Thor Forums

[Oldchief]

Posting this because I've seen some bad and questionable posts and advice regarding installation of satellite TV in Axis & Vegas units.

Yesterday put a DISH TV system in our's and, so far, its working fine. I went with DISH because to me it seemed less complicated and more RV user friendly than DirectTV and cheaper to use. I'd read a lot about doing this before getting our system on various RV forums and websites. Many had good advice and tips but some, at least in my experience, were just flat out wrong.
PLEASE NOTE: My experience is only with the DISH TV Tailgater antenna and a Wally receiver, so what worked for me may not work with other systems.
Several posts I read said that you couldn't connect a Tailgater satellite antenna system to the exterior cable port on an Axis/Vegas because, they said, the cable put in by Thor, that runs between the outside cable connector and your antenna booster wasn't the correct type. I was dreading having to install a separate cable connector and running another dedicated special coax thru my Axis. However, in my installation, I found this to be totally wrong. Just to see if it would work, I connected my Tailgater to the regular outside cable port. You do have to disconnect the coax from the booster, because it will interfere with your satellite signal. But, just disconnect the coax from the booster and attach it directly to the Wally receiver. Mine worked perfectly. Also, I'd previously installed a powered 3 port HDMI splitter in our Axis, so I could play DVD's on any or all of our 3 TV's. I'd also run separate HDMI cables to each TV. So, I tried plugging the Wally receiver in to this splitter and it also worked perfectly. You do have to use a powered HDMI splitter; a non-powered one won't work. In this set up, all 3 TV's will be on the same channel but that's not a problem for us. At this writing, I'm waiting on an HDMI 3 input switch, that will let me switch between the Wally satellite receiver and our DVD player. Hoping it works as well as everything else, so far, has worked. I ordered the 3 input switch so in case one of our grandkids wants to plug one of their game machines or X-Box in to the TV system, there'll be a port for it. Otherwise, just the Wally and DVD player will be plugged in.

So, just be careful and don't believe everything you may read on some forums and websites.