what is best way to get TV stations in RV

[partsman01]

So wife wants to always have the ability to watch her shows on TV while away.

The new to us unit we are waiting on has I bleieve a standard winegard antennae you crank up, but I never found them much good, this one did have some area where they must have been able to hook up to a satellite system, or something.

So am curious which is the best bang for the buck, and how close does one have to be to the signal source?

I have no clue how to tell where the heck a tower would be, especially when traveling to different areas of the province or the alaska hwy.

Anyone know about TVd when traveling?

Thanks

[DS_Canuck]

Over the Air Television has pretty much gone the way of AM Radio in Canada!
For years we have had Satellite service as our source of TV Programming! We tried Bell way back and it did function fairly well until they started aiming the signal to select markets. Which led us to Star Choice which later became Shaw Direct. This still works pretty well across Canada and if that’s where you are give it a try!

About few years ago a new player appeared called Starlink which has been steadily evolving and is now available at a reasonable price . We switched almost exclusively to streaming TV and having full internet Services on an easy to setup system.

In my opinion Star Link is the way to go. Not only because it works but also because it work’s virtually everywhere we travel in North America!

[partsman01]

Thanks for the info, kinda busy due to the wildfires close to us, been a tough go, tons of smoke, houses and businesses burning up.
Bad fire season.

[MrWizard]

There are also apps you can install on your phone that will give you a map and compass display on where to point your antenna, provided there is something within range of your location,

[Tom_M1]

Tom_M wrote:
There are converter boxes available that will record OTA TV for less than $30. The ones I have work fairly well once you figure them out. They all seem to be using the same software. You can search Amazon for "TV converter box" and will find a bunch of them.
Here's one that I'm tempted to purchase: Digital converter box.

I purchased one of these and unfortunately it uses the same crappy software. I like the hardware though. The converter is very small and can be placed out of sight.

[partsman01]

Thanks for all the input.

[LouLawrence]

Where there are many trees, there are also places without trees. It's all about choices. As I mentioned, the OTA antenna still works in the trees and on those rare occasions where I am bored on all other fronts I still have hundreds of hours of movies and TV shows saved to the satellite TV DVR. This is not a topic where one size fits all or where only 1 way is the right way. You just have to determine what the options are for your lifestyle.

[wa8yxm]

LouLawrence wrote:
I have been traveling for 20+ years and have had a Trav'ler on my roof (DirecTV) for over 10 years. I can count on 2 hands the number of times I was blocked by a tree or other obstruction. That happens by choice and in cooperation with the campground operators. We chose not to park under the trees. When that's not an option, we have hundreds of hours of programming on our DVR as well as our OTA antenna. I will likely be back on the road in a few days so what donI care!

Well in some parts of the country trees are rare
In other parts very common.. I live in Michigan. Many trees

[LouLawrence]

I have been traveling for 20+ years and have had a Trav'ler on my roof (DirecTV) for over 10 years. I can count on 2 hands the number of times I was blocked by a tree or other obstruction. That happens by choice and in cooperation with the campground operators. We chose not to park under the trees. When that's not an option, we have hundreds of hours of programming on our DVR as well as our OTA antenna. I will likely be back on the road in a few days so what donI care!

[wa8yxm]

CarnationSailor wrote:
RF Mogul satellite antenna and DISH Network. The antenna automatically acquires the satellites. Love it!

Does not work so good when you are parked under (or next to) he evil signal eating tree.. NOTE that tree can be some distance away if it's tall enough and on the right line. (Between you and the satellite).

Or a building can do it too.

You need a ground (Tripod mount) as well. at least as an option.

[Tom_M1]

There are converter boxes available that will record OTA TV for less than $30. The ones I have work fairly well once you figure them out. They all seem to be using the same software. You can search Amazon for "TV converter box" and will find a bunch of them.
Here's one that I'm tempted to purchase: Digital converter box.

[wa8yxm]

theoldwizard1 wrote:
We need a guinea pig, and you are just the man !

wa8yxm wrote:

How I did it
I had TWO single channel analog DVR's very programmable and very "Chatty" that is they shared files I could program a show to record on #1 from #2 or the other way around or on either of them from this laptop.

Current, digital (ATSC) "over the air" (OTA) TV uses the same antennas as the old NTSC, so no changes their.

All you need is a ATSC USB "dongle" a laptop computer (or a Raspberry Pi, very inexpensive) and FREE Kodi software !

I no longer have an RV.
I got the two Analog DVR's back before Digital transistion
used them at home.. Moved them into The RV when we dumped the house.

Worked great.> Post Transistion I had to put a converter in front of 'em.. one fun thing one park I was at one station was all the Batwing could pick up but way better than park cable.. So the Analog DVR's had multiple inputs... Both RF and the 3 cable (Right/Left-Composite) Used the latter from the converter and fed cable straight into the RF port. Worked great. The "Channel number" the software on my scheduler sent to the DVR decided he inpu 0-99 were one input 200-299 another. I could have added a 3rd input if I'd have had one (Composite there too)

[Tom_M1]

The Winegard crankup (aka Batwing) is generally considered the best RV antenna for OTA (Over The Air) TV. The latest version is the Sensar IV. This is a directional antenna so it needs to be rotated so that it points toward the broadcast tower. There are apps that you can install on a smart phone that show where the towers are. If you are having problems receiving a TV signal, here is an article that may help: Tune up your TV antenna.

Here's a link to an app I use on my Android phone: Digital TV Antennas

[theoldwizard1]

We need a guinea pig, and you are just the man !

wa8yxm wrote:

How I did it
I had TWO single channel analog DVR's very programmable and very "Chatty" that is they shared files I could program a show to record on #1 from #2 or the other way around or on either of them from this laptop.

Current, digital (ATSC) "over the air" (OTA) TV uses the same antennas as the old NTSC, so no changes their.

All you need is a ATSC USB "dongle" a laptop computer (or a Raspberry Pi, very inexpensive) and FREE Kodi software !

[joebedford]

I have found the Winegard crank up to be pretty good near most cities. In fact, my RV has / had an omni-directional antenna that was c**p so I installed a crank up batwing.

If you're looking for Canadian TV, a CANADIAN dish will be good anywhere in Canada until you get far north of 60.

Bell stopped sat. TV in the southern USA maybe 10 years ago. We switched to Shaw Direct and it has been good except their only sat. with signal footprint in southern USA is de-orbiting soon (nobody is quite sure exactly when). If you travel anywhere in Canada, Shaw Direct works well. Soon you won't be able to get CDN sat. in (southern) USA.

If you're happy with American TV then there are lots of options.

Personally I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't get CDN TV. After a hard day of doing 'nothing' we like to watch CDN TV. Maybe our 20 year streak of snowbirding will end?? VPNs are useless because of geoblocking.