DirecTV or Dish Network

[CleanLivin]

Bring an older post up to date with a question:

Going to put a satellite dish on the roof of our new 2012 Great West Vans Legend EX.

Question is the same as this topic started back in 2009: Dish or Direct.

Given:

Will be traveling for extended periods initially, then on and off as time allows.

Would like to be able to disconnect/connect service at my will - in short, when RV is parked in storage for a couple of mouths I don't want to be paying for service.

Would like my Tivo that is in our home to be able to be hooked into the dish/TV.

From what I'm finding on net searches, the Dish Network/Winegard is the only one offering a service to pay for the service when needed yet a chap in an earlier post here commented that Direct offers a "on vacation" ability to suspend service.

In trying to contact Direct I've had no luck defining if this "on vacation" service is valid.

Guidance?

Jack

PS: Just got off the phone with DirectTV sales - they claim they have the ability to suspend service while your RV is in storage. They call it "Movers Service". Sales person told me there was no fee for connect/connect and billing was suspended.

Can anyone confirm this?

[Guest BillAdams]

On and off at will is going to be Dish Network only. You can turn the service on in 30 day blocks. If you do nothing at the end of the period you have requested the service will simply come to an end. You can make a call and it will be on again for the next 30 days. They will send an e-mail asking if you would like to extend. Respond yes and they will continue say no or do nothing and it ends.

DirecTV will allow you to suspend the service for up to 6 months per year but I think they only allow 2 suspensions per year so on and off at will would not be an accurate description.

You will not be able to use a stand alone Tivo box unless it can get the required updates via the internet and you will have a good internet connection available in your coach on a regular basis. The home Tivo boxes get the guide updates via a phone line. DirecTV and Dish Network have their own DVR/receiver combos that receive the updated programming via satellite so no phone lines or internet connections are required.

The type of antenna you mount on your roof will make a difference in what service you choose and what options you have once you have that service.

DirecTV and a dome? No HD programming? Dish Network would be required for the reception of HD.

Dish Network and a dome? Little or no success using any kind of DVR due to multiple satellites used (a dome can only point to one satellite at a time).

Winegard Trav'ler or MotoSAT HD series antenna? Do whatever you want with whatever service you want!!!!

[nitehawk]

We have DirecTV at home--subscribed to it because we were told all we had to do was take it into our motorhome and have it reconfigured for the Kingdome dish. We are in Central Wisconsin. When we got to Canyon Lake, TX we TRIED, yes, TRIED to have service reconfigured to Texas but keep billing at our home address. We were told that we would be guilty of fraud and would be prosecuted by one DirecTV service person on the phone, put on hold four times (long distance cell phone call) while this person "searched" for her supervisor--never did get one. Next call (after hanging up on that idiot) was with a female service person that was very emphatic that the problem was our equipment, the weather, our contract, etc. This same person, four minutes earlier, did something that caused us to lose all reception. After declaring that it was on our end--because she had TWELVE years experience doing this--I informed her that my FORTY-NINE years in engineering would seem to trump her twelve years she hung up. She kept insisting it was weather but we had clear skies, no wind, no rain and the reception came back on shortly after she hung up.

Little "secret": If you do have to call DirecTV do it just after 3:00 PM Central time. The personnel seems to be better trained along with better contacts for information.

[HenryPatterson]

We have Directv with a traveler dish on our m/h . When we get ready to go somewhere we just take out unit out of the house and put it the m/h..Never had a problem...they mirror what we have at home....never ever had a problem with them...guess i'm just lucky!!

[hermanmullins]

We have Dish Network in our home. We have 2 HDDVRs and one single Receiver. The single receiver is at our farm and when we go on a trip I just take it to the coach and away we go. Most of the time we will have cable where we park but if we don't ,we just use Dish. Some times we aren't able to receive our local channels and I will just call up Dish and they make the change and we are able to get the local channels where we are. When we get back home I just call and they transfer us back. One of there days I plan on changing out our dome for one of the new roof top dishes with 3 LNBs so we can get all three sats.

[lylefikse]

We use the Winegard portable auto seek and have dish network. We purchased the RV reciever from Camping World. I added a 1TB Western Digital external hard drive (USB connected to reciever). For a one time $40 charge, Dish programed it as a DVR. Works great. Dish charges $6 or $7 extra per month while the RV reciever is being used. Just call when you are not using the RV and shut that reciever off. You get the same programing you get at home. You do need to call in to update local channels as you move (no charge for this). Sometimes this takes a few calls as not all their people on the phone are well trained.

