Dish OTA Adaptor

[boomersooner]

Installed the Dish OTA adaptor today. Had to remove TV in bedroom to get access to the wiring. Running the cable from the audio cabinet to the area behind the TV was a challenge, the most difficult part. Once all wiring was done the configuration was a piece a cake, Dish instructions were clear and precise. Went on App and canceled local stations, saving $12 on my plan.

[rk911]

Originally Posted by boomersooner

Installed the Dish OTA adaptor today. Had to remove TV in bedroom to get access to the wiring. Running the cable from the audio cabinet to the area behind the TV was a challenge, the most difficult part. Once all wiring was done the configuration was a piece a cake, Dish instructions were clear and precise. Went on App and canceled local stations, saving $12 on my plan.

good job. as long as you're in range of OTA stations you should be good to go.

[YC1]

What receivers are you using? I'm seriously thinking of changing to Dish. I like the new dish that is East West coverage.

Do these receivers have a whole home type thing. That is, I would like to set up recording in the living room and be able to watch in the bedroom.

With Direct TV I have to pay for the service. I can record on both receivers and watch in either room.

How many programs can you record at the same time?

I know there are tons of threads on this but trying to sort out current stuff is a bit difficult.

tvromyrv has plenty of stuff for sale but I am not sure how all it works together.

Thanks

[twinboat]

Have you tried the Dish OTA tuner in situations where there is no satellite signal ? Under trees.

I tried mine and you can't get past the " No Signal " screen to access OTA signals.

I had to reconnect the OAT antenna wire to the TV to get them. That's the way it stayed.

I just switch from cable to antenna with the TV remote. The OTA tuner was a waste of $, since the TV has one.

[rk911]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Have you tried the Dish OTA tuner in situations where there is no satellite signal ? Under trees.

I tried mine and you can't get past the " No Signal " screen to access OTA signals.

I had to reconnect the OAT antenna wire to the TV to get them. That's the way it stayed.

I just switch from cable to antenna with the TV remote. The OTA tuner was a waste of $.

i thought the OTA adapter uses the RV OTA antenna for reception and just added those stations to the guide. ???

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by rk911

i thought the OTA adapter uses the RV OTA antenna for reception and just added those stations to the guide. ???

Yes it does but you need to get past the No Signal screen to see the guide.

If you don't deploy the dish and find a satellite on initial setup, you can't go any further.

Dish support confirmed that.

[YC1]

Could be a guide thing in the receiver. Can't do any guide displays without the satellite signal.

Some tv's don't have an otar receiver as one of mine does not. I added a separate receiver to it that has a dvr in it as well. It receives better than my otar box on my Direct TV box.

Definitely looking at changing to Dish. Not sure what boxes to get though. Hopper 3 with a Joey? Hopper 3 with a Wally, Two Wallys???

Much confusions and what boxes needed. I can modify my Travler but there are times I need to set out a portable dish.

[boomersooner]

Originally Posted by YC1

What receivers are you using? I'm seriously thinking of changing to Dish. I like the new dish that is East West coverage.

Do these receivers have a whole home type thing. That is, I would like to set up recording in the living room and be able to watch in the bedroom.

With Direct TV I have to pay for the service. I can record on both receivers and watch in either room.

How many programs can you record at the same time?

I know there are tons of threads on this but trying to sort out current stuff is a bit difficult.

tvromyrv has plenty of stuff for sale but I am not sure how all it works together.

Thanks

I am new to Dish so probably will not have many answers. I have the Wally that came standard in the RV and bought aftermarket Travelr Satellite Dish for Dish. I opted out of the in motion satellite for the Travelr. I do not have the DVR and right now all of my TV's get the same station since I only have one Wally. I am sure that eventually someone much more educated on Dish than me will chime in to answer your questions.

[boomersooner]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Have you tried the Dish OTA tuner in situations where there is no satellite signal ? Under trees.

I tried mine and you can't get past the " No Signal " screen to access OTA signals.

I had to reconnect the OAT antenna wire to the TV to get them. That's the way it stayed.

I just switch from cable to antenna with the TV remote. The OTA tuner was a waste of $, since the TV has one.

I just installed today so I only have it set up, have not yet used it.

[dabrooks]

I have Dish in the RV and a Pathway X2. I really have had no problems. My friend also has the same setup for his RV and he has had no problems. He calls or goes on line to get locals and I do not.

At home he also has Dish so this winter we ordered and installed the OTA module in his home receiver because Dish and CBS in his area had almost a year long spat. He had a roof top OTA antenna that we put back in service and the module worked great for recording golf and football that was broadcast on CBS. The spat is over but he is prepared for the next spat.

I can see where trying to use it when set up in trees could be a problem but when you can get a signal being able to recorinside. OTA shows through the Dish receiver is nice.

[TechWriter]

Originally Posted by YC1

What receivers are you using? I'm seriously thinking of changing to Dish. I like the new dish that is East West coverage.

