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Old 04-23-2018, 08:41 AM   #1
Batesmotel
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Question Direct TV


Ok, I'm sure this has been talked about before....but I can't seem to find the info.

We are clueless as to how to set up our satellite tv. At first we tried to get a direct tv dish and figure it out....we were lost.

We currently have direct tv and were told if we took the main box from the house with us, hooked it up, it would work.

My question is, will the tailgater work with this? I would love something automatic that was easy.

Also, exactly how do we go about setting this all up?
Thanks so much!!!
 
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Old 04-23-2018, 09:14 AM   #2
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Cannot speak to tailgater. We do the old fashioned way. We take two Directv receivers out of the house. Plug the power cords in the wall, bedroom and living room. Turn on one receiver. Menu. Sat setup. Good instructions to follow. Plug in current zipcode. You get the azimuth and elevation settings. I set up our tripod portable dish. First set the azimuth with my trusty compass. Then set the elevation. Continue to follow the menu . Crank up the audible signal meter on the receiver. Two coax runs from the dish, one to the living room sat connection, one to the bedroom sat connection at the convenience center. Inside, coax from sat outlet to satellite in. Listening to the audible signal meter, fine tune the dish by gently adjusting dish for max signal, and tighten up. Finish the setup menu, and watch Directv. Takes me on average 10-15 minutes to set up. For snowbirding, I call directv and swing the local channels. For short trips, use the roof ant for local channels. My receivers are not HD.
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Old 04-23-2018, 10:31 AM   #3
richfaa
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Short answer ..yes it will work with the tailgater.you will have to follow the instructions.
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Old 04-23-2018, 10:38 AM   #4
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And yes...only standard definition with direct unless you buy the large automatic dish for the top of the rv.
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Old 04-23-2018, 03:53 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Batesmotel View Post

Ok, I'm sure this has been talked about before....but I can't seem to find the info.

We are clueless as to how to set up our satellite tv. At first we tried to get a direct tv dish and figure it out....we were lost.

We currently have direct tv and were told if we took the main box from the house with us, hooked it up, it would work.

My question is, will the tailgater work with this? I would love something automatic that was easy.

Also, exactly how do we go about setting this all up?
Thanks so much!!!

The tailgater will work however you mentioned that you would love something automatic. Nothing easier than hitting a button and having the dish tune to the arc satellites for that carrier and then watch what you want on different tv's. For that you will need the larger automatic dish like the Wiengard Travler.
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Old 04-23-2018, 05:06 PM   #6
Mtncrash1
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I have the King Tailgater and once I figured out the setup it’s pretty easy now.
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Old 04-23-2018, 10:10 PM   #7
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Winegard Traveler, roof top mount, push a button it goes up, finds the signal and watch your programs, just like at home
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Old 04-24-2018, 07:50 AM   #8
Batesmotel
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Do I need to have a separate account or can I just bring my box from home?
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Old 04-24-2018, 07:53 AM   #9
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Also, that is way too expensive. Is there something that is portable that I don’t have to attach to my roof?
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Old 04-24-2018, 08:06 AM   #10
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With Dish you can setup pay-as-you-go which is tied to your S&B account. The Travler is the one with the "easy and automatic" you mentioned. In addition it is the only one that will let you watch channels on different satellites on different TV's. That may or may not be an issue for you. There are portable satellite systems but they will require different levels of setup or operation. You can get a full size dish that mounts on a tripod. I have never had one so I don't know what price range they are in.
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Old 04-24-2018, 10:39 AM   #11
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Bring you boxes from home - do not need a separate account. If you are over about 100 miles from your home, you will not get local stations. Like Mike noted above, if you are going for 2-3 months, you can call Directv and they will reset you for the local channels.


