TracStar SV-360

[ajducote]

I am thinking about upgrading my old KVH to the TracStar SV-360.
I have not found many places on line that sell it. Does anyone have good source / price for this unit?
Also, I am still trying to determine for sure if it supports Direct TV HD. Is anyone using the TracStar SV-360 that could provide 1st hand knowledge / comments?

I have read some of the older post and am not sure I understand the best way to get In Motion Direct TV HD.

Thanks

[dreamchasers]

Andre,

I have the SV 360 and to my knowledge, it does not support HD TV. I am a Directv customer. The system has worked trouble free for me. At times, I will get a "scan error" and have to reset the power to the system. I think this is mostly due to the fact that the antenna can not see the satellites.

Once the system is setup, it operates with little input from the user.

I am satisfied the the system. However, perhaps others with more knowledge can comment on the HD capabilities.

Hector

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Andre, I too have the Tracstar SV-360 unit and NO it does not support the HD signal. It supports the Digital Broadcast Signal to your HD TV's but NOT HD, partly because the dish is not the Eliptical shape.

I get HD to my TV's via my Off-Air Roof antenae, or electric rabbit ears if you will, and use the Satelite for Digital quality Direct TV.

I believe Dish TV is the only carrier that can give you HD TV thru a Satelite Dish, but don't remember whose dish you need?

Check out this website then call them to get better answers, http://www.satellitesinmotion.com/1.html?sm=57463 I spoke with Debbie for my install.

Gary S.

[BrianE]

Andre, Don't know if in-motion is desired but we installed a non-in-motion Motosat HD antenna recently and it works great. So far it has ALWAYS found the Direct TV satellites. If we've traveled over 500 miles or so it sometimes takes 10-15 minutes, otherwise less than 5 minutes. http://www.motosat.com/web/products/tv_hd.html

[Reagan Sirmons]

Andre, I have contacted Tracstar in Orlando on many occassions and their service and assistance have been great. Call 407-650-9054 and request JIM. They will answer the questions honestly and I have found their prices to be fair. As a matter of fact, I had an in-motion satelite antenna that went bad. They provided a $2500 set up at no cost because they felt the antenna should not have failed. It was not under warranty. In addition, they have provided the printed exact process for trouble shooting the system in off hours should it ever be needed.

The Satelites in motion people are very sharp as Gary stated in his e-mail. They installed two separate receivers in our coach.

Hope this helps.

Reagan
Pres

[mike kerley]

Andre, Like Brian, we have the MOTOSAT HD for stationary HD reception on Direct TV and an older KVH inmotion for SD use while traveling. A/B switches allow us to select which dish to feed to each sat box for stationary or inmotion use. Works great and we end up with a back up system.

[Orren Zook]

I, too, have had good luck with the TracStar SV360D, unfortunately isn't HD. I was at their Orlando facility a couple weeks ago for service - they replaced my 10 year old dual LNB (odd transponder channels went out but even ones were OK), dome (because it was discolored) and upgraded my software - all for only $150.
A real plus with this unit is that the only wiring topside is the coax cable, all power and signals run in the RG-6 cable making installation and trouble shooting very easy. My coach has the receivers in a cabinet on the curbside of the coach so running an HDMI or s-video and audio cables to the TV's from there looks like it would be a major undertaking.

[jelmore]

Orren, our receiver was in a curbside cabinet also. It had coax in from the dish and coax out to the front tv. I used a butt connector to join the cables together, placed the new, much smaller receiver into the front overhead cabinet and used an HDMI cable to connect to the HD TV.

[Orren Zook]

Jim, are you using Direct TV or Dish Network? Did you just use a blue barrel connector to splice the line behind the radio Shack switch box or in the curbside cabinet? I've heard that even with the blue connector (3 GHz) there is some signal degradation, what was your experience with signal quality?

[rmboies]

I am thinking about upgrading my old KVH to the TracStar SV-360.
Thanks

Andre, we just had a Trac-star SY360 installed in our coach in Florida. Trac-Star Orlando recommended Will Newsom, Newsom Electronics. His contact number is 352-288-6000 and generally just calls himself "Newson" :D We are very pleased with the job he did for us.

