Community Forums

agiledog · 08-01-2021, 12:30 PM

I have a King VR4000 dish that we have been using several years. We take the receiver from the house and set it for the RV. We now have upgraded the equipment in the house and it will not work with the VR4000 dish. Any solutions without changing to Dish Network or buying another dish? Frustrated!

The Paddock · 09-13-2021, 06:55 AM

Just purchased a new RV and was told it would work with dish or DIRECTV. We have dish but the unit only works with DIRECTV. Would anyone be interested in sending me a DIRECTV box and I will pay half of their bill?

Apparently DIRECTV only has 24 month contracts in the second years drastically more expensive and as little as we’re going to use it it doesn’t make sense

agiledog · 09-13-2021, 09:10 AM

I do not have an extra box. You may be able to switch from Directv to dish by changing some dip switches on your new dish.

Wayne M · 09-13-2021, 10:40 AM

Paddpck,
What type antenna do you have. Is it a dome or open face??

Dome antenna's do not get DirecTV HD where as Open Face gets all. Dome for Dish will get all three satellites but only one at a time so all TV's have to watch the same channel that the wife wants to watch. Open face for dish gets all satellites also,

If you have a dome antenna, as stated, it may just be some DIP switches in the DOME that need to be flipped. Most RV satellite antennas are provided by Wnegard and a call to them should confirm if DIP switches are in the dome.

If it is an open face and the Winegard Traveler there is a kit for converting it to DISH. If you are in or near Houston, TX, I used Sats2Go for changing my traveler to DISH.

Convert Trav'ler to DISH

The kit is around $300-350. Took the tech about 1 hour to change it out.

i personally like DISH and I have it at the house also. I like the Hopper 3 for it's ability to record 16 channels at the same time. I have the Wally in the RV. I don't know if there are different receivers for DTV and DISH but I suspect there are. Again, Winegard can help there.

Good luck.

p.s., Don't know about DTV but DISH will get local channels wherever you go with an Outdoor account. Also you can use your cell phone to tell DISH to record a channel if you forget to record the wife's favort channel.

NTXNEWBIES · 03-05-2022, 08:30 PM

Winegard now has a dome for Dish with 2 coax connections that allows watching different channels on 2 televisions but also have to have 2 receivers..

Wayne M · 03-05-2022, 08:46 PM

Beryl, how does the antenna do when one receiver is on Sat 129 and the other is on 119. My experience is that both receivers have to be on the same satellite. That was with my Carryout.

NTXNEWBIES · 03-07-2022, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wayne M

Beryl, how does the antenna do when one receiver is on Sat 129 and the other is on 119. My experience is that both receivers have to be on the same satellite. That was with my Carryout.

The new dome per Winegard picks up all 3 sats like large dishes do.

NTXNEWBIES · 03-07-2022, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NTXNEWBIES

The new dome per Winegard picks up all 3 sats like large dishes do.

Ok so as bad as I hate to retract this hypothesis……I was wrong….can only pick up one sat at a time! Man that hurt…..first time I was wrong…in the last minute!

Wayne M · 03-07-2022, 12:30 PM

I was wron.....er...mistaken once!

YC1 · 07-27-2022, 07:14 AM

Things have changed.

I called a couple of days ago with the dreaded "change of service address".

A real live person came online. Explaining that my billing address had been changed for about a year but I wanted the servcie address changed and then bit my lip telling her it was in an RV and this has been referred to as a "Snowbird" change.

She said something like, "Oh sure" I can do that for you. Typing away and speaking good enough english for me to understand and thanking me for my patience my stomach churned as the past horrow show brought back many incredible nightmares.

I tallied my "on hold" hours up once several years back. Nearly 25 in total trying to get it changed and I finally gave up.

Here is what I think has happened.

ATT split/sold off Direct TV. This happened in or around 2021. They are now feverishly trying to regain their "customer service" satisfaction.

I was absolutely astonished at them getting things changed for me. No worries about it being in an RV.

Then, I decided to really put them to the test.

My equipment is about 15 years old. Very tired and getting really finiky. So I asked to have it replaced.

No problem she exclaimed. But then the dreaded transfer. Within one minute another nice lady came on the line and said "Oh sure, no problem". Looks like you are eligible for an upgrade.

Do tell. A customer since Direct TV became available perhaps it was time.

New equipment on order, the channels I need to watch the Little League World Series is included and my bill dropped almost $50 a month.

The new equipment charge is about $20 for taxes and shipping. This is a one time charge.

Of course I am locked into a 12 month deal but that is fine. With the new Genie and Mini I will be able to record 5 channels at a time. And the mini is supposed to be about the size of my hand.

I'm not sure how they communicate just yet but will find out. Someone here knows for sure. Being a telecommunications engineer hopefully it won't be beyond my capacity. I suspect they communicate over the coax but wi-fi would be nice. I could extend it into the sticks and bricks.

The only real drawback is the loss of the over the air channels. But with the HD Homerun device I can record those, just not as easily. That thing takes some adjusting to.

Another big change is the Web page. It is totally different now.

Wayne M · 07-27-2022, 09:18 AM

Good for DTV, Myron.

I go through some hoops with Dish when getting local channels. A few times they changed my service address so now I make sure to tell them to only change the zip code for the local channels.

ROFCIBC · 07-28-2022, 09:15 AM

"I'm not sure how they communicate just yet but will find out. Someone here knows for sure. Being a telecommunications engineer hopefully it won't be beyond my capacity. I suspect they communicate over the coax but wi-fi would be nice. I could extend it into the sticks and bricks."

The receiver is the ""transmitter" and the "Minis" are the receiver(s). AKA over the air from the receiver to up to 5 Mini's. I have this system in my house. The TV that is next to the receiver is connected with an HDMI cable.

I upgraded a year ago two of my "ancient" receivers and found the support folks to be very knowledgeable, professional, and spoke my language (Louisiana) to boot! The "upgrades" were all at no cost, and accomplished by a technician who came out to my house. Put up two antennas, one on the house the other on my detached garage, hooked up everything, and it worked on the first time I turned it on!

From what I see the "spin off" of DirecTV from AT&T has worked nicely.

Wayne M · 07-29-2022, 08:00 AM

I called again to change local channels and when the robo answered it stated my address as the last place I was parked. First time that ever happened. I had to specifically ask about my billing address and at least they did not change that. For some reason I'm not getting the locals so I'll have to call them again.

Been told the OTA will work here so I'll scan for them and not use the DISH locals.

It used to be so easy. Put up antenna, tune for channels, watch. Technology!