Another Satellite Question

I implied a Hopper and Joeys will work with a Winegard Pathway carryout.

It will not.

If you want to use the Hopper and several Joeys to run several tvs, you will need a tripod and a dish and learn to aim it.

I leave my Hopper at home so it will continue to keep recording my shows while Im traveling. The sat box isnt always connected to dish while traveling.

The Pathway supports two sat boxes so if you want to run more tvs than that you will need HDMI splitters and either run cables or buy wireless HDMI box, which is what I did.

Melntb1 wrote:
Please bear with me on another satellite question. I know answering them must be tiresome but please cut a girl and a newbie some slack! ?? ;)We have just bought our first and a brand new class c that is im pretty sure the dealer mentioned is cable/satellite ready (whatever that means). I am trying to figure out what "system" I need to fulfill our needs. Currently at home we have a nice DIRECTV package that gives all the programming we want or need so my initial thought was to get a direct tv satellite and grab our boxes and go...right? Apparently it's not that easy if we want the same programming we get at home. The most important to me is to be able to get ESPN channels and mostly CBS channel because I'm from Alabama and I need to see my Saturday football games if I'm going to be on the road! LOL. in looking at satellites for the rv I only saw one that was a roof mounted option that would catch HD. The TV in the coach is 39" and outside 32" as well as small tv in bedroom and in the sleeping area over cab. I read that SD signal on a tv bigger 32" is not good. To top it off my husband seems leery of attaching the roof mounted satellite onto our fiberglass roof, to which I explained that would put us in the market for SD only satellite. I've read about the king and wineguard portable satellites and the reviews seems so mixed. Can someone please tell me what I need to accomplish my goal of college footballpalooza on Saturdays?!!! Also is there a way that all 4 tv's can have service or can I only hook up two at a time and need to switch all the time?! I'm not a technical person so not sure how to accomplish making everyone happy. If accomplishing the goal would include switching providers I'm open to that as well. Please help!

There is no reason to not take your DirecTV hardware with you. Setting up a tripod is much easier with DirecTV than Dish as all 3 satellites are within 4 degrees of each other. Also, no matter Dish or DirecTV you will NOT be able to receive ANY of the Network channels from Alabama if you travel more than a few hundred miles from home. You will get ESPN and ALL of the cable type channels everywhere you go. If you want to be able to watch the Networks they will have to be the Networks broadcast near where your RV is parked. There are 3 ways for you to receive these Networks. The easiest is to simply crank up your OTA TV antenna, do a new channel scan at your new location and watch live OTA TV in the best HD quality available. The 2nd option is to call (the online chat option is even better) and give them your new address and tell them to change your SERVICE ADDRESS ONLY but not change your billing address. This will change all receivers on your account to that address so if anyone is at home they will lose all Network programming. You do this either before you leave your current location while connected to the satellite (give them the location you will be going to) or you have to wait until you get to the new location, point the antenna and have the receiver on line.
The 3rd option to receive Networks (something you cannot do with Dish) is sign up for the DNS (Distant Network Services) for $15/month. This will give you ALL of the Networks broadcast from NY and you will have this Network feed everywhere you travel in the US without requiring any setup.
If you find that you are going to travel often or for extended periods of time, the investment in a Winegard Trav'ler antenna will solve all DTV problems. Compare that investment to what you paid for your coach and the easy of use will pay for itself in no time. You do need to keep "generally" out of the trees (no trees to the South) but then you just park the coach and push 1 button and you are watching DTV in the coach with the exact same antenna you have on your home so (other than the Network thing) you can do all the things in your RV that you do at home.

We have one DTV receiver for home and on the road. Our MH roof top dish is a compatible dish so moving the receiver is plug and play.

For both DTV and Dish the national programs (CBS, NBC, etc) are spot beam broadcast as locals. That means when you drive to another service address you will still get CBS but that area may not broadcast your games because perhaps they broadcast their local game. In other words you may/may not be able to watch your local Saturday football game. But all of the other channels like ESPN etc are not spot beamed so you can watch them wherever you travel.

Our receiver is also a DVR so all of the recorded shows stay on the receiver.

We watch very little live shows. Instead we watch a recorded 60 minute show in about 30 minutes. So if our roof dish is blocked no big deal as we watch recorded shows or GASP read a book, etc. Our HR44 receiver can record/display 5 HD shows at once so we never have any recording conflicts or lack of shows to watch.

For your multiple rig TVs: With a HDMI receiver output you can split it to multiple TVs. Instead of running HDMI cables you can use a pair of converters to convert a splitter output to coax and back to HDMI at the remote TV. We have this setup at home for the kitchen HD TV. But important point: You need to be able to get the receiver output to the HDMI or coax to the remote TVs. Your rig may/may not be set up in this manner. That can always be solved with additional wiring.

Ed_Gee wrote:

tinstartrvlr wrote:


As far as the locals, all you have to do is call Dish and tell them your current zip code and they will activate the locals for that area. I don't know this to be fact, but it seems you could give them any zip code and get whatever locals you want. I haven't tried it yet :)

Hope this helps.

