KVH issues

Star0210 · Jun 10, 2019

A couple of them actually.

We bought a brand new TV1 system. We installed it and then called Dish and activated the receiver. It worked but we kept getting a 004 error code. So we looked it up and it said that if you just push the channel up or down button and then back again it usually works. Well, that worked for some channels, but not others.
Also, we don’t catch any local channels. Before we could even get around to troubleshooting those issues further, the lights on the hub went to flashing red. So David looks that up and it says there’s a short in the cable. Well, it’s a brand new co ax cable that came with the unit but David went ahead and tested it and it’s fine. No short. But just to further check, David brought another cable and plugged it in and still getting same red flashing light.

So...that’s where we are, it halfway worked for a whole day and a half. I think David is going to give KVH a call today.

Has anyone experienced any of these issues with your KVH TV systems and/or Dish network?

DavidM · Jun 10, 2019

The lack of local channels is a Dish thing, not a KVH thing. You are only allowed to receive local channels at your Dish registered address and if you are more than 100-200 miles away you can't receive them. The RV industry can do this because they had a RVer/legislator who insisted on it, but alas we boaters can't do it.

You can change that address as you travel but it is a PITA to convince a Dish customer support person that it can be done. A better way is to make up an address in the NYC area, change it to your registered address, then you can get one of the two "national" sets of local channels, NYC and LA that are broadcast throughout the whole country. All others have a minimal 100-200 mi coverage area.

David

Woodland Hills · Jun 10, 2019

IMHO, your KVH/Dish systems are really dependent upon your finding a good tech. We paid two different guys to setup our system with little success. We finally found one who was successful and the system has been trouble free ever since....... Good Luck!

BTW, the spendy part was continually waiting for the system to reboot after every change: the tech spent at least three of his eight hours just siting and waiting on the boxes to wake up after each change to the code.

bgillroy · Jun 10, 2019

Have TV 2. Hook your computer to kvh box with supplied Ethernet cable , in your browser enter 169.254.253.1. go ahead and go thru setup for tv1 being sure to enter your current lat and lon to point dish.

bgillroy · Jun 10, 2019

Reeding on ye as PIA to change locals on Direct....tech here now so we hopefully learn more today...

Woodland Hills · Jun 10, 2019

We use the Dish app to change our local channels ourselves whenever we move to another area. It takes no more than 10 minutes to take effect. The big pain is having to reprogram the new channels into the DVR for the local shows we record.

hjorgan · Jun 10, 2019

Had a TV1 since 2016. A bit after the warrenty expired (of course) it quick working, middle light blinking red. Code of 100 - no power to antenna. KVH support recommended I take it to a local dealer for bench testing. Came back bad motherboard. 1,200 to replace the board or 950 plus whatever the tech charges for repair at KVH. Either way a boat buck.

So, could be a bad motherboard?

Star0210 · Jun 10, 2019

hjorgan said:
Had a TV1 since 2016. A bit after the warrenty expired (of course) it quick working, middle light blinking red. Code of 100 - no power to antenna. KVH support recommended I take it to a local dealer for bench testing. Came back bad motherboard. 1,200 to replace the board or 950 plus whatever the tech charges for repair at KVH. Either way a boat buck.

So, could be a bad motherboard?

Gosh I hope not. It’s brand new!

Star0210 · Jun 10, 2019

djmarchand said:
The lack of local channels is a Dish thing, not a KVH thing. You are only allowed to receive local channels at your Dish registered address and if you are more than 100-200 miles away you can't receive them. The RV industry can do this because they had a RVer/legislator who insisted on it, but alas we boaters can't do it.

You can change that address as you travel but it is a PITA to convince a Dish customer support person that it can be done. A better way is to make up an address in the NYC area, change it to your registered address, then you can get one of the two "national" sets of local channels, NYC and LA that are broadcast throughout the whole country. All others have a minimal 100-200 mi coverage area.

David

Our boat is 2.5 miles away from our house.

Woodland Hills · Jun 10, 2019

djmarchand said:
The lack of local channels is a Dish thing, not a KVH thing. You are only allowed to receive local channels at your Dish registered address and if you are more than 100-200 miles away you can't receive them. The RV industry can do this because they had a RVer/legislator who insisted on it, but alas we boaters can't do it.

You can change that address as you travel but it is a PITA to convince a Dish customer support person that it can be done. A better way is to make up an address in the NYC area, change it to your registered address, then you can get one of the two "national" sets of local channels, NYC and LA that are broadcast throughout the whole country. All others have a minimal 100-200 mi coverage area.

