TV when in rural campground

[Campbell-JAY]

Just traveled thru the upper peninsula of Michigan for 2 weeks in various places and stayed at several campgrounds that are to far from antenna towers that have weak signal, no Wi-Fi and don’t have have cable - what other choices are for watching television?

Thanks

 

[norty1]

Hot spot on cell phone is the other affordable solution. If cell coverage sucks take a few DVD’s.

 

[Happy wife / happy life]

Just traveled thru the upper peninsula of Michigan for 2 weeks in various places and stayed at several campgrounds that are to far from antenna towers that have weak signal, no Wi-Fi and don’t have have cable - what other choices are for watching television?

Thanks

I’m not being Smart A##. DVD’S. We run into your situation a lot. We stay mostly in small town America when traveling and tv reception is not worth a darn. We have accumulated quite a collection of the tv series and movies. It’s not the best solution, but it works for us.

 

[CAG-JAY]

Just traveled thru the upper peninsula of Michigan for 2 weeks in various places and stayed at several campgrounds that are to far from antenna towers that have weak signal, no Wi-Fi and don’t have have cable - what other choices are for watching television?

Thanks

DISH or Directv.

 

[Kahoneys]

Hot spot on cell phone is the other affordable solution. If cell coverage sucks take a few DVD’s.

I used to do the DVD idea in our 2016 377, but our new 2025 390 does not have a DVD player or even a radio! Everything unfortunately has to be done on your phone

 

[Route 66 Traveler]

We have been using T-Mobile MiFi since last March. So far it's worked everywhere we've been. Just got back from Ely, NV, which is in the boonies, and it worked great. Even use it driving down the road.

For TV we use an Amazon Fire Stick, along with a subscription to Sling TV. We have more TV now than ever before, plus Sling comes with a DVR. We also use it at home with a Fire Stick using T-Mobile Home Internet

The MiFi is a benefit for joining FMCA. Getting it from them it comes with unlimited data for $60.00 a month. You can also purchase the device from T-Mobile for $264, with data restrictions.

No more using lousy WiFi or cable TV at RV Parks for us!

https://www.fmca.com/fmca-techconnect-landing

https://www.t-mobile.com/hotspot-iot-connected-devices/inseego-mifi-x-pro-5g

 

[norty1]

A DVD is a inexpensive and easy way to hook up to a rv tv.

 

[LuckyDuck]

I assume you mean a weak signal from OTA TV antennas. If we have decent cell service we use our phones as a hot spot and use our Roku stick in the TV. We have YouTube TV, dso we get all of our channels, unlimited recordings and even our home stations to keep up with the news back home. And unlike DISH or other satellite services, we don’t have to worry about reception as we like shaded camp sites. No cell service? X4 on DVDs…

 

[JudyK-JAY22rb]

I used to do the DVD idea in our 2016 377, but our new 2025 390 does not have a DVD player or even a radio! Everything unfortunately has to be done on your phone

Previously I was balancing a slim DVD player on the shelf under the TV. Also, I have an Amazon Firestick attached to the TV. Eventually the balancing DVD player got old. I swapped out the 32" non-smart TV for a 32" tv (still not smart) that has a built in DVD player. I have a few DVDs; old favorites that I like watching almost anytime, anywhere.

I could (have) use the hot spot from my cell phone for the Amazon Stick, but now have an actual hot-spot wifi device, so that my daughter has her own signal for her iPad. I use that signal to connect the Firestick, to watch my streaming channels. Hot spots via phones typically throttle the digital flow and lots of time that will cause streaming, pause issues.

I took the TV that came with the camper, plugged in an old Firestick I had laying around, applied the outdoor mount to the back and keep it tucked in the space under the bed. I took it out this past trip. I was amazed that my daughter came out and watched a movie, outdoors. It was great to see.

 

[jimmoore13]

Just traveled thru the upper peninsula of Michigan for 2 weeks in various places and stayed at several campgrounds that are to far from antenna towers that have weak signal, no Wi-Fi and don’t have have cable - what other choices are for watching television?

Thanks

What's it worth to ya?
Starlink is the real answer.
It works virtually everywhere, because it connects to a cloud of MANY satellites.

Internet download speeds around 200 Mbps.
WiFi Calling on your cell.
VOIP if you are so inclined.
Streaming TV...essentially unlimited, and you can typically define "home" on the streaming provider so you can watch your local channels for news and such.

You can get a roaming plan for about $150/month...and you can turn it on and off in monthly chunks at will.

My wife and I left home before Memorial Day and didn't return until after Labor Day. We worked from our rig. There is essentially zero cell service where we go, and nobody has WiFi in NFS campgrounds and boondocking...except us and other Starlink users.

If you so desire, you can switch your home ISP to Starlink and use the same equipment all year. It's very likely faster unless you have fiber to the home. Then you can abandon cable, land-lines, Direct TV/Dish, your current ISP and so on. Then you signup for one or more streaming plans...like Hulu, Netflix, Apple, Prime, YouTube, Sling, and so on.

We havn't had a landline for about 15 years...VOIP. We dropped Direct TV and for less our plan with Hulu is better and cheaper. We have virtually no cell service at home, but with WiFi calling, it's 5-bars all the time. With Starlink, we have that literally everywhere we park.

