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Old 11-22-2019, 10:04 AM   #1
Benbill
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New DISH TV Dilemma

I am new to fifth wheel RVing and I am seeking advice from my new Keystone Forum friends who have dealt with the same issues before me for advice. I have been delighted with all the great responses I have received to-date on other topics I have posted.

At the moment I am leaning towards using the DISH TV Tailgater Pro (King) Premium Satellite Antenna when we are on the road. This is my dilemma:

We think it would be great to have the benefits of tapping into our home dish TV DVR so that we can watch all of our network programs that we record, and only pay $7 per month when we are on the road. Currently we are using Comcast cable at home, but all I hear about are dissatisfied DISH TV users with their Home edition. Do any of you have any comments on your own personal experience using the DISH TV home set up as your primary live TV source and then taking it on the road?

Thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions.
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Old 11-22-2019, 10:27 AM   #2
LHaven
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Does DISH offer this service? Does it have a name? I don't even understand how it would work.

To watch stuff already recorded on your home box would require it to send the program stream on demand, either over a satellite or home Internet connection. Most DISH service is one-way, unless you're running their satellite Internet service, in which case you would hit your data cap real fast. If the home box instead used your cable service to send the data, that leaves the issue of obtaining streaming-quality Internet service at arbitrary campgrounds.
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Old 11-22-2019, 01:05 PM   #3
Benbill
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LHaven, after doing some more research it appears that you are correct and that the second hand info I had from a YouTube video was not accurate. From what I learned from dishoutdoors.com is that if you have Dish Tv at home I can use their mobile app to access my home DVR if I wanted to stream it to my iPad or phone.

Does anyone use Dish TV at home who actually likes it and is satisfied with their service? I hear so many negative comments.
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Old 11-22-2019, 03:01 PM   #4
Kylemcmahon1
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I have it at home tAilgator for the RV. In my opinion dish is no worse than any other cable provider. I have had many over the years if not most. They all suck. In my opinion dish is one of the better to deal with. When I have a problem it seems to be taken care of quicker than with cable company. And quicker than at and t universe. Which we had last.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:30 PM   #5
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I have it at home. Then a fire stick in a camper with the app on it. I use campground WiFi if possible. Other wise hotspot my mobile data. Works great.
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Old 11-22-2019, 06:05 PM   #6
Larrylane
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I've had Dish Network for many years and a tailgator for the past several years. You have a few options as far as watching your DVR recording from home. 1) You can stream anything from your dish at home including DVR recordings to your mobile device with the Dish Anywhere app. 2)You can transfer several of your DVR recordings while you are on your home network before you leave home to any mobile device that has enough memory. Then you can play them on your mobile device at your leisure without the need for internet access. You can also hook up you mobile device to your RV television using an adapter running from your mobile device to an HDMI cable hooked to you television. 3) You can purchase a device from Dish that allows you to transfer DVR recordings to it just like your mobile device and then link it to your television or mobile device. It basically works just like 2 above except you will not be using memory storage on your mobile device.
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Old 11-22-2019, 06:47 PM   #7
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I also have Dish at home and a tailgater. All works well.

The hopper is where your recorded program are saved and it will not work with a tailgater.

Another option that is not as convenient is to take a full size home type dish antenna with your RV. You then can take your home receiver with you and have access to all your recorded programs. My parents have done this for many years, but they spend 4 months down south in the same spot, so once the antenna is setup you are good to go. Since it takes some time to get those big dishes setup, it would not be as convenient if you were moving around every week.
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Old 11-22-2019, 07:24 PM   #8
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I use Dish at home with Hopper/Joey combo. You can NOT record on the Hopper DVR and transfer to the Wally in any way except Dish To Go. You basically record from the Hopper on another gizmo and then only watch via an App on a phone or laptop. As noted, if the laptop has an HDMI connector, you can plug into your RV's main TV via HDMI and watch what is running on the laptop. Another option is to buy a external hard drive and connect to your Wally and record stuff while at home with the Wally on and connected to your antenna. To use the hard drive, there is a small activation fee. There is a very specific type of external hard drive that will work.

You can connect a wifi adapter to the Wally and use the voice remote; we don't do this as I am not a fan of Google Assistant or what ever it is called. Not sure where you camp but we generally have few parks where the trees interfere with a clear view of the southern sky. We do carry a tripod and a couple different lengths of RG6 coax. I put a bulk head sat connector right on the outside of my trailer right next to the entertainment center so only use a 2 ft piece of coax between the outside and the Wally. I have found we can use a 75' piece of coax if necessary to be able to place the tripod well away from out camper if needed. I have a thread in the Tech forum where I explain which external hard drive and wifi adapter is needed specifically. Buying another is a waste of money.

We pay $7 for the set up in the camper (on top our charges for home service). We switched from DirecTV about 14 months ago and a main reason is that DirecTV is NOT accommodating for campers.
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Old 11-23-2019, 09:30 AM   #9
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I've had Dish at home for 20 years. When I got my first RV in 2001, I installed an analog Dish dome. After HD came in, I purchased a Pathways X1. Later upgraded from VIP 711 to Wally receiver.

