Community Forums

HavingABlast · 03-28-2015, 11:59 AM

I've been reading on this forum about the personal preferences of Dish or Directv as providers (in the USA), and Bell (I think for Canada). For me, I ordered our new coach with the Winegard Traveler HD for Directv. So, I don't want to pull the scab of of the Dish v. Directv wound. For right or wrong, I'm committed.

I've looked around my area for a Directv corporate storefront to learn more about the hardware and available programming packages. They don't exist...at least in the San Diego area. There are some resellers of the service...but not the corporate storefronts. I have been tethered to cable TV at the S&B since...forever! Well not forever...I am old enough to predate commercially available color TV...so I was pretty good with rabbit ear antennas!

Did you apply online for your service, or did you call someone at customer service (for either provider)? Given that I am an old newbie to the technology, would you suggest one method of purchase over the other? Likewise did you purchase the necessary hardware online or on phone? I guess the last question is there a financial advantage to signing up at one time of the year over another? In other words, do they run specials? Thank you in advance for you answers.

2015 Newmar Ventana 3636 (on order)
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

Mr_D · 03-28-2015, 12:10 PM

We have Direct in the stick house, with the previous MH I just took a couple receivers from it to the MH and didn't tell anyone. Now, with the Magna it's a different story as it's wired with HDMI and my basic Direct receivers don't have that. Ordered a couple converters off Amazon and will see how that works. The Magna came with tow Direct receivers, tried to get info from them about re-activating them. Direct says they can't find any record of the so they must not have ever been activated. BUT, they have the cards in them and the cards a darkened from the heat so they're wrong. Anyway, they still won't tell me how much it'll cost to reactivate them.
Direct doesn't seem to have a monthly plan like Dish does so you'll probably have to get a two year contract and lease the receivers. You can suspend service up to four times a year for no less than 30 days at a time though. There are forms that Direct has for receivers in RV's. I got them off the Escapees site. At the GS rally in Phoenix there was a dealer selling the receivers for $100 but you had to also sign up for a contract, plus the new Direct receivers require SWM which would require a new dish and wiring (we have an old MotoSat) or some converters and add'l wiring.

Luckiest Dreamer · 03-28-2015, 02:21 PM

WE use the ones provided by Direct TV and remove them from the house when we travel.
As we reach an area that we expect to stay for awhile we call Direct TV and ask them to reset the local channels for the area we are in. You cn get the recievers and antennas from Winegaurd. Just remember Direct TV does not sell the receivers, all you are paying for is a lease.

Clay L · 03-28-2015, 02:41 PM

In 2003 I got our first Direct TV dish and receiver at Radio Shack. When I bought a new motor home in 2004 the dealer installed a hand crank up Winegard dish as part of the deal. I bought the next receiver at BestBuy several years later.

About four years ago when I upgraded the TV to a HD and had a Traveler SK3005 installed I called customer service and negotiated a deal for a no lease fee HD receiver (H24) and free HD for two years if I did an automatic bill pay.
After two years they increased the two years of free HD to free for life.

I had been a customer since 2003 and when I called I indicated that I was considering going to Dish because they were offering free HD for life to new customers. I don't think I could have made the same deal on-line as I did by calling them.

MSHappyCampers · 03-28-2015, 03:51 PM

We signed up directly with DirectTV. They sent their own tech out to do the installation.

Bob&AnnaMari · 03-28-2015, 04:12 PM

HavingABlast,
You sound like you are going to keep your S&B house and just travel from time to time. That was our situation. So, I dropped cable and went with DirecTV in our S&B house so that I could take one of the receivers along with us when we travel. Since you have the Travel HD already installed on your rig it should be a simple plug and play situation when you take the receiver(s) on the road.

Things can get complicated when you get the Genie system since most remotes for that system tend to be "slaves" that require the "host" Genie to be in the circuit. I only mention this because we leave two HR24s back home to record any shows we want to watch and my not be in a spot to record them when we are on the road. (And, if something special comes up you can always record a program at home when you are on the road using your smartphone's DirectTV app - or the internet.) If you only have the Genie and it is in your rig you can only record things when you are parked. If you get multiple receivers you may want to request an HR24 as one of your alternate receivers. DirecTV will probably try to talk you out of this since they are rapidly dropping the HR24. But, this is your "best" alternative if you want to be able to time-shift viewing on the road and have a backup back home.

Oh. As to where we purchased our DirecTV, I just called the number on the AAA site that gives AAA members a special number and discount code to use when they call DirecTV. It was the best deal at the time.

Just a thought.
Bob

HavingABlast · 03-28-2015, 04:38 PM

My thanks to all for sharing your knowledge and experiences. I will call Directv directly using the AAA provided number ( unless AARP has a better deal). We will not be full timing. If we like the service, we can strip the TV signal from our bundled cable service and just go all Directv.

Fyi...just got back from a Costco run and they have a Directv vendor in the store. He only can do residential deals. No RV's. 😡

2015 Newmar Ventana 3636 (on order)
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

Bob&AnnaMari · 03-28-2015, 05:32 PM

And the AAA number may not apply to your RV either. On reflection, I guess I imagined that you were a bit more committed to the DirecTV avenue since you have already spent $2K for the Winegard Traveler dish. (I am assuming it is a SWM dish.) I made (what appears to be a false assumption) that you would in the mood to accept a free installation of DirecTV at home.