David

Dish has our boat on an RV account, we pay $4.00 a month for the Outdoor Pack which allows us to move locations.The My Dish app we use to change local channels is the standard app.

catalinajack · Jun 11, 2019

djmarchand said:
The lack of local channels is a Dish thing, not a KVH thing. You are only allowed to receive local channels at your Dish registered address and if you are more than 100-200 miles away you can't receive them. The RV industry can do this because they had a RVer/legislator who insisted on it, but alas we boaters can't do it.

You can change that address as you travel but it is a PITA to convince a Dish customer support person that it can be done. A better way is to make up an address in the NYC area, change it to your registered address, then you can get one of the two "national" sets of local channels, NYC and LA that are broadcast throughout the whole country. All others have a minimal 100-200 mi coverage area.

David

Absolutely wrong about changing locals with a Dish RV account. I just spent a year travelling the Great Loop. When having moved into a new local TV market changing locals was easily accomplished using the MyDish cell phone app. Run through the "manage locals" menus and the app will determine your location and give you an 8-digit code to enter into your receiver. A reboot of the receiver (unplug, plug in) and the new locals are there along with an updated channel guide.

catalinajack · Jun 11, 2019

Star0210 said:
A couple of them actually.

We bought a brand new TV1 system. We installed it and then called Dish and activated the receiver. It worked but we kept getting a 004 error code. So we looked it up and it said that if you just push the channel up or down button and then back again it usually works. Well, that worked for some channels, but not others.
Also, we don’t catch any local channels. Before we could even get around to troubleshooting those issues further, the lights on the hub went to flashing red. So David looks that up and it says there’s a short in the cable. Well, it’s a brand new co ax cable that came with the unit but David went ahead and tested it and it’s fine. No short. But just to further check, David brought another cable and plugged it in and still getting same red flashing light.

So...that’s where we are, it halfway worked for a whole day and a half. I think David is going to give KVH a call today.

Has anyone experienced any of these issues with your KVH TV systems and/or Dish network?

From many threads I have read, KVH equipment seems to frequently have problems. I'm sorry to hear another boater having issues and with new equipment to boot. My observation will not help you but it may give others contemplating adding SAT TV5 to their boat some food for thought.

We installed an Intellian dish designed for DishTV reception. It worked out of the box. True, the user must learn how to program and sometimes reprogram a switch box - easily done - but overall it just plain works, with locals easily updated as you travel.

We chose an I-4 for greater geographical range at a cost of about $3,500 all-in. There are less expensive models, I-2, I-3. The I-4 supposedly will works in the Bahamas, not so much for the smaller dishes. Coverage maps are available on the Intellian website.

boater3 · Jun 11, 2019

TV1 is the basic model. Its not fully compatible/wont get all channels, at least in HD. People used to simply add a receiver for $5/month or whatever to their home account, family member account, or a friend's account. I dont know if you can still do that but it was easier and less expensive than having a separate account for the boat.

catalinajack · Jun 11, 2019

mystery said:
TV1 is the basic model. Its not fully compatible/wont get all channels, at least in HD. People used to simply add a receiver for $5/month or whatever to their home account, family member account, or a friend's account. I dont know if you can still do that but it was easier and less expensive than having a separate account for the boat.

And that's the problem with the KVH TV1 model, no HD capability. For the same cost, one could purchase an Intellian I2 with HD capability on Dish TV. For HD, a KVH dish would cost in excess of $10,000.

As for the separate account for the boat, I prefer paying because it easily gets me local stations wherever I travel. Plus, when away from the boat for extended periods of time, the user with a Dish TV RV account can suspend service and will not be charged during suspension. Then is a $7 reconnect fee.

IMHO, KVH is a poor choice for many, many reasons. To the OP, I guess you're stuck now having sunk all those dollars into KVH. On the other hand, you could sell it for what you can get and start over.

Star0210 · Jun 11, 2019

mystery said:
TV1 is the basic model. Its not fully compatible/wont get all channels, at least in HD. People used to simply add a receiver for $5/month or whatever to their home account, family member account, or a friend's account. I dont know if you can still do that but it was easier and less expensive than having a separate account for the boat.

That’s what we did. It’s $7/month added to our Dish bill.
We don’t travel far and don’t watch all that much TV so the basic model is plenty good enough for us. I just need to be able to watch football during football season and keep up with the news.

BobnDoc · Jun 11, 2019

Star0210 said:
That’s what we did. It’s $7/month added to our Dish bill.

