Customer Reviews

VuQube VQ1000 Portable Satellite Dish System

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

When I ordered this device, I suspected that I had once again thrown perfectly "good money" down the drain. Within a scant five minutes after hooking the supplied RG-6 cable to my satellite receiver and loading the supplied batteries into the simple, exquisitely and intuitively designed remote, I was tuned magnificently to my favorite channel, the Food Network, in the palmetto-clad depths of a remote sea-side campground in the low-country of South Carolina!

No more pinched fingers from unruly tripods. No more cajoling and begging my truculent wife of 47 years to deign to say those magic words, "We got a picture!" ... after the ritualistic 30-45 minutes of my fiddlin' and tweakin' to find just that right combination of elevation, disc-levellin' and azimuth-findin' required to configure my old dish apparati.

My only complaint: this thing won't feed a second receiver in my 5th wheel camper. I really don't miss the inability to pick up HD channels since the standard resolution picture is just great particularly when camped for a day or so on the edge of wheatfield in west Kansas.

The damned thing really works!

I've had my eye on this product since early last year, but at the time I could only afford a manually adjusted portable dish. So over the course of the year, I've fought tooth and nail with trying to zero in on the satellite signal, sometimes with no luck at all. All of the other reviews raving this product are correct: Within 15 minutes of removing the VuQube from the box, I had my DirecTv up and running. Now that the Qube has the general satellite position stored in its remote, future setups shouldn't take more than 5 minutes max.

My biggest problem with the manual portable dishes is finding a level surface to place it on - not an easy task out in the wild. Without being level, the elevation might be "set" right but physically will be off. The with VuQube, it self levels internally! Gotta love it!

Other reviews I have read, like at Camping World, mentioned the batteries in the remote would be found dead on arrival. I guess they actually shipped the remote with the batteries installed. Seems the VuQube folks read the reviews too. The VuQube I received did include batteries, but separately packaged apart from the remote. They were Energizer batteries (not some no-name brand), but regardless, I just set them aside and installed a couple brand new Duracells. I simply did not want to waste time with the batteries boxed with the product.

Now, onto my one complaint. If you've seen pictures of the VuQube, you might be able to note that the handle is not a "closed" design, meaning you can't use the handle to loop a typical security cable through. When I use the VuQube on camping trips, I want to set it up and forget about it for the weekend. I sure as heck don't want to leave a $700 item sitting in my campsite 24 hours a day totally unsecured and I dont want to have to put it away everytime I leave the campsite or go to sleep.

I did come up with a solution. Just below the handle, at the seam between the upper and lower segments of the VuQube, there is a small hole through the base of the handle, no bigger than the diameter of a pencil eraser (if that). I happened to have a spare gun cable lock handy. The gun lock's cable diameter was just small enough to fit through that hole on the VuQube. I locked the cable lock and now I have a large secured loop which I can loop a regular-sized security cable through (so I can secure it to a picnic table or tree). These gun cable locks can be found at any gun supplier.

Was this product worth $700? A bit steep if you ask me. However, I take several trips a year with my trailer. Each trip, I waste as much as 30-45 minutes setting up the manual dish trying to zero in on the signal. All that time adds up and equates to time wasted in the wild. What I bought with the VuQube is more time. More time to play, to relax, to BBQ, etc. So yes, it's an investment, but one that I believe will eventually pay off in more free time the long run.

I finally broke down and purchased after being worn out lugging a tripod, antenna & signal finder around while traveling. This takes all the worry out on damaging the LMB and taking all the extra space up in the storage area. Very pleased with it and got a great deal on line new paying $649 and free shipping - can't beat it!!!

I initially had problems setting up the dish and gave them a horrible review with one star.

However, after talking to customer service, I determined that the issues were mine and not the dish. After my discussion with tech support, the setup went smoothly and took about 5 minutes.

In their instruction manual VuQube recommends using the DirecTV D11 or D12 receiver. If you call tech support you may find that you can use other receivers. The dish works with a DirecTV H20 (high definition receiver). You do not get HD TV since the dish only supports standard definition signals.

Tech support called me back after 5 minutes after my initial call. They were extremely fast and very competent. If only all customer support calls were this efficient.

VuCube portable satellite antenna does not receive HD from DirectTV.It does receive HD from Dishnet

I purchased the VuQube VQ1000 instead of getting a setup like one on my house. This seemed simple and much more user friendly. I dish arrived quickly and was package extremely well. I ran it outside to see how it worked before taking it camping. I hooked up my received to the dish and followed the instructions. Easy! I was watching satellite in 10 minutes without breaking a sweat and without the hassles to trying to zero in the dish manually. I did have some issues with the remote, but a quick friendly call to the company fixed this issue by sending me another one within a few days.

This dish is self-leveling which is why I bought it. It is also self-contained with no need of external power. This unit did come with a way to lock the unit, so I bought a cable and lock to secure it to a tree or whatever is handy.

I really am glad that I bought this instead of the roof mounted style of dish with tripod.

Product has worked just like advertized. Less than five minute set-up all four times this has been tried in four different states.

We purchased the view cube to use for our motor home instead of using a tripod and a dish. You still have to know which way south is and have a clear view of the sky. But once you have that determined, then it is fairly easy to lock on to the satellite. We use the VuQube with Direct TV.

When I researched this product, their homepage indicated that the company was working on a Directv HDTV satellite "update" (I don't have the actual language in front of me and they were going to change the website language to fix the confusion). Later I wrote to the company asking if the HDTV "update" was available yet, and if not, would they notify me... Response: "What are you talking about, these units will never be receive HDTV; you will need to buy a new unit." Now that's not exactly the type of "update" that we normally think about... at least not with computers! They should have said that they were working on a new model that would provide HDTV, I would have waited for it! If you don't care about HDTV, the dish did work when I set it up at home using my Directv HDTV DVR with dual tuners. But while camping in the middle of Yosemite's campgrounds I could never find a satellite through the trees anyway!! Searching for the satellites is not really that easy, but with practice it probably becomes easier. I would gladly pay for a more automatic satellite setup process.

I purchased this item after researching the product, reading reviews and calling the company for an overview. According to the majority of the reviews and product description the system is very easy to setup. I attempted to program the system according to the instructions without success, I then called the manufacturer King Controls for assistance. The techs at king controls are only availabe Monday-Friday 8:00 - 6:00 (central time) and not avaliable on the weekends. When you call you have to leave your name and phone number for them to call you back at their convenience shich generally was a 2-3 hour wait. So, if you work during those hours you will need to take off work in order to be able to call and be home with your system for them to help. After taking off work and calling king control my VuQube is still not working correctly. The remote is very senstive and must be held close to the unit in order for it to work properly. For Dish Network you have to go through the set up procedure every time you move your site. If you leave your reciever connected to a regular satellite to keep it updated then it has to be programmed to the VuQube every time unless you keep the VuQube setup all the time. I am very disappointed in this product and think it is much less expensive and alot less hassle just to use a regular satellite dish. I have contacted King Controls several times in order to correctly set up my unit without success. The last time I contacted them I was told by the tech that the VuQube was not made to be connected to an RV. He explained the unit needs to be connected directly to the receiver. He then instructed me to cut a hole in one of the screens of my new RV and run the cable through the window so I could connect it directly to the receiver. SO, I bought a brand new RV and spent over $500.00 on a satellite dish system so i could cut a hole in my screen and run the cable through a window ? The sad part is the tech guy was serious. Maybe they need to add this to their advertisment so people who plan on using it with an RV will not purchase it. So pretty much this was $500.00 down the drain because it has never worked.