Community Forums

Les1951 · 05-11-2016, 02:56 PM

If you order the Direct TV Traveler option on an Entegra, does it come with a satellite receiver built in ?

sweetandsour · 05-11-2016, 03:11 PM

No you have to furnish your own box. Many dealers have their own direct tv tech that supply the box and can do the install for you.

motorhomeguy · 05-11-2016, 03:12 PM

No, you supply the receiver(s). Most dealers wioll install the receivers when you take delivery...

Hikerdogs · 05-11-2016, 03:24 PM

Although we don't own an Entegra I would have to say I doubt seriously it would come with a satellite receiver. Even if it did there would be little or no advantage of owning one. DIRECTV hasn't sold receivers in nearly 10 years. When we needed one for our 2013 Adventurer we tried to buy one. The best we could do at that time is get one from Solid Signal. It cost about $200.00. The downside was even if we owned the receiver DIRECTV would charge a fee to use it equal to the cost of renting one of their receivers. On top of that if there were problems down the road we would have to pay $90.00 for a service call regardless of where the problem was. If you rent from them you get 1 free service call per year. It doesn't seem like much, but the cost of buying, the additional service fees, and paying for a service call can quickly negate any advantages of owning one. Additionally it wouldn't be upgraded at no charge if the system requirements change. We currently pay about $15.00 per month to rent HD receivers for both the house and motorhome. I hate the fact that we're paying monthly rental fees, but in the long run there was no advantage to owning.

Tall Tex · 05-11-2016, 03:49 PM

We ordered the traveler and had NIRVC install the receivers. We brought two from home but they were old technology (large). So they recommended the new Gene components. They a are very small and fit well in the cabinets. They work very well and DW is happy to have her own receiver in the bedroom. Unfortunately Direct TV will not provide more than one master Gene unit per account, so we are still using the old boxes at home.

Les1951 · 05-11-2016, 05:11 PM

Thanks guys ! Any idea where the receiver would be mounted on a 44B ?

Ann n Gene · 05-11-2016, 07:24 PM

On the 45B the cabinet below the TV and above the fireplace is for the receiver.

2016 44 B Topaz Cornerstone
2014 MKT towed

Gary.Jones · 05-11-2016, 07:48 PM

As Gene says, there is only one box on 44B which on my 15 44B is a short cabinet area right above the fireplace and below the corian countertop. It is not tall and the size of any DVR box is very important. We had the genie installed there along with most of the other wireless and electronic equipment. Space is tight. We had a mini-genie (remote) installed behind the TV in the bedroom.

Gary

Bobl and Jud · 05-11-2016, 09:13 PM

The reciever is tied to your home account. This is interesting because no matter where you are you get programming from your home area. For example we live in SoCal so when we are in the east our programming is still LA. So programs that are on at 8 EST are showing at 5 on our coach. Also no matter where we are we see LA news. Its actually kind of nice because we know whats going on at home.

You can pick whichever reciever you want, today most are about 2 inches high and 8 inches wide so they easily fit, even inthe cabiner over the fireplace in a 45B. They just have to stack the components. We did not want a dvr so we just have two basic units. One in the living area and one in the bedroom.

jmcarter · 05-12-2016, 04:19 AM

As others said, update to Genie if you haven't already. It's a minimal up charge (~$5). Our tech at NIRVC (Woo) did a great install for us and very easy to move from home to MH and back.

DebbieMH · 05-12-2016, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobl and Jud

The reciever is tied to your home account. This is interesting because no matter where you are you get programming from your home area. For example we live in SoCal so when we are in the east our programming is still LA. So programs that are on at 8 EST are showing at 5 on our coach. Also no matter where we are we see LA news. Its actually kind of nice because we know whats going on at home.

You can pick whichever reciever you want, today most are about 2 inches high and 8 inches wide so they easily fit, even inthe cabiner over the fireplace in a 45B. They just have to stack the components. We did not want a dvr so we just have two basic units. One in the living area and one in the bedroom.

You must be on the West Coast Distant network feed. All our local channels for New Orleans (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) we can't get once we are about 300 miles from New Orleans. We either have to call Direct TV and have our "service" area changed to the zip code we are in, or use the OTA antenna or parks cable for the "local channels". I understand that is the same with most folks.

Hayman · 05-12-2016, 06:42 AM

We are Full Timers with no owned property address so we went directly through WINEGARD ( info packet in TRAVLER book ) and they free shipped the genies to us no charge except of course in our monthly DIRECT TV Account which they also established for us. Winegard TECH support helped us over the phone do the install which was very straight forward.

We use OTA or cable for the local area as we didn't want to fill out the paperwork nor pay additional monthly fees for satellite local channels when the OTA works so good.

Gary.Jones · 05-12-2016, 08:15 AM

Jud

If regardless of where you travel, you get the LA major networks (ABC, NBC, PBS Etc.) at the same time of day, then you have a "mobile" account which is specifically for a motorhome or traveler so you must have what is called Direct Network Service with either the west or east coast "feed" out of New York or LA. The positive is if you are from those cities you always get your local NY or La channels (and if you are from Louisiana, you never get your local channels) but find out whom killed whom in LA 😀😩. Another negative is you are paying ~ $15 more a month every month. However, we have a DVR installed and we are routinely recording whatever we want to routinely watch on the DVRs and then actually watch the program's the next day or at some "jittered" time so we can jump all the mindless commercials we have on TV and minimize the impact of commercial based TV. For those of us from central time zone, it is a bit unnerving to get our prime time shows in the late afternoon or early evening so the DVR is essential.

However, the extra $15 / month additional cost is small price to pay for being able to reliably recording your network shows without the frustrating interactions with Direct or Dish customer service to shift local network channels...... I'd pay a lot more than $15 a month to avoid those frustrations!!!!!

Gary

hogdriver · 05-12-2016, 11:26 AM

I know I hate these type of responses from someone with a different brand than you asked about but I think this may be relevant...

I have a Dish setup on my Anthem Traveler ( I know you are asking about DirectTV). I bought my receiver on eBay, but companies like Solid Signal sell receivers every day. Because I own my equipment I am not obligated to a long term contract. I know Dish and DirecTV have different arrangements about stopping and starting service, but I believe both work the same on 1 yr contracts. If you buy your own setup I think you can run a one year contract or add it to your sticks and bricks contract or whatever you want. Be wary of those "introductory or teaser rates". On the opposite side of that statement if you are full timing and only have one account, why not take advantage of a "teaser" rate? Bottom line call up a provider or a vendor like Solid Signal and talk about the details.

A few years back several of these Satellite TV companies were saying you couldn't put a DVR setup in your RV because the vibration and heat would kill them. Not true in my opinion. Maybe so in your Baja road racer, but no so in your 44ft climate controlled, air ride, RV.