Vacation home service

[Creek Dweller]

Hi Guys --

I'm new here despite being a Dish subscriber for 12 years. I recently bought a vacation home and want to have Dish service there in addition to what I have at our main home. I want to keep the monthly cost as low as possible and can't easily obtain information from Dish to make a good decision.

I have a 722K at the main home and the previous owner left a 301 (no DVR, unfortunately) behind at the vacation home we bought. Dish is suggesting I move the 722K back and forth between the two homes, but that strikes me as being annoying, especially having to unplug and reconnect wiring each time.

Is there a way to purchase a second DVR for the vacation home and just move the smart card back and forth between the two homes when I go from one to the other? Or is there a better way to do this?

Hoping there is some collective wisdom on this.

 

[Bobby]

You can’t move the smart card to another receiver. They can only be used on the receiver they are married to. Dish’s idea to simply move your 722K back and forth is a standard plan that many folks here do. If unplugging a few wires each way is more than you want to do you can do your other plan and purchase a second 722K and activate it the first time and then turn it off each time you go go back home. You would have to pay for both receivers only when you go to the vacation home. From my viewpoint the aggravation and cost of that is no less than simply unplugging and carrying your existing receiver back and forth.

 

[navychop]

301s are useless, BTW.

 

[stardust3]

301s are useless, BTW.

Not for a door stop.

 

[Tampa8]

As Bobby mentioned what DISH suggested is what they allow for a second home using only one account. They do not endorse any other way other than an RV with a receiver on the same account - bringing your receiver is it.
So that said I can tell you what I think from all these years. The main concern of DISH is not having one account being used in two homes at the same time - literally at the same time. If no one is in your main home when you are at the vacation home you could pay an installer (or do it yourself) to install a DISH at the vacation home which has to be done anyway. If you do not want to bring the one receiver back and forth you buy another VIP receiver (it can not be a Hopper if you have a VIP on your account) Buying a receiver means you can turn it on or off each month as you need it. If it is not bought you would need to return the receiver each time you have it turned off obviously you don't want to do that. If your locals can be received from the spotbeam at the vacation home you are all set. Otherwise either no locals or you would need to change your address each time NOT something you should do. If an antenna will bring in stations at the vacation home that's a great way to do it. You can not add a 301 to your account anymore.

If you have internet at the vacation home there are other ways to do it with installing nothing as with DISH anywhere or better a Slingbox.

 

[stardust3]

If it were my place I'd purchase a 211, add an ehd and leave it there permanently.

 

[osu1991]

Another thought, If internet is available is to just use a Roku or FireTv and sub to slingtv, Directvnow, ps Vue etc...while at the vacation home or just use the tv anywhere apps and your dish login for the apps that supports Dish.

 

[pattykay]

Hi Guys --

I'm new here despite being a Dish subscriber for 12 years. I recently bought a vacation home and want to have Dish service there in addition to what I have at our main home. I want to keep the monthly cost as low as possible and can't easily obtain information from Dish to make a good decision.

I have a 722K at the main home and the previous owner left a 301 (no DVR, unfortunately) behind at the vacation home we bought. Dish is suggesting I move the 722K back and forth between the two homes, but that strikes me as being annoying, especially having to unplug and reconnect wiring each time.

Is there a way to purchase a second DVR for the vacation home and just move the smart card back and forth between the two homes when I go from one to the other? Or is there a better way to do this?

Hoping there is some collective wisdom on this.

Is your existing 722k purchased or leased? If it is purchased, you could simply tell Dish to deactivate it on the same phone call (or online chat) when you have Dish activate the second 722k at the vacation home. When you get home, just have Dish activate that 722k and deactivate the one at the vacation home. There is no additional cost for doing this.

 

[ChadT41]

Is your existing 722k purchased or leased? If it is purchased, you could simply tell Dish to deactivate it on the same phone call (or online chat) when you have Dish activate the second 722k at the vacation home. When you get home, just have Dish activate that 722k and deactivate the one at the vacation home. There is no additional cost for doing this.

This is a great plan, unless it has seasonal recordings set up that is wanting to be stored after he returns.

 

[pattykay]

This is a great plan, unless it has seasonal recordings set up that is wanting to be stored after he returns.

Okay, with the additional suggestion of making sure the timers are duplicated on both ViP722k's, and using an external hard drive to transfer the recordings so they can be consolidated on the same EHD (or the same ViP722k) then it would be a great plan.