Debi and Bob

[jelmore]

Orren, when we upgraded our TVs to HD, we switched from Direct TV to Dish. The coax in our coach is mostly RG6 so signal loss hasn't been a factor. I just used an ordinary connector.

Some more details: The original receiver was in a curbside cabinet. The cable ran direct from the satellite dish to the receiver and then from the receiver to the switch box for distribution to all TVs. When I relocated the receiver to the front overhead cabinet, I just connected the cables in the curbside cabinet with an ordinary connector and what previously ran to the switch box is now connected directly to the receiver. The front TV also gets a regular antenna feed without going through the switch box. The switch box now is only used to feed the lower TV either a standard definition satellite signal via coax from the receiver or, from an A/B switch, regular antenna TV or cable. I replaced the bulky front VCR with the thin 211 HD Dish receiver and a very thin DVD player without any cabinet modifications. The front TV only has one HDMI port, so I used an auto-sensing switch to feed the satellite and DVD player signals. The rear TV has its own HD receiver fed by RF2 on the satellite dish and also gets a regular antenna feed. The only splitter in the system is for the regular antenna signal and I used the higher frequency splitter. The regular antenna HD signals are stunning on all TVs.

[Orren Zook]

Here's an info update on the Tracstar SV-360, in case any are still following this thread. There is an add on piece of hardware (available from Tracstar) called the "110 Adapter" that will allow HD reception with DirecTV. This adapter is only required to receive HDTV signals from DirecTV, with Dish HDTV programming can be received via the SV-360 with no modifications as long as you are a subscriber.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Orren, I don't think the "Adapter" is actually available to the public yet? Maybe in the future? But I could be wrong. :o

"I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken."

The problem with the TracStar 360 and the HD signal, is DirectTV sent their HD satellite into a lower orbit, so this dish can not find the HD signal from Direct TV. The Dish HD network works great on the TracStar 360 from what I am told.

Gary S.

[ajducote]

Here's an info update on the Tracstar SV-360, in case any are still following this thread. There is an add on piece of hardware (available from Tracstar) called the "110 Adapter" that will allow HD reception with DirecTV. This adapter is only required to receive HDTV signals from DirecTV, with Dish HDTV programming can be received via the SV-360 with no modifications as long as you are a subscriber.

Orren,

Thanks for that bit of info on the "110 Adapter". I will look into it when I get home in Jan. It might just solve my problem.

[Orren Zook]

Gary, I got that information from the Cobham SATCO/Tracstar web site today while looking for something else: http://www.mytracstar.com/esupport/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=2

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Orren, I sit corrected. When I called my satellite dish provider, they were not aware of a product for sale yet, ONLY rumors.. I guess they were wrong, and as I said, I was too . :o

3.3.9.1.1 The “110 Adapter”
Satellite programming of standard and high definition channels will be
received by the TracStar SV-360HD system. Viewing of all programs from
the “101/119” satellite pair is accomplished with your existing SV-360
hardware. As stated, DirecTV has added High Definition programming to
satellite “110hd” which requires additional hardware within the SV360 for
viewing those specific high definition channels. This specific hardware is
known as the “110 Adapter” and is available to upgrade your SV-360HD,
hence, accommodating the full spectrum of DirecTV HDTV channels. The
110 Adapter unit is not required for HDTV reception from any other provider.
The SV-360 antenna comes in multiple HDTV configurations:


Orren, if you know where to purchase one of these adapters, please pass the information on to us all. Many of us could use one in our buss's.

Gary S.

[Orren Zook]

I spent about 20 minutes on the phone this morning with TracStar regarding the 110 Adapter. They have discontinued selling this unit because DirecTV is moving all of their HD programming to a satellite at 119 and the 110 Adapter will soon be obsolete. This adapter was only required to get the DirecTV HD programming on satellite 110. Subscribers of Dish Network can receive HD programming using the SV360 without any modification, but those of us using DirecTV as our satellite provider are out of luck.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

We spent the weekend in the Lake Livingston, TX area camping, and had some time to work on some minor issues or problems.

One of the best Issues I got solved was receiving HD programming on my satellite dish.

