What's the latest best way to get DirectTV

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Here's the latest.

I went to Best Buy, AT&T twice and Camping World.

I returned the OTA antenna at Best Buy and the tripod at camping world.  They sell mostly Dish, but didn't have a Dish antenna, well not a  dish Dish, only the portably carry out that only handles two TVs.

AT&T sold me DirecTV now that works with the internet connection, no antenna needed.  They have a device that connects to the TV with an HDMI cable.  I bought two.  got home and no cable's included.  It's 80 miles round trip to the store. 

I was really, really pissed off. I don't mind paying extra for the cable but TELL me I need to buy a cable when I buy the boxes!

Pffffffffffffft.
 
Bruce Patterson said:
I thought Bob and Sam were both guy's names.  That's all.  It's easy to be confused in this strange new world.  Sorry.

Edit: Fixed quote.
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Only if it matters.
 
ArdraF said:
OTA = Over-the-Air or what we used to call Through-the-Air.  Those are the local channels you sometimes get via your old crank-up TV antenna like we used to have in the days before satellite and cable TV.  In our motorhome we get OTA, satellite, and cable TV channels.  We've had DirecTV for years.  The old round dish antennas work with Standard Definition satellite channels, but if you want High Definition TV those are on different satellite channels and you have to upgrade to a larger oval dish that can skew to different angles in the sky in order to point to the appropriate satellite.  It's been an evolving process that changes because the channel providers like DirecTV and Dish sometimes change what channels are on a satellite.

We started many years ago with a round dish we put on the ground or a picnic table.  Eventually we upgraded to a Motosat roof-mounted dish that was automated.  About the time Motosat disappeared our dish started having problems.  Our latest upgrade was to the RF Mogul roof-mounted automatic dish for DirecTV's high definition channels.  They have a different one for Dish for its different skewing.  The beauty of this one is that you press Find to find the correct satellite or you press Stow to make the dish go down.  There are other things in the box but those are the two most important functions.  When you press Find the dish rises, turns in a circular motion, and then starts angling or skewing to find the correct place in the sky.

Regarding the local channels I said earlier that you can "sometimes" get them OTA (depending on your location), via cable TV, or via satellite if you sign up for them.  If local channels are received via satellite they're in a "spot beam" which is a narrow area in which you can see them.  When you move out of the spot beam, which can cover a couple of hundred miles (for example from Salt Lake City to Phoenix or Las Vegas to Yuma), you lose the local channels you see via satellite.  You also can sign up for the Distant Network Channels which are the major networks in New York (east coast) and Los Angeles (west coast).  The Mississippi River is roughly the dividing line between the east/west channels.  When you go from one half of the country to the other, you have to talk to the provider so they know you have changed Locations (not your billing address).

I haven't kept up with the complexities of ordering channels from either DirecTV or Dish, but a lot of it has been determined by court cases.  For example when we first got DirecTV many years ago we got L.A., San Francisco and San Diego on the west coast and N.Y., Washington, and I think Atlanta on the east coast.  One morning we watched our channels and that night they were all gone!  In order to get them back we had to have a notarized paper stating that this set was on an RV and was mobile.  That was a scramble because we were at Rocky Mountain National Park and had to find a notary and mail the paperwork.  That hassle was caused when a law suit was settled that had to do with a concept called "equal access" which then allowed RVers to have satellite TV.  Back then you weren't allowed to have satellite if you had cable.  In other words, there was no competition!  A few years ago there was another event that caused the providers to split access between the east and west coasts.

I hope this helps clarify some of the answers you've gotten to your questions and not muddied things further!

ArdraF
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ArdraF
That is a excellent explanation.

However I believe you must change your "billing address" to change the DirecTV DNS service from east to west, (or from west to east).... you can't simply contact DirectTV and request that change.

BTW I get both the east DNS feeds and the west DNS feeds because I had both when the rule changed and I was "grandfathered" in.
 
I don't mind paying extra for the cable but TELL me I need to buy a cable when I buy the boxes!
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For an HDMI cable, you can buy them at ANY store that sells TV etc, even Walmart!! Hope they didn't charge you for the ones you expected but did not get. No need to travel 80 miles in most cases.
 
