Voltage Garage & Outdoor TV COAX Wiring

[Mbaldo]

I have a 2016 Voltage 3914. I had a Direct TV Technician overy for 3 hours on Tuesday. The Bedroom TV and Main Cabin TV work great (no problem getting satellite signal from my 18" Wineguard). The Garage TV and Outdoor TV are a different story. Does anyone know if Dutchman puts a standard cable splitter on the wiring to these TV's. Also, if they run the cable direct to each TV similar to the Bedroom or Main Cabin? Frustrating that I can't add Direct TV Boxes on to each TV and have it on all four TV's. Any input would be appreciated. I'm afraid I may have to see if General RV will re-wire these TV's COAX.

[KN5DX]

Go to your wet bay compartment. There is the one connection upper right of bay for cable. The trick is bend down and look at upper section of bay. The SAT feeds run there. Mine has 3 there, and one jumper at main tv by power booster.

[Mbaldo]

Thanks ... I actually have 4 outlets in my outside compartment ... they are:

Satellite / Bedroom / Garage / Outdoor TV

The two on the left work great. The two on the right is where I can't get a satellite signal.

[ATCguy]

A thought... go with the wireless mini-genies from DIRECTV, and you won't have to worry about the coax at all. That's what I did, and all 4 of my TVs not only work great, but can all be placed on different channels if I wanted.

[Mbaldo]

That is a great idea ... and I've considered that. If you don't mind me asking, do you have the same Genie system in your house? I'm wondering in order to put this system in a RV, do you have to upgrade your home to the system? I will call Direct TV today. Thank you for a great idea!

[ATCguy]

No house here... I'm fulltime in my RV.

[eightydo]

There is a splinter behind the radio in the garage also check under the refrigerator.

[Mbaldo]

OK. That's makes total sense. The basic splitters won't split satellite signal.

[Pirate]

Mbaldo,

Unfortunately, if you want a Genie system in the RV, then you're smart to do what I did:

Upgrade the House system to Genie. But you will have to take the Genie HD-DVR from the house to the RV and back. That's because it supports wireless...and you can't have two Genie HD-DVRs on one account. So we take ours back and forth to the house/RV.

If the House is hardwired for different TVs, like ours, you can then get mini-Genie devices that are hard wired into the House TVs...and stay there.

Then for the RV, buy a "wireless video bridge" for the Genie system, two wireless mini-Genie devices, three wireless mini-Genie power supplies and three (RC71) Universal Genie DirecTV remotes.

I bought all my equipment from SolidSignal.com. Then all you have to do is call DirecTV and have it all put on your system.

I mounted a mini-Genie device power supply to the inside of the cabinet at the Garage TV and the Outside TV. Its simple to move the mini-Genie from the Garage TV to the Outside TV and I have a programmed remote at each location, Bedroom, Garage, Outside.

Works extremely well for us and has for three years now!!

Pirate

[Mbaldo]

Thanks for the information. That's very helpful. Also, thanks for the website link. I'll definitely look further into this. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

[Pirate]

Not a problem. If you have questions...lemme know.

Pirate

[azdryheat]

I have a Winegard Travler HD antenna on the roof and the Wireless Genie at the TV's. I have the system in my house and remove it to the trailer for trips. Each TV gets it's signal via the HDMI port so the trailer's Coax isn't used. People can watch a different channel on each TV, couldn't do that prior to the Genie system.

[Mbaldo]

I really like the Genie System, but the only problem I see is if I am taking the RV up in the mountains here in Utah, early in the week, and then the family comes up for the weekend. Who gets Direct TV then? If you have to take the box from your house then someone is left without TV. We camp fairly close to home so a lot of times I go up early and set everything up. Right now we have a box for the Bedroom and Main Cabin in the RV and it works great ... the conventional box system. I'd just like to get all 4 TV's working ... meaning the Garage and Outdoor TV's.

[Pirate]

If you're home system is not an HD-DVR system...then you can keep it and just leave it in the house.

Our place...the Genie goes back and forth between the house and the RV. In my shop, the Toybarn, I have just a plain ol' DirecTV receiver. It costs $5 a month. I can't record anything...but its there if I want to have it on while working on something.

You could also get a ROKU device. We have one in two TVs at the house, one in the Toybarn and one in the RV. Right now we have 60 some channels. We pay for Netflix but just about everything else is free. With an Amazon Prime account, even more for free.

Just thoughts....

Pirate

[wildwest450]

Originally Posted by Mbaldo

I really like the Genie System, but the only problem I see is if I am taking the RV up in the mountains here in Utah, early in the week, and then the family comes up for the weekend. Who gets Direct TV then?

Direct TV will give you up to 4 receivers. I recently upgraded to the genie with one additional box, then kept our 3rd hd box for the camper, it was in a room we seldom use.

[Mbaldo]

Dawniewest ... with those boxes, can you watch Direct TV in the RV and in the home at the same time?

[Mbaldo]

I do a lot of hunting in the fall and need to have both the house and the RV working with Direct TV concurrently.

[Pirate]

The only way to do that is to keep a non-Genie receiver for either place based on what you want to do. The non-Genie is not going to be able to record programs for watching at a later time. Its just live DirecTV.

You can only have one HD-DVR Genie per account. Believe me, I tried everything under the Sun to get a second one. But I'm not paying another $100+ to have another account and another HD-DVR Genie for the RV.

Looking at the SolidSignal web page I found this:
DIRECTV Genie Lite Receiver - Can be converted to DVR (H44)
But if you look it up, you must purchase the hard drive from DirecTV...and I'm not sure what that means.

But it is a Genie that can stand on its own, bring in the DirecTV signal, and display it on a Television and perhaps if the house is COAX wired, it can power the devices in other rooms. But its not a DVR, so no recording.

If you go to the SolidSignal website you can look up all the available Genie devices and look on the web or call DirecTV to ask what works with what.

If you have the older style DirecTV HD-DVR I think you can leave it on your account and then add the Genie HD-DVR, wireless bridge and mini-Genie devices to your account.

Give it a shot and see what you learn...and then share with us!!!

Pirate

[Mbaldo]

Thanks! I will call Direct TV tommorrow and will report my findings.

Ideally I'd like to keep my house as it is (bsicslly old school with boxes at each TV), and add an independent Genie System in the RV. It sounds like that's not the case, but I'll see what they say.

I appreciate everyone's time!

[Pirate]

So long as the ones in the House...as is...and none are HD-DVR devices...you're good to go adding a Genie.

Pirate