direct tv vs dish

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I just got off phone with Direct TV rep.  I had already added an extra receiver in the guest room that isn't connected to my Genie system so I could use it in our travels (soon to retire) However, after calling today, I learned that I would lose service to my home once I called to activate the "on the go' service wherever we are --- that's not going to work for me.  We have an elderly dog so we typically have a house/dog sitter to stay at our home while we will are gone.  Am I understanding the rep correctly?  My next purchase was to be the Winegard 2go - (or whatever it is called) so we could use it besides when travelling - such as going to grandkids house where they may not have a package to watch college football (Roll Tide!)  But I would still like to maintain my home DirectTv without restrictions as it can continue recording our "Must Have" shows to watch once we return home. 

Am I missing something ??  Yes I'm only paying $7 for the extra stand alone receiver right now but if everything else is shut down at home with no service -- that makes no sense  Help please - what do you do ??
 
You'd lose the local channels at home, but retain the others, since you're still paying for those receivers left behind. I've done as you have with an extra home receiver that I use for the RV and I don't change anything in my service while on the road. While on the road I still have everything except local channels, which I can get over the air in most places, and my local channels continue to work at home, along with the rest.

In point of fact, though, I still have the Denver local channels (my home stuff) most anywhere in Colorado and a little beyond -- the "spot beam" for locals is more or less a cone that, at least out here, covers a fair sized area.
 
8Muddypaws said:
My problem with Dish is that they have contract disputes with the channels they carry every couple of years.  Seems there is always the threat of losing your favorite channels/programs.

All of the carriers have contract disputes from time to time. DirecTV for instance, lost 33 Hearst network stations affecting 39 states for a time last January. No matter which carrier you choose, there will be contract dispute outages...

Frontier And DirecTV Subs See Service Disruptions From Retrans Disputes
 
micknol said:
I would like to get your opinion on which on is better for home and for the rv i have direct tv now and not happy with the rv part a big hassle setting up a portable dish. Dish seems to be more rv friendly your thought?

I too just dumped the big bulky dish for directv in my TT. I just ordered the King quest. I called Both King and Winegard first and the only option for my newer HR 54 receiver is the King Quest. I got it off Amazon 344.00  King wanted almost double that. They say it will get me sat 101 and no HD, which is good for me. I hope its easy to use. I would spend upwards of an hour each camping trip trying to get the old oval dish alligned and tweeked, and never had great results. I found this also you might find usefull. Its a satellite and channel list from Directv.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/directv-101-110-119-channel-tp-assignment-lists-pdf.100091/
 
What model of king west did you get, I have not found them that cheap... we are just about ready to dump our dish too.. we have old receiver, I need to call but think it will work. Model -h21-200 We use direct tv.


Triple Slide Jayco said:
I too just dumped the big bulky dish for directv in my TT. I just ordered the King quest. I called Both King and Winegard first and the only option for my newer HR 54 receiver is the King Quest. I got it off Amazon 344.00  King wanted almost double that. They say it will get me sat 101 and no HD, which is good for me. I hope its easy to use. I would spend upwards of an hour each camping trip trying to get the old oval dish alligned and tweeked, and never had great results. I found this also you might find usefull. Its a satellite and channel list from Directv.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/directv-101-110-119-channel-tp-assignment-lists-pdf.100091/
 
tanglemoose said:
What model of king west did you get, I have not found them that cheap... we are just about ready to dump our dish too.. we have old receiver, I need to call but think it will work. Model -h21-200 We use direct tv.

To be more specific. I called both companies and the only one that had a dish for my receiver HR54 was King. However, with your receiver H21 they have a few that will work as well as Winegard has some. Here is Kings compatibility list. https://kingconnect.com/support/receivers/

Winegard has the Carryout G2+ that will work with Directv as well.

Pricing on Ebay and Amazon had the Carryout g2+ a little more expensive than King.

I luckily found a factory refurbished unit on Amazon for 344.00. It got delivered yesterday. When I called King they said I can use that dish and I will need a SWM 8 with power to get the HR 54 to work. The SWM 8 cost me another 10.00 on EBay.

