How much difference between SD and HD

Well, in the RV we normally avoid the TV being on. We're out to get away from all the electronic distractions and spend quality time with our kids. Their electronic games are severely limited also. Laptop as needed for weather, planning/searching for a outing or (uhg) work.

As for HD vs SD -- well the picture on the old 20" tube sure looks crappy. And SD on a 60" plasma is terrible. Quality HD 1080 signal is the only way to go. But then I'm in the camp where a 20MB internet connection is marginal; expect ions are high as I have to move large files regularly.

PennyPA wrote:
I'm going to see if we can get out of this contract and switch to Dish since DirecTV won't come help us out.

If you switch to DISH, consider getting the Pathway X2. It's an automatic DISH HD portable.

Also, with DISH you can sign up for Pay-As-You-Go without a long-term contract.

Well, we had a dish installer out and using the numbers the receiver gave us, nothing happened. This is getting entirely too complicated at this point especially since I don't know how we'd tell whether the skew was off in addition to the azimuth. The only sure thing we knew was that the post was plumb and level! I'm going to see if we can get out of this contract and switch to Dish since DirecTV won't come help us out.

PennyPA wrote:
So, I guess, if we don't learn to point that dish the next couple of times, we're going with a Winegard Carry-Out or their other dome one. This dish is making me feel so stupid!

I got Dishpointer Pro and it shows azimuth as 150.5 while the TV (by zip code) shows 133.0. That's a big difference. The tilt is the about the same and the elevation is just a point or two off. Which do I believe? I tend to think the Dishpointer Pro because it's homing in on our campsite whereas the zip code might be 5 or 10 miles from where we are.

Believe the receiver as this is the information that the satellite installers depend upon. It's only a starting point and not an exact. Use that to get started and scan 10-15 degrees on each side of that number. If you are using an HD dish (multiple LNB's even if those happen to be in one housing like and SL3) setting the skew is also critical as well as ensuring the post the antenna is mounted to is perfectly plumb and level.

That could be the difference between true north and magnetic north. Dishpointer I believe always gives readings in terms of true north.

So, I guess, if we don't learn to point that dish the next couple of times, we're going with a Winegard Carry-Out or their other dome one. This dish is making me feel so stupid!

I got Dishpointer Pro and it shows azimuth as 150.5 while the TV (by zip code) shows 133.0. That's a big difference. The tilt is the about the same and the elevation is just a point or two off. Which do I believe? I tend to think the Dishpointer Pro because it's homing in on our campsite whereas the zip code might be 5 or 10 miles from where we are.

PennyPA wrote:
If I keep DirecTV, there is no carry-out that has HD for them. Hoping that maybe some day in the future, someone will come out with a portable HD for DirecTV.

Don't hold your breathe if you are thinking some kind of a portable dome style system. As far as I can tell, no one is even working on it any longer due to the KA band signal DirecTV uses for the HD broadcast.

PennyPA wrote:
So it sounds like we have to learn how to aim our dish, huh? How do we know if the TV has an ATSC digital tuner? Will it say so in the instruction book for the TV? We have a Vizio...2 years old, I think.

Yes, if you want to receive satellite TV you will either need to learn to point an antenna or you need to purchase an antenna that can point itself.
As the poster has already corrected, the digital TV does not apply to satellite TV. You just need an HD receiver and HD subscription and the proper antenna capable of receiving the HD signal.
When not watching satellite, you crank up your Batwing antenna and watch OTA TV programming with the TV's built-in digital tuner.

PennyPA wrote:
Okay. Another SD vs. HD question....if you only have SD, do you still get the HD channels but in SD instead of HD??

There are some HD only channels and these will not be available in an SD version as they require a HD receiver and they require the SL3 or SL5 antenna (direcTV) or the Dish triple LNB. However, there are very few of these channels compared to the overall programming. For example, Food Network on DirecTV is broadcast on 231. If you pull up the guide allowing you to see both HD and SD channels you will see 2 channel 231's. 231-Food and 231 FoodHD.

If I keep DirecTV, there is no carry-out that has HD for them. Hoping that maybe some day in the future, someone will come out with a portable HD for DirecTV.