My system really different, need more info

Joe Satellite Fan

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
244
11
Palisade, Colorado
My system is quite different than most anybody else and wonder if anybody has any idea what will work. Right now have a 722 in living room. I hooked up one of the old rabbits and run that into the kitchen and spare bedrooms which of course means sd tv to those areas using channel 2.

Wait ... it gets even more bizarre. A long time ago, I bought an additional Dish (since upgraded to a HD Dish), mounted on my garage and via RG6 hooked it up to a 211K in the bedrooom so we could get HD back there. Of course, added EHD so we in effect had another DVR for the bedroom.

More bizarre: We have always taken our system out of the bedroom and taken it with us when we went camping. I got to be a pro at finding the satellites. I got fed up with always disconnecting and reconnecting the cables and moving the receiver, so we bought an additional 211K along with another HD Dish (and accompanying EHD ... 3 DVRs now). This past fall, we bought a new 5th wheel with an automatic satellite dish (yay, no more beeping anoying the neighbors).

So, here's the mess. Three completely separate systems. If I have to give up VIPs, I most definitely will not upgrade. On the other hand, if I can put a second hopper in the 5th wheel, then 2 hoppers and 4 Joeys will make me really happy. I don't mind a little increase in fees to achieve this.

Anyone know what will be required to have a complete separate system such as additional fees, etc? And, the bedroom will have to be wired with RG6 from the living room, I suppose.

Ok, put on those thinking caps and let me have it.
 
The issue is not having VIPs in the same house; it's having VIP receivers on the same account. So, you can definitely do what you want at the cost of two accounts. You can also (probably) upgrade to two Hoppers and take one of them camping. I have no idea if your "automatic satellite dish" will be able to service a Hopper, but I doubt that.

There is also the possibility that Dish will eventually revisit reality and allow VIP receivers on the same account.
 
Another nice thing about the Hopper upgrade is that Dish will fix up your wiring, so you will be on one house system.
 
It is unlikely that the sat dish will work with the Hopper fully automatically. Can you punch in to a control the satellite location and have it train to that spot?

As it stands now, as posted, you must have a separate account for the RV ViP211 series. Perhaps Dish will allow this to be a lower cost account. We can hope.

I think mike has an excellent point. Dish will set you up with a dish and wiring and everything will be unified, after seamless integration is achieved.

You probably want to wait a month or more to see how things shake out. You are definitely looking at a significant (IMHO) increase in fees over what you have. But you will gain much, too.
 
To navychop: "It is unlikely that the sat dish will work with the Hopper fully automatically. Can you punch in to a control the satellite location and have it train to that spot?"

That is the area that I'm both positive and most concerned. I'm using the Winegard Travler. It automatically finds and locks in on the 110, 119, and 129 satellites, no problem. It functions without any regard as to what the receiver is doing, it just finds them and fine tunes them and it's all good. So, in that regard locking into the Satellites is positive. I'm a bit confused about using the Hopper as it seems that an internet connection is required. That can't happen.

navychop: "I think mike has an excellent point. Dish will set you up with a dish and wiring and everything will be unified, after seamless integration is achieved."

That is one of things that I'm really looking forward to. Having "cobbled together" my system over the years, it seems like the Hopper/Joey deal along with Dish wiring everything up will be a big plus. I already have HD tvs at most locations.

navychop: "You probably want to wait a month or more to see how things shake out. You are definitely looking at a significant (IMHO) increase in fees over what you have. But you will gain much, too."

I already figure that I need to wait for a bit to see what happens. I don't mind paying a bit more to make this whole house system work for me. But ... if I can't make the Hopper work with the camper, then I won't upgrade, having to pay for two different accounts would be way too much.

Thanks for the comments! This site can be depended on to come up with the right answers.

Joe
 
Yep. Internet not required. Now the question is, can they detect the Hoppers are not together, or at home? Since isolators are available, this might not be a problem. I'm sure somebody will test it out.
 
Yep. Internet not required. Now the question is, can they detect the Hoppers are not together, or at home? Since isolators are available, this might not be a problem. I'm sure somebody will test it out.

They will assume they are not together without evidence that they are, like same IP or phone #.
 
I'm using the Winegard Travler. It automatically finds and locks in on the 110, 119, and 129 satellites, no problem. It functions without any regard as to what the receiver is doing, it just finds them and fine tunes them and it's all good.

So the Travler gets all 3 sats simultaneously without physically reorienting? That's good! Does it appear to your 211 as an SW64 (or something starting with SW)? If so, the Hopper can't deal with it.
 
So the Travler gets all 3 sats simultaneously without physically reorienting? That's good! Does it appear to your 211 as an SW64 (or something starting with SW)? If so, the Hopper can't deal with it.

The Travler is an autotune 1000.2. dish1000Web.jpg It works just like a Permanant mount 1000.2, just automatic.
 
As ziptied posted, the receiver just thinks its a regular HD 1000.2 dish. The fact that it does act the same is the main reason I chose that system. Almost EVERYTHING else moves the dish when you change channels.
 
Agree that looks very nice. If it has two (or three) DishProPlus cables coming out, you should be good to go with a Hopper and a solo (or dual) node in between.
 
Yeah, if I was adding it to my 5th wheel, I would probably not do it. But we last fall, we ordered our new 5th wheel exactly the way we wanted it and by just adding to the order it only cost me a little bit more.

Good to hear about putting a Hopper and Joey in the camper. I reckon I will go with the upgrade, like the idea of having HD everywhere.