Best satellite option for full timing

DISH Network. 3-yrs in and very happy with our choice.

We have had Dish at home and the RV for many years. Very happy with both. A number of automatic satellite antennas available with Dish.

For "some time" TV watching, I'd recommend a Pathway X2 with a Wally receiver. You can turn a Wally into a limited DVR by connecting it to a hard drive.

For more TV options as a full timer, I'd suggest a Winegard DISH Travler rooftop automatic dish with a Hopper 3 DVR.

There are several programming options from DISH. Depends on your needs.

Was a long time DTV viewer. Switched to Dish for the HD portables. Mostly happy. Love the RV part of Dish but the home version is just okay. I hate the home versions software or whatever runs the system. Too much lag time when doing some viewing changes.
Out in the RV it's great since our X2 and 211 work fine together. I did add a hard drive for recording and pausing and that too works fine.
Picture is great and setup is easy.
I also installed the Dish Pointer Pro app for my phone. Helps when setting up in areas with trees.

There are thousands of posts of DTV vs Dish and it's like a girlfriend - everyone has their favorite.

We use DTV with a HR44 receiver that we use at home and move it to the RV when traveling. Works great as all of the recordings are available.

We have the RF Mogul dish which is field serviceable unlike Winegard.

BTW it sounds like you mostly stay within the DTV SF/Sac spot beam so less local changes.

We don’t full time, but when we’re out we use Dish with the King Tailgater with the 211Z receiver. We use the basic Dish for RV package with the extra news package. Works fine for us.

Yeah, my favorite is Dish Network. Now that Direct is owned by AT&T who is notorious for the death of their customer service across the board, you'll be pleasantly surprised to speak with someone you can understand when calling for help at Dish. I've been with Dish since I abandoned my 8 ft dish. I haven't been pleased with all the changes I've seen but for the last couple of years, I haven't had to deal with anyone with an oriental dialect that from the conversations I've had, never used the system they're trying to give advice about. Over the winter as we traveled, I'd call to "update" my local channels. The "spot" beams that carry the local channels cover a wide area. When I got into Arizona, I gave them an address in Phoenix even though I was in Tucson at the time and started watching Phoenix channels for weather, news and the major network programming. I was able to watch those channels till we moved to California later on. Then I gave them an RV park address in Los Angeles even though we never made it past Palm Springs. I did that because the Palm Springs area has few channels than Los Angeles. They gave me the impression that at some point, I'd be able to switch locals using an app on my phone. If I was a full timer, I could do that now but because I've got a permanent home address, that's not an option for me.

I'd also recommend an automatic dish. Because I live in the Midwest where many RV parks have nice shade trees that also block the fixed antenna on the roof, I have a second portable antenna that comes in handy when the rooftop one is blocked.

I use the Vip211z receiver with an external harddrive for DVR recording. The 211 also has a built-in OTA digital tuner to receive local channels and even record them. I found it on Ebay and Craig's list for $30. There's a one time charge of $40 to enable the DVR function which I was told is good for any receiver I buy in the future. The 211 has both an HDMI port and an analog (channel 3/4) port that allows us to connect it easily to the 2nd TV in the rear of our MH.

I bought a newer Wally receiver that has a RF remote (the 211's remote is IF) that allows controlling the receiver through walls. The Wally's only output is one HDMI port. That prevented my put my plan of replacing the my 211 with the Wally dead in its tracks. Another missing component of the Wally is the OTA tuner - it must be purchased separately if you want to view/record local channels. It costs about a 1/3 of the original cost of the Wally. I'm not sure the Wally is worth it and other than the RF remote, it isn't as nice a receiver as the Vip211z.

Our programming package (America's Top 200) cost is $82.99 and locals are $12. A second receiver is $7 bringing our bill just shy of $102 a month. I'm figuring on dropping the local channels and using an OTA antenna to receive then soon.

Unlimited cellular internet.

We did the satellite but with so much online content, we finally gave up on satellite.

Unless you demand high def, cellular works very well within the limits of the available technology/data plans.

Personally I use over the air broadcast. The old Winegard Sensar IV.

Dish is best for RV use.

luvdoggiez wrote:
Hi there everyone,

DW and I live full time in our RV. We have a home base in Sacramento area, but we travel frequently, and sometimes we want to watch TV when we are staying at a camp ground. We've found that DirecTv and Uverse DVR's don't work when we are on the road. For DirecTv, I found that setting up the tripod Satellite dish a pain to set up when we are on the road. The dome on our 2003 Allegro bus no longer functions. We are able to watch OTA when we are at Campgrounds, but sometimes we stay places that don't have any OTA service and no cable.

We had DISH years ago when we lived in a house, but had not tried them yet.

We'd welcome your thoughts on what equipment configuration and subscription has worked the best for you when being on the road.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this subject.

Safe Travels

Eric and Carol

"The Best" is will generate many discussions similar to the Ford / Chevy debate.
For me, the best satellite TV setup is DirecTV and a Winegard Trav'ler on your roof. Sure it's expensive but it's THE BEST option for satellite TV reception. With this ANY DTV receiver will work in your RV including the Genie and client combination. DirecTV also uses only 3 centrally located satellites over TX so reception coast to coast is excellent. DISH uses 2 sets of 3 satellites. One set located in the far East and one set in the far west. A dome will work with DISH and if you ensure you select the correct dome you can change some settings in the dome (ladder and roof work required) to change between the 2 sets.
You could also sign up for DTV's DNS and receive the LA channels everywhere you travel in the US without concern over changing locations again and again. DISH has this option as well, just adding to the discussion that you may not be aware of.
I travel coast to coast on a regular basis and have only been without service due to trees a hand full of times in the last 19 years.
Others will disagree. That's OK but you will have to do a lot of reading (or re-read this post) to find what's "Best"!