We like the DVR so much we will record a live show and watch a recorded one. We watch the other one later so we can edit comercials.

[ClayL]

One thing that I don't like about Dish is that the guide time is your service address time. My buddy talked to them about that and was told that he would have to call and have them change the time. That's not real convenient for folks traveling all over the US.

With Direct I can change the time in the receiver menu.

[nitehawk]

DirecTV is real cute. Because they did not detect any activity on the three receivers at home while we were away for four months they suspended service. That was ok but they still billed us for four receivers and full service. Slightly crooked?? Greedy??

[Guest BillAdams]

No, neither. If any receiver, DirecTV or Dish, does not see a signal for about 30 days the receiver itself, not DirecTV or Dish, will shut itself down. It's a safety precaution for the service providers meant to prevent people from hacking the receiver and stealing the service.

[BillO]

I've been using Dish now for just a bit over a year. I signed up for the a mid-range package that included most of the key channels without the big chunk of sports channels as the most cost-effective option for a non-sports fan.

This came with the "free" HD which required picking up three different satellites at each stop (new compass angle, declination and dish skew each time). With the cheap, imprecise dish mounting hardware (set an angle and watch everything sag away from it as soon as I let go) this became a regular exercise in frustration.

I finally picked up a Winegard carryout automatic and am a much happier camper. I have the basic remote control receiver with a single TV in living area and don't worry about recording programs so it might be a bit basic for some.

Dish didn't have any problem with an RV-only installation (no house for a permanent installation) and regularly switches me over to the local stations in each area that I've parked to date. That part may get tested this summer as my plans are for New England in the summer and then down the East Coast in the fall where Dish admits they don't have as many local TV franchises.

[Dan4222]

Winegard is the right Dish for RVs model ROADTRIP automatic dish works well with one TV or Multiple TVs and Dish network, there also is a protable one Tailgater from Dish that you can move outside Coach

[Guest BillAdams]

While the Winegard model domes (Roadtrip, Carryout, Mini-max, Mission, etc) all work with a single tuner connected to multiple TV's. The issue all dome, Winegard or not, is they don't work well with multiple receivers and Dish (no longer called Dish Network) due to the multiple satellites required for reception of all of their programing.

[five]

We have a very nice KVH TracVision R5SL satellite system mounted on our roof. I was informed that it will work only with Direct TV. We do not have a Sat system at home. Fine. Called Direct TV and spent over an hour sorting through all the various channels, packages, options, programs, specials, prices, one time deals, etc. At the end of the conversation, I told her to hold all that information that I wanted to talk to the D/W about it and call her back. She said that was impossible, that I had to either buy a program (I could change my mind in 30 days for no charge) or, when I called back, start over. Rather reluctantly, I signed up and gave her my credit card number. Hung up and talked to the D/W. It was so confusing, I called back the next day and canceled the whole thing. The vast majority of CGs have cable...and that's what we are still using.

[vtbigdog]

I returned a month ago from a trip that included the Adirondacks. Up there, my DISH was almost parallel with the Earth and I had a bugger of a time trying to get it tuned in. Another camper came over with his "Birdog" satellite finder and withing 3 minutes had all three satellites tuned in.

Oh how I want one of those Birdogs. But they are not cheap!!!

Dish Network has Eastern Arc Satellites and Western Arc Satellites. In the Adirondacks your satellite dish would be pointing towards the southwest a little above horizon. However if you were using the Eastern Arc Satellites, your satellite dish would be pointing to the East and nearly straight up. Not sure what you have for a satellite dish but if it is a WInegard it can be programmed via the dip switches to lock on to the Eastern Arc Satellites

[Guest BillAdams]

Since he used a Birdog that means he was using a manually pointed antenna. Since it was low on the horizon it was also a 1000.2 antenna which is only capable of receiving the 110, 119 and 129 satellites. He would need a completely different setup with the 1000.4 LNB to receive 61.5, 72 and 77 (Eastern Arc).

[OBS66]

We had called dish last week made an appointment to have dish installed on our mh. We currently have a trac-vision dome and the previous owner had direct-tv. The dish tech arrived yesterdayand after about 5 minutes we learned that they Dish in are area western Pa do not install in RV. Had they known they were installing in a motorhome they would not of come out on the service call. Wait we told the Dish rep when we purchased the service that this was for a motorhome. Anyone have this issue and how did you resolve the problem

[desertdeals69]

You need to have an RV service dealer do the install. They are familar with what is required to make it work.

