Dish or DirectTV?

[Rich Jenkins]

Mrs. and I are going to order Satellite TV for extended travel next year.

We've reviewed both major providers, and think either can do the job for us.

From an overall satisfaction point of view, which company would you pick, and why?

[dasams]

Originally Posted by Llando88

From an overall satisfaction point of view, which company would you pick, and why?

Dish Tailgater auto syncs to the satellites and I don't think DirecTV has an equivalent system. The newer system is a single output so you can't watch one channel and record another. The older version, that was available earlier this year, has dual outputs and solves the problem.

[Troutboy]

Direct TV has the auto find as well. Also, it gets all HD if that is important. Cost is high at $1500 for the RV mount and unit.


You can watch multiple stations from different TVs and also record while you watch.

[azflycaster]

We use the dish setup with the tailgater when on the road. It is bundled with our service at our home. We have been using the service for 2 years and are very satisfied with the product.

[Rich Jenkins]

Thanks for the comments. We're likely going with Dish.

We'll have no contract (Direct TV is 2 years), Dish has a dedicated RV / Mobile help center, and a decent pay as you go package (120+ HD channels) is $70 a month.

They also package a tripod single-feed antenna (up to three receivers), VSWR meter tuner and a Wally receiver at $299. I can also buy a 1T drive and enable it as a DVR. (Additional cost).

I already looked at SatFinder app for the iPhone and don't think aligning the dish will be a big deal. We'll be in one spot for several weeks anyway.

And Dish will also enable local channels with a phone call. So for example, we get to San Antonio and call them w our zip code, then those channels will get added.

Same if we go to Tucson, etc.

Appreciate all the info. Thanks again!

[ghaynes755]

Unless you are married to DirecTV consider moving the home account to dish. That would drop the cost of the mobile to $7.

[Tater]

We had directv for 4 years and switched to dish because directv didnt make much effort to get a signal at our Tennessee site. Dish came out and found it no problem. We then switched the home service to dish. Changing locations with Dish is a simple call or as I prefer even faster if you use the chat function on the web.

[The Colonel]

I have directv now. Got a travel package to get hd tv on the road. I have the genie at home. The antenna and its stand are pretty large making storage an issue and setup can be challenging. As soon as my contract is up I'm going to dish with a small auto setup package



DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

[RLNSTN]

Hi, I just purchases a 2017 Flying Cloud 30 (my first Airstream!) and have Dish King Tailgaiter with WALLY Dish Box. I am having no luck getting it to work when I connect it to the Airstream Satellite inlet. I've tried connecting it to the Cable inlet as well. I ran it directly into the Airstream from the Front door, and it worked great. I've read that since the cable cord "powers" the automatic sat finder in the King Tailgaitor, it has to be a powered (3Ghz?) cord.... so....I'm wondering if the cable from the Airstream Inlet is not compatible with the Wally/King Tailgaiter?

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Rich Jenkins]

Well, we ordered a Wineguard Playmaker Bundle from DishFormyRV.com today. It was one of the smaller auto-pointing antennas, and comes with the Wally receiver. I opted for the tripod as well, to help with uneven ground.

It should arrive this week, hopefully I'll get it set up and checked out here at the house before moving it to the A/S.

[Rich Jenkins]

Originally Posted by RLNSTN

Hi, I just purchases a 2017 Flying Cloud 30 (my first Airstream!) and have Dish King Tailgaiter with WALLY Dish Box. I am having no luck getting it to work when I connect it to the Airstream Satellite inlet. I've tried connecting it to the Cable inlet as well. I ran it directly into the Airstream from the Front door, and it worked great. I've read that since the cable cord "powers" the automatic sat finder in the King Tailgaitor, it has to be a powered (3Ghz?) cord.... so....I'm wondering if the cable from the Airstream Inlet is not compatible with the Wally/King Tailgaiter?

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

The cable absolutely should work. Sounds like a warranty issue.

I verified our Sat TV input on our '16 FC worked fine. I had setup a test involving a powered manual tune external antenna and spare receiver at my brother's place, to make sure the cable worked. It was a powered system i.e. similar to what you are describing.