We don’t travel far and don’t watch all that much TV so the basic model is plenty good enough for us. I just need to be able to watch football during football season and keep up with the news.

Recently bought an east coast boat and moved it to the Seattle area. Boat came with three TVs and a KVH 3 set up.Evidently we need a dishTV box. Not familiar with them. Have Comcast X1 at home. How do we proceed?

boater3 · Jun 11, 2019

BobnDoc said:
Recently bought an east coast boat and moved it to the Seattle area. Boat came with three TVs and a KVH 3 set up.Evidently we need a dishTV box. Not familiar with them. Have Comcast X1 at home. How do we proceed?

start by reading info on kvh website and manual!

Woodland Hills · Jun 11, 2019

Call KVH with your serial number and see if there is an upgrade path. We were able to change a circuit board and now we get Dish Network with HD programming. We have VP211 set top boxes and were able to add a 2tb hard drive to each and now we have full DVR capability as well as the ability to rewind live tv. We got the drives on Amazon for $90.

Star0210 · Jun 11, 2019

BobnDoc said:
Recently bought an east coast boat and moved it to the Seattle area. Boat came with three TVs and a KVH 3 set up.Evidently we need a dishTV box. Not familiar with them. Have Comcast X1 at home. How do we proceed?

We ordered the Wally receiver online and then I just called dish and said I need to add this receiver and activate it.
But we already have dish at home.
You could look at their tailgater packages.

Star0210 · Jun 17, 2019

hjorgan said:
Had a TV1 since 2016. A bit after the warrenty expired (of course) it quick working, middle light blinking red. Code of 100 - no power to antenna. KVH support recommended I take it to a local dealer for bench testing. Came back bad motherboard. 1,200 to replace the board or 950 plus whatever the tech charges for repair at KVH. Either way a boat buck.

So, could be a bad motherboard?

Yep, that’s what it is. :banghead:

Thankfully, it’s under warranty and KVH is sending us a new one.
Very disappointing though that this happened after only having it hooked up for about 24 hours.

hjorgan · Jun 17, 2019

Star0210 said:
Yep, that’s what it is.
Thankfully, it’s under warranty and KVH is sending us a new one.
Very disappointing though that this happened after only having it hooked up for about 24 hours.

Having been in the tech biz for many years, I've had many "out of box" failures of new components. We used to "Burn in" pcs and servers for 72 hours before putting them in production. The failure rate was low, but it did happen.

Hope KVH gets you going quickly, still waiting on ours to return from the factory.

garychurch · Jun 17, 2019

I understand that in the near future (2020?) Direct TV will discontinue using its Standard Definition (SD) satellite transponder and rely upon its High Definition (HD) transponder. For many with older SD satellite receivers (i.e., KVH 4) they will require a replacement for an HD receiver plus a compatible HDVR box. I think this is about a $12,000 hardware investment.

Ironically, the North America coverage for Direct TV extends only to the south of the Bahamas. If you want Direct TV further south in the Caribbean you need a new antenna LNB to get the South American satellites and spanish language.

At this point the new low altitude high density internet satellite networks (Starlink, Amazon, etc.) in the next couple of years that provide highspeed, worldwide, low cost look extremely promising in lieu of DISH and Direct TV.

It will be interesting to see how this market develops.

Woodland Hills · Jun 17, 2019

So why stick with DirecTV? Just switch to Dish.......

Alaskan Sea-Duction · Jun 17, 2019

garychurch said:
I understand that in the near future (2020?) Direct TV will discontinue using its Standard Definition (SD) satellite transponder and rely upon its High Definition (HD) transponder. For many with older SD satellite receivers (i.e., KVH 4) they will require a replacement for an HD receiver plus a compatible HDVR box. I think this is about a $12,000 hardware investment.

Ironically, the North America coverage for Direct TV extends only to the south of the Bahamas. If you want Direct TV further south in the Caribbean you need a new antenna LNB to get the South American satellites and spanish language.

At this point the new low altitude high density internet satellite networks (Starlink, Amazon, etc.) in the next couple of years that provide highspeed, worldwide, low cost look extremely promising in lieu of DISH and Direct TV.

It will be interesting to see how this market develops.

This true but goes beyond this. DirecTV is owned by AT&T. ATT&T launched their LAST tv satellite last November 2018. In a press release AT&T stated they will not be replacing satellites, thus DirecTV will start a slow death. AT&T has stated satellite TV is outdated and will be replaced with streaming.

