DirecTV

Hi I have DirecTV in my house and I've been using my RV with a  portable tripod dish and finding the satellites Has been a hassle my last trip to Golfshores I had it all set up and receiving and all the HD channels  we had a storm in a blew  over after that I was not able to get that HD satellite for some reason  i'm thing about going with the traveler SK ? SW M3 anybody have this dish on the roof with any luck my Winnebago is prewired for  A satellite dish or do you think would be a better move just to go to dish network seems like their HD  dishes are a lot less expensive

You can't compare the Trav'ler (either the DirecTV one or the one for Dish) with the inexpensive domes used on RV roofs or the ones that are carry-out portables.

A Trav'ler enables you to simultaneously receive signals from all the channels coming from all three of the satellites used by both companies.  That means that you can use a DVR to record programs while watching any others.  Simple dishes can only record multiple channels at the same time if all of them happen to be coming from the same satellite.

Yes, receiving HD on Dish doesn't necessitate the separate Ka-band LNB needed for HD on DirecTV but when comparing costs you should compare a DirecTV Trav'ler to the one for Dish.  There is a modest price difference, but it's not anywhere the same as the difference between the cost of a Trav'ler and a simple rooftop dome.

Travler is nice about 20% of the time.  Rest of the time its useless.
Instead of spending 1500 dollars for a travler, why not spend 400 dollars for a Directv sat finder?
Ebay sellers offer the latest Directv sat meter both new and used.  With it you can lock onto the 101 bird in a matter of minutes.

donn said:

Travler is nice about 20% of the time.  Rest of the time its useless.
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That may be true for you, but for me it's closer to 98% of the time that I find it nice. So much depends on how clear the southern view is where you park.

Larry N. said:

That may be true for you, but for me it's closer to 98% of the time that I find it nice. So much depends on how clear the southern view is where you park.

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I agree with Larry.  In the past ~6 years there have only been a handful of times when we weren't able to use our Trav'ler

Larry N. said:

That may be true for you, but for me it's closer to 98% of the time that I find it nice. So much depends on how clear the southern view is where you park.

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Our experience tracks pretty close to Larry's.  The only time we've NOT been able to lock onto the three satellites have been when we're parked in some pretty heavy foliage.  Obviously, there's a trade off between a "fully automatic" roof mounted dish like a Trav'ler ... versus a smaller, more mobile, remote dish.  You have a chance of sidestepping foliage issues with a "remote dish" - but it comes at a price of significantly more effort.  I like hitting the button and having the dish handle the rest. 

Our setup in the coach includes a HD-DVR that has 200 hours of programming capacity.  We try to keep the DVR loaded with stuff we're interested in watching - and try to keep it more or less current.  On those relatively rare occasions that the Trav'ler won't lock onto the satellites - the HD-DVR is our "go to" backup plan.  Worst case - there's always the BluRay player and the binder of DVRs.   

My Trav'ler has worked 100% of the time for me for nearly two years. Can take up to 10 minutes to find the satellites, but I am doing other things while it is searching.

You have a chance of sidestepping foliage issues with a "remote dish" - but it comes at a price of significantly more effort.

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If it is a dome type, it is also more likely to be affected by heavy rains, though not always, since it doesn't capture as much of the signal (much smaller dish).

I've found that an all-around workable solution to receiving satellite TV, in my case, Directv, to include my roof-mounted KVH RV-1 in-motion dome and a tripod-based, triple-LNB, single coax SWiM dish.  This combination allows us to watch Standard Definition Directv while driving and then,  when the RV is parked, set up the tripod to watch Directv in High Definition.  Many variables affect whether I set up the tripod, i.e., poor visibility of the satellite due to trees, buildings, etc., late-night arrival at my destination, if it's raining hard or snowing outside, etc.,  If we're staying longer than just overnight, I use my Birdog satellite finder, about $200 on Amazon, and set up the tripod, typically about 15 minutes to assemble & align the dish!

After 20 years of RVing from Southern CA to Canada to Bar Harbor, ME, I think I've found the best solution for my wife & I. BTW, taking our Directv Genie DVR from home allows us to watch all the programs we've previously recorded at home! Nothing like enjoying a campfire with new campground neighbors, then going indoors, always later then expected, to watch a favorite program that was recorded earlier!

Felix S.
1997 Monaco Windsor
1994 Toyota 4Runner

 

fwstruys said:

After 20 years of RVing from Southern CA to Canada to Bar Harbor, ME, I think I've found the best solution for my wife & I. BTW, taking our Directv Genie DVR from home allows us to watch all the programs we've previously recorded at home! Nothing like enjoying a campfire with new campground neighbors, then going indoors, always later then expected, to watch a favorite program that was recorded earlier!

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With the broad availability of 4G/LTE suitable for streaming video and the recent reduction in cellular data costs by the major carriers, I see less and less reason to be concerned about the lack of satellite availability for a few nights or even a few weeks.  We stream roughly ~1/3 of the video we watch using Netflix, Amazon, HBO GO, etc.  When we can't get a satellite signal we simply stream all our video.  No need to worry about having recorded material available.

docj said:

With the broad availability of 4G/LTE suitable for streaming video and the recent reduction in cellular data costs by the major carriers, I see less and less reason to be concerned about the lack of satellite availability for a few nights or even a few weeks.  We stream roughly ~1/3 of the video we watch using Netflix, Amazon, HBO GO, etc.  When we can't get a satellite signal we simply stream all our video.  No need to worry about having recorded material available.

