Putting Dish TV in my RV when I already have it in my home..

alid wrote:
I would contact a Dish network Support team member on the satelliteguys webpage www.satelliteguys.us

You will have to setup a free account on this page and then go to this forum. dish forum for dish network questions.

There is a "sticky" with the information how to contact a DIRT member.. they are great and can answer all of your questions.

I'm not sure if you can get a receiver with 2 tuners but I have a VIP211k and it does have both over the air receiver and a dish receiver so I can watch one while recording on the other.

I believe that the new Wally receiver allows a usb drive to be connected to make it a DVR receiver.

Again the best help I have found is with the DIRT members of the satellite guys forums.

Thanks! Another friend referred me to that website so I'll be hitting them up next.

Dutch_12078 wrote:
We have a Hopper w/Sling and a Joey installed at our Adirondack cottage, and another Hopper w/Sling installed in our motorhome. We use a tripod mounted triple LNB 1000.4 dish that I set up at each stop, and have both eastern and western arc LNB's for it that I interchange as needed for the best reception on treed sites. We have another pole mounted 1000.4 installed at the cottage. When we're traveling, I use the Dish Anywhere app to tell the cottage Hopper to record programs that we'll miss while underway for later viewing either with the app or when we return to the cottage. On the road, I change our service address as often as daily to get the local stations, which also changes them for the cottage where they often won't be received since it's usually outside of the spot beam coverage. That's not a problem though, since the cottage Hopper also gets that area's locals over the air. When we're back at our site at the cottage, I connect the motorhome Hopper to the permanent dish, making both Hopper's recorded programs available on either Hopper.

Setting up the dish at campsites rarely takes me longer than 15 minutes, including aiming. I use the DishPointer app on my phone to find the best location with a clear view of the sats. There are no portable automatic dishes available that work with the Hopper. Only the roof mounted Winegard Trav'ler or equivalent works, but besides the big bucks to buy one you're also much more limited by tree cover on camp sites. The Trav'ler only receives the Dish western arc sats automatically, although it can be manually dialed in to individual eastern arc sats.

All of our Dish equipment is purchased and on a month-to-month no contract plan.

WOW! I can't thank you enough. GREAT info. Couple of questions, though:
1. If you are ok with sharing, what does Dish charge for your specific setup. Right now, we have a hopper w/sling, 2 joeys, and 1 super joey. (Nothing in the RV yet). We pay about $90 for the tv plan, then $12 for the dvr ability, $7 per joey, and 10 for the super joey. We also pay a protection plan for $8 which I'm told basically covers any service calls that may be necessary. Total bill with tax ends up around $142.
2. Your setup is VERY similar to what I want to achieve with the exception of the fact that our "home" equipment all came from DISH and was not bought outright. I guess we're sort of paying for it because we are under a 2 year deal. I'm told that if we were to go the Wally route in the RV, that it would just add $7 or $10 to our plan (can't remember which). Do you know what it costs to "add" that second Hopper? I don't mind buying the equipment as long as I get what I want and everybody keeps telling me that we can't have a hopper in the RV.
3. Were you ever told that you can have a hopper in your RV? If so, how did you get around it?
Reason I ask is that dish referred me to Dish Outdoors to buy my necessary RV equipment and they told me flat out that DISH does not allow the Hopper in an RV and that it just wasn't possible. When I pressed him on it, basically saying that I could take it out of my living room, physically put it in my RV, and it would work, he then capitulated and said that it was because the Hopper can't stand the rigors of the road...but after what you just said, I'm betting that was BS. What is your take on this?

donn0128 wrote:
Find a local independent Dish contractor and pay him to come out and set you up. You will get some sort of tripod, a dish with associated hardware, coax cable all connected to your equipment. Once it is set up you will know how and what you need. Might cost you a few dollars more up front, but at the end of the day you will have everything you need without the hassles.

Great advice. At this point, I feel like I'm cramming for a college final. lol I'd MUCH rather pay somebody to set me up that knows what is possible. I'll be looking for a guy tomorrow. I just blanked and didn't even think about the idea that there are "independent" Dish contractors.

Big Katuna wrote:
I gave up moving the Hopper, Joeys and WiFi boxes back and forth so I bought a 211z and will soon buy Pathway X2 to replace the tripod.

$400 delivered.

The X2 can find eastern and western arcs and can feed two boxes.

The 211 supports DVR function but it is one channel at a time.

Now I can leave the Hopper at home grinding away.

While I may go your route, why did you not just get A Hopper for your RV instead of the 211z?

Ed_Gee wrote:
To meet your needs, I suggest you do as Harley Dave suggested... use the Dish 612 receiver, or similar, if you need to pull in more than one channel at the same time.