BTW I get both the east DNS feeds and the west DNS feeds because I had both when the rule changed and I was "grandfathered" in.
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Yes, we also were grandfathered in because of that notarized piece of paper we filled out many years ago, about 1997.  Jerry usually handles the DirecTV "stuff" so that's why I don't know much about the "new" east/west dividing line.

ArdraF
 
[quote author=BobNSam]So, Jerry is useful for something[/quote]

Check out 'Jerry Fitzgerald' on google, and you'll find he's the original internet security guru. Ardra was his technical writer, responsible for many of Jerry's publications, including books that are used by college students to this day.
 
Blushing red, Tom!!!  He was the brain who got the ideas flowing, I was the wordsmith, and we had wonderful editors who put up with both of us!!  One was a really nice lady by the name of Priscilla who did pretty well at controlling us both through several editions.  Her favorite word was "arduous" and I still think of her every time I hear it.  It takes a lot of dedicated people doing many arduous tasks to write college textbooks, so we didn't do it alone - but, thank you for the really nice compliment.

By the way, DirecTV and Dish didn't even exist then!

Ardra and Jerry
 
To Ardra and Jerry:  Thank you both for all you have contributed to this forum over so many years.  :)) :)) :))
 
Tom and Margi said:
To Ardra and Jerry:  Thank you both for all you have contributed to this forum over so many years.  :)) :)) :))
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Amen and proud to "meet" you. Tom thanks for properly introducing Jerry and Ardra!
 
Alfa38User said:
For an HDMI cable, you can buy them at ANY store that sells TV etc, even Walmart!! Hope they didn't charge you for the ones you expected but did not get. No need to travel 80 miles in most cases.
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That is unless you are in the boonies.  I'm working a 10 hour shift on a mountain top that doesn't even have cellular coverage, 30 mile round trip from the RV park to the jobsite, and the last 6 miles is gravel.  Then when I get home, it is another 30 miles one way to the nearest store, Best Buy which is next door to the AT&T store where I got the devices. The nearest Walmart is closer to 35 or 40 miles away. So it's either order on line or wait until the weekend.  However I can watch TV on m phone or computer in the meanwhile. 
 
Bruce satellite signals needs a power source for signal generation that most splitters cannot handle. Also most newer boxes generate the signal from the box to the TV (s) as an HDMI or composite signal, not over coax.
 
Thank you, Margi and BobNSam.  And, Margi, right back at you because you've been around here as long as us!  I really value our framily and the many good times we've shared.

And now back to DirecTV....

ArdraF
 
... a really nice lady by the name of Priscilla who did pretty well at controlling us both through several editions.
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Ardra, I didn't think that even you were capable of 'controlling' Jerry  ;D
 
;D ;D ;D :)) Yes, Tom, my Energizer Bunny doesn't control very well!

ArdraF
 
The thing with that splitter is the power pass. Both companies will insist on all RG6 wire and components but as an ex DirecTV and Dish network installer the way I handled RVs with DirecTV was on a temp pad of some sort tripod, pallet, metal frame with blocks, etc. just about anything I could mount the dish itself on run wire to camper and either put my power inserter under or in a storage area with a power plug then continue to outside cable/satellite hookup to distribute throughout the trailer itself and receivers at each tv location. Normal install is putting the power inserter at the main receiver inside and many do not know any better and that is the point of the splitter with power pass, to pass power back to the dish as it has to be on that specific line on the splitter. By putting it before you bypass that issue.

Done this many many times on brand new campers as well as campers almost as old as I am without issues. People will argue otherwise but from experience I can tell you it works. The hardest part when moving from site to site is before you setup anything be sure the mount is absolutely plumb and level, then set dish skew(twist) and elevation to the required setting for the area you are in, then peak the dish in and you are good to go. I make no promises but it does work.

Better yet chase down one of those trucks and talk to the driver, with a few dollars offered they may just take care of you now and whenever in the area. I haven't done this work for a few years and still get calls when old customers come back to the area.
 
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