I recently switched my satelite service provider from DirectTV to Dish Network and am so happy that I did.

I now recieve all 3 satellites 110/119/129 into the bus and get full HD programs on the 129 satellite. This was done by folllowing the setup guidlelines provided to me by the Tracstar 360 Satellite people.

I attached the directions for those of you with Dish and the newer Tracstar 360 if you want to get the HD programming in your camper.

The cooking channel is excellent in HD. :D

[merle&louise]

I found out today that TracStar is updating their software. In a couple of weeks if you give them a call ( 407 650-9054 ) they will send you the update box. You just plug it in to your TracStar system and it will download the new software. Then you send the box back to them and you're done!

[HarborBus]

Andre, Looks like you have gotten some good direction as to the source to get the TracStar 360. All the research that I have done points to the TracStar as being the most trouble free and easy to work on and operate (no hooking up laptops to it to troubleshoot). To clarify further on the HD vs SD, there currently is not a dome, in motion or otherwise that supports Direct TV HD. The only way to get DTV-HD is with a tilt up dish ie: motosat etc. much like are discussed in post #4 and #6. Dish network does have in motion HD and several in motion domes that support it. Since I have Direct TV I can't comment on Dish.

[ajducote]

Andre, Looks like you have gotten some good direction as to the source to get the TracStar 360. The only way to get DTV-HD is with a tilt up dish ie: motosat etc. much like are discussed in post #4 and #6.


I decided to keep the old KVH for in motion and put on the Motosat SL5 for when we are parked. I have had DirecTV for 10 years and really did not want to change to DISH. A couple of weeks ago I installed the Motosat and it seems to work just fine. I put in an A/B switch to go between the KVH and Motosat.
I want to thank everyone who contributed information on this subject, hopefully it will help others when they are ready to upgrade.

6515

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Andre, wondering how did you mount the heavy base bars, seen in your MotoSat photo, to the bus frame members that support the roof panels. I assume you used some sort of fastener to go all the way through.
Did you achieve access to the frame members on the inside of the coach or was all the fastening done from the outside.

I am contemplating adding a power tilt antenna base for an amateur radio antenna. I need a sturdy mount and am trying to get around removing the inside mirrored ceiling decorations.

JIM

[ajducote]

Jim,

I am afraid I will not be much help. I used the original mount that came with the bus. There was an old Motosat Executive single lnb dish on the bus when I bought the bus. I removed the old dish and the new dish bolted to the old mount. It does look like the front 2 bolts are anchored in the bus frame. The rest just screw into the roof. UNLESS, Royale put something in the ceiling as additional support when it was built. I would think that if you span two cross members and bolt your base to them, it would be plenty strong.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Jim,

I am afraid I will not be much help. I used the original mount that came with the bus. There was an old Motosat Executive single lnb dish on the bus when I bought the bus. I removed the old dish and the new dish bolted to the old mount. It does look like the front 2 bolts are anchored in the bus frame. The rest just screw into the roof. UNLESS, Royale put something in the ceiling as additional support when it was built. I would think that if you span two cross members and bolt your base to them, it would be plenty strong.

Thanks Andre, JIM

[Mark3101]

I found out today from Tracstar, that in addition to NO HD from DirecTV, if you have the newer receivers from DirecTV you will also have to setup the dish selection on the receivers to ROUND 18" in order for it to work properly. You can not have the dish auto move from 101 to 119 or from 101 to 110 any longer. I replaced both of my receivers yesterday and had problems with them not getting a signal that would hold. I called Tracstar and got some excellent help. Turns out that DirecTV changed their firmware and removed the older oval, a,b,c dish type settings in the receiver that Tracstar used. As a result you need that Round 18" receiver dish type setting for it to work properly.

The tech indicated that there is not much lost by not going to 110 or 119 since HD is not available in any event and your locals would be gone after you move about 200 miles from your home anyway. He said that they are looking into a way to get the HD's back but it would probably be a fix that would only work while stationary. Too hard to get the KA band while moving...would need a much bigger reflector than practical.

So if anyone is still fighting issues with Tracstar and DirecTV, this may help. Mine works great now and I also got the off air AM21 adapter, so I can at least get locals that way.

