Dish DirecTV Winegard questions

[rbreak]

Hello, I recently purchased a 2008 motorhome that came with a winegard roof mounted satellite dish. The private owner I bought the motorhome from was the second owner of the rig and had never bothered with the satellite dish and knew nothing about it. I emailed winegard with what serial number information I could find on the dish, and they informed me it was a 2008-09 era road trip sti, an in motion capable dish. They said it would not work with Dish network service due to changes made in how Dish modulates its signals over the last few years. It would however work with DirecTV service, but only SD, not HD, and I would have to use an H24 or HR24 receiver. So, if I want to utilize this dish, I would have to sign up for DirecTV service, get the H24 receiver, and be ok with SD. My question is, is there a portable dish that works with DirecTV that I could use for HD (with appropriate receiver) for when we are at our camping destination, and just use the roof mounted in motion capable dish (since its already there) for use only when we are travelling? If this is a realistic possibility, then ditching cable at home and going all DirecTV might be worth it. I have done some searching and research, but being completely new to satellite tv, it seemed like I was finding conflicting info on whether DirecTV has a hd capable portable unit, and whether the H24 receiver would work with both the older Road Trip sti dish and a newer portable unit, or if I would need different receivers. If DirecTV has no good way of getting HD to a portable dish, then I would just forget about the older dish on the roof and get a portable Dish networks HD unit for the campground and maybe for the house too. It just seems a shame to have an in motion capable dish sitting up there on the roof, and do nothing with it.
Thanks in advance for any response, help or information

[rbreak]

Thanks again to everyone for all the information. I was hoping to possibly use the winegard dome for in motion tv viewing (SD only) and use a portable for HD viewing when at the campground. But I don't know if trying to manually aim a tripod mounted dish sounds like much fun (maybe it's not that bad?), just to have DirecTV for the roof mounted dome while moving. It sounds like if I want an auto aiming HD portable for the campground, Dish is my only option which would end any hope of using the roof mounted dome while driving. Oh well, it figures the one company that the dome will work with is the one company that doesn't have an auto aiming portable unit. Thanks again for all the info.

[thestoloffs]

rbreak, let's give you a bit more information, so you'll understand why you can't have an automatic dome-type antenna for DirectTV HD.

Unlike DISH, which only requires 3 satellites on 1 frequency band for their HD service, Direct uses 5 satellites over 2 frequency bands for its HD. There isn't a way of putting 2 different frequency banded LNB horns in a dome, to operate on the same motor.

The Winegard Traveler DirectTV automatically pointed rooftop open-dish model has space to mount all 5 LNB horns with a wider parabola dish to focus the signals. So do the portable manually pointed dishes.

So, if you want an automatically pointed antenna and it has to be a dome, then you have to choose between DISH service or DirectTV SD only.

[Dutch_12078]

The only portable DirecTV HD dishes are tripod mounted and manually aimed at each new location. There are NO portable automatic aiming dishes for DirecTV HD.

[rbreak]

Thank you for the responses. We do not want to replace the roof mounted dome antenna. I was only going to use it if we used DirecTV, and I was only going to use DirecTV if there was an HD capable portable dish to use at out camping destinations that would work with DirecTV. It sounds like there are portable HD dish antennas for DirecTV, so I will continue digging deeper for more information on that.

Thanks again.

[donn0128]

Yes, a ground based oval dish will get you DirecHD programming. There is NO automatic dome type antennas that will get you DirectHD programming. For roof mounted the Winegard Travler SK-SWM is the antenna of choice.

[aslakson]

For HD as you trave, you could go with a Winegard Trav'ler rooftop automatic antenna - it works when stationary. Or, for less money and more hassle, you can get a DirecTV HD antenna and a sturdy tripod and just set it up when you need it. Lots of folks do one or the other.

As far as the HR-24, it will work just fine with the newer antennas, and if Winegard says it will work with your old one, you'd be good to go. The HR-24 is not DirecTV's latest recever, but lots of folks have them. Not sure where you'd get one new. though. And if you get one of the newer "Genie" DirectV receivers for your sticks-n-bricks, DirecTV won't also authorize the HR-24. But if you get the HR-24 authorized first and then add the Genie later, they won't turn off the HR-24 (at least they didn't for us).

al