You should just need the dish and not the SWM 8. IF you search the internet and both Ebay and Amazon you will find something at a pretty good price compared to new.
 
This topic gets quite a bit of discussion... completely understandable... RV's and Sat/TV were made for each other.  At the same time technology is changing quickly these days and  will probably continue to change, perhaps even more rapidly.  The economics of this is changing rapidly as well.  It wasn't that long ago that we had OTA TV, a few ads and network programming.  Now we pay hundreds of $$$ for hundreds of channels that most folks never even watch.  Plus the advertising has gone ballistic, even exponential so we pay even more for channels with far less advertising.  Now of course, there are streaming channels with most of the content that OTA or Sat/TV provide but the streaming options are far less expensive in many cases.  Witness Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc, etc, etc.  Something has to give, we cannot watch or engage with all this stuff... at least we can't.  You can even watch multiple channels at the same time.  Maybe what this leads to could be that Dish Vs. Direct comprises the proverbial "tip of the iceberg"?  Maybe there's no need to choose anymore, just flip a coin and you'll get some huge percentage of all the content you could possibly watch.  One path forward that more and more people are using consists of downloading gigantic files of content that you can watch when you choose to watch, if you choose to watch and often fast forward through the rampant advertising and commercials.  For instance, you can watch the NBA finals in half the time if you're willing to watch it on a delayed basis and skip the advertising.  HD makes the images sharper, no doubt about that and 4K is right around the corner, even more HD.  On a different note, if you "upgrade" to the Directv Genie receivers,  with the SWM system, you get even more options but setup gets much trickier.  This trend may be the reason that "live performances" have become so popular these days.  And, a good book or two.

Good Luck!
 
I'm also looking at this.  Have the Directv setup at home with 54 (newest) receiver.  For the motorhome, I set up a portable dish on a tripod.  I bring the receiver from home.  I don't tell Directv that I'm traveling.  My Tampa channels work in Florida, but they disappear outside of Florida, but that doesn't bother me.  It takes perhaps a half hour to set up the antenna, but is a bit tricky to get the azimuth and elevation and tilt just right.  It certainly doesn't pay to set up unless we are staying in one spot for a week or more.  And the antenna is sitting out somewhere where it can get ripped off or knocked down.  The only truly automatic way to get all 3 satellites including HD with an automatic unit appears to be the Trav'ler model for $1500, plus installation on the roof.  The problem appears to be that tilt has to be set to get 3 satellites, which is a function of location, and the older automatic units are elevation and azimuth only.  The portable can't be installed on the roof because the arm is fixed, not hinged, so you could not stow the antenna, and can't adjust tilt, so won't get all 3 satellites in any event.  So, is satellite 101 the one with the most channels?  Can the King Quest automatically get satellite 101 (SD only) with Directv receiver 54?
$1500 is too rich for my blood.  But $500 or less would be OK, even if just SD and one satellite.
Is there any way to just upgrade the older antenna that came with the motorhome (2003 Winnebago)?  Add a new SWM or something?
 
Sailorkane said:
I'm also looking at this.  Have the Directv setup at home with 54 (newest) receiver.  For the motorhome, I set up a portable dish on a tripod.  I bring the receiver from home.  I don't tell Directv that I'm traveling.  My Tampa channels work in Florida, but they disappear outside of Florida, but that doesn't bother me.  It takes perhaps a half hour to set up the antenna, but is a bit tricky to get the azimuth and elevation and tilt just right.  It certainly doesn't pay to set up unless we are staying in one spot for a week or more.  And the antenna is sitting out somewhere where it can get ripped off or knocked down.  The only truly automatic way to get all 3 satellites including HD with an automatic unit appears to be the Trav'ler model for $1500, plus installation on the roof.  The problem appears to be that tilt has to be set to get 3 satellites, which is a function of location, and the older automatic units are elevation and azimuth only.  The portable can't be installed on the roof because the arm is fixed, not hinged, so you could not stow the antenna, and can't adjust tilt, so won't get all 3 satellites in any event.  So, is satellite 101 the one with the most channels?  Can the King Quest automatically get satellite 101 (SD only) with Directv receiver 54?
$1500 is too rich for my blood.  But $500 or less would be OK, even if just SD and one satellite.
Is there any way to just upgrade the older antenna that came with the motorhome (2003 Winnebago)?  Add a new SWM or something?