Right now, the standard Gen-3 Starlink Kit is on sale for $300. We paid $500 in May. The Roam plan is $150...pricy...but it works essentially everywhere without having to do anything to adjust location and such. Unlimited data. By comparison, at home we have Century Link DSL (40 Mbps down) for $60/month. Hardware cost was $300. There's a Mini Starlink for less that has plans with data limits...but some report sticking it on the dash of their vehicle and having internet at highway speeds.

There's much to learn about Starlink and RVs...and if this interests you, I can answer many questions well beyond this already substantial diatribe.

If you want it, you can have it. But like everything, it comes at a price.
We wouldn't be without it. Now that I own the hardware, I park it after camping season and restart the plan in spring.

P.S. Our business internet usage is not trivial. Lots of Zoom, connecting to remote servers for, say, accounting, accessing clients' cloud storage, and so on. As for TV, we don't watch TV when camping. We took the TV out as soon as we took delivery. But Starlink is 5 times as fast as the ISP we use for streaming at home. And we can listen to Pandora (streaming), any radio station in the world...almost literally so long as they have a website and stream, do our banking, and more. At home, we do watch TV now and then.

 

[RPR]

Spend some time talking to each other, enjoy the great outdoors together and turn the idiot box off.

 

[Old and soft]

That is one of the things we like about deer camp. Sit on your cooler, stare at the fire, and every conversation is a series of grunts and nods. Good whiskey and even better food. That 10 miles of 2 track old logging road feels like it's a million miles away. The only outside link is a noaa weather radio.

 

[norty1]

We have a ROKU box on our unsmart tv in the rig. We can connect to wifi or our hotspot and watch most anything we want or have signed up for. Netflix, Prime, Pluto, YouTube, etc.

Now if I was working from the rig, I would spring for Starlink but as a retiree, tv is not essential to my enjoyment of life.

 

[pconroy]

A DVD is an inexpensive and easy way to hook up to a rv tv.

Starlink is the real answer.

These were my thoughts too. A DVD player is under $50 these days. We have one "just in case". We have Starlink and can stream almost anything anywhere.

Cell Phone hotspot.

Dish/DirecTV.

Amplified OTA Antenna on a very tall pole...


I think it breaks down into two big buckets: get yourself some sort of internet connection, or an antenna (OTA or Satellite).

 

[Kim Gass]

Starlink is the only option I can think of. We have cable internet at home no cell service at home and little OTA TV . Without the cable we would be done the cell works through the wifi. When the internet goes out we rely on the one OTA station we can get. And when the power goes out which it often does for days we have no internet no cell service. So a campground isn't much different. What we do is board games and read books. So we are thinking Starlink would be a good option for us at home and on the road.

 

[jimmoore13]

We have a ROKU box on our unsmart tv in the rig. We can connect to wifi or our hotspot and watch most anything we want or have signed up for. Netflix, Prime, Pluto, YouTube, etc.

Now if I was working from the rig, I would spring for Starlink but as a retiree, tv is not essential to my enjoyment of life.

I suspect James Island is far more "civilized" than much of Colorado, and terrain out here is the enemy of RF signals of any type. East of the Rockies...beginning just west of Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs, CO is much like Kansas...flat, arid plains. Perfect for RF signals, especially when you plant the towers on the foothills. But once you hit the foothills, things change dramatically. Lots of effort has gone into cell service for small metro areas like Durango, Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs, and so on, and similar effort has been made to serve major highway corridors like I-70...and to some degree, Route 285, etc. But one need only drive a couple of miles away from those cell service areas to be totally in the "RF dark zones." Radio does not penetrate granite, and TV is even more impotent when attempting to wrap around terrain. So, out here, a WiFi hot spot is largely useless. I envy civilization at times, and then I realize that I'm not civilized myself.

 

[Jagiven]

I commonly down load a video or two to my phone from Netflix before I travel (work).

In the camper I never watch TV. Actually I removed it. Normally I read, games, talk, make fishing lures, etc.

 

[norty1]

We spend months in W. NC and weeks in Florida and in neither area can pick up a ota signal.
One dilemma with Starlink is when I’m gone, I still need WiFi at home to access my cameras etc.

 

[JimD]

A lot of great suggestions but I didn't see anyone ask - what do you have at home? If you have Direct TV or dish, you can just grab a receiver from home (if it is a stand alone version) and just buy a receiving dish. If you have a bunch of DVDs at home, then an inexpensive player would work.

It would not be worth buying a bunch of DVDs on the oft chance you may want to view one.

We have had Direct TV for decades so I added the Traveler dish to my rig a number of years ago. With that you just press a button and the dish goes up and locks on to the 3 high def satellites. Extremely easy. Only had one instance of campground trees blocking the signal. Tripod mount dishes are reasonably priced (around a hundred or so) but you would have to manually set it up and aim each time. Not extremely difficult to aim, just another set up chore.

For many years we would take a box of DVDs with us but never watched any of them. We take out Direct TV DVR with us that we have recorded a number of shows on.

These days I have converted a good portion of my DVD collection to MP4s, which is a computer version of the movie. The MP4s play perfectly in high def on any of my TVs. I have had the hardware to convert any HDMI source to the MP4 format for many years. I use a 5 terabyte external USB hard drive to hold everything. Simply love it! Use it every night at home. It is so easy to scroll through my movies and pick whatever we want to watch. No having to load a disc.

Love how technology changes. I remember when DVDs were the in thing. And yes, the good old VHS tapes. How did we ever survive without that stuff?

 

[norty1]

The first motorhome we had came with an 8 track player on the dash!