Hopper in RV?

[rvtechnician]

Hello,
Will a hopper system work fine in a n RV? I have a client that has recently purchased a tracking domed dish. We installed it and it works fine with a Dish VIP 211 k. He now wants a Hopper in front on the main tv and one Joey installed in the rear bedroom. There is a video switch in front that changes inputs to the rear tv, so as I understand it, a Joey should work fine. This will be a traveling system and may/may not have an Internet connection.

 

[TheKrell]

Does the tracking dish have 3 outputs? These could be from DishPro LNBs or else a combination of DP LNBs and a DPP switch such as that which exists inside the 1000.x line of dishes.

 

[rvtechnician]

I do not know the answer to that. The dish is a KVH R6DX. Here is a link. It does say that it is compatible with the current VIP 211 k which is the receiver we installed that was provided by KVH.
DISH Network HDTV Service

 

[gokartergo]

It says right on the link you provided it works with dishes 211 and 211k.. That means it does not work with dishes duel tuners and it won't work with the hopper..

 

[Brussam]

The KVH is a single LNBF dome. It might work but my experience with a dual tuner and a single LNBF dish is that the Switch Test will drive the dome positioning crazy and you will run a high probability of a failure in the test.

Best to get a Trav'ler for the roof but that is not an in-motion dish like the dome. Or a 1000.2 on a tripod. Works fine both ways for me.

I would disconnect the bedroom TV cable from the switch box and directly connect it to the Solo.

Between park Wi-Fi and an air-card connection or a Hughesnet connection, the RV should have enough Internet connectivity for the Hopper.

 

[rvtechnician]

Thank you. I think this will change their mind. They went with the KVH R6 DX specifically for tracking and Dish HD. Their previous set up was a non tracking King Dome that came installed on the RV and Direct TV which (as you know) is SD only. I think they should stay with the VIP receiver.

 

[rvtechnician]

So then......will a Hopper work with this domed KVH to watch one channel at a time in HD?

 

[Brussam]

I had a friend that we upgraded his dome system with a new control box to lock onto all three satellites. We tried to used it with two inputs with a VIP722K.

The problem was that during the Switch Check, the two tuners were issuing satellite selection commands at the same time for different satellites. The Switch Check is not a sequential test process. We could get a successful Switch Check about one in every 30 tries. By successful, I mean all three satellites found.

The solution for the time being was we disconnected one of the tuner feeds of the 722K. With just one tuner issuing commands, the dome could respond to each satellite selection command and the Switch Check finished with all three satellites.

With their lifestyle, they just run the 722K with TV2 mirroring TV1 and watched one thing at a time.

The question is will the Hopper accept only one satellite feed during the Switch Test. If it can, then the Hopper should work with receiving signals from only one satellite at a time. The one satellite could be multiple channels.

So I tested it. I ran a Switch Check with one cable disconnected. The test results were interesting, tune 1 and tuner 2 passed the test while tuner 3 failed. This was with a Winegard Trav'ler so there was no positioning conflicts. So a Hopper can deal with only one satellite feed cable.

There still could be an issue with the dome depending on how the Hopper/Solo issue satellite selection commands to a single cable. If they issues commands in a somewhat sequential manner that the dome positioning can respond fast enough not to fail the test, then maybe.

Now I have to go explain to the boss why I ran a Switch Check while she was watching TV in the Bedroom.

 

[Brussam]

Since I was in trouble anyways, I back and tried disconnecting the other satellite cable. The results of the test was tuner 1 and 2 no satellites, tuner 3, just satellite 110.

This leads me to believe that the Solo works a little like the 622/722 in that one of the satellite connections supplies the switching signals (voltage and/or 22KHz) and the other connection just issues DESC commands. Without the voltage or 22Khz switching, the second connection couldn't select anything but satellite 110.

I learned about the voltage switching when I had a Winegard AS-2003 that used voltage signal for satellite switching between satellites 119 and 110. One of the tuners could cause the dish to change satellites, the other couldn't. I selected the controlling tuner to be the default for recording so watching on TV 1 was live. That is unless the recording was on a different satellite and then I would get "signal loss."

 

[rvtechnician]

Thanks. In order to keep myself out of trouble, I'm going to recommend not switching the RV over to a Hopper. It sounds like it may not work well and I cannot do something like this unless I'm certain. I'll stay tuned in to see how it progresses as more info is available. Again thanks for all the info and testing. Perhaps the satellite manufacturers will come with a domed tracking antenna that will work.

By the way, we decided to have a Hopper and 2 Joeys installed at our home. We have been on Direct TV since 2002. We have been dealing with a very glitchy HR24-500 that is most aggravating. I hope the Hooper is better. The install is scheduled for tomorrow.

 

[sparc]

By the way, we decided to have a Hopper and 2 Joeys installed at our home. We have been on Direct TV since 2002. We have been dealing with a very glitchy HR24-500 that is most aggravating. I hope the Hooper is better. The install is scheduled for tomorrow.

i would still keep your expectations lower for the first few months on the hopper/joey until they push some software updates. There are some slightly aggravating bugs.