Question Dome or open dish

[sheridany]

If I was thinking about adding satellite to my coach it seems the preference is for dish vs direct tv because dish is more RV friendly. What is the difference in picture quality if you choose the dome vs open dish on top for the dish network?

 

[Neal]

I believe rule of thumb is larger the dish the better. Dome is typically for in motion setups and may not perform as well but I have no experience, all just word of mouth from what I recall. I could be completely wrong, I'm good at that

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

With today's digital TV signal, I don't think there will be a "picture quality" difference. The main difference, I think, is the ability to capture a weak signal. The larger dish will capture a signal when the smaller dome (which actually has a small "dish" inside) will not.

Once you acquire a signal, the picture quality should be the same as long as you are able to maintain signal capture. In less-than-ideal circumstances (heavy rain, snow, foliage cover, etc.) the larger dish will do a better job of capturing and holding a signal.

We use a portable dome-style satellite antenna (King VQ4550) that was purchased for use until we could get a dish installed on the roof of the coach. We did not like the Winegard units that Newmar installs, so were going to go with a RF Mogul Eagle unit. Fast-forward and we are still using the portable dome. It has provided excellent service to the point where I don't think we will move forward with a roof-mounted dish.

TJ

 

[J&JD]

We had a dome on our previous coach. Even a small amount of rain affected reception. Much better when we switched to the RF Mogul dish. Keep in mind we have Directv and that was 10+ years ago. On our 17DS we have an RF Mogul Eagle that works extremely well. It locks on most of the time in about 2 minutes or so and reception is great. Again, we are still with Directv, sadly.

 

[Just George]

I have a Winegard Traveler and Dish is my provider. I did have an EL motor go bad & had to remove the antenna turret & return it to Winegard for repair. The unit was out of warranty by a couple months however they covered the cost of the "repair" (they actually replaced the entire turret & updated the programming in the controller). Other that the EL motor problem the Traveler has worked well for me. Power on, searches & locks on to the satellites & good to go. I'm using 2 Wally receivers, 1 in bedroom & 1 in living room. Outside TV is also wired to the living room receiver. If I were to buy new antenna I'd still buy the open dish design but would likely go with the RF Mogul product since I understand they will sell repair parts vs Winegrad "send it back" process. The Traveler connects to all three satellites at once so you can watch any channel you choose on either receiver. The smaller roof mount dome antennas only link to one satellite at a time so if you have two receivers they can watch different channels as long as the channels are on the same satellite. The Winegrad Pathfinder is an exception however I don't know if it is roof mountable and I don't believe it provides "in motion" tracking. Some of the dome antennas provide "in motion" tacking which allow you to watch satellite TV while the coach is in motion. The open antennas cannot provide "in motion" service. Once you have a roof mounted antenna your satellite service will be dependent on where you park, i.e. trees may block the ability for the antenna to see the satellites. If this is a significant issue you can purchase a portable antenna for use if /when your roof unit cannot get a clear path to the satellites. Others have already addressed picture and reception quality so no need to address those items.

 

[NWIP]

If wanting satellite TV a dome antenna I believe is only standard definition. Open face antenna is needed for HD. This was when I researched a few years back so it is possible things have changed in the last 5 years

 

[FL-JOE]

It was, and still is my understanding that the difference between a dome and open array dish was exactly what NWIP stated.

I am not aware of any dome for an RV that can get HD signals. If you install a Wingard open dish on your roof you can have Dish or DirecTV. If whoever you initially go with doesn't work out for you then you can pay and have it programed/changed over to the other provided (not cheap to do).

If something has changed maybe someone can chime in and correct us.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

I believe that the King VQ4550 Tailgater (which is what we have) does Dish Network HD. We seem to get the HD channels anyway and they are very crisp in appearance. Of course, you should know that this technological assessment comes from the "Ol' Technology Dinosaur."

TJ

 

[NWIP]

I had HD in our S&B since it came out and never wanted to go back to fuzzyvision. When we got our 2017 DS it had the in-motion dome antenna providing SD and used for almost 18 months prior to retirement. When we got the Trav’lr installed, genius that I am, I used for 2 weeks on SD because all the HD channels were hidden. So fuzzyvision wasn’t as bad as I thought ?