New small marine satellite TV system

C

Captains Cat

New member
THIS JUST CAME OUT, a small (14" dia) dome, apparently designed for boats as small as 25ft. It's HD capable and is priced at $4995. How many of us have satellite TV on our boats, I can recall seeing a few with those domes on the top. How well do they work?

BTW, I'm not selling these nor do I have any financial stake in Raymarine.
 
Captain's Cat":m3p4sgmg said:
$4995.
BTW, I'm not selling these nor do I have any financial stake in Raymarine.
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Yah, like Bill and Mike aren't getting big bucks to keep this site going. :wink

Dual LMB, under 20 lbs, can track in pretty rough weather? Sounds suitable for a C-22 and up. I'd be especially interested if it can be installed "semi-portable" so one could, without a huge hassle and leakage issues, move it between boat and RV.


Great find, OM.
 
I had one on another boat, with DirectTV. It worked great. The servo motors that keep the dish pointed towards satellite are brushless motors so they won't wear out. They have another version that is only for use at a dock (no traveling allowed) and retails for $1,000 less.
 
Jeff on C Pearl has a satellite TV. There are some which are used on RV's which are considerably smaller than his--and there are also a number which are less expensive. Not sure about this one--but I would not pay 5K for a in-motion TV...

Gulf_Coast_Gathering_2006_9.jpg
 
Satellite TV is a waste plus it doesn't work under a covered slip or if your anchored around some trees. Just get a TV antenna, pick up local stations and bring along some DVD's. I would rather spend the money on cell connection and use a lap top.

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Jeff Brigner":28qynrdr said:
Satellite TV is a waste plus it doesn't work under a covered slip or if your anchored around some trees.
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Hey Jeff, IMHO, if I'm anchored close enough to have line of sight interference from trees, I'm anchored too damn close to shore!

There are folks who say owning a boat is a waste.

Satellite TV isn't a priority for me personally yet, but it sure is nice when you're not in line of site from ground TV transmitters or don't have access to cable, which happens more often than not the way we RV and I suspect when we're out spending a week on a remote lake as well. The old BBS statement still applies: YMMV....
Don
 
Don,
Just telling you my opinion after having one for a year. If you don't use it for a month you have to call and talk to someone in India and convince them you don't need a repair man they just need to send you the signal you have been paying for. I'm all about doing what you want on your boat or the stupid looking egg wouldn't be on top of mine :lol:
Not up on these Don, Whats BBS and YMMV? Thanks
Don said "The old BBS statement still applies: YMMV...."
 
Hey Marc,
Maybe that nest is why I couldn't get a signal. I'll get up there and knock that rascal off. You should have talked me out of that stupid tower! It was bad enough you sold me the egg :beer Heres to ya for a great party last weekend!
 
Jeff Brigner":eajyi7nv said:
Satellite TV is a waste plus it doesn't work under a covered slip or if your anchored around some trees. Just get a TV antenna, pick up local stations and bring along some DVD's. I would rather spend the money on cell connection and use a lap top.

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Here is the antenna on Discovery, which I am trying to figure out how to do likewise -- but Brent puts his dink over his cockpit, thus freeing up his cabintop for solar panels and TV antennas.

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Warren
 
Five grand is a lot of money to have TV aboard our small boats. The in-motion units for RVs are much less expensive than that, and there is constant development for smaller, flatter units for use on SUVs and minivans. On our last couple RVs, we've had satellite TV... seems we'd pull into a campground, plug in, and push the button to pull in the satellite (we even had a TV in one of the underneath compartments so we could watch while out on the patio). Yep, that's getting away from it all. :wink: On the boat, there have been few times where we've felt that kind of need for TV. It would have been nice to get the Weather Channel when we were in Canada and wanted to see what was happening with any given hurricane, but access to the internet has made that less important. We took a handful of DVDs along, but only watched 2 of them. It just seems (for us) that the living is different on the boat.

Like most consumer electronics, I would expect the price on these small satellite units to come down in time. In the meantime, $5k will buy a lot of fuel. 8) For now, we'll keep using our big-screen (7") TV/DVD/AM/FM with rabbit ears on the boat when we feel the need.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Jeff Brigner":va7zlez7 said:
Don,
Just telling you my opinion after having one for a year. Whats BBS and YMMV? Thanks
Don said "The old BBS statement still applies: YMMV...."
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:lol: It ain't been my week, Jeff. Too much going on down here I guess, and some bad guys hit our street yesterday looking for cars packed with goodies so I was in a cranky mood. I didn't connect your post with the original post and thought you were someone making a blanket statement, not a personal opinion. Sorry,

BBS is short for "Bulletin Board System". Best described as a rudimentary online forum and place to download helpful files, accessed at anywhere between 300 bps and 9600 bps via landline. They preceded the Internet as far as the public was concerned and were, initially anyway, a warm and mostly "crackerbarrel" places where local computer nerds could gather and discuss their hobby online. Glacially slow, we thought we had died and gone to heaven when the USRobotics HST modem was released and we all leaped to 9600 bps (now even landlines provide up to 56,000 bps speeds and more with futzed software).

YMMV = Your mileage may vary. In other words (IOW) your opinion, equipment, life, watever, may be different than mine but it's still OK to differ.

I remember now that you and Byrdman worked on that installation. Wondered at the time if you would end up happy with that rather large zit on top of the C-22 and I've held off on our RV installation for similar appearance issues. For me, a covered slip is out of the question and we do 99% of our cruising offshore in usually sunny SoCal, so I'm just waiting for the industry to shrink down the radomes. Trust me, us RV'ers have serious issues with trees. :roll: Our most practical solution is a moveable tripod separately wired to the rig so we can park in the shade and watch the news.

Don
 
Anything new on the Sirrius/XM satellite TV service. That I might be interested in. I have a portable DVD player that I take if I am going to be out several nights and they work great.
 
lloyds":3g0fbw6s said:
Anything new on the Sirrius/XM satellite TV service. That I might be interested in. I have a portable DVD player that I take if I am going to be out several nights and they work great.
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It's my understanding that the satellite radio/TV bandwidth will only allow about 3 TV channels, and they will be directed towards children's programing.
 
Swell! Like trying to watch tv on saturday morning. That will have to change or they are going to have more marketing problems.
 
lloyds":ly91lbkz said:
Swell! Like trying to watch tv on saturday morning. That will have to change or they are going to have more marketing problems.
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Think of all those minivans and SUVs with child seats and built-in DVD/game players... that's the market they're going after.
 
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