Dish TV Experience?

[8Muddypaws]

Bear with me here, I will get to the question eventually.

We've been DirecTV customers for almost as many years as they Have been in existence. Recently I got an email stating that the receiver in our rig will soon lose most of our local channels because it is an SD only receiver.

They will send me an HD receiver but it's up to me to add a HD capable dish. Looking at the prices of the Winegard ones soon disabused me of that idea. I have a friend who used to spend an hour or so aiming his manual HD dish, and he had a BirdDog meter! I don't really want to deal with all that.

So now I'm exploring switching to Dish. It seems like they have a better solution that is much less expensive, both initially and long term.

Finally getting to the question: If you have Dish or have had it in the past what has been your experience? Satisfied with their service? Equipment reliable?

 

[NY_Dutch]

Bear with me here, I will get to the question eventually.

We've been DirecTV customers for almost as many years as they Have been in existence. Recently I got an email stating that the receiver in our rig will soon lose most of our local channels because it is an SD only receiver.

They will send me an HD receiver but it's up to me to add a HD capable dish. Looking at the prices of the Winegard ones soon disabused me of that idea. I have a friend who used to spend an hour or so aiming his manual HD dish, and he had a BirdDog meter! I don't really want to deal with all that.

So now I'm exploring switching to Dish. It seems like they have a better solution that is much less expensive, both initially and long term.

Finally getting to the question: If you have Dish or have had it in the past what has been your experience? Satisfied with their service? Equipment reliable?

Overall, we've been quite satisfied with our Dish service except for the price now that streaming has improved so much at lower cost. We recently put our Dish service on hold while we transition to YouTubeTV and a few other apps. So far we've been quite pleased and haven't missed Dish much at all. I will say I had my portable dish set up and aimed typically in less than 15 minutes. Since my strokes, though, I'm sure it would take me much longer. Now I just crank up our aimable dual cell antennas and point it at the nearest cell tower to get the strongest possible signal.

 

[Laura & Charles]

We have Dish. We’ve been mostly satisfied. You buy the equipment, so there’s no contract (ie no lease), so you can start and stop your service as you wish.

When we bought this coach, it already had a self-aiming rooftop dish and the previous owner had a Direct receiver. So the Dish folks sold me the dish and the LNB arm and LNB. They were quite knowledgeable and helpful walking me through getting everything installed and set up. We even added a 3 terabyte external hard drive to give us DVR capability.

Dutch is right though about streaming being less expensive. You might want to explore that idea before jumping on the Dish wagon.

 

[jymbee]

... We recently put our Dish service on hold while we transition to YouTubeTV and a few other apps.

You too?!

As you probably remember I've been a long time Dish guy using our Pathway X2. I was always a bit down on YouTubeTV, but admittedly I didn't know all that much about it.

Visited some friends awhile back that had YTTV and got a detailed demonstration of it's capabilities. I was favorably impressed and now I see what there is to like.

And just yesterday the neighbor at the park we're at was describing his setup: Portable Starland and YTTV. He couldn't say enough good things about how well it's worked for him.

So now I'm taking another look at a similar config. Not cheap but I believe YTTV, like Dish, can be turned on and off to coincide with our travels. Spent quite a bit of time last night trying to find a place to set our Pathway so I could hit sat 119 which is where all the local channels were and the Verizon/Visible connection a bit weak. Hmmmm...

 

[NY_Dutch]

You too?!

As you probably remember I've been a long time Dish guy using our Pathway X2. I was always a bit down on YouTubeTV, but admittedly I didn't know all that much about it.

Visited some friends awhile back that had YTTV and got a detailed demonstration of it's capabilities. I was favorably impressed and now I see what there is to like.

And just yesterday the neighbor at the park we're at was describing his setup: Portable Starland and YTTV. He couldn't say enough good things about how well it's worked for him.

So now I'm taking another look at a similar config. Not cheap but I believe YTTV, like Dish, can be turned on and off to coincide with our travels. Spent quite a bit of time last night trying to find a place to set our Pathway so I could hit sat 119 which is where all the local channels were and the Verizon/Visible connection a bit weak. Hmmmm...

There's certainly a learning curve in switching from Dish to YTTV, but we haven't found it to be much more difficult than the switch from then Time Warner now Spectrum cable to Dish. We're waiting to see if we run into poor cell service at enough of our regular stops to justify the expense of Starlink over our AT&T and Verizon/Visible cell services at about $50/mo. At our upstate NY cottage where our health issues have us spending a lot more time, we have Spectrum Internet 100 Mb service at no cost to us thanks to a government program our disabilities qualified us for.

 

[8Muddypaws]

I haven't had the best of luck streaming in the RV. We've been to several places where it's nearly impossible to even get email.

We have Comcast/Xfinity 850Mbps that we pay full price for and stream Netflix, Prime, Disney and Hulu as well as many of the free services and worldwide IPTV. Disney and Hulu are free with our cell service.

