Direct TV portable satellite

I use a Winegard Carry out. We take a standard receiver from our house. While close to home, we get our local stations and all the stations that are in out plan. When we get farther away from home we no longer get local channels. We don't care! We use the antenna to get traveling local stations.

If you don't need HD then there is only 1 satellite required to receive all of the DirecTV SD programming. The only need for the other 2 satellites is for HD. If you can live without a roof mounted automatic you can use a ground mounted tripod based antenna which WILL get you all of the DirecTV programming including HD. If you want a roof mounted antenna that will get you the DirecTV HD programming you will need to pay the big bucks for a Winegard Trav'ler.
The portable domes combined with the Dish Network service WILL get you their full package including HD but there are some limitations on the type of receiver you can use.

DickOK wrote:
We are tech. dummies. I see that the portable dome satellites for Direct TV do NOT get HD. It also says they do not get all the satellites as compared to the Slimline roof mount satellite. Does the portables get all the channels but not HD??

Most of the SD channels are on sat 101. So the answer is mostly...:h

There are some (not many) areas where there are no SD local channels and in those areas you need to receive HD channels even if you watch them in SD.

We were satisfied with our dome SD only channels until we could not get the winter Olympics on the OR coast. It took a lot of DTV phone calls to ferret out the above from them. We had a HD HR24 receiver and a 720 HD TV. So we bit the bullet and replaced the dish. And now I hope to never go back to SD.

Just be aware, Direct has reported they will be discontuning SD brocasting within the next couple of years.

donn0128 wrote:
Just be aware, Direct has reported they will be discontuning SD brocasting within the next couple of years.

Please provide a link to this from DTV.

I'm aware that others have speculated and posted that this will happen...

Only the Winegard Trav'ler gets all three DirecTv satellites to provide an HD signal. I've done it both ways and the Trav'ler is the way to go. Push button and it does all the rest.

One other point is if you have multiple TV's, using the HR44 or equivalent GENIE box allows you to get a different program on each of your TV's. With the SD boxes all TV's watch the same program.

If you go Genie and use the wireless Mini-Genie receivers at the TV's you can by-pass your RV's coax system as they use an HDMI cable. Really an easy system to use.

I have the basics....tripod, (SD) dish, strength meter and compass. Takes between 5 and 15 minits to set up. Take the SD box out of the house.

Of course, I am not a full timer...and do not use this all that much seeing most cg have cable anyway. I DO use this when I snowbird for 3 months or so.

Here is the DirecTV kit that I ordered. I use it with the HR44-200 receiver from home.

Bigbird65 wrote:
Here is the DirecTV kit that I ordered. I use it with the HR44-200 receiver from home.

We use this sort of setup and have for years. We have 200' of cable, so when we are located under trees, etc. we can move the dish to a location where we have a clear direction to see the satellites. With the roof dish, if your RV site isn't open to the satellites, you're out of luck.

It's a lot less expensive than the roof mounted automatic dish.

We use dishpointer to get the settings for pointing the antenna.

DickOK wrote:
We are tech. dummies. I see that the portable dome satellites for Direct TV do NOT get HD. It also says they do not get all the satellites as compared to the Slimline roof mount satellite. Does the portables get all the channels but not HD??

Yes. As far as I can tell, mine does.