[aggies09]

Mark,

Can you elaborate a little on the AM21 adapter. Where does it hook up? Where did you get it? Does it just act as a digital on air antennae?

[Orren Zook]

Tony,

Here's a link to a source for the AM-21: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=AM21

[Mark3101]

Mark,

Can you elaborate a little on the AM21 adapter. Where does it hook up? Where did you get it? Does it just act as a digital on air antennae?

It hooks up by USB and a port for your off air antenna. You basically hook up the USB cable, power cord to the AM-21, then a shorty power cord to the receiver, then hook up the off air antenna and you are done except for setting it up in the receiver. Go into the menu, then antenna and scan for the off air channels. They will also show in the guide after it is installed. They are available from many places including DirecTV itself. About $55 to $60. Works very well so far.

[aggies09]

Thanks Mark.

[BenC]

A few notes about satellite television from DirecTV:

1) the "110 adaptor" is a Tracstar systems item, allowing the dish to know when you are selecting a channel on the satellite at 110 degrees. It is, however, at this time virtually obsolete. DirecTV has very little programming on satellite 110 right now. I am sure this will change in the near future.

2) There is NOT currently, and will not be in the forseeable future, ANY in-motion dish that receives HD programming from DirecTV. The reason:
DirecTV, in the last 1-1/2 years, launched two new satellites to convey their HD service channels. Due to bandwith considerations, they chose Ka band rather than Ku, which is what all the other satellites in the western hemisphere receive and beam back to earth. To receive the signals from these new satellites, Directv put out the Slimline 5 dish, with separate LNBF's for the Ka frequency spectrum built into the feed horn. As well, they look at all five directv satellites. 99, 101, 103, 110, and 119 degrees Longitude.
In-motion dishes have only a small parabolic reflector and a single LNBF. They were able, up to that point, of switching between different satellites. Now, however, since the LNBF's are different for the 99 and 103 degree satellites (the new Ka band sats), they cannot receive the signal. They can still switch to 110 and 119 degree satellites and receive whatever DirecTV choses to put on these satellites, but can NOT receive signal from 99 and 103, the HD satellites.

Note: Dish Network chose to keep the extra satellites they put into space on the same frequency band as all the rest, hence, you CAN receive HD and all SD channels via in-motion on Dish Network.

Hope some of my rambling helps clarify the current satellite television issues of today.

[BenC]

I almost forgot to comment on the AM-21. I was orginally told by DirecTV that it would be an add-on off-air tuner for both the HD DVR units (hr-21, hr-23, hr-whatever) AND the HD non-DVR units (h-21, h-22, h-23, etc). The latest I have heard is that they intend for them to be added on (via the USB port on the back of the receiver) ONLY to the DVR units. To make matters worse, the DVR units don't work that well in a motorhome. They are very "finicky" about wanting to see both satellite inputs, and to be locked onto all the satellites all the time. Setup is a nightmare to get right as well. Good luck if you chose to install one on a single satellite in-motion dish. God help you if you have both the Slimline 5 and an inmotion dish, intending to go back and forth with the DVR. You'll have to go back through the setup 20-minute ordeal each time you switch to get all the channels. Sorry for the news, but I have to be honest. Good luck.

[Kevin Erion]

I have 2 Pro series DirecTV receivers with DVR and a Trac Star in-motion dish. We had to get the extra box to allow 2 receivers and I am OK for the time not getting HD signal. I have not had any issues that I am aware of when traveling and the in-motion works very good. My opinion is the Trac Star in-motion system works much better than the KVH. I had a new KVH on my old bus and this bus has the Trac Star so I got the back to back on the two. The one plus to the Pro series receivers is the built in cooling fans. I had lots of over heat problems with the older units and no internal cooling fans.

[jelmore]

BenC, we have HD DISH through a KVH R5. Any experience with that? Seems lately that the antenna drifts off the signal sometimes, particularly on 129. I understand that KVH offers a 129 switch device that addresses that, but it is only applicable on the west coast. I'll pass along anything I find out from KVH, but thought you might have some knowledge.