[OBS66]

When you say a RV dealer to install are you referring to say a Camping World?

I assumed they sold the equipment but not the service-- is that correct?

[RVerOnTheMove]

Camping World certainly would be able to get your system setup. The KVH antenna (Trac-Vision) has to be re-programmed with special hardware so you will want to ensure you tell who ever does the install that you have a KVH which needs to be re-programmed. If they say "what?" then you need to find a different installer.

Depending upon the age of the antenna you may not be able to have it re-programmed to receive all of the Dish satellites. The older units could only receive 110 and 119 and you would have to pay to have the new boards installed. $$$. If that's the case you might want to consider replacing an out-of-date antenna before you spend too much money.

You can also check with any of the local, usually larger, campgrounds to see if they know of a local RV friendly dealer/installer to get your system up and running.

[JudyUhrig]

We have Direct TV in our home and added RV service for $15 per month so that we could access the network feeds because we move around a lot.. And everything worked fine, after many telephone calls. Just take all receivers from home and put in RV. BUT beware, you must sent in a waiver request to receive distant network feeds along with your rig registration. Now we are in the eastern area of country and can only access west coast feeds which are far too late for us to enjoy. I have fought the battle with Direct TV and they say it is the Fed FCC law, Stela, which prohibits them from giving us either both east or west coast feeds or at least a choice. And it is based upon not on your service address but the State your RV is registered in. So changing service address does not work. I even wrote my congressman and was told the law comes up for renewal in Dec 2014. RVers need to do some lobbying in order to be given the access we deserve.

[rebootsemi]

I have been a Directv customer for years and would take a box with us when we traveled, no problem, so now we buy a house in Az and a Beaver Patriot Thunder with a dome on it, so I call Directv and after a hour going round and round with their order desk I had a appointment set up to install two boxes in the Beaver. Tech shows up and states that he cannot install in a MH, I had already explained all this with the order idiot, tech gets on the horn to his Directv contact and explains the deal as no go, he hands me the phone so I can tell them to take their service and stick it where the sun will not shine, went to Camping World bought two HiDef boxes called the satellite tech to come out and reprogram the Winegard for Dish, installed the boxes a little set up and we are in business.

Plus the Dish program can be stopped and started at anytime without charges and I OWN the equipment. Sweet

[dmtheys]

Bought a Fleetwood Motorhome last summer and found out that the converterbox for the RV TV doesn't pick up any real good stations. Now I want to put satelite in the RV but can not find anyone in the Rio Grande Valley who installs. I called Dish and they do not have any qualified servicemen for the job. I've pretty much decided on Dish because I can use my home receiver but....now I am stuck. Any suggestions would really be appreciated.

[rickman]

I have Dish network & Winegard carry out. I have a signal before I even get back in the motor home. I just don't know why we have to call every time we move for local stuff-- should be able 2 put zip code in on set-up plus it take 3 or 4 calls before you get some one who can set it up.

[ticat900]

I have used both Dish and Direct while RVing, and Direct is much easier to acquire than Dish. To receive all the programming for the Dish Network two satellites must be acquired, but with Direct only one satellite must be acquired to receive the programming. I switched from Dish to Direct for that reason. When we upgraded coaches the new one has an in-motion satellite system and it does all the work. I don't have an HD receiver so reception might be quite different for high def systems.

There is zero difference in finding (eg)sat 119 verses (eg)sat 101 etc no matter Dish or direct and if you were to want HD it requires 2 sats no matter Dish or Direct.

[BillAdams]

There is zero difference in finding (eg)sat 119 verses (eg)sat 101 etc no matter Dish or direct and if you were to want HD it requires 2 sats no matter Dish or Direct.

You are correct that there is no difference between finding 119 or 101 but there is a big difference between the Dish and DirecTV services and most of that revolves around the kind of antenna you are using. If you are using a single LNB antenna (or any dome by any manufacturer) that antenna cannot receive the DirecTV HD programming at all. It also cannot provide you with all of the Dish programming (unless it's an auto search dome).

Additionally, if you want full programming from either service then you need to be able to receive programming from 3 satellites and not just 2. DirecTV would require 99, 101 and 103 and Dish you would need either 110, 119 and 129 (Western Sats) or 61.5, 72.7 and 77 (Eastern Sats).