Question Streaming vs satellite

[sheridany]

I have DTV satellite in my coach but ever since I put the pepwave in I find myself watching streaming entertainment more than DTV and when I call DTV for anything they try to sell me their streaming packages with a free trial. Do you think satellite tv is obsolete technology and we will go to 100% stream? The quality of the cell signal has to get better it would seem. We are currently in Las Vegas and neither Verizon or ATT are very good compared to other places which I find surprising.

 

[redbaron]

I have DTV satellite in my coach but ever since I put the pepwave in I find myself watching streaming entertainment more than DTV and when I call DTV for anything they try to sell me their streaming packages with a free trial. Do you think satellite tv is obsolete technology and we will go to 100% stream? The quality of the cell signal has to get better it would seem. We are currently in Las Vegas and neither Verizon or ATT are very good compared to other places which I find surprising.

Yes, I think so. I have DTV for my vacation rental homes, and use the same account for my RV. This means I pay $10/mo for all the premium channels. Even with that, I find myself signing into the roku channels for on demand vs what the network is broadcasting.

We mainly use dtv for weather and a few broadcast only channels we enjoy. That accounts for about 4 hrs a week of usage maximum. The rest is all streaming.

 

[lemondrop9344]

As a full timer working in the RV, having dependable internet in the RV is a necessity (Peplink CAT-18). Streaming media was incidental to some degree.
I had explored streaming in our stick & bricks home prior to going full time using a combination of ROKU's, SLING & OTA broadcasts of local channels. I was surprised I was able to receive a wider selection of programming with comparable quality. Now in the RV full time, my monthly expense in the RV (data plans/SLING charges vs ISP & DISH subscription) is around $75.00 less. That was a pleasant surprise.
I would not say satellite TV it's obsolete, yet. However, if I were building a RV from scratch, I would prefer to have cellular internet hardware as the backbone of my TV entertainment as opposed to any satellite system (not withstanding Starlink).

 

[Neemer]

We have been experimenting with YouTube TV and like what we see. While we have a Dish Network-configured Winegard antenna on the new coach, it has never been used. I’d like to have that $$ back. We will be completely sat-free by the first of the new year.

 

[MapNerd]

I don’t think it’s obsolete but I do think that eventually it will be. One of the things to keep in mind is that streaming is an expensive data usage activity. Consider the following streaming data usage breakdowns from some of the most popular streaming platforms:

Netflix

• Low video resolution (240p): 0.3GB (300 MB) per hour
• Medium Video resolution (480p): 0.7GB (700 MB) per hour
• High Definition: 3GB per hour
• Ultra-High Definition (4K): 7GB per hour

Amazon Prime

• 480p: 800 MB per hour
• 1080p: 2 GB per hour
• 2160p (4K): 6 GB per hour

Hulu

• 480p: 680 MB per hour
• 720p: 1.3 GB per hour
• 1080p: 2.7 GB per hour
• 2160p (4K): 7 GB per hour

Disney+

• 480p: 700 GB per hour
• 1080p: 2.0 GB per hour
• 2160p (4K): 7.7 GB per hour

Interestingly, HBOMax doesn’t break down their data usage in a straightforward way but the numbers above give you a good estimate.

So think about that. You might have Mobile internet plan that gives you a 100GB/month before it slows you down to absolutely useless speeds. You use this internet for work, shopping, booking campgrounds and also entertainment in the form of streaming video. Watching a 2-hour movie in 4K resolution on Disney+ is going to cost you a bit more than 10% of your monthly data allowance. Then you watch a few TV shows throughout the month, let’s say 20 hours worth, at 1080p resolution. That’s 40GB. You’re now down to less than half of your allowance. If you’re working and on Zoom calls all day, that’s eating up your data too, especially if you are doing video+screen sharing+audio. Then there’s emails, file downloads, chat. Your normal browsing, shopping and e-commerce. If you have kids then there’s school as well which can be rich in media as well.

Satellite TV by comparison, does not use any of your internet data plan, so if you have a limited amount of data, satellite offers a way to still watch all the good stuff without blowing through your data. It’s quite important to note however, that streaming services like Netflix that are offered through satellite providers such as Dish, and accessed through an internet-connected set-top box such as the Wally will actually use your internet data - not the satellite signal. For this reason, they’re almost never worth it. All Dish or DirectTV is doing in this case is reselling you Netflix and then using your own limited bandwidth to deliver it. If they were delivering it over their Satellite infrastructure, it would be a great way to get Netflix and others without having to eat up your data, but that’s not how it works.

