DirecTV Installation

We discussed this a bit awhile back. I had DirecTV installed on the boat yesterday. When I ordered I just gave them the street address of the marina, with the designation 15-39. They assumed it was an apartment number and I never volunteered that it was a boat.


*
I got the choice package with around 150 channels, for a base price of about $40/month with a two year contract. They threw in all the HBO, Showtime and Starz channels, and Encore and some others were included for three months. Unless I renew them, they will end at that time. I got the DVR (wouldnt be without it!) so all in all, the bill comes to about $60/month. Local channels are included with all new installs now; you dont even have to request or pay extra for them any longer.


*
The installer couldnt be happier, since all the cabling was already run. I had the original installer (I had this on the boat a couple of years ago) put coax connectors right at the dish, so I could remove the dish in case of hurricane or other contingency. He mounted it on my Track-it TV mount with no problem.


*
Overall a great experience and Im very happy with the service so far.

Keith
Can you tell us how your HD reception is, if you have that capability? Do you have a 5 LNB dish mounted? I'm curious to know how it all works with the Trackit tv. sounds like you have a good start.

Oh, I'm sorry... I forgot to include that I did not get the HD service. I had heard that it could be a problem on a boat, even with minor movement with the satellite dish. I stuck with the regular service.

OK, thanks Keith
I think the Track it TV is a great system.* I had one of the original units, Follow me TV, on our last boat, and it worked great for us even at rough anchorages.* Never tried it underway, though - I always thought that offshore you should watch where* the boat is going, not TV.

*

I'll be doing similar to Keith except use my existing Directv account. Cost is

An additional $5/month
$70 or so for the Directv receiver
Cost of dish - about $120
Track it system -*about $900

I was told the same as Keith about HD but I wll pursue that a bit more.

A couple of years ago, I went round and round with DirecTV about a second installation on the same account. Half of their reps told me fine, half told me no. I don't think they knew what to do. One would tell me it was fine to have another location on the same account, another would say it was impossible, and two separate physical locations would have to be two separate accounts at full price each. Let us know how you come out on that, as well as how the HD works if you get it. I hear it's a 5 LNB dish.

keith, I believe he is referring to having a second receiver as in, for another room, and moving it to the boat as apposed to having a separate location. We did this for many years until we got rid of the house and just kept the account using our mail forwarding address.

I have had a DirecTV receiver on our boat for several years, and list it as a separate receiver on our house account, so it's just an additional $5 a month. DirecTV knows it is on the boat; that is how I identify it if I need to refresh the signal. If we haven't been on the boat for awhile, the receiver needs a reprogram signal, so I call them to send it. One interesting artifact of this is that we receive "local" channels whereever we are - Oregon channels in Canada, for example.

Red, Direct locals are spot beam transmissions and unless you are under the spot beam footprint you can not receive them unless you have one of the national feeds from New York, LA, Atlanta or Denver. Actually the Oregon stations could be acquired in parts of Canada around BC or so. But once you move out from under the spot beam you loose it. An unofficial map can be found at* http://www.scottandmichelle.net/scott/dtv.html


-- Edited by Capn Chuck at 22:24, 2009-03-05

I have had a DirecTV receiver on our boat for several years, and list it as a separate receiver on our house account, so it's just an additional $5 a month.

Many retirees use this method to lower their retirement cash outlays by working with a partner.