watching TV in your 5er

Here's another option for those with tablets. You can download content from Amazon Prime Video for offline viewing. I believe you can do the same thing from Netflix. You simply download content to your local device (e.g. iPad) before you leave or anywhere you have a strong WiFi connection. Later you can watch the shows from your local device completely disconnected from the internet. I have used it with Amazon and it works great - however not ALL their content is available for download. Netflix recently added this ability as well but I haven't tried it yet. So, I'm unaware of any caveats. This is a great option while dry camping to reduce power consumption (DVD player, etc.). It does require some planning - i.e. choosing what you want to watch later.

I've given up on trying to stream video for the RV. Just too much data and sketchy coverage areas. I went with a DISH satellite system with a external hard drive and what I do is, since I am lucky and have my RV at home, I set it up to record some programming on a regular basis, such as Cheers, MASH, etc., then I also look forward for movies and record those. Now when we are on the road we have a hard drive chock full of programming which we can watch without needing to set up the satellite. Of course we also use the OTA antenna when available and carry a cabinet full of DVDs.

Well, with my limited technological mind I'm thinking that Winegard Batwing Antenna might be my best option.

For all of those who are using such an antenna, how do you set it up, what holds it up etc. I'm assuming that you take it down before you travel and then put it back up once parked. Does it require a cable being hooked up directly to the TV? Where do you store it while you are on the road?

Njmurvin wrote:
If you have:
(1) AT&T wireless as your cell phone provider AND
(2) A decent signal (strong 4G or better yet LTE) AND
(3) A subscription to DirecTV NOW (their streaming product, NOT the dish based product),

Then you can stream to your phone or tablet USING THE DIRECTV NOW APP without it counting against your data. I cut the cord from DirecTV satellite service over a year ago at home and have never looked back. I'll admit the DTVN service has been sketchy for a few months and they still don't have all the features available (most significant being a cloud DVR), but it has improved significantly since the introduction late last year. Their affiliation with AT&T makes it interesting for RVing in that - as long as there's ample signal - we can stream all we want and the data usage doesn't count against our data plans.

Very cool.

Was in Pigeon Forge a couple weeks ago and had trees blocking my satellite dish and mountains blocking most of the OTA signal. Have Verizon Unlimited plan and decent LTE connection. Streamed 70G of Netflix for the week with no problems using Visio smart TV. Cell based connections can work as long as the tower you connect to is not busy.

No need for another box. Kodi can be loaded onto a win laptop or mac. Just need a cable from laptop to tv. Kodi.tv or just watch it on your computer. Does require an internet connection.

If you have:
(1) AT&T wireless as your cell phone provider AND
(2) A decent signal (strong 4G or better yet LTE) AND
(3) A subscription to DirecTV NOW (their streaming product, NOT the dish based product),

Then you can stream to your phone or tablet USING THE DIRECTV NOW APP without it counting against your data. I cut the cord from DirecTV satellite service over a year ago at home and have never looked back. I'll admit the DTVN service has been sketchy for a few months and they still don't have all the features available (most significant being a cloud DVR), but it has improved significantly since the introduction late last year. Their affiliation with AT&T makes it interesting for RVing in that - as long as there's ample signal - we can stream all we want and the data usage doesn't count against our data plans.

Was camping a couple weeks ago at St. Andrews Fl. State Park in Panama City Beach, picked up 20 channels on AIR scan with Batwing antenna

I've messed with using my laptop to connect to the tv and play video from the laptop (files stored locally on the laptop). I've messed with chromecast, again streaming from my laptop (plex) to the chromecast. Streaming from the internet is never gonna happen unless it is 4am or something.

Not being happy involving my laptop, I'm trying a new approach. I'm working on figuring out the format my Samsung TV likes for files on a usb stick. Then at home I can pull TV shows off of my Tivo, encode them, and put them on a usb stick and I'm set for a trip with a bunch of shows (using kmttg for the tivo and encoding).

Right now the file format I use seems to lose the audio after 10 minutes or so.

We use Roku players at home they work great have not had cable or satelite for 3 yrs.

I carry a google Chromecast in the camper. I utilize my phone as a hotspot only if things get real boring and I cant pick up anything over the air. Mobile data usage to watch tv if you dont have unlimited will hurt your wallet in a real bad way