KVH or Intellian?

[Woodland Hills]

It’s getting to be time to replace our M5 KVH system with something current. Any information on which is better: KVH or Intellian? And which model? We want to get Dish in HD.

[caltexflanc]

KVH is American, Intellian is Korean. I was very happy with the service I got from KVH. And yes, you definitely want Dish, not Direct. At the time we bought our KVH unit, it was Direct only. We had always used Dish on land and found the customer service vastly superior. I also use Dish Anywhere a lot when traveling.

[jimdavi]

We have intellian with Dish network. Nice that it will scan 3 satellites versus 1 with Directv. You do need an intellian MIM switching control unit to work with antenna controller. $199. This facilities switching between all satellites. Works great at dock or in motion.

[tugboater]

All the tugs I've run around on use KVH. I've dealt with their customer service some and have no complaints. Not sure about any other brand.

[Fletcher500]

Had KVH on previous boat, this one is Intellian. I can’t say I notice a difference, but we are SD only, not HD.

Regarding DTV, not happy with them in general. I spent a lot of painful time on the phone speaking to technical service in the Philippines last year. Just last night I added HBO. It shows up at home, but not on the boat. For the money they charge, their customer service sucks.

I am thinking of switching to Dish.

*Is it fairly easy to dump DTV, and make the switch?

*If you also have a land based account does Dish have the Low rate, $5/mo deal for a second receiver for your boat like DTV has?

[jimdavi]

I pay $7 per month for the boat with Dish.

[catalinajack]

An Intellian I4 will cost around $3,700. A KVH Tracvision 5 is over $6,000. These two units are comparable in dish diameter size and their ability to receive signals on the Ku band for high definition. Dish diameter determines the coverage. The larger the diameter the farther north, south, east, and west a signal can be received. Bigger dish, more cost.