There are portable auto dish units that you put on the ground. Less expensive than the roof top mounts! Just watch that they don't grow legs!
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Old 04-24-2018, 11:39 AM   #12
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Having been a DirecTV user for over 15 years, let me address some of your questions.
  • Yes you can take your home receivers with you.While DirecTV would like you to open a separate and expensive second plan to cover your RV, it is not needed. As mentioned before, once you get out of range from home, you loose your local channels. You can call DirecTV to have them change the locals to match your location but DO NOT tell them your are in a RV. Tell them you are at your cabin, condo, second (or third?) home. You probably don't want to change locals too frequently as DirecTV is not as tolerant of that as is Dish. Normally your OTA antenna will get the locals where you are without involving DirecTV so a call to them may not be needed.
  • Do you want HD pictures from DirecTV?
    • If NO, then any of the portable automatic antennas will work for you. They all can receive the SD pictures with easy setup.
    • If YES, you want a roof top mounted automatic antenna (Winegard or RF Mogul) or a full sized ground mount one like you have at home. The rooftop ones are pricey, the ground one is not. Solid Signal (great company) or Amazon have the complete antenna (mount, reflector, and LNB) for less than $100 (last time I looked). I highly recommend the tripod from TV4RV.com (also around $100). This easy to setup unit holds the antenna and is adjustable to aid in aiming the antenna.
  • Setting up an antenna ranges from simple to relatively easy. Any of the automatic antennas (Tailgater type or rooftop mount) are simple. Push a button (rooftop) or place on ground and have at it. The full sized, on the ground, tripod mounted one (for HD) is a little more difficult. You have to set the Elevation and Skew on the antenna then mount it on the tripod (which has to be level) pointing generally towards the correct Azimuth (dishpointer.com will give you Elevation, Skew and Azimuth as will the receiver if you plug in the ZipCode for your location). Then use the builtin signal meter in the receiver (or a portable one, my choice) to locate the satellites and fine tune for the best signal. It sound more complex than it is. It rarely takes me more than 15 minutes, start to finish.
  • If you decide the portable SD only antenna is what you want, remember you don't have to put it on the ground. The top of the roof or slide are much better locations.
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Old 04-24-2018, 11:54 AM   #13
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Awesome! Thank you for the complete answer!!! One more question, Do I hook the box up to the tv that we want to use and then switch to satellite to view it?
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Old 04-24-2018, 04:13 PM   #14
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Now that you bring that up, there was some missing information in the above post.

What type of DirecTV receiver do you have? Is it one that has to use Single Wire Multi-switch (SWM) technology? The newer receivers (all Genies) require SWM. I don't know if a SWM only receiver will even work with any of the automatic portable antennas with out some additional DirecTV circuity (SWM 8 connector).

The newer receivers use a HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV. In this case you connect the satellite cable input from the antenna to the receiver and the HDMI canle to the TV. Then connect the OTA cable to the TV's antenna input. You then change from viewing satellite to antenna (and vice versa) using the TV's Input selection.

If your receiver outputs on a RF port (coax cable), then use an A/B switch to combine the receiver output and the OTA cablet and the switch output goes to the antenna post on the TV. In this case, switching requires flipping the A/B switch from one position to another. Lacking an A/B switch you would have to unscrew one coax and connect to the other to switch between Satellite and OTA.
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Old 04-24-2018, 06:30 PM   #15
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Not 100% sure, but it seems DirecTV may drop SD signals sometime in 2019, so before investing money into a SD system only, like most of the Carry-Out type, check for sure that it won't become useless next year.
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Old 04-24-2018, 06:56 PM   #16
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I am a Direct TV customer. I bring one of my receivers from home.

I found a free Slim Line Direct TV Dish on Craigslist. A lot of people just try to get rid of them.

I purchased the following setup: http://www.tv4rv.com/sunshop/index.p...ct_detail&p=13

The dish and especially the setup is easy. You actually use the compass to align the tripod and you are usually good to go. Once the tripod is set up and level ( most important part) the Direct TV is tuned in. I usually spend 5-10 minutes tuning in the Satellite. I can move the Dish to the best location.

Good luck!
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Old 04-25-2018, 08:46 AM   #17
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Direct TV HD only on roof mount expensive antenna and old SD on portable antennas. Dish gives you both SD and HD on any antenna. SD deserves to die like old crt tv's did, never watch SD as watching grass grow is better use of time.
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Old 04-25-2018, 12:16 PM   #18
Batesmotel
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Thank you All! I have finally figured it out with your help and some research!!!!
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Old 05-12-2018, 03:24 PM   #19
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We bought a King satellite and added it to our home for less than $10 a month (you don't get local channels but you can usually get those over the air with the antenna). We couldn't use the box from home because the King only works with the older models (we got the H24 so we can record shows). It list them on their website at https://kingconnect.com/product/quest-antenna/

I think you can buy an adapter to get local channels from NY or LA. Also, you can buy an adapter to get Dish. We have been using it for a few months and every time we move, set up is a snap. Research for a good price, Amazon sells them.
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