Need help with a dish network setup in a motor home

[nbargolf]

Ok this is a bit complicated. Our current configuration is 1 vip611 DVR receiver, dish 500 dish, winguard carryout and a KVH r5 satellite on our motor home. All is good with the dish 500 and the winguard( it won't record but we but we only use it when we are overnight somewhere). Recently purchase the motor home with the R5 on it. The tech at the RV place called KVH and they said the R5 will not work with a dish DVR receiver. So we are considering going to a vip211k with an external hard drive to record which will work with the tracvision r5. Question? When I called Dish they confirmed that they could activate it to record on the disk drive but there was no recording features on the 211 other than recording what you are turn to on the receiver. Is that true, if so it wouldn't be of much use if you can't record one and watch another one. I have searched the forums and some said you can watch one and record another but didn't said how. Can someone out there help me understand if there is a process that will do this or not.
Pre thanks

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[boba]

The 211 is a single tuner receiver so it is record the satellite signal that you are watching, now it does have an OTA tuner so it is possible to record an over the air broadcast while watching a satellite channel. In reality that is not going to work for you.

 

[Brian Fuller]

Thai is true, the 211 only had one tuner in it, so you can only record what you are watching. You could get a 222 and use that to record but then you wouldn't be saving that much on your bill

Sent From My Samsung Hercules

 

[stephenh@DISH]

Yes it is currect that the 211 has only one tuner on it. What boba is saying about the OTA is a great idea. By the way we do not support using an EHD with the ViP222(k).

 

[jimdandyvi]

It is a single tuner but you do have some flexibility.

First it will record one show regardless if you are watching or not. I set where possible my timers to record when I am not likely to be watching live TV. I also set it up to record shows I want to watch and if I'm not home they are available when I am home.

You can also watch a previously recorded show while you are recording another show.

If you absolutely need more tuners think about purchasing another 211. Sometimes you can find them for as little as $80.

You pay the $40 once to turn all your 211(s) into a DVR. The monthly cost for each 211 on your account after the first receiver is $7. No extra cost other than the one time $40 fee for using it as a DVR.

 

[hudgreen]

The kvh will work with a dish dvr ( have seen it done) BUT not very well and its all kind of complicated as to why.
Your kvh has two outputs a primary (controls the dish) and a secondary .you would need to hook each line to each tunner of your dvr (it will not work with separator)
Getting it to pass a switch test is the next step and frankly I cant remember the trick to it but I do remember it took over 90 min. (and I'm a tec with 8 years of install experience)
Keep in mind that you will not be able to watch/record content from different satellite at the same time and that all timers must use tuner one (controls kvh) unless it happens to be pointed at the correct satellite already.
So you would need to have some knowledge of what channels are on what satellites to work around having only a single dish when you wanted to record or watch two channels
on some models You may also have to set "dip" switches under the dome itself to switch from direct to dish

I cannot guarantee you it will work and neither could the tec at the rv dealer so he just played it safe and said it wouldn't work IMO

I am also assuming you have a vip 612 as I have never seen a 611