Directv / Dish Network ?

[filrupmark]

We are not fulltimers and have been DIRECTV customers for 20 years. I take a HD receiver with us while traveling and setup my tripod and dish manually.
We are tired of DIRECTV always raising our rates and charging for HD programming.
We are contemplating switching to Dish Network with one DVR and a Wally receiver along with the automatic tailgater dish.
We would like to hear your thoughts and issues.

[Dutch_12078]

allen8106 wrote:

If you aren't full timers why wouldn't you just switch the house to Dish, have it set up in two rooms, take one of the receivers and put it in the camper, then buy and extra dish off of Craigslist? That's what I did and the whole set up cost me $20, the dish took me 10 minutes to aim manually. It worked very well for us.

Why spend hundreds of dollars for a tailgater setup, other than the automatic satellite find feature.

We are full timers, but we also have a small cottage in the Adirondacks with a full hookup site we sometimes stay at. Years ago before we went full time in the motorhome, we had cable TV for the cottage, and added a Dish Pay-As-You-Go account with one receiver and a portable tripod mounted dish to the motorhome so we could start and stop the service at will. Since then, we've gone all Dish all the time with a permanent dish at the cottage where we leave one of our two Hoppers with Sling receivers installed, while we travel with a second Hopper and portable tripod dish. The extra receiver at the cottage only adds $12/mo to our bill, and has proven to very handy since we can stream both live and recorded programs from it using the free DishAnywhere app on our FireTVstick, phones, or laptops, anywhere we happen to be. DishAnywhere also lets us record programs we would miss while underway for later viewing. My wife has even watched her favorite soap opera a few times on the bedroom TV while we were rolling along between campgrounds. I don't know if Direct has anything like the Dish Hopper series available, with up to 16 channel recording capability and streaming built in.

[allen8106]

filrupmark wrote:
We are not fulltimers and have been DIRECTV customers for 20 years. I take a HD receiver with us while traveling and setup my tripod and dish manually.
We are tired of DIRECTV always raising our rates and charging for HD programming.
We are contemplating switching to Dish Network with one DVR and a Wally receiver along with the automatic tailgater dish.
We would like to hear your thoughts and issues.

If you aren't full timers why wouldn't you just switch the house to Dish, have it set up in two rooms, take one of the receivers and put it in the camper, then buy and extra dish off of Craigslist? That's what I did and the whole set up cost me $20, the dish took me 10 minutes to aim manually. It worked very well for us.

Why spend hundreds of dollars for a tailgater setup, other than the automatic satellite find feature.

[Bill_Satellite]

For the first time, I just did have problems changing locals with DirecTV. I did the chat thing and they said they changed my service address from FL back to my home address in TX. It did not work. We went around and around and I made the mistake of saying I had a Trav'ler antenna. They said I needed to call a different number. When I called they had given me a phone number to Winegard which is worthless.
I then called DTV the next day and connected with tech. support. The tech kept changing the address and it kept changing back. He was great and tried again and again. When he simply could not make it work he did something to the effect of setting up a 3rd address which did fix things and we are watching locals again. Not at all sure what's going to happen if I do this again but I may just stick with my DNS and use the OTA antenna for locals in the future.

[footslogger]

Bill.Satellite wrote:

Dave H M wrote:
What Bill says folks.

Wow you been camping all this time without getting the locals off the DTV/satellite? Supposedly you can just get that accomplished on the web site.

I am old fashioned and call them to have my service address changed to where I am located. :B

I am not aware of being able to change your locals on line but I use the chat function with the specific wording that I am in an RV, changed locations, need ONLY the service address updated and the address I want to use. Give it all to them right up front so they don't have to go through the "how can we hel you" script.

Bill, I do essentially as you do to, use the chat function to communicate a change of service location with DTV. But ... I have been reluctant to change my service address too often. I have heard in these forums that DTV sometimes takes exception if you change too frequently. How often do you change your service address and have you ever experienced this problem?

Another question: can my DTV Trav'ler be modified to work with Dish? If so, how?

[Bill_Satellite]

Life is still simple. I think it is more simple as we now have the technology so we don't have to chase a faint signal and watch the World Series in a snow storm. I like making my life simple so why fight the feeling!?

[jerseyjim]

DUTCH_12078 & BILL.SATELLITE :

Of course..for both. Remember when life was simple? A popup and Radio Shack had a RV antenna kit for 15 bucks...a 12 inch B&W with a very snowy picture of the World Series? I remember how thrilled we were. A TV in a popup ! And it worked !!

How far we've come. Wondering...is it all good ?

[Bill_Satellite]

And that you have no interest in recording any of your Network programming. A deal breaker for me!

[Dutch_12078]

jerseyjim wrote:
One can also get the "locals" if you have, say a switchbox (like I do...) just push the "ant" button and aim the batwing. Then, to return to DirecTV, simply push the "sat" button.

The same should work for DISH I guess.....

And that assumes there are OTA locals within range of course...

[jerseyjim]

One can also get the "locals" if you have, say a switchbox (like I do...) just push the "ant" button and aim the batwing. Then, to return to DirecTV, simply push the "sat" button.

The same should work for DISH I guess.....

[ljr]

Bill.Satellite wrote:

Dave H M wrote:
What Bill says folks.

Wow you been camping all this time without getting the locals off the DTV/satellite? Supposedly you can just get that accomplished on the web site.

I am old fashioned and call them to have my service address changed to where I am located. :B

I am not aware of being able to change your locals on line but I use the chat function with the specific wording that I am in an RV, changed locations, need ONLY the service address updated and the address I want to use. Give it all to them right up front so they don't have to go through the "how can we hel you" script.

X2 on all of that. I have a boiler plate script. Success rate has been near 100% recently. I have learned to double check my billing address occasionally though. Despite me specifically telling them not to change it, sometimes they have. Fortunately that’s easy to fix.

[Dave_H_M]

:S Dang, learn something every day - I hope.

Good info Bill, I am gonna try that next time.

[Bill_Satellite]

Dave H M wrote:
What Bill says folks.

Wow you been camping all this time without getting the locals off the DTV/satellite? Supposedly you can just get that accomplished on the web site.

I am old fashioned and call them to have my service address changed to where I am located. :B

I am not aware of being able to change your locals on line but I use the chat function with the specific wording that I am in an RV, changed locations, need ONLY the service address updated and the address I want to use. Give it all to them right up front so they don't have to go through the "how can we hel you" script.

[Larry-D]

Dish with a winegard Pathway x2. We use it in two TTs. Really nice to be able to get it out from under the trees. Using 200' of coax on a reel.

[Dave_H_M]

What Bill says folks.

Wow you been camping all this time without getting the locals off the DTV/satellite? Supposedly you can just get that accomplished on the web site.

I am old fashioned and call them to have my service address changed to where I am located. :B