Correct, the satellite 101 is what the Quest will dial in. It carries everything but the locals, the way I understood. All in SD. Here is a list of what each satellite sends. http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/directv-101-110-119-channel-tp-assignment-lists-pdf.100091/

Not sure what you mean on the upgrade for the Winnebago. If it has a roof mount dish now but older one, you covered the topic in your post about a 1500.00 dish, which I think would be the answer.
 
UPDATE

As I sit here and enjoy a cup of coffee, my last 5 days or so have been pretty consistant with being able to watch satellite TV with my setup. I had an intermentant issue with a bad coax cable for the first day or so. After calling King, we diagnosed it and I replaced the cable. The overall setup works pretty good. I get the channels I get at home but in SD. Which I'm OK with. I ran HDMI cables to the 3 TVs I have in my TT and ran them thru a splitter which allows me to turn on the system and watch the same channel on all 3 TVs. I take the remote for the dish with me and it works no matter where I am (radio frequency). A neat option for watching the baseball game or whatever, plus it gives TV everywhere.

The dish needs itself is pretty cool, I have elected to not install it on my roof because I camp at a wooded site a few times a year. I have it on a 50 foot coax for easy movement.

Weather has not affected it yet, we have a pretty bad rainstorm and no issues.

My only real issues is that I get an error of some sort that comes on the screen every once and again that is on the bottom of the TV but goes away shortly after. I have found that if I record the channel I am watching and then play it back, the error will not come on.

Overall happiness out of 1 to 10.....  I'm at an 8 or 9, no tweeking the dish, complete flexibility, free TV, keeps myself and the kids occupied if needed.
 
Getting ready to order my KQ4100 tonight from Amazon and they dropped the price... makes me wonder if something new is coming out! ha... I wish a HD one was.... anyone hear any rumors?  Donna
 
tanglemoose said:
Is this correct that some channels that are only in HD will not work... anyone with a King Quest and Direct TV answer this????? Are we talking ABC, CBS, etc.??????????????? 

I'm pretty sure that all the major channels are available in SD on the 101 satellite.  The HD-only channels that I'm aware of are some small-market local channels.
 
tanglemoose said:
Getting ready to order my KQ4100 tonight from Amazon and they dropped the price... makes me wonder if something new is coming out! ha... I wish a HD one was.... anyone hear any rumors?  Donna

It's not likely you'll see a dome style antenna for DTV that receives both HD and SD programming unless someone develops a combination KA/KU band single LNB. And with the small market for one, that's probably not going to happen.
 
NY_Dutch said:
It's not likely you'll see a dome style antenna for DTV that receives both HD and SD programming unless someone develops a combination KA/KU band single LNB. And with the small market for one, that's probably not going to happen.

And another point that often gets overlooked, is that a dome system can only point at one satellite at a time.  On both DTV and Dish three satellites are used for the full complement of HD channels.  If you have a DVR and want to record a channel while watching another or record multiple channels at the same time a dome system is of limited use unless all the channels you want to record are being broadcast from the same satellite.  We rarely watch TV in "real time"; we find it far too constraining to have to be available at a specific time to watch a show.  We pretty much record everything we watch from the news, to prime time shows to late-night TV.  For us (and many other full-timers) a dome system simply doesn't cut it.
 
docj said:
And another point that often gets overlooked, is that a dome system can only point at one satellite at a time.  On both DTV and Dish three satellites are used for the full complement of HD channels.  If you have a DVR and want to record a channel while watching another or record multiple channels at the same time a dome system is of limited use unless all the channels you want to record are being broadcast from the same satellite.  We rarely watch TV in "real time"; we find it far too constraining to have to be available at a specific time to watch a show.  We pretty much record everything we watch from the news, to prime time shows to late-night TV.  For us (and many other full-timers) a dome system simply doesn't cut it.

Exactly, Joel, and one of the reasons we prefer our triple LNB manual dish and Dish multiple tuner Hopper w/Sling receiver. There are times that we're recording 4 programs at once across multiple satellites.
 

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