 

[ChadT41]

I don’t disagree with you at all. I was just saying, the redundancy and time spent may not be worth the trouble.

In my case, I think I would prefer to save the time and money, and unplug the 4 cables and power cord, leave them dangling at address one for quick reinstall, and take receiver to property 2, where the cables are also already set up for quick reinstall.

 

[pattykay]

I don’t disagree with you at all. I was just saying, the redundancy and time spent may not be worth the trouble.

In my case, I think I would prefer to save the time and money, and unplug the 4 cables and power cord, leave them dangling at address one for quick reinstall, and take receiver to property 2, where the cables are also already set up for quick reinstall.

Yes, I have used both methods to go back-and-forth between two locations. I can see the advantage of leaving a receiver at each location, if the OP is worried about the receiver getting damaged in transit. Otherwise, I agree it is just as easy to simply take the entire receiver back-and-forth. An EHD would be lighter-weight and take up less space, though.

 

[Creek Dweller]

Great information from these replies.

The current 722K is leased but I could purchase a 722K refurbished and install it at the vacation home. I didn't mention it before, but there is already a Dish satellite dish at that location, but I don't know if it is operating. Also, my wife and I will be together so we will use either one TV or the other, but never both at the same time. I suppose that means recording of our regular programs gets a bit more complicated if I'm switching from one place to another.

A couple of questions:

1. Can I just plug in the 301 box to test if the satellite dish is functional and the wiring to the coax connections in the house work? Or does Dish have to activate something at the vacation home before I could even perform a test?

2. I like the suggestion to get a second 722K and leave it at the vacation home for the reasons I originally mentioned (convenience of not disconnecting/reconnecting a couple of times a month when we go back and forth). Dish told me on the phone that I could go to the MyDish page at their website and switch locations when we go to the vacation home, and then switch back again when we return to our main home.

3. I record a bunch of programs at home right now. I imagine switching back and forth is going to complicate getting those recorded. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Claude Greiner]

I run into this with customers all the time.

I really don’t see what the big deal is disconnecting a satellite receiver and packing it with you when you visit your vacation home.

If you want to leave a receiver at your other home, then get a second account.

You could technically purchase and activate a second receiver and leave it there. But again, what’s the big deal taking the box back and fourth?

 

[TheKrell]

Can I just plug in the 301 box to test if the satellite dish is functional and the wiring to the coax connections in the house work? Or does Dish have to activate something at the vacation home before I could even perform a test?

The 301 is obsolete because Dish went with 8PSK modulation on most transponders on both satellite arcs. If there are any QPSK transponders left, then yes, you could use the 301 to see if the dish is still working and aimed at the right satellites without activating. I had an old 4900 which also cannot tune 8PSK, and the transponders using that modulation simply do not show up. I found this out the hard way when trying to point a dish at Sky Angel for my mom. I had to hire a satellite guy who had it peaked in about 60 seconds.

 

[Foxbat]

We have a ViP 722K at our Vacation Home that we use the Pay-as-you-go service, so we pre-pay for a month's with of service. As my wife and I share the with my brother's family and my sister's family, whoever is on vacation ends up using their CC to pay for the next month.

If it were just my family then I would get a 2nd receiver and leave it at the vacation home, but treat it like an RV 2nd receiver, activating it when you need it, and registering the 2nd address's location for access to the Locals (assuming they would be different from your home's Locals.) We did that a couple of years ago with one of my ViP 211s and it worked great (plus I could watch HBO!). Last year the Internet arrived at our vacation home, so HBO Go took over for HBO via satellite (same for ESPN channels) and I didn't bother to activate the 211.

People seem to think nothing of transporting a 722, but remember that it has a hard drive inside it, and if it gets exposed to any large shocks or vibrations, it could lead to premature HDD failure (although, to be fair, the 722's HDD is pretty well aged by now, so maybe "premature" is the wrong word to use). The 211 (or Wally) has no hard drive and should handle the trip better. An EHD for the 211 can be bundled in many layers of clothes for the trip to minimize shock.

 

[dare2be]

You could technically purchase and activate a second receiver and leave it there. But again, what’s the big deal taking the box back and fourth?

As mentioned earlier in the thread, it would get tiresome moving two or three times a month, but mostly the biggest problem would be the risk of missing timer events during transit.

