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Donna

Donna

Guru
Joined
Aug 30, 2016
Messages
1,231
Location
United States
Vessel Name
Southerly
Vessel Make
1986 Marine Trader 36' Sundeck
For a year now I have been researching how to get tv reception onboard. I have tried:

Fire stick (not enough bandwidth at the marina)

Long range indoor/outdoor antenna (doesn’t work at all.

What do you have? I really need to figure this out because it’s making me crazier than I already am with all the boat projects. I need 4 of me! I already have a beautiful ac/dc smart tv.

Help this gal make a decision please?
 
Russell Clifton said:
KVH antenna and Direct TV. But they ain't cheap!
Click to expand...

+1

Best deals on the dome are at the Miami boat show. If you already have Direct TV at home, you only pay $5 for the second box and get whatever your package at home is. Long term, that's a pretty good deal.

Ted
 
Russell Clifton said:
KVH antenna and Direct TV. But they ain't cheap!
Click to expand...

I can fly off off my daughters direct tv. What kind of price range are we talking about for the antenna? I’m assuming it’s radar arch mounted? I would prefer that BUT not spending 2 grand.
 
I have the KVH TV3. It's about $3,300 or maybe a little less. Significant deals at the boat show. Pay to play.

Ted
 
O C Diver said:
I have the KVH TV3. It's about $3,300 or maybe a little less. Significant deals at the boat show. Pay to play.

Ted
Click to expand...

Yea, yea, yea, I know! Have to purchase a new zodiac motor. Ugh! Plus other big projects. Maybe for now I’ll get a tailgater and fly off my daughters direct tv for 7 dollars a month. For about 400.00 I’ll have tv at least at dock.
 
First, do you just want TV or do you want HDTV. If you want HDTV your only option is going with DishNetwork. You will need an Intellian I3 or better, you will need a vip211z set top box from dish and a mms card. Intellian has a program we’re you can get all these through west marine for $3000. The i3 only requires two coaxial cables to be run which makes installation fairly easy.

Dishnetwork can be purchased by the month were DirectTv requires an annual subscription.

I had a kvh trac 4 that I just replaced with the Intellian i3. Both satellites preform the same at anchor and motoring in calm seas. I have never tried to watch tv in rough seas so I can’t comment on that.
 
You can use your daughter's DTV account with a dock/piling mounted house type DTV dish for about 50 bucks or less. Craig's List for the antenna and a used DTV receiver.

Underway TV is much more expensive, but who watches TV underway anyhow?
 
seasalt007 said:
You can use your daughter's DTV account with a dock/piling mounted house type DTV dish for about 50 bucks or less. Craig's List for the antenna and a used DTV receiver.

Underway TV is much more expensive, but who watches TV underway anyhow?
Click to expand...
If we are anchored out during football season....ME! Lol
 
Last edited:
We have a KVH TV-1 offshore US waters LT 60 miles. She's always on when we are at the house or on the boat. Because I want to get every penny out of my 119 directtv bill each month (this includes our river cabin too.) Thing is the KVH never loses signal, bouncing at 30 knots offshore. The river cabin loses signal when a squirrel poots. Nothing like catching fish and watching Alabama destroy whoever. Roll Tide.
 
We are going to try Direct TV with unlimited data on our smartphones and iPad from AT&T. They have an app that allows you to watch TV from your smart devices.
Unfortunately we had to postpone the install due to a funeral in NY so I can’t give you any feedback yet.
 
tiltrider1 said:
First, do you just want TV or do you want HDTV. If you want HDTV your only option is going with DishNetwork. You will need an Intellian I3 or better,
Click to expand...

Times change. I am back to running Direct on my HD Intellian. I have switched between KVH and Intellian, and back and forth between Direct and Dish and a Direct affiliate for PV up to Cabo, and now back to Direct. The only advantage Dish had was they carried the PAC12 network and Direct did not.
 
We saw a KVH HD-7 at the Seattle Boat show for $13, 500. I have a M-7 and use my home receiver. Works great!

Smaller antenna depending how much coverage you want.
 
Donna, I think there was a discussion here about this earlier. These work pretty well onboard & don't break the bank.
Marine Satellite TV Tracking
Otherwise, I guess your next option is spending over 2k on a KVH TV1. I use them on commercial boats up here on the Chesapeake & they work fine as long as you are happy with a standard picture & don't need an HD picture. The installation is a piece of cake with only one wire to control everything.
 