Just installed Winegard Trav'ler which can view all 3 satellites at same time, and with Hopper3 from home, can see all of my recorded programs plus record up to 16 channels simultaneously. Kept the Pathways in case Trav'ler is blocked by a trees.

If you constantly have good internet in your RV you can use the Dish Anywhere app which connects to your Hopper receiver at home. Watch anything on it but in 18 years of RV'ing, no RV park has wi-if that is capable of streaming. Using a cell phone to stream can get costly, and may not work if speed gets throttled down.

Very happy with Dish.
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Old 12-08-2019, 09:13 AM   #10
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Lots of good info here... I'll just add my 2c. When we travel, we have been using a tailgater for almost ten years. We now use it with the Wally. Even when I had my big buses with the winegard trav'ler on top, I always carried the tailgater for spaces we would run into where the southern sky was block to the front of the coach where the Trav'ler was located but we would still string the tailgater out behind the coach to a clear spot. This arrangement always worked well for us. Of course, the limitation is always that the only thing you can record to the DVR is what you are watching on the TV if you have it on. Recently we dropped our comcast TV service at home and had a fixed satellite installed at home with the hopper3.

The Hopper3 is great. It is a builtin 1.5 TB harddrive for recording stuff to the DVR and can record multiple channels at the same time. And you can also attach a secondary 2 TB HD via USB to add tons more capacity for recordings. You can move recorded shows between the internal and external HD's at will. We also handcarry the Hopper3 between our two homes and have a fixed antenna dish at each place. A quick call to Dish and they'll switch the local channels like NBC,ABC,CBS,PBS any time you like. Only caveat is that these are switched for both your hopper and your tailgater. Minor inconvenience for us.

It is correct, you cannot shared DVR recordings between the two devices. You need your own HD for each. We like Dish a lot. We have the big package, so we get all the free channels. We don't bother with premium stuff, because between on demand free, netflix, amazon prime, and recorded stuff on the HD we never run out of things to watch, that is for sure.

As for watching streaming when away from home, we bought one of these gizmos:
Apple Lightning to Digital AV Adapter
https:/amazon.com/dp/B009WHV3BM
This allows me to connect an Ipad directly to any TV with an HDMI cable. Then I can log into my hopper3 from anywhere with our verizon 4G unlimited plan and stream anything from the hoppers DVR or anything live and watch it on the big screen. Word of caution - there are much cheaper ones but we found that they do not allow the same level of streaming content to an external device that the authorized Apple device does.

Anyhow... we are quite pleased with our Dish service... the top 250 with the hopper3 and one joey box at home runs me just over $100/mo and then we can add the wally when we are traveling for another $7 a month. This is a great Television service for our needs.
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Old 12-08-2019, 10:10 AM   #11
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with wally on the road are you still able to record 2 channels as you watch a recorded item?
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Old 12-08-2019, 10:37 AM   #12
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I have been obsessing with TV issues for several years, after reading hundreds of "This is what I do" I have learned that there really isn't a one fix for everybody. So here are a few things to consider. When RV's say the use their phone, hot spot, Ipad etc then tether to their TV; it's not that simple. Most of these RVer's stay in one location for long periods of time and get a excellent signal, for those that move around a lot they invest in a Cellular/WiFi booster. Also they have to invest in a unlimited plan that allows tethering and won't slow them down after they reach data max. Plus it's almost impossible to record streaming without buffering, Tivo, Playon, have limited recording features. So that brings you back to Dish/Direct TV, Dish has their Traveler which is a nice portable solution, but you can not record. So if your out on a hike and want to record your favorite show, nope can't do it. Suggestion is bring your Hopper from home, invest in a Satellite Dish (Garage Sale) buy the Tri-pod and hope you can find the Satellite, (sometimes difficult). But with a fixed Satellite Dish on your roof, push the button and bingo your locked in, plus you can use your Hopper. Dish is very easy to deal with when you call them up and ask for your locals, just give them your current zip. Then if you want you can have a back-up portable Traveler if for some reason your parked under the Trees. I have this set-up with Direct TV and works great, except Direct TV is not always willing to give you locals, depends on the rep your talking to and which side of the bed they got up on. So I add DNS service to my programming and get all the majors. Also if you look at Craigs List you can once in awhile find a Birddog Satellite Locator (Dish/Direct TV installers use them, then when they quit sell them) which is a simple accurate Locator. So best of Luck, but always be aware of the 'I use this and never have a problem) usually their is more to the story.
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Old 12-08-2019, 11:50 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by larryflew View Post
with wally on the road are you still able to record 2 channels as you watch a recorded item?
With the Wally, you can only record one satellite channel at a time. If you have an Over The Air USB tuner and add locals from your OTA antenna, you add a second tuner. With that, you can record two at a time (one satellite and one OTA). You could either watch one or view any previously recorded show simultaneously.
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Old 12-08-2019, 12:02 PM   #14
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?...Dish has their Traveler which is a nice portable solution, but you can not record. So if your out on a hike and want to record your favorite show, nope can't do it. Suggestion is bring your Hopper from home, invest in a Satellite Dish (Garage Sale) buy the Tri-pod and hope you can find the Satellite, (sometimes difficult). But with a fixed Satellite Dish on your roof, push the button and bingo your locked in, plus you can use your Hopper....
All of the Dish portable dishes use either VIP711 or Wally receiver. You can record with either receiver. You just have to add a hard drive via the receiver's USB and initiate service with Dish over the phone. You can only view and/or record one satellite channel at a time.