 

[Creek Dweller]

It's clear from the discussion how much I do not know about the technology involved in this, so please forgive my simplistic questions.

If I purchase and connect a second 722K at the vacation home, will it work without my activating it with Dish? Or can I just plug it in, connect the TV and it will work? Is a technician necessary to get this going, assuming the satellite dish is pointed correctly?

Or must I activate/register it with Dish for it to receive a signal? As I said, we will only use one receiver at a time.

Separately, is registering and re-registering with Dish each time we go back and forth only to move my local station assignment to the new location? If I don't care about receiving local stations at the vacation home, do I have to re-register each time we change from one location to the other? Or is registering the address of the location where we are located necessary to activate the signal and allow the receiver to work?

To respond to Claude's suggestion to just move the receiver each time - we already have a car full of stuff each time we commute back and forth so adding a bulky receiver box on each trip isn't good. Plus, I anticipate it will quickly become tiresome to unplug and reconnect the receiver each time we go to the other home, plus the risk of damage to the HD mentioned by Roland. As far as adding a second account and nearly doubling my monthly cost when I won't be using them simultaneously - that doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Tampa8]

You have to add a new receiver to your account by calling DISH. That is a one time thing as far as being part of your account and will be active after that. If you own it you can activate it when you are going to use it, and deactivate it when you are not. When activated you will pay the fee for a second receiver, when deactivated you will not. After deactivating it will still be part of your account, you will need to call dish to reactivate it as needed. It's just important to remember the DISH policy is all receivers are supposed to be at one location unless it's an RV receiver. Again the purpose is to limit actual use to one location. So keeping that in mind it's my *opinion* if you do not use the receiver at the main home while using the one in the vacation home you are meeting the spirit of what DISH wants. I would not hook the receiver at the vacation home to the Internet.

The locals are assigned to your account not to a receiver so they are assigned based on your service address. If your vacation home is not far from your main home you will still get your locals. If it is too far from the beam that covers your zip code you will not get locals. If you don't care about locals all the better.

 

[pattykay]

Great information from these replies.

The current 722K is leased but I could purchase a 722K refurbished and install it at the vacation home. I didn't mention it before, but there is already a Dish satellite dish at that location, but I don't know if it is operating. Also, my wife and I will be together so we will use either one TV or the other, but never both at the same time. I suppose that means recording of our regular programs gets a bit more complicated if I'm switching from one place to another.

A couple of questions:

1. Can I just plug in the 301 box to test if the satellite dish is functional and the wiring to the coax connections in the house work? Or does Dish have to activate something at the vacation home before I could even perform a test?

2. I like the suggestion to get a second 722K and leave it at the vacation home for the reasons I originally mentioned (convenience of not disconnecting/reconnecting a couple of times a month when we go back and forth). Dish told me on the phone that I could go to the MyDish page at their website and switch locations when we go to the vacation home, and then switch back again when we return to our main home.

3. I record a bunch of programs at home right now. I imagine switching back and forth is going to complicate getting those recorded. Any thoughts on that?

1. If you hook up the deactivated 722k to the satellite dish at the vacation home, you can use it to test the signal to see if the dish is aimed properly. As mentioned, the 301 would not work for this, because it is obsolete. You would not receive any channels on the 722k at the vacation home until it is activated.

2. As far as I know, you cannot do that through the mydish website. You would have to call or chat to activate / deactivate receivers, or change your service address. Dish recently introduced a feature similar to what you describe, for the mydish app on smartphones. However, your account has to be flagged as a Dish Outdoor account, and even then, it would only work with receivers that are intended for RV use, such as a ViP211k or Wally.

3. See my previous posts above. If you want to keep the recordings grouped together, you would need to transfer them to an external hard drive, so they can be watched from either 722k. You would need to set the timers on both 722k's, to make sure they record no matter which receiver is active.

Separately, is registering and re-registering with Dish each time we go back and forth only to move my local station assignment to the new location? If I don't care about receiving local stations at the vacation home, do I have to re-register each time we change from one location to the other? Or is registering the address of the location where we are located necessary to activate the signal and allow the receiver to work?

In this case, no it is not necessary to change the service address. All you would have to do is activate the receiver you are using, and deactivate the one you are not using if you do not want to be charged the additional receiver fee. I realize that your current 722k is leased, but since you are already willing to purchase a second one, I would recommend purchasing two of them, and returning the leased one to Dish, so you can activate / deactivate either of them whenever you want.