What TV/Sat set up should I get?

[FF_PM]

We are preparing to go full-time next month. We currently have Direct TV and like it, but we have no problem changing. Our rig has the stock TV, not very smart.

What would y'all suggest for a receiver and TV set up to install on the back wall of the trailer? I installed a King antenna last year. Only used it once while on vacation, but it seemed to work fine.

[Bill_Satellite]

grampachet wrote:
Without a second thought I would recommend Dish. We had dish for years but ATT convinced us to switch to direct. After 6 months of Direct we finally convinced them to let us cancel without paying the early disconnect fee of nearly $300. We had spent over 8 hours with various techs on line, on phone and in store and they could not fix their glitch. We could never connect/stream through the 2 new phones they sold us. Apple 8plus. Then Dish gave us $300 for coming back to them! We have Dish at home and the Dish tailgater in the 5wheel. We get HD and excellent service, we are back to being happy campers with Dish.

Without a 2nd thought I would recommend DTV. HOWEVER, that recommendation would be on the assumption that you use a Trav'ler or a Tripod for your antenna. DISH is "OK" with a dome if you only need 1 receiver and don't care too much about recording multiple channels but having to deal with the 2 sets of 3 satellites with DISH and no DNS option is pretty much a deal breaker for me (keeping full timing in mind).

[philh]

TV, get the largest smart TV you can fit into the space.

[grampachet]

Without a second thought I would recommend Dish. We had dish for years but ATT convinced us to switch to direct. After 6 months of Direct we finally convinced them to let us cancel without paying the early disconnect fee of nearly $300. We had spent over 8 hours with various techs on line, on phone and in store and they could not fix their glitch. We could never connect/stream through the 2 new phones they sold us. Apple 8plus. Then Dish gave us $300 for coming back to them! We have Dish at home and the Dish tailgater in the 5wheel. We get HD and excellent service, we are back to being happy campers with Dish.

[ljr]

edatlanta wrote:
I have seen way too many roof mounted sat receivers that won't work due to obstructions at the site, so a tripod has worked for me for the past 9 years full time. Take a look at www.tv4rv.com. This is the heavy duty tripod I use and I have never not been able to find a hole through the trees to get a good signal. The first time you set it up takes longer, but you learn how to do it quickly.

X2

I say that as a Winegard Trav’lr owner who, for several reasons, uses a tripod mounted dish most of the time. IMHO it’s not worth the price.

I’d suggest Dish, this tripod, a decent meter and a dish with both eastern and western LNB assemblies. If you choose to go with the top-of-the line Hopper 3 DVR , things get slightly more complicated.

[Bill_Satellite]

edatlanta wrote:
I have seen way too many roof mounted sat receivers that won't work due to obstructions at the site, so a tripod has worked for me for the past 9 years full time. Take a look at www.tv4rv.com. This is the heavy duty tripod I use and I have never not been able to find a hole through the trees to get a good signal. The first time you set it up takes longer, but you learn how to do it quickly.

Where he says sat receiver, he is actually referring to the antenna. The receiver is the box inside the RV.

[edatlanta]

I have seen way too many roof mounted sat receivers that won't work due to obstructions at the site, so a tripod has worked for me for the past 9 years full time. Take a look at www.tv4rv.com. This is the heavy duty tripod I use and I have never not been able to find a hole through the trees to get a good signal. The first time you set it up takes longer, but you learn how to do it quickly.

[FF_PM]

I an in a 2015 Keystone cougar. I like the idea of keeping the service I already have. I agree the install is a bit steep

[Bill_Satellite]

For full time I would recommend just using your current DTV receivers and install a Winegard Trav'ler. It's expensive ($1600 plus install) but it gives you the exact same service that you have at home (important when your RV IS your home).
Domes work but they will let you down often due to weather. Based upon your signature, I have no idea what kind of RV you have but "original" TV doesn't help much.

[Johno02]

Unless you absolutely have to have a lot of channels everywhere, just go with OTA Stations. Otherwise Dish seems to have the best deals and equipment for RVs. With our Sensar IV antenna, we can get stations up to 70 miles away, depending on terrain. We bought a portable satellite antenna and a Dish receiver and service on a per month account. Used it once, for about three months, haven't used it again. If we go on another long trip, I might activate it again, but not just for a weekend trip. If I had full time satellite service at home, that would be a different situation, and I would use it all the time. In your case, as a full timer, it would make sense. My opinion would be Dish.