TV or tablet in your camper?

I think it does make a difference what TC we are talking about. My TC is really open. See the pictures below.

This is the one we use the most. I made a hanging bracket so it hangs over the closet support.



This is where it is stored when not in use.



You can see the bedroom tv in this picture. NOTE: all pictures were taken from the front dinette slide area. We have almost opposing slides with very open floor plan.



We don't usually have the normal in table in place either. This shows our half table I made that reuses the table mount.

....we pretty well shelved our camper flat screen TV; WAY, WAY too bulky in a truck camper. Its been collecting dust in the closet for years now.

We use exclusively tablet devices (or, laptop). Those are thrown into a small back-pack and can accompany us anywhere (even hiking). Also, all our mobile devices (we have 4 smart phones collected over the years), even the light-weight laptop are set up for GPS navigation WITHOUT the need for a data connection or plan...

Its possible to get free-to-air TV broadcasts into your tablet (iPad) or laptop from devices like W i TV, TabletTV, or buy a TVstick, or some other satellite TV tuner for Android/tablet (if you want to bring sat. TV into your mobile device). We don't do satellite TV on the road...but we can receive free-to-air (FTA) TV on virtually any mobile device, within the FTA broadcast range.

dave17352 wrote:

bkenobi wrote:
I have directv at home. It's $5/MO for an extra box (plus purchase of box). Is a dish easy to use? What antenna is recommended? Can't I just us a box I already have rather than buying a new one if I wanted to go that route?

Yes if you have it home all ready you can do that. I use take one with me and had a tripod dish mount. Takes about 10 minutes to set it up with out a automated antenna. Works great if you want TV. Setting the dish only needs a simple compass for the azimuth and the then you set the elevation. To get those setting you just search the zip code of where you are at. Give yourself a half hour the first time and you will be a expert. Or just youtube would be easier.

or just get a King Flex and set it on the ground , TC, roof, truck hood. Set up takes just a minute and it is self locating. I store it on the side of the bed while driving. King Flex

Full size dish and tripod might take up too much room in a 9' TC. The roof mount on CW are outrageous though. If the TC comes with a TV I might try the dish since I already have one in the shop.

bkenobi wrote:
I have directv at home. It's $5/MO for an extra box (plus purchase of box). Is a dish easy to use? What antenna is recommended? Can't I just us a box I already have rather than buying a new one if I wanted to go that route?

Yes if you have it home all ready you can do that. I use take one with me and had a tripod dish mount. Takes about 10 minutes to set it up with out a automated antenna. Works great if you want TV. Setting the dish only needs a simple compass for the azimuth and the then you set the elevation. To get those setting you just search the zip code of where you are at. Give yourself a half hour the first time and you will be a expert. Or just youtube would be easier.

I have directv at home. It's $5/MO for an extra box (plus purchase of box). Is a dish easy to use? What antenna is recommended? Can't I just us a box I already have rather than buying a new one if I wanted to go that route?

With a Chromecast or Blu-ray player that can do miracast, you can also project anything on a phone/tablet to a TV. My tablet a Nexus 10 also can connect via microhdmi to the hdmi port of a tv which is better since you don't need a wifi connection/tethering to make it work. That's pretty useful for a game especially if you have a good connection. Out here, I use the antenna amplifier to make the streaming work better. Some apps like SlingTV let you set the resolution that helps reduce the data required, but also makes the display more consistent if you use the lower settings.

I use Wifi almost all of the time, so using 2GB or less for a game on a weekend isn't that bad. As others have noted, if you copy a video at home, you can see it on the tv without killing your data plan.

I load a few tv shows/movies on the iPhone before we leave on our trip. If we want to watch something before turning in we connect the iPhone to our Radio Shack clam shell speakers and enjoy.

All depends on the main use for your camper. For many years, we would stay in Calgary to look after my mother-in-law who wanted to stay in her home. We spent a lot of time in bad weather including snow. We actually have 2 TVs in the camper :C with a satellite dish. Now we spend our time in the camper travelling for fun, but still have the two TVs. Great when the weather is bad or we are staying in one place for a while......

I have a bunch of DVD's on my 5er, we never watch them.
Any where we go (PU camper or 5er) we carry 2 laptops (Wife and I are both on call 7x25x365 for last 15 years). 1 wireless access point that uses AT&T, and cell phones that can do wireless on Verizon.
Plus some amazon thing she reads books on.

For TV we have a winegard pathway X2 dish (we need Dish Eastern Arc up on my corner of country and only X2 provides that).
I made a shelf out of a plastic cutting board that attaches to top of ladder. Shelf has 8 holes so I can sit dish on shelf and feet lock it into holes at any angle. Than I strap it to shelf with bungy cord.
Before we move camper I remove dish (park it transportation position) and buckle dish onto rear floor of truck with seat folded up.



We do watch some TV on the road, but far less than if at home.

Also I have played with over air antenna some, it always receives something but never much any worth watching.