Satellite TV versus internet

[flyboykuao]

Hello, I am a new RV owner. I am hoping someone has been through this before and can offer tips:
My class A has a manual crank satellite dish installed on the roof, but it is not setup for the TV. I talked to my provider, DISH, who recommend a tailgate package with a portable satellite that will automatically find the satellite. The cost is under $400 and $7 per month.

I am considering, however, going with internet TV. We are in wifi-enabled parks at least 50% of the time - which is plenty enough for my TV habits.

Do you use either option (dish or internet) and how does it work for you?

Thanks in advance.

[Larry-D]

Just got back from weekend camping. On Friday night Wifi was great as usual. We have Dish satellite so we use it. Usually I take an ipad outside and watch the news with coffee. This time Saturday morning Wifi was very slow to non-existent. Went back inside and watched it on satellite. This was at a State park which was full.

[johnhicks]

The short answer is that if you think you're going to use park wifi you're not going to watch tv.

[ncrowley]

I also recommend a Pathway X2. We have Dish service both at home and on the road. With the external X2 antenna, so far we have always been able to poition it so we could get a signal. It is automatic so it is easy to set up.

[Dutch_12078]

wildmanbaker wrote:
Isn't the LNB just a high speed switching diode? It would scope just fine. After putting an awful lot of money into the crank-up for new "ware" parts, I just gave up. A wind to most, a breeze to us, would mess with the reception. Just our experiences.

LNB="Low-Noise Block" downconverter

An LNB is a frequency sensitive device with an antenna tuned for specific blocks of satellite transmission frequencies as input and a preset range of lower frequencies for output to the receiver. The differences between KU band and KA band LNB's for instance, is a lot more than just a switching diode...

A cutaway Free-To-Air LNB:

[wildmanbaker]

Isn't the LNB just a high speed switching diode? It would scope just fine. After putting an awful lot of money into the crank-up for new "ware" parts, I just gave up. A wind to most, a breeze to us, would mess with the reception. Just our experiences.

[Dutch_12078]

As Bill suggested, either the LNB was faulty or the aiming was borderline or sloppy enough to cause your signal problems. Before I modified our RM-DM46 crank-up to work with our Dish Hopper2, it worked fine with the original legacy LNB and our previous Dish VIP211k receiver. I don't know if Winegard gets their LNB's from Direct for the RM-DM46 or not, but they're identical to the single LNB that Direct has used in the past.

[Bill_Satellite]

wildmanbaker wrote:

moisheh wrote:
Bill. Once Direct goes to offering HD on a standard dish that crank up will work just fine.

Moisheh

If you are talking about the single LNB crack up, good luck with that. Something changed with DTV and our crack-up would not keep the single locked in. I don't know if the sat was not stable in orbit yet or it was just drifting a few seconds either way, but you could watch the signal strength drift up and down. We got a carry out and quit using the crank-up. 2 years ago I removed the crank and replace it with a carry out II on the roof, using the same coax. We boondock in the mountains quite a bit, and you loose cell service about 25 miles before our camping area. There is NO over the air TV either, so its either sat, or DVDs.

Your antenna was defective (likely the LNB but the crank ups get very loose and can swing on an off signal). This is NOT an issue with the 101 satellite or a working crank up antenna. A working crank up antenna works exactly the same as a dome style antenna (on DTV) and there is no issue with 101 and a dome or a single LNB antenna.

[wildmanbaker]

moisheh wrote:
Bill. Once Direct goes to offering HD on a standard dish that crank up will work just fine.

Moisheh

If you are talking about the single LNB crack up, good luck with that. Something changed with DTV and our crack-up would not keep the single locked in. I don't know if the sat was not stable in orbit yet or it was just drifting a few seconds either way, but you could watch the signal strength drift up and down. We got a carry out and quit using the crank-up. 2 years ago I removed the crank and replace it with a carry out II on the roof, using the same coax. We boondock in the mountains quite a bit, and you loose cell service about 25 miles before our camping area. There is NO over the air TV either, so its either sat, or DVDs.

[Bill_Satellite]

That's the whole point. Only time will tell. As it stands today, no one has a clue other than the domes/single LNB antenna will be continue to be able to receive whatever DTV broadcasts from the 101 satellite. It won't be a complete channel line up as that would be a complete waste of satellite transponders. What it will be should be interesting. I think RVers are going to be very disappointed. "Oh boy! HD with my dome! But wait, where are all my channels?"

[moisheh]

Time will tell!!

Moisheh

[Bill_Satellite]

It will work just as fine as a dome will work after the change. However, no one knows what programming DTV will broadcast from the 101 satellite so saying it will work "fine" is questionable.

[moisheh]

Bill. Once Direct goes to offering HD on a standard dish that crank up will work just fine.

Moisheh

[Bill_Satellite]

wa8yxm wrote:


DirecHDTV (Direc is dropping sd I'm told) no dome or cube currently exists for DirecHDTV far as I know.. but I'm not current on that.. Again DISH type antennas..> Work.

The info about DirecTV is likely NOT correct. The domes will continue to work after DTV drops SD programming and they will be receiving HD programming instead. What we don't know is which channels will be available.

[Bill_Satellite]

The Winegard crank-up satellite antenna is really not a good option these days if you choose to got with satellite TV, UNLESS you choose to go with DirecTV and you are OK with not being able to watch any of that programming in High Def (HD). DISH uses 3 different satellites (actually, 6 between EA and WA satellites) and your crank up antenna can only "see" 1 satellite at a time. It can lead to big frustrations assuming an antenna that old still actually works!
If you want part-time satellite TV service then I would recommend DISH and the Winegard Pathway X2 antenna. You can turn the service on and off as necessary and the service is excellent. If you only want to watch 1 or 2 programs per night then cellular internet service for streaming would likely be OK as well but when folks talk about slow downs after 15 or 22 GB, my wife and I use over 50 GB/month and we DO NOT stream any TV.
The last (worst) way to be on the internet (for much more than e-mail) is to try to depend upon campground internet services. Think about where you like to camp and the reason you go there. As you get away from the cities, the services available become less and less. Add to that the 200 folks in the campground all trying to access that same weak service and you can better understand why you want to bring your own service.