Perhaps one day truly unlimited internet plans with no throttling and no caps will be available but until then, for the RVer, satellite TV offers a great way to get TV service without having to pay and arm and a leg for “unlimited data plans” that are actually very limited.

 

[docj]

So think about that. You might have Mobile internet plan that gives you a 100GB/month before it slows you down to absolutely useless speeds.

With all due respect, you are basing your analysis on an assumption that leads to an automatic negative conclusion. Of course, 100 GB/mo isn't enough for full-time streaming but there are a number of ways to provide higher data limits at affordable prices. I happen to have an AT&T account through Millenicom that provides 400 GB/mo at a very consistent ~10 Mbps. Quite a number of RVers use Visible by Verizon which is a very low cost way of providing service in the 5-10 Mbps range. Lots of other RVs hold on to grandfathered plans such as the unlimited Verizon prepaid plan that I happen to have.

The bottom line IMO is that if you want to stream there are ways to obtain sufficient data at affordable prices. Furthermore, when "mobility" comes to Starlink (most likely next year) there will nearly unlimited opportunities to stream video.

FWIW, satellite TV was "new technology" in the mid to late 1990's. That's not to say that a nearly 30 year old technology can't still be viable, but it's not all that common in the technology marketplace. It's pretty clear that no new DBS satellites will ever be launched. The existing providers will milk their existing birds until they die and, at that point, the technology will quietly disappear. JMO

 

[Jim]

With no Internet, Direct TV is all we have. But I'd gladly put the $175 month into Internet instead, if it were available.

 

[Neal]

YouTube is my thing for my disconnect brain time. I love the learning for my various hobbies. I don't do YouTube TV but do the YouTube Premium to avoid the ads and delays as that's my thing to date. I also have HBO Max via my AT&T cellular service and I use Apple TV so I stream various other things, I don't have Netflix any longer as I haven't watched a movie in years so I finally cancelled it. I do have Amazon Prime but don't really use it but it's available for video too.

I have DISH which I like the option of connecting (paying) for service on demand (by month). I watch about 3 channels on "cable" whether Dish or home Verizon FIOS, and sports (NFL) but OTA worked well for me at Luray this past trip as I didn't want to pay a month for DISH to watch a few NFL games.

Satellite has it's place such as poor Internet which that situation will continue to improve such as Starlink and others that come on board to solve that. Think of where we were 5, 10, etc. years ago with Internet, cellular, etc. and where we are now getting over 5-10 down consistently which is enough for about anything. The issue will be your data caps. If you can get into options for your streaming service to control (slow down) speeds to only that is necessary or if they offer data savers, that may help with this situation.

To answer your question @sheridany - I personally am not ready to have a coach without SAT. DISH allows me the option to have it and not pay for it which is great and my coach came with DirecTV which I switched to DISH as I knew right away I made a bad choice per recommendation of my salesman that told me wrong about being able to start/stop it. With how far cellular has come along since 2017 when I bought my coach and all I've learned to date, I have options.

 

[MapNerd]

With all due respect, you are basing your analysis on an assumption that leads to an automatic negative conclusion. Of course, 100 GB/mo isn't enough for full-time streaming but there are a number of ways to provide higher data limits at affordable prices. I happen to have an AT&T account through Millenicom that provides 400 GB/mo at a very consistent ~10 Mbps.

In all fairness, my post was far from an “analysis”, rather just an example using a common data cap and common streaming uses.

Glad that 400GB/mo @10mbps works for you, it would not for me.

I am actively considering putting a dish on my RV even though we don’t watch much TV just to save those precious GB.

 

[sheridany]

@MapNerd if you go the route of DTV here’s a tip. Don’t say RV because DTV really doesn’t care about RV’s and their service centers are on the other side of the world. The secret I learned was to say I am adding them to my house. It pays to buy the receivers yourself as DTV wants to send a tech out to install the equipment. I have heard dish is a better experience.

 

[gtd]

It was the exploding cost of DTV that drove us to stream back in 2018. A number of different services later and much education lead us to the RVTV.club. They offer thousands of US and Canadian live, VOD and sports channels for only $150 a year. You do need an internet connection - we use our ATT unlimited account which allocates the bandwidth "limits" per line. We also bought an Amazon TV Fire Stick for $35 to use as to "tabletop" device. When we're not in the RV we unplug the Firestick and connect to our home TV which uses the dreaded Spectrum internet service - we have no alternative where we live. For us, the setup works well both on the road and at home. Oh, we also use an amplified digital antenna for local stations. Depending on the location we can pull as many as 21 local TV stations free over the air without the need for the internet.