If you have a Travel'er and Hopper 3 you can record up to 16 satellite channels at the same time.
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Old 12-08-2019, 03:12 PM   #15
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I dont know if it was already mentioned, but if you have dish at home you can add dish outdoors for like 5-7 dollars. That will allow you to take a receiver with you when you go on the road, along with a portable satellite dish. I live in my rv full time so i had to buy all my equipment.


I have a hopper3 and a 1000.2 dish with the hybrid head on it. I set it up in my rv, through luckily a good person on the phone with dish. The hopper3 is finicky and normally requires a installer to come out to get it working. I was lucky in getting it working just over the phone. DISH will tell you that you cannot use a hopper3 in your rv. If however you have dish at home and have the hopper3 already working there, you can just pop it into your RV along with the portable dish and you are good to go, with the above mentioned dish and hybrid head.
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Old 12-08-2019, 04:55 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by Hblick48 View Post
With the Wally, you can only record one satellite channel at a time. If you have an Over The Air USB tuner and add locals from your OTA antenna, you add a second tuner. With that, you can record two at a time (one satellite and one OTA). You could either watch one or view any previously recorded show simultaneously.
Thanks. Currently have DTV which can record 2 while watching a recorded one. Our automatic dome will do either Dish or DTV with the flip of a few dip switches. Hoped to be able to switch to Dish and still do 2 records. DTV has become a total mess since ATT took over.
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Old 12-08-2019, 05:25 PM   #17
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I use the dish on the road pay as you go and it works fine. If you have a good phone hotspot and laptop you can get to you xfinity recorded stuff. That works most of the time and we have unlimited time but can be a problem if signal is weak. Good luck.
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Old 12-09-2019, 04:56 AM   #18
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I have Direct TV at home since 2007 and bought our 5er in 2012. I was completely dissatisfied with the quality and channel selection when we full-timed in 2013 so I got a Winegard Traveler dish antenna and teamed it up with an extra DVR receiver that we leave in the camper. This too has lots of issues like trees, home area channels, weather, etc, but it has worked well for us for quite a few years. Since 2014 we have been AZ snowbirds and when we stay at our favorite place for 3 months we get DirecTV to change our location, giving us the home area channels for Phoenix.

Fast forward to 2019 and we are considering dropping Direct TV service and subscribing to a streaming internet TV service. We have the bandwidth and speed with our home internet service and I am looking into mobile internet solutions for the camper. We need internet anyway, and if I can get it fast enough and cheap enough, we can use the same streaming service on the road as we would at home. By replacing home and mobile TV service we can save hundreds of dollars per year. Stay tuned. Researching mobile data services and plans is a story for another day.

The Winegard Traveler was a major expense but I think we have gotten our money's worth out of it over the past 7 years.
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Old 12-09-2019, 05:54 AM   #19
wiredgeorge
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Originally Posted by larryflew View Post
with wally on the road are you still able to record 2 channels as you watch a recorded item?
Wally has one input and you can record on a stand alone external hard drive but can not watch another channel. Recording can be done while you are at your home if the system is set up and you can watch these recordings while camping but you can't record one channel and watch another at the same time.
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Old 12-09-2019, 05:58 AM   #20
wiredgeorge
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Originally Posted by goodellj View Post
I have Direct TV at home since 2007 and bought our 5er in 2012. I was completely dissatisfied with the quality and channel selection when we full-timed in 2013 so I got a Winegard Traveler dish antenna and teamed it up with an extra DVR receiver that we leave in the camper. This too has lots of issues like trees, home area channels, weather, etc, but it has worked well for us for quite a few years. Since 2014 we have been AZ snowbirds and when we stay at our favorite place for 3 months we get DirecTV to change our location, giving us the home area channels for Phoenix.

Fast forward to 2019 and we are considering dropping Direct TV service and subscribing to a streaming internet TV service. We have the bandwidth and speed with our home internet service and I am looking into mobile internet solutions for the camper. We need internet anyway, and if I can get it fast enough and cheap enough, we can use the same streaming service on the road as we would at home. By replacing home and mobile TV service we can save hundreds of dollars per year. Stay tuned. Researching mobile data services and plans is a story for another day.

The Winegard Traveler was a major expense but I think we have gotten our money's worth out of it over the past 7 years.
A service that you might want to look into (I have no first hand info):

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/att...o-roadlink-c2/

I don't follow this tech stuff but it appears if you buy the anternna and wifi router gizmos, AT&T will sell you unlimited 4G LTE data for $360 a year. The buy in for the gear isn't cheap but if you full time, it is an option if the AT&T network is good for you.

I got interested a little when PPLMotorhomes.com sent me a flyer for this Winegard antenna:

https://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/...-white_73.1438
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