I highly suggest that you simply add whatever receiver you buy to your home account as a second receiver..... it only costs $7. per month additional. The only caveat to that is that when you are in the RV traveling and you notify DISH of your new location so that you will get the local channels, the home station will lose those home channels during that period of your travels. This is not a problem if no one is home watching the home TV.

I agree with you. BUT, I would like to have a hopper simply because that is what I'm used to and I know it has 3 tuners. 2 would get me by, but I'd rather have the 3 and having the same piece of equipment in both the home and the RV always makes things easier. The problem is that everybody seems to keep saying that Dish won't allow that (except for the gentlemen above in this thread who is pulling it off currently).

TechWriter wrote:

Ed_Gee wrote:
To meet your needs, I suggest you do as Harley Dave suggested... use the Dish 612 receiver, or similar, if you need to pull in more than one channel at the same time.

I highly suggest that you simply add whatever receiver you buy to your home account as a second receiver..... it only costs $7. per month additional.

When you have a Hopper, I don't believe you can add a 612 receiver even if you buy it. I think you can only add a 211 or a Wally.

Regardless, even if you could add a dual-tuner receiver like a 612, what are you going to connect it to? The Pathway X2 or Tailgater won't play well with a dual-tuner receiver, so you would need an open-faced tripod dish like the 1000.2 or the rooftop Winegard Travler.

In this case, it might be better to just take your Hopper.

Do you know WHY Dish won't let you have 2 hoppers (or, as you say, a 612 with a hopper)? To me, that makes no sense. What do they care as long as you're paying them for the service?

usersmanual wrote:

joeburnes wrote:
Need some help that I haven't found in searching the forums.

Right now, in my home, we have a Hopper w/sling and 2 joeys for the bedrooms.

I am away from home a large part of the year traveling/working from my 5er. I tried to use the sling function but it isn't working out as Dish Anywhere has no real way to turn down the quality so you're not burning through a gig an hour or more of data. And, even if they could do so, many times, I'm in areas of poor cell coverage so lack of bandwidth means no tv. Plus, their genius engineers didn't incorporate buffering so if your home upload speed isn't that fast or waivers, you get sketchy playback of any DVR program you're trying to watch.

Keep in mind that I do not want to detach the hopper in my home and just take it with me as some people do. I want a "permanent" setup for my 5er.

SOOO, I basically want to get a dvr receiver for my RV and a dish.
In looking around, I'm getting a bit confused as there are what seems like a hundred different automatic satellite dishes and receivers so I can't figure out what I need.
What I do know is that I want at least 2 "tuners" in the receiver unit so I can watch one thing while recording one other.
I'm not dead set on having to have an "automatic" satellite dish as I've heard there are phone apps that help you line up the dish fairly easily.

So, what would you do if you were in my shoes?
Thanks in advance for your help!

can you or anyone explain what you mean about

Dish Anywhere has no real way to turn down the quality so you're not burning through a gig an hour or more of data. And, even if they could do so, many times, I'm in areas of poor cell coverage so lack of bandwidth means no tv. Plus, their genius engineers didn't incorporate buffering so if your home upload speed isn't that fast or waivers, you get sketchy playback of any DVR program you're trying to watch.

what does burning through a gig an hour or poor cell coverage have to do with dishnet sat Tv?

Dish Anywhere is the title of Dish Network's Sling player. Basically, I can go anywhere in the world, use an internet browser and log on to the Dish Anywhere website and watch something I have on my HOME DVR. I could also choose to watch TV through that same internet browser. I can also set my DVR to record a program or not record a program. Basically the concept of "sling tv" is for you to be able to be somewhere other than home and still be able to watch tv and interact with your DVR as you would if you were standing in your living room.
Assuming you have a good internet connection and unlimited data and don't mind watching TV on your laptop (or have a smart TV that can browse the internet), you wouldn't even need a receiver or satellite dish at all when you travel.
THAT was my first solution. But, if there is no internet where you travel, you are sunk. If you don't have enough bandwidth, you are sunk. If your home upwidth (the speed at which your home internet connection uploads data to the internet) isn't very fast, you are sunk....because if your home is uploading at a 1 gig rate, but you are downloading at a 2 gig rate, you won't get the "data" you need to be able to watch your recorded show uninterrupted.
Carrying that a step further, they COULD integrate buffering into their Dish Anywhere player and that would help. Just like if you were using YouTube on a bad internet connection, you would just wait a bit while it "buffers" and THEN watch your program.
Basically, the only way for Dish Anywhere and the whole sling thing to be effective is if you have reliable and high speed UPwidth at your home and you have reliable and high speed downwidth wherever you are located. Now, most of us use our phones for internet data when on the road so the AMOUNT of data used while watching is VERY important. With Youtube, you can "turn down" the video quality by choosing anywhere from 1080P down to like 144. You get to "adjust" the quality of the video to save data if you want. DIsh Anywhere only gives you SD or HD options. I actually used an app on my phone to "see" how much data I was using while watching a one hour program I had on my DVR. I chose SD as that is the lowest quality possible. It used up a full gig with that one hour show. So 10 hours a month of TV while on the road using Dish Anywhere would cost me 10 gigs of data on my phone plan. You can do the math, but I go broke just THINKING about it. lol
So, for ALL of those reasons, for ME, technology is not to the point yet that the Dish Anywhere service would suffice for my needs.
Personally, I feel like as cell data gets cheaper, coverage areas get better, and the technology increases, we will see less and less dishes in campgrounds as more people convert to using sling type services to use the internet to (what amounts to) watch tv like they were on the couch but do so anywhere in the world.