 

[PancakeBill]

that has been my experience as well Muddy. Barely cell does not make streaming an option. The park we are in has a freetable, someone left a Playmaker and receiver on it it recently, unfortunately he removed the card from the receiver, well the card and receiver are mated, had to buy aother receiver, found a refurb on eBay. We are now ready to activate when we leave again. I guess you can turn on and off the service, but not sure if it will give you partial, or do you have to take a month at a time?

 

[Domo]

We've had both satellite services at home. Sometimes either is flawless and we learned to watch the monthly bills.

Now-a-days we do Internet only based on my old T-mobile plan that has unlimited tethering for multiple devices.

Sometimes we don't have signal, sometimes it's bad/slow - but since we stream from the Internet we can use the local campground WIFI, or my phone (T-mobile) or DW's phone (ATT) for internet. About 90% of the time we get a good connection.

We do pay for Netflix and do have an Amazon Prime account that allows free (and paid) movies.

And, worst case, we simply use our pre-recorded TV shows and movies from an external hard drive or thumb drive - Or... even talk to each other!

At home we also only use internet (fiber optic, so it's quick). We got fed up with paying some company that happily beams us commercials...

 

[chuckbear]

Based on your question, I'm not sure you will see any improvements. We had Dish for decades and had very few problems except for price increases. You still will need a replacement receiver and still will need to either manually point a dish or upgrade to an automated dish system. So how will switching help? Chuck

 

[8Muddypaws]

The Winegard Traveler antenna costs over $2,000. A Playmaker antenna for Dish Network costs just over $200. Dish is also less expensive on a month to month basis. If Dish works out in the RV I will convert our home to Dish as well.

 

[Ohiosnowbird]

Our new Thor came with a wineguard rv internet & wifi unit and we disconnected it because it interfered with our verizon hotspot ability. When we watch tv, we stream the free stuff on Pluto, abc.com and prime Via verizon. We like to goto half price books and buy dvds too. Books are our favorites though.

 

[DuaneMiller]

I, like you had DirecTV service for about as long as they have been in business... I finally got tired of the constant price increases, and anytime I needed assistance, I ended up speaking with someone at AT&T to try to help... After researching the programming and cost, I saw that DISH was a bit cheaper, and the fact that I had just purchased my current MH, that had a dish installed helped me make my decision.

We have had DISH now for about 2 1/2 years, and the service has been great. I have the service in my home, as well as in the MH. Whenever I need anything from DISH, I always speak to a person in the US, who speaks clear English, and they are very pleasant and eager to help. The mobile service only adds an additional $5 to my bill each month. I can suspend that if I need to with just a phone call.

My home equipment, I got from DISH directly. The receiver in the MH, I think I purchased from Camping World. The dish on the roof is a King OnePro antenna. Its not the in-motion style, but works and locks on the satellites pretty well as long as I am not parked underneath heavy tree cover.

I also have a Roku box and an OTA antenna, so I'm pretty much have all the bases covered for TV...

 

[L-M-L]

We have had dish for not quite three years now. When we switched from Direct TV to Dish we got the outdoor package from our dish dealer. They came out and setup both systems. We have the Dish Tailgater Pro antenna and have it setup on a tripod so we can move it around. We was in a couple of campgrounds that I had to move the antenna around until I could clear some trees. One of those campgrounds I had to put the antenna on the picnic table and point it over the top of the camper to pickup the satellites. If you have the antenna mounted to the top of the camper, and trees are in your way you are not going to get the satellites without moving the camper. When it sits on the ground you can move it to where you need to. Like Duane above said it only cost us $5.00 a month for the service when you have a Dish account for your home. I believe that has went up now to $7.00 a month.

 

[Ray-IN]

I, like you had DirecTV service for about as long as they have been in business... I finally got tired of the constant price increases, and anytime I needed assistance, I ended up speaking with someone at AT&T to try to help... After researching the programming and cost, I saw that DISH was a bit cheaper, and the fact that I had just purchased my current MH, that had a dish installed helped me make my decision.

We have had DISH now for about 2 1/2 years, and the service has been great. I have the service in my home, as well as in the MH. Whenever I need anything from DISH, I always speak to a person in the US, who speaks clear English, and they are very pleasant and eager to help. The mobile service only adds an additional $5 to my bill each month. I can suspend that if I need to with just a phone call.

My home equipment, I got from DISH directly. The receiver in the MH, I think I purchased from Camping World. The dish on the roof is a King OnePro antenna. Its not the in-motion style, but works and locks on the satellites pretty well as long as I am not parked underneath heavy tree cover.

I also have a Roku box and an OTA antenna, so I'm pretty much have all the bases covered for TV...

Last week I had trouble with my Dish Network at home. I spoke with a woman with a very heavy SEA accent; couldn't understand most of what she said, so just invoked my $10/month free home service. The tech that arrived said their call center is in Chicago, but hiring employees is difficult, so most of the people at the call center are foreign, green cards; and if I have that issue again, keep calling back until I get a born N raised American.