Do these receivers have a whole home type thing. That is, I would like to set up recording in the living room and be able to watch in the bedroom.

With Direct TV I have to pay for the service. I can record on both receivers and watch in either room.

How many programs can you record at the same time?

I know there are tons of threads on this but trying to sort out current stuff is a bit difficult.

tvromyrv has plenty of stuff for sale but I am not sure how all it works together.

DISH's Whole Home (or RV) solution is a Hopper 3 DVR and Joey receivers. Typically, the main TV would be connected to the Hopper 3, and each of your other TVs would be connected to its own Joey.

A Hopper 3 has a 2TB hard drive that can store plenty of HD programming.

Using a Hopper 3, you can schedule programs for recording (individually or a series), delete, and of course view recorded programs. Each Joey has the same ability.

With a Hopper 3-Joey network you have 16 tuners at your disposal or "just" 15 if you want to use the Hopper's PTAT (Prime Time Any Time) feature. PTAT uses one of the Hopper 3's 16 tuners to record all the ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox prime time programming every day.

When you travel long distances and are too far to receive your home local TV stations, you can contact DISH and have them change your locals to the city nearest your campsite. With DISH, you could change your locals every day if you had to.

Plus, if you connect a DISH OTA adapter between your batwing antenna and your Hopper, you can view and record local OTA TV stations. The OTA adapter gives you the ability to record all those "sub" channels (2-1, 2-2, 2-3, etc).

Lots of RVers simply move their home Hopper setup to their RV when traveling.

If interested in getting a Hopper for your RV, contact a local satellite TV installer, not DISH. Typically, a DISH rep will tell you that you can only use a Wally receiver, and not a Hopper, in an RV. That's baloney.

Finally, with a Hopper, you'll have to use an automatic Wineguard Travler or RF Mogul dish. You could also you a portable tripod dish, but domes and carryouts won't work with a Hopper.

[YC1]

TechWriter, that is precisely what I am looking for. Terrific write up. I have read lots of things and this clears them up.

It just dawned on me why I would need to retrofit my Travler with the Hopper. It must look at multiple satellites at the same time.

Would I run into the issue of the East West Arc with the Travler?

Oh Good Grief! I went to your final line on the post and found a few days of reading

I remember seeing this some time ago and forgot about it. No wonder you use the name TechWriter.

I will revisit the article and thank you for patiently repeating what you probably have many times.

[paul65k]

Originally Posted by TechWriter

DISH's Whole Home (or RV) solution is a Hopper 3 DVR and Joey receivers. Typically, the main TV would be connected to the Hopper 3, and each of your other TVs would be connected to its own Joey.

A Hopper 3 has a 2TB hard drive that can store plenty of HD programming.

Using a Hopper 3, you can schedule programs for recording (individually or a series), delete, and of course view recorded programs. Each Joey has the same ability.

With a Hopper 3-Joey network you have 16 tuners at your disposal or "just" 15 if you want to use the Hopper's PTAT (Prime Time Any Time) feature. PTAT uses one of the Hopper 3's 16 tuners to record all the ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox prime time programming every day.

When you travel long distances and are too far to receive your home local TV stations, you can contact DISH and have them change your locals to the city nearest your campsite. With DISH, you could change your locals every day if you had to.

Plus, if you connect a DISH OTA adapter between your batwing antenna and your Hopper, you can view and record local OTA TV stations. The OTA adapter gives you the ability to record all those "sub" channels (2-1, 2-2, 2-3, etc).

Lots of RVers simply move their home Hopper setup to their RV when traveling.

If interested in getting a Hopper for your RV, contact a local satellite TV installer, not DISH. Typically, a DISH rep will tell you that you can only use a Wally receiver, and not a Hopper, in an RV. That's baloney.

Finally, with a Hopper, you'll have to use an automatic Wineguard Travler or RF Mogul dish. You could also you a portable tripod dish, but domes and carryouts won't work with a Hopper.

This is exactly the set-up we have in our RV with the exception of using a Hopper2. We have a wireless Joey in the bedroom and this allows us to easily move it outside for tailgating as well as just watching TV at night outside.

We have this in conjunction with our home Dish package and the additional cost is $17 a month and we have our full package everywhere we travel.

Changing the local channels is pretty easy with the MyDish Chat feature and allows us to receive local programming where we are parked.

Another new feature Dish has added is in the Apps section, it's called Locast and this will allow you to stream your local channels from home even if you have changed over to satellite locals with your Hopper.

I really like this solution for traveling and hope Dish does not go the way of DirecTV and abandon their traveling customers

[TechWriter]

Originally Posted by YC1

Would I run into the issue of the East West Arc with the Travler?

The DISH version of the Winegard Travler uses a Western Arc 1000.2 dish.

By using the "manual mode" of operation, you can get a DISH Travler to pick up sat 61.5, one of the three Eastern Arc sats which I think can pick up many (most?) of DISH's programming.

However, most of the time you don't need to worry about using the Eastern Arc sats (61.5, 72.7, 77).