How to set up KVH TV1 with Direct TV

[irish rake]

Hello
My 2015 C30 came with KVH satilite TV and my understanding is it will work with Direct TV, which I have at my home.
I would like to take my Direct TV "box" from my home and use it on the boat. I know I need to set up an account with KVH but does any know if I need to purchase any extra hardware or will it "plug and play"? Has anyone done this before?
Thanks
-Mark

 

[Nellie Too]

Mark,
I believe the KVH you have on board does not contain the actual antenna.
Ranger put those on to contain a local antenna only. You can ask someone at Ranger or the seller, if it is a used boat you bought. If it is a true satilite antenna, you need a different box for Directv service. Feel free to call me at (360) 293-0003.
Bob

 

[irish rake]

Thanks for the reply Bob.
I purchased the boat new in 2015. The KVH dome has Tracvision TV1 on it for Ku band only and from talking with the KVH factory is will do what I want. They put me in touch with their closest representative and I called them (very helpful but a little to far away from my home pay a visit). They said I should be able to take the DirecTV "box" and plug it into the KVH hub/multi-switch. I tried to find the KVH hub but could not - Ideas? I have two 12V flat panel TV's that are wired with coax cable and one TV also has a 15 pin D sub connector, but I can not find where all the cabling terminates.
Thanks.
-Mark

 

[fairweather]

Mark,
Don't know about the KVH but I have DirectTV and use one of my home receivers (VIP 211z) with a Tailgater. I just hook up the Tailgater to the receiver and use a HDMI cable from the receiver to the tv and have all the channels that I have at home. No extra charge. Only nuisance is having to take the receiver from home to the boat. BTW, it only tracks the three satellites once so I can only use it at dock. Since I leave my R29 in the water all year and often just spend the weekend on the boat at the marina, I can watch my sports like I would at home (on my waterfront condo).
My KVH dome has 2 Garmin antenna's in it.
Marc

 

[irish rake]

Thanks Marc,
I contacted my faithful dealer and they said there will be a white adapter box (satellite receiver?) located behind a panel in the command station area and I should be able to hook into this. I will hunt it down and see what happens.
looking forward to watching TV and sipping on a few beers in my "floating condo" this season
Thanks for the input.
Best,
-Mark

 

[irish rake]

Just an update to my KVH TV1 and DirecTV set up........ After verifying and subscribing to KVH Satellite and DirecTV, it would have worked out great transporting my home DirecTV receiver from my house to my boat, accept for the satellite dome labeled KVH TV1 on top of my Cutwater C30 does not contain a KVH satellite antenna!!
It has another manufacturers product- a Majestic TV digital antenna. This does not seem right to me. A couple of replies to my post found other manufacture's devices under this KVH shell. I have contacted my dealer, but now they are slow to reply. My question is.... I see many Ranger and Cutwater boats that have this dome, with the marine satellite manufacturer's trade label from KVH Industries, but do any actually have a KVH satellite product inside? Please reply to my post if you do. I am beginning to think something is "fishy"

 

[Spinner]

Unless the original owner specifically ordered the KVH1 antenna (extra cost), yes, it's true that you just get an over-the-air antenna.
My boat is one that actually has the satellite TV antenna. I think Ranger/Cutwater boats come that way so you get some kind of TV reception and because they tend to wire up every boat for the available options. As I don't watch TV, I don't use mine.

I also have the "box" for setting up the satellite TV.

More useful, at least for me, is the optional XMSirius radio antenna. I just subscribed to satellite weather that gets displayed right on the chart plotter.

 

[Phil Nersessian]

As far as I have been able to find out all the domes contain only a T.V. antenna, and not satellite t.v., I was also fooled. I saw a couple previous posts that, I thought, alerted you to this, but you seemed so sure, I thought maybe you had a different after-market set up.