If you only want an RV installation you can probably get it from any RV installer. You will, in most cases, not get any break on equipment costs (which still remain the property of DirecTV) and you may or may not get a break on programming costs. DirecTV as a company is geared for the residential market only. They will offer entertainment packages to pre-installed receivers. But, their installers are, for the most part, instructed to turn away from RV installations. (Yes, there are stories of installers being more than willing to do an RV install. But, this is not DirecTV's policy.)

I'm sorry if my comments were misleading.

srh · 03-28-2015, 05:45 PM

Does anyone have TracStar? If so, can it be used with Dish? Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread!
Thanks,

shiggs68 · 03-28-2015, 05:50 PM

Based on the mis-leading information and round around many people have gotten trying to talk with DirecTV (as said above not an RV type company), you may be better off to deal with a reseller. Many of then are more willing to deal with an RV.

docj · 03-28-2015, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shiggs68

Based on the mis-leading information and round around many people have gotten trying to talk with DirecTV (as said above not an RV type company), you may be better off to deal with a reseller. Many of then are more willing to deal with an RV.

IMO the trick to dealing with DirecTV is to find the "right" installer. Two years ago a DirecTV installer converted our Trav'ler to SWM and installed a Genie all at no cost to us. We had encountered him a few months earlier and had learned that he was "RV friendly" but he freely admitted that quite a few of his colleagues weren't.

What I did was place an online order for a Genie to replace our HR22 and scheduled an appointment. I then alerted my friendly installer as to the date of the appointment and he made sure he got the assignment. He installed all the hardware and no money changed hands (except for the small "reward" I gave him for the service!

)

I realize this won't work for everyone, but if you have any ability to get advice from other DTV customers in an area you may be able to also locate an RV friendly installer.

When I added a C41 client to my MH I bought it through Amazon and activated it on my own. The procedure is pretty straightforward but as of a few months ago the Genie clients were the only "receivers" that couldn't be activated online; I had to call the 800-number.

HavingABlast · 03-28-2015, 11:22 PM

I am glad that I sought the advice from the members of this forum. I will sum it up:

I went with the Winegard Traveler with SWM (very important from what I read) configured for Directv because the device itself can be retrofitted to be compatible with Dish TV, should I decide at some point in the future to switch to another provider. The Traveler originally configured for Dish could not be retrofitted to Directv.

As for the "install", I just assumed that you provide the receiver with power and a signal from the dish on the roof, and ... You are good to go. I am now uncertain of what a RV friendly installer does beyond just hooking up wires. Apparently the good folks at Directv won't or can't talk "RV". This then leads me to trying to locate a reseller that has a RV friendly installer onboard ... Or to talk with others in my general area who know of a RV friendly installer. Next I learned that I am complicating this because I still have cable at the S&B. An RV account is something that Directv has difficulty with...other than taking their monthly service fee. Lastly, I learned that Genie opens up a whole new can of worms. I say all of the above tongue in cheek. I am very grateful for the advice from each and everyone of you.

Rabbit ears are sounding pretty good about now.

2015 Newmar Ventana 3636 (on order)
2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

Betr2Trvl · 03-29-2015, 06:49 AM

We just set up our Direct TV programming yesterday

We had our coach pre wired by Tiffin for the Winegard traveler.

Our dealer installed the Traveler, which included one Direct TV HD box, that also included the acess card.

We were a long time DTV customer, but are in an apt. now while our condo is being built and have another provider. We will go back to DTV at the condo later this year.

A few weeks ago we called DTV to walk them through what we wanted, and see what their response was, and learned a lot.

So yesterday we went up to the MH and called DTV to set up the service.

We had to expalin that were already had a dish and reciever, and did not need a tech to come out.

We gave them the box number and the access card number.

We picked our programming package.

They activated the system, and it works just fine. It did take us about 10 minutes to get the right settings to feed our TVs, and the DTV rep patiently waited to make sure everything was ok on our end.

Now, since we also want to have DTV at the condo, and they have a package with a Genie and 4 additional receivers now, we set up a bogus install date to lock that package and will just keep pushing it out until we move. They will not bill us for the DVR service and additional monthly charge for multiple receivers until we have them installed.

It took about an hour (which I expected), and the DTV person was very patient, helpful, and quickly went to her supervisor when she did not know how to handle our "unique" situation.

I would suggest that you try do do this during the week, not so much with DTV, but if you have any other problems related to your Winegard or internal system in the coach so you can reach the appropriate customer support. When we went to shut down the Winegard, it did not retract correctly and we had an error code on the Winegard controller. Of course it was after their Saturday support hours. My wife googled the error, several links popped up on iRV2, and we found the exact steps posted to clear the error and get it stowed properly. If the problem reoccurs, we'll certainly get Winegard tech support involved.

docj · 03-29-2015, 06:54 AM

All joking aside, since you already have a SWM Trav'ler installed you could do the entire installation yourself, except that DirecTV won't "give" a new customer equipment without an installer hooking it up.

The hookup itself isn't all that big a deal. You'll need to add a PI-21 power inserter which probably isn't yet in your MH. Connect the output of the PI21 to the coax coming from the Trav'ler and connect the other end to the receiver. Let the Trav'ler find the satellites, then turn on the receiver and walk it through its setup menu.

If you can find an installer who will set up the receiver you can get it for free (with a two year commitment). Alternatively, you could buy one from Amazon or lots of other places and install it yourself and then call DirecTV to have it activated. I've never done this with a totally new account; over the years I've replaced lots of equipment on existing accounts.

As for the Genie being a "can of worms" all I can say is that my HR44 Genie is the best receiver/DVR that DirecTV has ever marketed. Using it with client mini-Genies for other TVs is easy to do and the Whole Home DVR setup works flawlessly. I have had absolutely no problems with mine.