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No question that cheap data and streaming are making a difference in how we view TV programming. This afternoon we streamed a movie from the Hopper w/Sling we left at our upstate NY cottage that was recorded last Sunday while we were in transit to our current location in Florida. Tonight I'm watching a live NHL hockey game on Dish/Center Ice via satellite with our Hopper here in Florida, while my wife is streaming a live OTA program from a local independent channel in NY via the NY Hopper on another TV. I guess that would make it the best of both worlds...

That's fine, Doc, if you have enough bandwidth and if you are in an area with the cell service. My 1.5 GB/mo cell service isn't adequate, even on the rare occasions I have adequate bandwidth. But my DirecTV reception is good everywhere in the country, if you be sure there's a clear sky path to the south. And too often I don't get much cell service.

Some of us haven't fallen into the "do everything on the web" bandwagon. I don't stream at home and I don't stream on the road -- I rarely even use a cell phone unless I'm on the road (the only reason I have one -- I don't use the phone very much anyway, even the landline, except to answer scam calls  ;D :).

Larry N. said:

That's fine, Doc, if you have enough bandwidth and if you are in an area with the cell service. My 1.5 GB/mo cell service isn't adequate, even on the rare occasions I have adequate bandwidth.

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These days we find that 4G/LTE Verizon service with adequate bandwidth for streaming is available virtually everywhere we choose to spend a night.  We don't boondock and almost all decent size cities have more than enough bandwidth.

As for your own cell service, you might want to explore the major plan changes made by AT&T and Verizon over the past couple of months.  There are lots of RVers who have discovered that they can now get unlimited service for less per month than they had been paying for far more limited plans.  AT&T even has an unlimited plan for one device at the $20/mo level.

We also still have DirecTV because it's convenient, but quite honestly, what I have to pay per month for the limited number of programs we watch makes me increasingly wonder why I continue my subscription.  As DirecTV moves more towards a streaming approach to distributing its content, I'm sure it will be only a matter of time before we stop paying >$100/mo for satellite service.

If you mainly hang around large cities, then bandwidth probably isn't an issue.  But traveling coast to coast I find many places where the Verizon signal is not adequate, or non existent.  I am too paying too much Direct TV, but at this point in time the coverage is no where close to adequate for our full timing needs.

As for your own cell service, you might want to explore the major plan changes made by AT&T and Verizon over the past couple of months.

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I'm using Consumer Cellular (AT&T network), and there are no AT&T or Verizon plans suitable for us. As I said, we don't use the phone much, and we use phone data even less. The 1.5 GB/mo is what we chose because we never use even half of that. This is a personal choice, not something we just "settled for." A $57/mo fee (including taxes and other fees - that's the total payment) for two lines, prepaid, no contract, suits us very well. As of right now, almost the end of the month, we have used 43 minutes out of 1500 on the talk plan, 0 out of unlimited on text, and 0.05 out of 1.5 GB on data. All of that resets in 2 more days. We can even change the plan in the middle of the month (or near the end) to get greater capacity, if we wish, then change it back when we don't the extra, though we've never needed that option.

In other words, even if we had unlimited data, we wouldn't use any more than we do now. It's a personal choice, not a limitation. Even the 400 MB/mo that this plan started with was more than adequate, and they've upgraded this numerous times over the last few years to what we have now, at no additional charge. We're happy with what we have.

SargeW said:

If you mainly hang around large cities, then bandwidth probably isn't an issue.  But traveling coast to coast I find many places where the Verizon signal is not adequate, or non existent. 

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This may not apply to you, but just an observation, your experiences can be significantly affected by what phone you are using.  Some of the Advanced LTE features can only be accessed by phones sold in the past couple of years.  I don't know what phone you personally have, but I have mentioned this to friends some of whom were using older phones because they saw no reason to change.  As an example of this issue in practice, at our winter location my S4 and S7 connect to a Verizon tower that seems to have a very underutilized AWS spectrum and, as a result, we see download speeds in the 50-60Mbps range.  So if you're looking to get the best connectivity possible, a newer phone might be beneficial.

I am using a Samsung Note 4, and it works pretty well. For data I am using a Novatel 3G modem. In many places the 3G signal is pretty reliable since so many folks have jumped on to the 4G band wagon.

SargeW said:

I am using a Samsung Note 4, and it works pretty well. For data I am using a Novatel 3G modem. In many places the 3G signal is pretty reliable since so many folks have jumped on to the 4G band wagon.

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The overloading of the 4G system was true a few years ago.  These days I rarely have a 4G connection <5Mbps on either Verizon or AT&T.  I can't imagine going back to 3G with its ~2Mbps limitation.  To each his own.

Since I am grandfathered in to a truly unlimited 3G data plan with no throttling, it's easier to "make due" with 2mg speeds.

I still have a reflashed Jetpack with a $5/mo unlimited 3G Verizon plan that I keep in service as a back up. I've tested streaming with it several times in different locations, and it has always handled it well with minimal buffering, usually only at the highest resolutions. With our current low cost AT&T unlimited and high data plans, I'm considering dropping our higher cost Verizon 4G/LTE plan and just using the 3G Jetpack for those rare times when we don't have AT&T coverage. With our Max Amp RV cell booster/repeater bringing in signals even where our devices find none, I expect the need for the 3G plan to be almost nil.