Opinions on Dish Tailgater?

I have had the Tailgater for I think going on four years now. It seems to work very well, given the small size of the dish. We were on Prince Edward Island this summer, and we were still able to get some channels. It seems surprisingly durable, since I have knocked it around in the truck and the camper quite a bit, and it hasn't affected its performance. The technology may be getting dated by now.

Remember that to watch one show and record another requires a two tuner receiver, and the 211 (which works with the Tailgater) only has one. You can easily hook an external hard drive to the 211 to record shows when you are not watching; however, and this works very well.

When we had DishTV the Tailgaters was great. Loved it over an actual tripod style. Finally canceled Dish,completely because of rising costs.

Big Katuna wrote:
I am going with a Winegard Pathway X2. It has a bigger dish and works better in the rain, it gets DISH eastern AND western arc so better chances of getting a signal and it supports two boxes.

We have the Winegard Pathway X2 and it works great. I think the Tailgater is also a good system but the Winegard now seems to be the way to go with it's improved features.

Early on there were some complaints about the technicians not knowing how to set you up when you moved positions, but that now seems to be a thing of the past. The techs now quickly set you up with no problems.

Arcamper wrote:

The Wally is their newest receiver that is suppose to replace the 211k and z at some point according to Dish. Look on the Dish website and you can learn all about it.

Thanks for the info. I did some research and it seems it still isn't a DVR and, although you can still add an external HD, you still can't watch 1 show while recording another.

What is so freakin' difficult about this?

Anyway, thanks for the info.

Poppy's 5th Wheel wrote:

Arcamper wrote:

We have the tailgater with a 211k receiver that works well if you have a clear path to the south. Just bought a Wally but have not hooked it up yet in place of the 211k to get the RF remote. I have talked to several people who have the Pathway X2 and they like it better but I hate to spend another $400 for another dish when ours works ok.

What is a "Wally"?

We have the Pathway X2 and it works well. We also have the 211Z receiver and I'm not so crazy about that. 10 year old technology. I added an external HD so we could record programming but you can't watch something and record something else. Almost a "what's the point" issue for me but we got into the habit of reviewing overnight programming or daytime programming and set some things (1 show at a time) to record. Why they can't offer a real modern DVR I certainly don't know.

The Wally is their newest receiver that is suppose to replace the 211k and z at some point according to Dish. Look on the Dish website and you can learn all about it.

After 5 years of poor Florida Comcast standard def tv, we tried the Tailgater. Very pleased, easy to set up, easy to activate account.

No more waiting in line for two hours to return Comcast box at the end of the season.

Big Katuna wrote:
I am going with a Winegard Pathway X2. It has a bigger dish and works better in the rain, it gets DISH eastern AND western arc so better chances of getting a signal and it supports two boxes.

We've been using the Pathway X2 for a year now (full-timers) and are very happy with it. We have HD on all channels and a hard drive connected to the 211Z receiver to record programs when we're not at home. The only times we've had to do without TV was when we were in "tropical rain forest" conditions with a tree canopy so thick and complete that there was no way to get a signal.

Rob

We have had a Tailgater for about three years, and am very happy with it. Great signal only issue clear view of the southern sky, as will all dish systems. I truly love the trees of the PNW, except when they block my Dish!

Arcamper wrote:

We have the tailgater with a 211k receiver that works well if you have a clear path to the south. Just bought a Wally but have not hooked it up yet in place of the 211k to get the RF remote. I have talked to several people who have the Pathway X2 and they like it better but I hate to spend another $400 for another dish when ours works ok.

What is a "Wally"?

We have the Pathway X2 and it works well. We also have the 211Z receiver and I'm not so crazy about that. 10 year old technology. I added an external HD so we could record programming but you can't watch something and record something else. Almost a "what's the point" issue for me but we got into the habit of reviewing overnight programming or daytime programming and set some things (1 show at a time) to record. Why they can't offer a real modern DVR I certainly don't know.

Have had a Tailgater and vip211k for over three years and very happy with it. Occasionally takes 2-3 reboots to find all the sats. But has never failed so far.

Have had almost no problem with Dish changing our locals.