To troubleshoot, I would ground the center conductor in the external SAT connection to the outer shroud/ground (i.e. make a complete circuit between the center conductor and the external.)

Then I would go inside and connect an ohm meter to the same two places, on the inner cable.

If the cable is "ok", you should get 0 ohms/no resistance in the reading. If you get an "open" or high resistance, you will likely have a physical problem/fault with the cable "somewhere" internal to the coach.

The TV input will not help you; this routes from the jack into the powered TV antenna.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by RLNSTN

Hi, I just purchases a 2017 Flying Cloud 30 (my first Airstream!) and have Dish King Tailgaiter with WALLY Dish Box. I am having no luck getting it to work when I connect it to the Airstream Satellite inlet. I've tried connecting it to the Cable inlet as well. I ran it directly into the Airstream from the Front door, and it worked great. I've read that since the cable cord "powers" the automatic sat finder in the King Tailgaitor, it has to be a powered (3Ghz?) cord.... so....I'm wondering if the cable from the Airstream Inlet is not compatible with the Wally/King Tailgaiter?

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

On my FC, the sat cable intering the cabin ends under the blue ray player I had to move the housing to get to it. From there it hooks to receiver and output is hdmi to the existing hdmi splitter. My hdmi splitter was setup to take blue ray output and split to two signals for the two tvs. I just unhooked the blue ray hdmi and inserted the hdmi from the sat receiver.

[Rich Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Llando88

Well, we ordered a Wineguard Playmaker Bundle from DishFormyRV.com today. It was one of the smaller auto-pointing antennas, and comes with the Wally receiver. I opted for the tripod as well, to help with uneven ground.

It should arrive this week, hopefully I'll get it set up and checked out here at the house before moving it to the A/S.

Our system arrived today.

Pretty happy with it so far, set up here at the S&B house. I needed to adjust the dish location to get to the 119W bird, but after that it was reliable.

The auto-align feature of the Wineguard Playmaker is great. We watched a bit of 'Avatar' and the picture was very crisp and clear.

[The Colonel]

How much does pay as you go cost? Are there different priced packages?


DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

[paiceman]

dblee1950:

There are four of five packages I forget all depending on which stations you want. We turn our Verizon off at home, actually in suspension, and then choose the top tier Dish package. We have a fixed roof mounted Dish Traveler antenna. The same one you see on large motorhomes, it lies flat, when turned on rises up, finds the sats and connects. I fought with the remote antennas for two years and ended up throwing it out, while throwing it away another camper in a MH was doing the same thing. We both got a chuckle.

Bud

[graysailor]

I have both. Dish on the trailer and Direct at home. I find Direct to be slightly better. Both are overpriced and for me not really much too watch. The shows are terrible. I will probably cancel the one for my trailer as most good campgrounds offer TV with many of the same channels that are on satellite. On my Classic I also have the Winegard Razor antenna which does a very good job at picking up the local channels.

[Vitaver]

Originally Posted by paiceman

dblee1950:

There are four of five packages I forget all depending on which stations you want. We turn our Verizon off at home, actually in suspension, and then choose the top tier Dish package. We have a fixed roof mounted Dish Traveler antenna..."
Bud

We are looking into getting Dish so your experience is very valuable to us. By 'remote antenna' you mean the one you place on a tripod in the floor somewhere next to the AS? How much the Traveler cost? Did you have to get Dish at home too or just for the RV?

Thank you!

[Rich Jenkins]

Originally Posted by dblee1950

How much does pay as you go cost? Are there different priced packages?


DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

From $34.99 to $94.99, plus tax, depending on which package is selected:

https://www.dish.com/pay-as-you-go/


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[Rich Jenkins]

Well, had the Dish setup almost two weeks, very pleased so far.

I took it out to the storage RV Park and set it up in the truck tailgate. Connected the cable, and watched a bunch of shows.

I must have been out for 2+ hours, and was running everything off the inverter. I saw about 4A on the solar charger, and no overall reduction in voltage over that time.

So far I'd say we are very pleased with the ease of use and simplicity of the Wineguard bundle.


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