I have a SD, KVH-7 unit. (Replacement with a HD-7 is $15K plus install) Currently I am in Sitka Alaska and the old unit is working great, unless there is heavy clouds that roll in off the ocean.

Woodland Hills said:
So why stick with DirecTV? Just switch to Dish.......

I will be switching over to Dish when we loose DirecTV. Maybe with w tailgater if I can find one that auto tracks. Need this option when on the hook.

jwasko · Jun 17, 2019

We boat in New England. Purchased a TV3 this Spring and a Wally receiver online. Set it up on the "Eastern Arc" per the KVH instructions, called Dish and got their Outdoor Pack. Works great - we get all the HD channels in the pack no problem. We do get the 004 error sometimes when switching channels, if the new channel is on a different satellite than the old channel.

Best I can tell what's happening is the dish is translating to the new position and you momentarily lose the signal so the receiver throws the error. The up-down sequence normally clears it but still a bit of a pain.

I found the easiest solution was to create 2 favorite lists in the Wally. One for the 61.5 satellite, where just about all the HD channels reside and a second for the 72.7 satellite where the SD-only channels reside. There are only a few SD-only channels so 90% of what we watch is on the 61.5.

Codger2 · Jun 17, 2019

catalinajack said:
When having moved into a new local TV market changing locals was easily accomplished using the MyDish cell phone app. Run through the "manage locals" menus and the app will determine your location and give you an 8-digit code to enter into your receiver. A reboot of the receiver (unplug, plug in) and the new locals are there along with an updated channel guide.

Having cancelled my Direct TV account a couple of months ago and adding a GLomex OTA (over the air) antenna, I find this thread to be quite amusing. With Glomex, when the boat is in another city all you have to do is turn the TV on! It picks up the local channels automatically. You must have a late model TV however that has a more modern tuner to pick up the frequencies that the older models won't pick up. I bought a 43" Samsung smart TV for $350 & a $125 for the Glomex. I used the existing cable from the Direct TV dome & voila, HD on 63 local channels! BTW, no monthly payments either. :dance:

Alaskan Sea-Duction · Jun 17, 2019

Codger2 said:
Having cancelled my Direct TV account a couple of months ago and adding a GLomex OTA (over the air) antenna, I find this thread to be quite amusing. With Glomex, when the boat is in another city all you have to do is turn the TV on! It picks up the local channels automatically. You must have a late model TV however that has a more modern tuner to pick up the frequencies that the older models won't pick up. I bought a 43" Samsung smart TV for $350 & a $125 for the Glomex. I used the existing cable from the Direct TV dome & voila, HD on 63 local channels! BTW, no monthly payments either.

True but you can't get Game of Thrones on HBO.... :popcorn:

tiltrider1 · Jun 17, 2019

You can’t get F1 either.

catalinajack · Jun 17, 2019

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:
This true but goes beyond this. DirecTV is owned by AT&T. ATT&T launched their LAST tv satellite last November 2018. In a press release AT&T stated they will not be replacing satellites, thus DirecTV will start a slow death. AT&T has stated satellite TV is outdated and will be replaced with streaming.

I have a SD, KVH-7 unit. (Replacement with a HD-7 is $15K plus install) Currently I am in Sitka Alaska and the old unit is working great, unless there is heavy clouds that roll in off the ocean.

I will be switching over to Dish when we loose DirecTV. Maybe with w tailgater if I can find one that auto tracks. Need this option when on the hook.

Intellian I2, I3, or I4 for Dish tv.

catalinajack · Jun 17, 2019

Codger2 said:
Having cancelled my Direct TV account a couple of months ago and adding a GLomex OTA (over the air) antenna, I find this thread to be quite amusing. With Glomex, when the boat is in another city all you have to do is turn the TV on! It picks up the local channels automatically. You must have a late model TV however that has a more modern tuner to pick up the frequencies that the older models won't pick up. I bought a 43" Samsung smart TV for $350 & a $125 for the Glomex. I used the existing cable from the Direct TV dome & voila, HD on 63 local channels! BTW, no monthly payments either.

Amusing cuz why? Cuz your Glomex gets you free TV. Well, I can assure you that in more places than not on the Great Loop, many more places actually, OTA stations were too far away to be received. OTA works only when close enough to a broadcast tower and only when there is a direct line of site. Travel through the wilds of Georgia, South Carolina, and most of North Carolina and let us know how much reception you get with that Glomex. I am always amused how some folks think OTA is so great. It's useful, sometimes.

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