[BenC]

My experiences with the newest KVH products are limited. In the last 3 years, we have installed TracStar or the more widely distributed Kingdome (has Tracstar's patented coaxial slip-ring for the "unwrap-free" operation). Also, the 129 degree satellite of Dish Network only covers the western half of the country. The 61.5 degree satellite is used to cover the easter half. I have heard that complaint lately, though, regarding KVH not staying on satellites while both underway and while stationary, but haven't had the opportunity to troubleshoot and get into the problem. Thanks for the update.

My biggest beef with KVH versus the TracStar (which I do prefer and recommend) is that updating is required so frequently with KVH, and often a hardware (components in the dish) changes are required. The military spawned TracStar has been so much easier to work with. I am not familiar with how you described the receivers you have. Do you know the model number? The biggest thing DirecTV did to reduce heat was to take the integrated off-air tuner out of the unit (black boxes do not have one, the older silver boxes do). That's where the AM-21 came into play for those who desperately needed the off-air tuner portion. Because of the TracStar slit-ring design, the use of signal modulation became their trademark. One coax (RG-6) passes dc power to the dish, data from the controller to positioning portion of the dish, and the two descrete LNBF signals from the feed horn. The extra box, or De-stacker separates the two distinct modulated LNBF signals from the single coax running from the dish itself.

[merle&louise]

Uh yeah, I got that!

[Kevin Erion]

Ben, The receiver boxes with the built in fans are HR21P. These are HD-DVR units and work GREAT, helps get the heat out of the box!

[mike kerley]

BenC, On the contrary, we have three dual input units, two are HD DVR's one SD and have both the slimline 5 for stationary and an older KVH dome for inmotion. Boxes work fine. We switch back and forth every week when traveling. No issues at all. I always switch the A/B switches to select the dish I want to use, then power up the dish to find the appropriate satelite or satelittes depending on in motion or stationary. Multiswitches provide addional cable ports for up to 8 outputs. I've never had to "reset" a receiver because of a lost input or signal.

[Mark3101]

A few notes about satellite television from DirecTV:

1) the "110 adapter" is a Tracstar systems item, allowing the dish to know when you are selecting a channel on the satellite at 110 degrees. It is, however, at this time virtually obsolete. DirecTV has very little programming on satellite 110 right now. I am sure this will change in the near future.

2) There is NOT currently, and will not be in the forseeable future, ANY in-motion dish that receives HD programming from DirecTV. The reason:
DirecTV, in the last 1-1/2 years, launched two new satellites to convey their HD service channels. Due to bandwidth considerations, they chose Ka band rather than Ku, which is what all the other satellites in the western hemisphere receive and beam back to earth. To receive the signals from these new satellites, Directv put out the Slimline 5 dish, with separate LNBF's for the Ka frequency spectrum built into the feed horn. As well, they look at all five DirecTV satellites. 99, 101, 103, 110, and 119 degrees Longitude.
In-motion dishes have only a small parabolic reflector and a single LNBF. They were able, up to that point, of switching between different satellites. Now, however, since the LNBF's are different for the 99 and 103 degree satellites (the new Ka band Sat's), they cannot receive the signal. They can still switch to 110 and 119 degree satellites and receive whatever DirecTV choses to put on these satellites, but can NOT receive signal from 99 and 103, the HD satellites.

Note: Dish Network chose to keep the extra satellites they put into space on the same frequency band as all the rest, hence, you CAN receive HD and all SD channels via in-motion on Dish Network.

Hope some of my rambling helps clarify the current satellite television issues of today.

According to Tracstar tech support, the 110 adapters are totally obsolete today. I removed mine when I updated to a couple of new HR21Pro DVR's last week. I also learned that the newer receivers firmware takes away the ability of the Tracstar system to switch between 101 and 110 or 101 and 119. You must now use the round 18" dish setting with the newest firmware to get reliable service with the Tracstar equipment. I also told both of the DirecTV receivers to use only ONE of the satellite ports and that seems to work well so far. I also got the Pro series receivers because of the cooling fans in the units. My old silver receivers got so hot they started to melt the access cards, hence the replacement. We are leaving tomorrow for about a 10 day trip and I should have a real good test of the new receivers and the Tracstar dish.