This is true. Getting and changing Dish local channels is easy with a simple phone call...or better, use the Dish Customer Support Chat on the Internet. However, you must be honest about your location. Dish Local channels are broadcast from the satellite with spot beams. If you tell the the wrong location you won't be in the spot beam to receive those channels.

Guess I won't try to get strange locals, not that I really wanted to...just curious if it would work and it appears it won't. Learned something new today (spot beams):)

SaltiDawg wrote:

rk911 wrote:
...
first I've heard of CONUS local channels on DISH. ???

I never said that.

I did say, "Someone else may be able to help me, but there used to be National Feeds - Network broadcasts from one station in LA, NYC, or Chicago IIRC. While these were not "locals" per se, it did give you access to network programming."

This was absolutely correct - back when Dish did not have Locals available but in a few cities. This package of NETWORK stations were available to cities without Dish Locals available but they were NEVER called CONUS local channels. Dutch seems to suggest that this still is happening.

I repeatedly have tried to explain the distinction between Local stations and Network Stations, to include the few cases where a mother station is located in a city that includes that station as a Local Station in its package.

I'm pretty certain NYC or LA locals are available anywhere in the country on DirecTV but I base that on what others have told me and not personal experience.

when we set up our DISH account I asked about that and was told by DISH that the FCC prohibited them from offering that option but they added that local stations/network affiliates are available via spot beams for DISH subscribers. all a subscriber need to is contact DISH customer support and request a change in the service address...usually just a zip code change...to get whatever locals are available for that area. the change takes 15-20 minutes to complete.

we've found thru experience that these spot beams can be quite wide. for example we had the Rapid City locals all the way from Rapid to Rochester, MN. so depending on where you are even if you change campgrounds every day you may not need to change your service address every day.

rk911 wrote:
...
first I've heard of CONUS local channels on DISH. ???

I never said that.

I did say, "Someone else may be able to help me, but there used to be National Feeds - Network broadcasts from one station in LA, NYC, or Chicago IIRC. While these were not "locals" per se, it did give you access to network programming."

This was absolutely correct - back when Dish did not have Locals available but in a few cities. This package of NETWORK stations were available to cities without Dish Locals available but they were NEVER called CONUS local channels. Dutch seems to suggest that this still is happening.

I repeatedly have tried to explain the distinction between Local stations and Network Stations, to include the few cases where a mother station is located in a city that includes that station as a Local Station in its package.

SaltiDawg wrote:
Dutch,

Re NYC Locals. A couple of the NYC NETWORK Channels are part of the nationwide NETWORK channels that I alluded to and you described. My description is correct for the NYC LOCALS.

That said, I probably should have used Harrisburg as an example, but then I wouldn't have been able to say "New Yawker." (Born and raised Staten Islander - before the bridge.)

first I've heard of CONUS local channels on DISH. ???

Dutch,

Re NYC Locals. A couple of the NYC NETWORK Channels are part of the nationwide NETWORK channels that I alluded to and you described. My description is correct for the NYC LOCALS.

That said, I probably should have used Harrisburg as an example, but then I wouldn't have been able to say "New Yawker." (Born and raised Staten Islander - before the bridge.)

The distinction is that the NETWORK Flagship station airing (WABC, KABC, WNBC, etc, etc) are also a LOCAL station to their respective cities.

I assume that one wants their "Locals" they wold not be satisfied with a package of NETWORK Stations that might include one or two of their LOCALs.

My Locals include Local PBS, Local CBS, NBC, etc. Those airings include any local sports that I might follow.

SaltiDawg was mostly correct, although using the NYC locals as an example probably wasn't a good choice. If you use an NYC area service address, the NYC locals are available anywhere in the country in SD on the western arc. There are a number of other locals that are also on nationwide (CONUS) beams as well, most in HD on the eastern arc, such as the Jacksonville, FL locals. Your service address has to be in the TV market they serve though. Dish has no way of knowing where you actually are, or really care unless you need an onsite service call, so using a different service address doesn't cause any problems.

Melntb1 wrote:
Thanks...it was kind of sounding like DISH was a better option. I'm just really nervous about making a $$$ mistake. :). Can I inquire as to whether you get local channels...like CBS?

yes, you can get locals but they will be whatever locals are available at wherever you are. when you get to your campground or park just call DISH customer service and change your service address. usually DISH will just ask for the zip code but occasionally a new CSR will ask for the entire address.

if you're not a full-time RVer and you have bought the DISH receiver you are eligible for the pay-as-you-go service. turn it on when you want it and turn it off when you're back home. we turn our DISH service on from our website account and when we're back home I just don't pay the bill for the upcoming month. simple.

we found the automatic rooftop antenna to be better for us but the downside are trees. on the other hand with a portable dish trees become less of a problem but acquiring the satellite can be a hassle. best of both worlds is an automatic portable antenna.

good luck.