HD on a boat

[great2b1]

HI, I have had regular Directv on my boat for 15 years with out much problem. I have a regular dish antenna mounted to front railing.

Question : How will this work with HD antenna ? the boat moves slighly in slip. Does HD (the the new freq coming up) require higher precision dish aiming ?

thanks,

bill

 

[charper1]

You need a marine satellite application, NOT a residential unit that is "juryrigged or jerry-built".

 

[Bob Nielsen]

The beamwidth at Ka band is slightly more than half that of Ku band (inversely proportional to frequency), so yes, the pointing accuracy is more critical.

 

[KE4EST]

to SatelliteGuys!!!!

Yeah the HD will be more picky. Check out the link that Charper1 left.

 

[MBLUEYE]

Marine HD

I have been trying to upgreade to a HD system for my boat... I have a KVH M3 that I bought in Nov. 2006. This unit can not be upgraded and in March of 2007 KVH said that I would have to buy a KVH M3 DX unit.
In March of 2008 I was looking in to upgrading again and heard that Directv was changing there system from a Ku-band for HD to the Ka-band (new sat.)
I talk to KVH again to see if that would effect the KVH M3 DX system and they came back with the following statment.

Good afternoon, Mr. Morgan,

Thanks for your inquiry. At this time, there are no domed, in-motion satellite TV systems compatible with the Ka-band broadcasts that are now carrying the majority of DIRECTV’s HD programming. Currently, 15-20 HD channels are still available on DIRECTV’s Ku-band satellites and all of the standard-definition programming will also remain on the Ku-band satellites. We are looking into the development of a domed, in-motion Ka-band compatible antenna that could be available at the end of 2008 or early 2009, around the time when DIRECTV may be phasing out its remaining HD channels on the Ku-band birds. However, due to the antenna requirements to support Ka-band, I do not anticipate a Ka-band system in the M3’s compact size in the near future (current Ka-band systems are roughly 42 inches across).

For full in-motion HD reception with a broad selection of channels now, we offer a software update for your TracVision M3DX that will provide full support for HDTV programming from DISH Network in the US, including its DISH 1000 configuration, which broadcasts from three different satellites, along with HDTV broadcasts in Canada via the ExpressVu service.

For additional updates on KVH, TracVision, and HD support, I invite you to visit our online resource, KVH TracVision and High-definition TV.

Please let me know if we can be of any further assistance.

Best regards,

Chris Watson



May have to re-think this again...........

 

[heathriel]

I have a KVH Tracvision G4 on my boat. I have a Dish subscription with a VIP 722 DVR and pull in all the HD channels through the 110 satellite (automatic lock), but have to manually point to the 129 satellite where I'm docked to get to the rest of the HD channels (although they do come through just fine). When I'm out, it locks on in places though. if I were on the east coast, the 61.5 satellite would lock on and I'd get all the HD channels from that without an issue. 119 locks on just fine.

I can only point to one satellite at a time, so I have to go through the check switch every time I switch satellites, but it's worth it to have the DVR and two separate feeds for the boat.

We chose Dish over Direct because Direct wanted a contract and was switching bands for their HD so we couldn't get all the HDTV channels at all, and couldn't get any without the $800 HDTV upgrade.

 

[JohnMinetola]

I know this thread is old, but there are a lot of new developments in HD for boat's satellite antennas. Intellian has a new model, d4, which is only 18-inches in diameter, and it can receive all DirecTV HD and SD satellites with a dual-band LNB in it. Patent-pending, but delivery is not pending! Single dome, very dependable since the new technology eliminates fragile compass movement, cuts down on the noisy hunting of stepper motors, etc.
Also, Dish Network developments are great for boaters, frankly from KVH and Intellian both. HD has a future on boats!

(I work for Intellian)

 

[Matt9876]

I have set up many boats and RVs with HD by using the old standard phase III dish with the slimline3 LNB from (Solid Signal) mounted to the dish using the normal holes and screws provided.

Use the normal phaseIII setup numbers for 101 alignment and fine tune Az,Ele,Tilt for (99 & 103) conus,14 transponders for maximum gain.

I recommend the dish be mounted to the dock instead of the boat if possible,as stated the HD signals are a bit touchy to movement but also note the slimline3 head is an amazing peice of electronics and it's really not that hard once you tune it the first time.