Sat 101
First check your RV. SOME RV's have a dedicated cable, hopefully RG-6 For Sat in, most do not.. IF yours does not forget the advice to re-wire park cable line to Sat in add a dedicated cable. way better and you do not need to mess with other wires. The cable should be RG-6, and run to any handy connection point outsidem I like to use a ground block or lightening arrester on the connection point, Mine is on the Brake Bell crank Bracked under the hood on my Class A.
Now your choice of receiver or receiver DVR. whatever suites you single channel, multi-channel DVR. makes no differencem LIkewise for part of this neither does DISH or DIRECTV HD or SD but read on on this.
With a TRIPOD mounted Dish type antenna (the Provider's "Disaster Recovery Kit" you now are all set up. Almost Make sure the Antenna (Dish) is the proper one (or two) for your receiver (2 for DISH if you hang out on the atlantic coast)
One final concern. Modern Sat Receivers like to feed the TV via HDMI some still have component or A/V out but darn few feed the antenna jack now days. So you need a modern "Wide Screen" TV with HDMI input (King of like a wide USB port).
Now difference
Dish uses 3 satellitesm, either off the west or east coast, all in the same band. You can use a Rooftop Automatic DOME with a single channel receiver or a portable dome (Tailgater??) but if you have multi-channel receive ability you will want a DISH type antenna, not a dome, again rooftop or portable
DireTV is fading but DirecHDTV is expanding NO DOME at this time does DirecHDTV so you will need a DISH type antenna. again Roof or ground mount or both
ROOF mounts suffer from "Signal eating tree" issues. parked under a tree. NO JOY
Ground mounts you can often escape the tree.
Finally program packages. Direc is more into sports than Dish is Dish has NASA. I am more into NASA.
East/West on dish.. Only applies if you are on the east coast.
Finally Distant network service, Some politics involved here but.. I will stick to facts only
Dish lost a law suit some years ago on Distant Network Service (DNS) and thus can not offer it. What they do offer is change service location. so you get ABC NBC, and all the other TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) no matter where you are but you have to call in and tell them where you are.
Direc. if you have an RV (or Semi truck) account, you can, for a slight fee, subscribe to DNS. that way you get all the TLA's out of either greater NYC or LA no matter where you are parked.
What Do I use
Over the air, 2 DVR's and a $25.00/year Electronic program guide service. I have problems running out of hard drive space because there is more OTA than I can watch.
Home was where I park it. but alas the.
2005 Damon Intruder 377 Alas declared a total loss
after a semi "nicked" it. Still have the radios
Kenwood TS-2000, ICOM ID-5100, ID-51A+2, ID-880 REF030C most times