus, you will be able to run a dual channel dvr on a single coax. That will solve many problems in and of itself.

[jello_jeep]

For those of you with the new DitecTV dvr, if you hook up an ethernet cable onto one of the inputs, you will notice options in the menus for Video On Demand.

If will show you a five minutes blurb on how to use the features etc.

This is a beta test of the system and not all the shows are up and running. Also if you download a PPV movie, it loads it but you cant really watch it yet.

The shows work great. Some of the guys at work were talking about the new show "Ax Men", I had missed the first episode.

I went to the VOD menu, searched them, highlighted the episodes and the dvr downloaded them via the net. It puts them in a queue you can watch the download progress and it saves them to your hd just like any other show!

The dvr is completely usable while it is loading shows too.

Cool stuff!