analog or digital TV at camp grounds

Satellite works fine for us for local channels too as we move about the country. Whenever I relocate out of the current spot beam I "chat" with Dish Tech support and give them my new "service address" and remind them to leave my billing address at Livingston TX as it is. Most of the techs get it and just blip my receiver to change to the current requested service address. This even updates the timezone so that sitting IN AZ I do not have to put up with EST on the screen.

There is no extra charge - well I don't have a fixed base Dish account so there is only the one receiver.

If you call in to set this up just make sure you talk to a tech or sales person in the RV section.

jerseyjim wrote:
Yeah...I do wonder about that Spanish station: no matter where we are...and cannot get anything over the air...that station comes in loud and clear.
I wonder what broadcast technique they're using that the (English) networks don't or refuse to use.

There are radio and TV broadcast stations located just over the Mexican border running much higher power than US stations are allowed. They're called "border blasters"...

Yeah...I do wonder about that Spanish station: no matter where we are...and cannot get anything over the air...that station comes in loud and clear.
I wonder what broadcast technique they're using that the (English) networks don't or refuse to use.

jerseyjim wrote:
This is at least the 2nd thread on this forum regarding the "new" digital systems some RV parks now use...are "forced" to use, whatever.
It seems to me that the easiest way to get around all this "confusion is to go with satellite (Dish/DirecTV) and, if out of your "spot beam" for the local networks, put up the amplified directional antenna.
In the past, this has worked for me just fine. The only item needed for ease of this system is a passive switch-box...not an expensive item.

my 2 cents.

Antenna works great back in flat Country. Out here in California they work great too in the flat parts of the state. But get over the coast behind the hills, or up the Sierras (you know those places people like to take the RV's) and you get no over the air channels. Actually if you speak Spanish, for some reason I could always find a Spanish language channel, but never the major networks in the remote areas.

n7bsn wrote:

ChooChooMan74 wrote:
QAM is actually digital.

Wikipedia QAM (Television)

When staying at a park with QAM channels, I get HD. Usually, only the Over the Air channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS) are in HD.

Yes, I know that, further I actually understand how it works, including the math behind QAM and NTSC-VSB (the old Analog TV system) and many other communication systems.

What I was asking is his park has a block decoder. That is rather then just translating one QAM "channel" to send to the TV (like the converters those parks have to provide) a block decoder is programed to translate various QAM channels into analog channels
Of course they have to pick and chose which channels get translated and which get left behind.
The entire point in digital TV, be it QAM (cable) or ATSC (broadcast) is that you can get more "channels" then one in a "channel", so when you block translate, you only get something like 1/3 or 1/4 of the channels, and none of then HD

Yes, a converter and we were able to choose what channels our system has. A total of 60.

frankdamp wrote:
What comes to the CG from the over-the-air signal has been digital for several years. Whether they have a local cable service that provides an analog signal is questionable.

OTA though your roof antenna is digital.

We only turned on our TV maybe eight times in the four years we travelled, and it was only to get local weather forecasts.

If you're really TV addicts, why not stay home?

I AM HOME! Home is where I park it! Sometimes we like to use the TV to watch a movie or the news. Not everyone in an RV is on vacation.

n7bsn wrote:

Pogoil wrote:

You will not get any channels with encrypted digital cable you will need a box at each TV.

em, not 100% true

Some of the most expensive TV's now come equipped to either with a "slot" that the cable-co provides you with a decoding card, or can be programed via the cable (by the cable-co) to decode encrypted channels

Agreed, but still needed at every TV. But how does that help the RV. park owner. His choices are hand out the boxes and if someone drives off with one without a deposit Charter charges him $100 per box. Two, have the cable company put in a head end system that converts his digital cable to analog for x amount and I am told 30 to 35 channels for the same or more than he paid for 70 plus digital channels. Or cut the cable company ties and put in a head end Sat system of x amount analog channels. Most parks could not afford a HD. digital head end unit. Very expensive.

Pogoil.

xctraveler wrote:
Cut the wire! We use internet to watch movies and OTA to see locals channels and networks when service is available. We have satellite - Dish- for areas where data signal is poor and there is no accessible OTA.

Not the best advice, OTA yes, I use it most of the places I park and I have so much recorded OTA stuff I do not have time to watch it all.

Internet however chews up bandwidth very fast,, Unless you bring your own internet and have UNLIMITED, this is not a good choice for routine use,, Occasional use perhaps, but not routine (I have about 5 hours a month of Internet video I watch)

last night in fact, Downloaded an hour's worth of Ham Nation, Then cast it to the TV with ChromeCast and es-file browser with Cast add-on, Worked great,, Downloading first means NO buffering issues, 100$ buffered.

Dutch_12078 wrote:

frankdamp wrote:
What comes to the CG from the over-the-air signal has been digital for several years. Whether they have a local cable service that provides an analog signal is questionable.

OTA though your roof antenna is digital.

We only turned on our TV maybe eight times in the four years we travelled, and it was only to get local weather forecasts.

If you're really TV addicts, why not stay home?

We do "stay home", but since our home moves from RV park to RV park, we also like to have the comforts of home as well, including watching TV even when we can't get a good satellite signal from our site.

If I used my TV that in-frequently, I would remove it and build shelves to store my "books" so I could read instead of watching the TV. You can get weather over the radio or phone.

frankdamp wrote:
What comes to the CG from the over-the-air signal has been digital for several years. Whether they have a local cable service that provides an analog signal is questionable.

OTA though your roof antenna is digital.

We only turned on our TV maybe eight times in the four years we travelled, and it was only to get local weather forecasts.

If you're really TV addicts, why not stay home?

We do "stay home", but since our home moves from RV park to RV park, we also like to have the comforts of home as well, including watching TV even when we can't get a good satellite signal from our site.