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KVH if you're okay with SD signals only. Intellian is way less expensive and is HD capable. We use Dish TV rather than Direct TV because, with Dish, the subscriber can get locals in any location via an RV account. With Direct the user will lose locals (network stations) once your boat moves out of range of the spot beam for your account address. Some folks have been successful using a New York address to establish a Direct TV account which enables a "national feed" which gives the user New York City network stations. Why bother when a Dish RV account lets the one use a real home address and change locals at will? The channel line-ups are very similar and very similar in their pricing.
 
catalinajack said:
KVH if you're okay with SD signals only. Intellian is way less expensive and is HD capable. We use Dish TV rather than Direct TV because, with Dish, the subscriber can get locals in any location via an RV account. With Direct the user will lose locals (network stations) once your boat moves out of range of the spot beam for your account address. Some folks have been successful using a New York address to establish a Direct TV account which enables a "national feed" which gives the user New York City network stations. Why bother when a Dish RV account lets the one use a real home address and change locals at will? The channel line-ups are very similar and very similar in their pricing.
Click to expand...

That's really good information, Jack. Thanks. We had been wondering about that.
 
catalinajack said:
KVH if you're okay with SD signals only. Intellian is way less expensive and is HD capable. We use Dish TV rather than Direct TV because, with Dish, the subscriber can get locals in any location via an RV account. With Direct the user will lose locals (network stations) once your boat moves out of range of the spot beam for your account address. Some folks have been successful using a New York address to establish a Direct TV account which enables a "national feed" which gives the user New York City network stations. Why bother when a Dish RV account lets the one use a real home address and change locals at will? The channel line-ups are very similar and very similar in their pricing.
Click to expand...

KVH absolutely will pick up HD programming, just not at higher latitudes with the smaller dish. We are on the fringe of HD here on the lower Chesapeake.
 
Donna said:
I can fly off off my daughters direct tv. What kind of price range are we talking about for the antenna? I’m assuming it’s radar arch mounted? I would prefer that BUT not spending 2 grand.
Click to expand...

If you're just trying to solve TV at your home dock... some of our dock neighbors have mounted their dish on a pile next to their boat... so it's permanently aimed... and apparently relatively inexpensive because you don't need gimbaling and so forth.

-Chris
 
ranger42c said:
If you're just trying to solve TV at your home dock... some of our dock neighbors have mounted their dish on a pile next to their boat... so it's permanently aimed... and apparently relatively inexpensive because you don't need gimbaling and so forth.

-Chris
Click to expand...

That should be illegal. Coming back from the Bahamas at a marina by Sebastian inlet, I was given a slip next to someone who did this making it impossible to throw a line over the piling. Boat wound up wedged sideways slamming into the dock in high wind. The hull had just been painted along with the bottom. Yes I had superficial damage.
 
boathealer said:
A $3000-5000 KVH dome plus subscriptions will buy A LOT of unlimited cellular data ------- and your TV Stick will still work.
Click to expand...

Dead spot on internet here. Can’t even get online at my slip.
 
boomerang said:
KVH absolutely will pick up HD programming, just not at higher latitudes with the smaller dish. We are on the fringe of HD here on the lower Chesapeake.
Click to expand...

I am on the upper Chesapeake so KVH not much good to me. Plus, moving north, well, you get my point. Moving to a larger KVH dish costs way more than an equally capable Intellian.
 
FWIW we get HD programming on our KVH-1 and DirectTV.

For those using cellular data to access programming, it may interest you that there is an inexpensive adapter that will provide HDMI output to your TV from your smart device. Amazon has them. They work very well!
 
I had a KVH awhile back and it worked fine. Researching KVH vs. Intellian, it appeared to me more people preferred Intellian, and less problems overall. That is based on random anecdotal feedback, but the reason I am going with Intellian (I3) on a new install next month.

Has anyone had any issues with DTV setting up your account for $5/mo for your boat, if you have an existing DTV account at home?
 
Could be a west coast thing vs east coast or maybe it’s just the higher latitudes of the PNW. Only Intellian and dish guaranteed HDTV. KVH required a tv7 to get HDTV. Then again Since KVH doesn’t send any representation to the Seattle boat show and Intellian does maybe I didn’t get the full story.
 
I have KVH with Direct TV and have traveled the East Coast, Great Lakes, and to the top of Lake Superior. Worked perfectly. As to whether it's HD or not, I couldn't tell you. I use it for news, weather and nature programing entertainment. My idea of "Reality" is getting away from most of what's on TV.

Ted
 
We have KVH and Direct TV up here in the Northwest. We get all the local Seattle stations and the satellite stations until we cross over the Canada/Alaska border. Then the Seattle stations are no longer available. We can get reception everywhere except if anchored in a small bay surrounded with very high mountains.
 
We just went through this.


Have had different receivers on different boats with varying satisfaction.


Went with the KVH HD7 and Direct TV. Yes, was expensive (Sat components were around 11K).


Used a local company (Clearwater/St Pete area) which I cannot recommend highly enough. Nature Coast, they are fabulous. We moved the location of the electronics from Starboard to Port, so new cabling. You could not tell they had been into the walls.


Mark
 
What TV programming do you find is worth the $3-13k investment, with monthly fees I guess too? Does it also provide on-demand programs/movies that are commercial free? Weather? Just curious what you are watching and what features are most desirable.
 
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