Dish or Direct TV

[mohok1]

If you have one or the other for your home, what is involved in taking it on the road. I'm sure you have to get a extra dish, tripod and cable. Do you have to have a extra receiver or do you take the one from home? I traveled with Direct TV years ago but have forgotten how it works. At that time I did not have a home set up.

[Magnolia Tom]

I believe you’ll only need the extra dish and cables. Take your receiver from home.


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[shawnh]

We have dish at home. I bought a Tailgater and a Wally receiver - added it to my home account for $7 a month. You could get a regular dish but the Tailgater is automatic. My camper is on a seasonal site, when we arrive I put the Tailgater dish on the roof and leave the box and TV hooked up inside. Take the dish off the roof when we leave.

Works well.

[goducks]

If you want HD then you have two options.
1st Dish HD works with the portable powered sats. Tailgator, Winegard, Carry Out, X2, etc.
DirectTv does not support an HD picture with any of the portable powered sats. If you want an HD pic with DTV then you need to use a manual setup dish. Or spend the big $$$ for a Traveler permanent roof mount sat.
I had DTV for 10-12+ years. I want an HD pic. I also wanted a no hassle easy setup. I dropped DTV and got Dish. I then got a Winegard X2 and a 211 receiver. $7 a month. Stop and start anytime is super easy.
Some people go the manual satellite dish route with DTV and are happy as well. I didn't want to deal with setting up a manual dish so thats the reason I switched to Dish.
I also like that my Winegard and my receiver are always in the 5th wheel.
My home theater setup is not really very easy to unhook and hookup again to take on camping trips. Too me it's worth the initial cost for the long term connivance.

[Parcany]

We have dish at home. When we go the road we take the receiver. When we get to where we are going I take out our Winegard pathfinder 2, set it on the ground, hook up the rg6 cable, go into the house hook up receiver to tv, hook up receiver to cable from outside connector, plug in the receiver turn on tv and set the receiver and wait for about 10-15 minutes and then after the receiver goes through it set up then we can watch tv. While it is checking things out I finish setting things up.

[goducks]

The Winegard only works with the 211 series and the Wally. Are you saying you're taking a Hopper or Joey camping?

[Parcany]

Goducks if you are asking me then we have a 211 k[ I think] receiver disconnect that from our house take that with us and set it up like I said in other post. Just the receiver and remote.;

[goducks]

Parcany, interesting. I though the 211 series was only for the Dish portables.

[Mustang65]

We have a Dish TailGater, with the 211 receiver, which I believe is the only one that will automatically work with the automatic satellite antenna and find the satellites. It is used both at home and in the TT. When we leave home, I pack the receiver (with 2Gb hard-drive for recording) and the antenna unit. I prewired the house and the TT for the tailgater.

We have the $44 RV channel package, which I believe is 50 channels. So far we are happy... the only channel that we miss is NetGeo, but we could stream that is we wanted to. At home I have a Digital OTA antenna the plugs into the 211 receiver, so I do not have to pay for the local station option $10. When in the TT I do add the local stations (from nearest BIG city to where we are camping) to the Sat channels... so I then pay the $10.

At home we had BrightHouse cable, which Charter bought out and called it Spectrum. We were paying $120 with BrightHouse, Spectrum upped the monthly bill to $159 without saying a word (grandfathered BrightHouse pricing ended). I called WOW (internet) and they supply me with a 100MBPS internet service for $30/month (works GREAT), and my $44/month Sat Tv service, we are at $80 (taxes added) each month. Still record most of the Tv programs (on hard-drive) and watch when we have time.

I also have the AnyWhere Dish service (no charge), which requires a SlingBox connected to the 211 receiver and you can watch on your tablets, smart phones, laptops.... from any where.

We are happy with the setup.

Don

My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[Parcany]

Like I said we have a wingard pathfinder 2 and the 211 works like a champ. The same receiver worked when we had the tailgator. We like the winegard much better than the tailgator.

[Promod]

I have Direct at home and track Vison HD in motion dish on the truck. When i setup just run a cable to the trailer easy as can be and full HD with no extra fees I don't already pay. The drawback is the track vision isn't cheap but I have it in the truck for the kids already so works out for the RV.

