Question To satellite or not?

[Scconstr]

Hello everyone, probably not a new question, so I apologize if this is old hat. Just started full timing in a 2022 Keystone Avalanche. This is our 3rd rig. We just hauled it 1937 miles in four days, with a 2021 Ram Cummins Tradesman. Wife is already missing her Direct TV Chanel’s. We are a previous Direct customer with our account in “suspend”.
Now the question. Should I go thru the effort of adding a satellite dish to the RV or do a stand alone? We still have all of the equipment from our previous household set up.

 

[Buly]

If you decide to go with satellite, I recommend switch to Dish. We switched and we are very satisfied. You can turn off the service when not used for few months very easy. Customer service is great.
Direct TV was a great PIA .

 

[sanda]

Dish all the way. Rather than subscribe for RV service we just take our home receiver with us. Use the tailgater portable dish with 50' of coax. If you mount it permanently to your RV you will have problems picking up the satellite when camping around trees.

 

[Fish]

Hello everyone, probably not a new question, so I apologize if this is old hat. Just started full timing in a 2022 Keystone Avalanche. This is our 3rd rig. We just hauled it 1937 miles in four days, with a 2021 Ram Cummins Tradesman. Wife is already missing her Direct TV Chanel’s. We are a previous Direct customer with our account in “suspend”.
Now the question. Should I go thru the effort of adding a satellite dish to the RV or do a stand alone? We still have all of the equipment from our previous household set up.

Stand alone. Much less expensive, much easier to use all the time if you have trees.

 

[billnourse]

I was with DirectTV for 20 years. When we started RV'ing regularly instead of just a couple of weekends a year, I found that DirectTV knows nothing about RV's or how to supply the RV community with service. We switched to Dish and everything has been very good. We have a Tailgater dish that is portable and works automatically. Can turn the service on and off at will.

 

[sheridany]

I think satellite will be dead in five years or less as much content is going to streaming. Even though we have DTV we use streaming more although I have yet to go way off the grid to see if I can even get a cell signal. If you plan to go to remote locations, then satellite is necessary.

 

[Fish]

I think satellite will be dead in five years or less as much content is going to streaming. Even though we have DTV we use streaming more although I have yet to go way off the grid to see if I can even get a cell signal. If you plan to go to remote locations, then satellite is necessary.

I think so also. I didn't even take my dish to Florida this winter. Everything worked out fine so when I got home I cancelled dish network.

 

[sanda]

Live streaming won't work for us because we are off grid a lot. Neither do maps through the phone.

 

[JRS]

Another DIsh fan here.

 

[Neemer]

I have a sat dish on mine that has yet to see the light of day. I wish I hadn’t optioned it in. We are 100% streaming.

 

[DKRITTER]

On our next coach we may not even do Satellite, with streaming the way it is today I think it will quickly eclipse satellite whether it be Dish or Direct.

 

[luckyeddie]

My wife and I are considering Starlink as a source, with the streaming from someone like Hulu. Starlink has high speed data with low latentcy and can be mobile pretty much anywhere. No data caps. Or so I have read, I have a friend with it and while its not ideal for gaming they say that for streaming its wonderful.

But my friend is not mobile. So as great a guy as he is I am looking for confirmation from someone who is actually mobile, not sitting in a cornfield in the middle of Kansas in a mobile home. Thanks!

Ron

 

[DKRITTER]

My understanding is you have the ability to be mobile but it is $25.00 more.

 

[luckyeddie]

My understanding is you have the ability to be mobile but it is $25.00 more.

That’s my understanding as well. I don’t mind, its both data and streaming video if it works properly. First, you gotta get their blessing for your permanent address, and then "maybe". We shall see....

Ron

 

[RangeMaggotBob]

I am a hard-core channel surfer. Constantly changing channels; nobody can watch TV with me. And I want no delays when changing channels, like with ROKU live TV and others. So my question is, how is streaming going to work for me? I know nothing about it except that when I try to watch something on DISH on demand or whatever the hell it is, it keeps stopping and saying it's loading. I do live in a rural area and have satellite internet access, which also sucks. But there is a little shred of hope here. Our electrical supplier, White River Valley Electric, is finally starting to install/offer high-speed internet. But- we are in the southern most part of the service area, and will be last to receive. About 3 years from now. I don't know if I'm asking a question or just rattling on...

 

[Buly]

Valium may help?

 

[FL-JOE]

Here is our TV/reception story as full timers.

We started with DirecTV mainly because we used it in the sticknbrick that we sold. Since 2011 we purchased 4 different roof mounted dishes, changing when we changed RVs. The equipment worked okay except if you ended up in a site under or around tall trees. The roof mounted automatic dishes were also very expensive.

Last year when we purchased a 5th wheel the dealer threw in a Dish trailgater portable. I have a tripod and made a roof mount also. It is very easy to either set it up on the roof or on the tripot when we get to a new site. It zeros in on the 3 sats automatically. To get the local channels I simply go on the Dish app on my phone and within a couple of minutes everything is done. No phone calls.....nothing else to do. We have the tailgater package so it is month by month and automatically charged to our CC. If you need to suspend service for a month then you just don't pay that months bill and they stop your service. When you want to start it again simply pay the monthly bill and it starts again. All this can be done through the iphone app. Seriously, I wish I would have went with this package and equipment 11 years ago!

As far as streaming goes, I think it is the wave of the future. When we buy another sticknbrick and come off the road we will certainly go that way. However, just last week we were in a campground outside of Paducah that had almost no cell phone service. For now we get 100% reliable TV service so we will stick with Dish.

 

[Bowling300]

I am going to go to dish next year because I can pay it monthly.

 

[RangeMaggotBob]

Valium may help?

Thank you. Thank you so much. I really need some.

 

[jball49]

Hello everyone, probably not a new question, so I apologize if this is old hat. Just started full timing in a 2022 Keystone Avalanche. This is our 3rd rig. We just hauled it 1937 miles in four days, with a 2021 Ram Cummins Tradesman. Wife is already missing her Direct TV Chanel’s. We are a previous Direct customer with our account in “suspend”.
Now the question. Should I go thru the effort of adding a satellite dish to the RV or do a stand alone? We still have all of the equipment from our previous household set up.

I will agree that satellite is definitely not necessary if you have enough bandwidth from the Internet to stream content. It’s cheaper and the best part is you can watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it. We went streaming only and locals off antenna about 7 years ago and never looked back. You can go as economical as you desire on limited choices for streaming or get anything and almost everything (some you can’t get on satellite) so no drawback there. The only reason not to do this is if you are going to be in areas where sufficient Internet connection isn’t available but then even that has multiple possibilities nowadays via satellite so you have to set your priorities I guess. I have gotten really spoiled about not watching ads, sure I used to time shift on DVR to avoid watching but now without having to do anything and the show plays from beginning to end is perfection! Good luck with whatever you choose!