joeburnes wrote:

Do you know WHY Dish won't let you have 2 hoppers (or, as you say, a 612 with a hopper)? To me, that makes no sense. What do they care as long as you're paying them for the service?

You can have multiple Hoppers on the same account . . . as long as they're original Hoppers (1st gen) or Hoppers with Sling (2nd gen). However, you can only have one Hopper 3 (3rd gen).

However, other than the VIP 211 or Wally, DISH does not want customers with 1st or 2nd gen Hoppers to use any other VIP receiver on the account. With 3rd gen Hoppers, you can only use a single Hopper 3, nothing else.

Doesn't matter if it makes no sense to you . . . that's the way it is.

joeburnes wrote:


WOW! I can't thank you enough. GREAT info. Couple of questions, though:
1. If you are ok with sharing, what does Dish charge for your specific setup. Right now, we have a hopper w/sling, 2 joeys, and 1 super joey. (Nothing in the RV yet). We pay about $90 for the tv plan, then $12 for the dvr ability, $7 per joey, and 10 for the super joey. We also pay a protection plan for $8 which I'm told basically covers any service calls that may be necessary. Total bill with tax ends up around $142.
2. Your setup is VERY similar to what I want to achieve with the exception of the fact that our "home" equipment all came from DISH and was not bought outright. I guess we're sort of paying for it because we are under a 2 year deal. I'm told that if we were to go the Wally route in the RV, that it would just add $7 or $10 to our plan (can't remember which). Do you know what it costs to "add" that second Hopper? I don't mind buying the equipment as long as I get what I want and everybody keeps telling me that we can't have a hopper in the RV.
3. Were you ever told that you can have a hopper in your RV? If so, how did you get around it?
Reason I ask is that dish referred me to Dish Outdoors to buy my necessary RV equipment and they told me flat out that DISH does not allow the Hopper in an RV and that it just wasn't possible. When I pressed him on it, basically saying that I could take it out of my living room, physically put it in my RV, and it would work, he then capitulated and said that it was because the Hopper can't stand the rigors of the road...but after what you just said, I'm betting that was BS. What is your take on this?

1. We pay a $12 DVR fee for each Hopper, but I understand the rate for new Hoppers has gone up to $15 now, and $7 for each Joey. So bottom line, our additional cost is just the receiver fees, the same as if you added them at home. Our program package costs are not affected by the receiver count. You could save that $8/mo for the protection plan. If something breaks and/or requires a service call, you can add it on again instantly and be covered. You do need to keep it for 6 months then, but that's cheaper than keeping it year round when it's not needed.

2. I don't think Dish will provide the second Hopper at no charge under your current contract, but it's probably worth asking. If they will, have it installed somewhere in the house, and then move it to the RV later on. Or perhaps get it through an independent Dish retailer that isn't as fussy. If you buy one outright from an independent dealer of course, then Dish doesn't know where it's installed. All of my Dish equipment was bought online from various sources, including Amazon.

3. You have to listen to the Dish official wording carefully. Dish says they "do not SUPPORT" installing a Hopper in an RV, not that you can't HAVE one in an RV. Basically, they won't do the installation, but I can assure you they will happily take your money for the extra equipment fees. Independent Dish installers sometimes will do an RV Hopper installation, particularly in heavy RV use areas like the popular snowbird states. Dish apparently feels that any DVR receiver with a built-in hard drive is not suited to mobile use, but the many RV'ers that successfully use them prove that wrong. I do have my Hopper installed with "vibration pads" (a couple of folded over foam mouse pads) under it and a couple of TV tie downs keeping it in place. My gasser is a bit rougher riding than most DP's though. I used the same setup back when we had a VIP211K as well, just as a precaution. The Hopper in the RV has been in use going on two years now, with zero problems.

Particularly as near full-timers, I can tell you that having the satellite TV service in our motorhome has been well worth the minor inconvenience of setting up the dish as we travel. My wife and I are both solid NHL fans for instance, and not having the "Center Ice" package available during the season would just not be acceptable to us! ;)

1 antenna will not support more than 1 Hopper 3 so a 2nd antenna would need to be installed to have 2 Hopper 3's in one house.