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by goducks

If you want HD then you have two options.
1st Dish HD works with the portable powered sats. Tailgator, Winegard, Carry Out, X2, etc.
DirectTv does not support an HD picture with any of the portable powered sats. If you want an HD pic with DTV then you need to use a manual setup dish. Or spend the big $$$ for a Traveler permanent roof mount sat.
I had DTV for 10-12+ years. I want an HD pic. I also wanted a no hassle easy setup. I dropped DTV and got Dish. I then got a Winegard X2 and a 211 receiver. $7 a month. Stop and start anytime is super easy.
Some people go the manual satellite dish route with DTV and are happy as well. I didn't want to deal with setting up a manual dish so thats the reason I switched to Dish.
I also like that my Winegard and my receiver are always in the 5th wheel.
My home theater setup is not really very easy to unhook and hookup again to take on camping trips. Too me it's worth the initial cost for the long term connivance.

A very good summary of Dish vs Direct. We did pretty much the same thing in our TT. I carry an HD tripod set up as back up to the Winegard X2 but only pulled it out once in 3 years when we were staying in place for a week or so. If you are on a seasonal site I would recommend setting up with a Dish on a tripod. Not hard to align and the advantages are 1] supports 2 receivers with access to all channels on either at the same time. 2] The portable units are a bigger target for theft and I cable mine to a picnic table or tree. 3] The auto portables will have you watching tv in as little as 5 minutes so set it out and finish your site setup and it will find the sats and load the guide while you're working. In my opinion once you go HD you will never be satisfied going back to SD. Adding a separate receiver for your TT is only $7 but you can plug it in bedroom at home when you aren't traveling or you can shut it off if you aren't going to need it for a few months. I bit the bullet and currently have 2 211's active in my white hawk. If we don't take a long roadtrip this winter I will probably deactivate one of them until I need it.

[KYCAMPER]

Mustang65: I am contemplating switching from Direct to Dish. Direct is jacking up the rates and won't negotiate down. I am planning to use a Wally and Winegard G2 in my RV. Are you saying the 211 is the only receiver that will work with an antenna like the G2 which finds the satellite automatically? So I will need a 211 in the camper instead of the Wally?

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by KYCAMPER

Mustang65: I am contemplating switching from Direct to Dish. Direct is jacking up the rates and won't negotiate down. I am planning to use a Wally and Winegard G2 in my RV. Are you saying the 211 is the only receiver that will work with an antenna like the G2 which finds the satellite automatically? So I will need a 211 in the camper instead of the Wally?

211z are good receivers and can be converted to a dvr function with a 1 time $40 fee. You supply a small portable harddrive [$50 or less]. Have heard a lot of bad reviews about the Wally.

[krcarter54]

I was taking our Dish TV receiver from home and was using a satellite dish on a tripod. After spending 3 - 4 hours of chasing the signal from the satellite and receiving multiple threats of divorce from the DW I through in the towel and purchased a "Wally" receiver and a "Playmaker" portable satellite antenna. Life is really great and our marriage is no longer on the rocks!

[gburger]

I got the Tailgater from Dish a few months ago. Easy auto set-up. I was putting the unit on a small table towards the southern sky for the signal, but last week while camping our site was surrounded by tall trees. I ended up setting it on top of the trailer. Worked great. I think I'm going keep doing this in the future. It is now out of the way and is a little more secure from someone grabbing it.

[drk98]

Originally Posted by KYCAMPER

Mustang65: I am contemplating switching from Direct to Dish. Direct is jacking up the rates and won't negotiate down. I am planning to use a Wally and Winegard G2 in my RV. Are you saying the 211 is the only receiver that will work with an antenna like the G2 which finds the satellite automatically? So I will need a 211 in the camper instead of the Wally?

The Wally or 211 will work. There were some issues with the Wally early on but I think they've been resolved now. We've had a wally in the RV for almost a year now with zero issues.

[bdreinv]

We had Direct TV 12 years got sick of price increases! Switched to Dish 62 per month for 2 years no pay channels.Will switch back to Direct TV to get a 2 year of low pricing.And will switch back at the end of that period.Not paying double pricing anymore!