TV or not TV

[CricketSail]

I'm within weeks of moving into my RV. Oh my. One issue is whether TV is worth it or workable. There is cable and satellite (unless I missed something). For cable you have to be at a campground with hookup for that, yes? With satellite, you must have a (portable) dish and a reciever, yes? I have had Direct TV and thought that switching to viewing on my laptop would be a good solution. The support people at Direct TV said all I had to do was get an online account. Since I watch Netflix on everything, I thought this would work. But satellite TV isn't streaming like Netflix I find out, and after a couple of frustrating days, learn that I would have to have a satellite dish and HD DVR reciever to make that work, not just like anywhere wifi for Netflix.
Then I find that a satellite dish that will locate the signal is going to cost hundreds (like $700) for starters.
I plan to do a lot of boondocking. Maybe no TV if this is my lifestyle?

[Bethers]

Personally I've chosen no tv unless I pick up over the air channels. Currently have about 20 of them. It all depends on each of us.

[mitch5252]

..
And my choice is TV. I need "noise" at night while trying to fall asleep.

I have Directv at home and recently bought a portable Winegard dome antenna. I LOVE it. No more wasting tons of time and frustration trying to properly point a regular antenna (occasionally failing completely). I just throw a spare Directv receiver in the trailer. With this set-up, however, there is no HD, which doesn't bother me a bit.



With the solar panel I put together, I hope to keep a spare battery charged for the occasional tv watching while boondocking. I have yet to test the reality of that situation.

..

[CricketSail]

I also like the tv for the white noise. I love it at home where I have it automatically turn off the tv after I fall asleep. I'd like to opt for the satellite if I can, and I've talked to Winegard. But they are quoting me $700 for that dish. And I will need the upgraded receiver. I think I will cost out my solar first, and then worry about the tv, and see if I can get used for less, set it up myself.
BTW, wonderful to hear from you, Mitch.
If anyone is selling old satellite tv equipment, I'd be interested. I don't need HD either, I really don't see the point, particularly since I'm watching on low grade screens. Thanks all. See you all on the road soon.

[mitch5252]

I also like the tv for the white noise. I love it at home where I have it automatically turn off the tv after I fall asleep. I'd like to opt for the satellite if I can, and I've talked to Winegard. But they are quoting me $700 for that dish. And I will need the upgraded receiver. I think I will cost out my solar first, and then worry about the tv, and see if I can get used for less, set it up myself.
BTW, wonderful to hear from you, Mitch.
If anyone is selling old satellite tv equipment, I'd be interested. I don't need HD either, I really don't see the point, particularly since I'm watching on low grade screens. Thanks all. See you all on the road soon.

I got my antenna online for $600. Red (redwahine) MIGHT still have one barely used for sale; I don't know for sure.

What do you mean by upgraded receiver? The one I take from the house is an SD receiver and it works just fine. And if that one ever breaks down, I'll get a HD receiver, which also allows you to "turn off" the HD signals and only receive SD...someone might be feeding you some BS?

Thanks! Good to be feeling kinda human again (shut up, Vickie...)

What are you looking at for solar?

..

[Cudedog]

Good morning.

I (finally) finished my cargo van to camper van in September, but have yet to do my maiden voyage. Was scheduled to go to the West Coast GTG recently held in Oregon, but had to bail due to weather issues and an ill older dog.

Anyway.

Since I have yet to hit the road, I'm not sure that this would work or not - but I am what is referred to as a "cord cutter", meaning that I don't have cable nor satellite tv. I cut the cord well over a year ago when I did a little math, and have not regretted it one minute.

Being the type that is easily bored, I would watch the clock on top of my tv every time a commercial came on, just to see how long it lasted. It wasn't too long before I realized that about 50% of the tv I was watching consisted of commercials. Here is where the match comes in:

My lower-tier satellite bill was about $75.00 a month. I was watching about 2 hours of television a day, which meant that I was watching one hour of programming and one hour of commercials. Which meant that I was paying $37.50/month JUST TO WATCH *BLEEPING* COMMERCIALS!

I was done.

Does this mean that I don't watch tv anymore? Far from it. I stream all of my tv watching through my Roku box:

http://www.roku.com/

Trust me when I say this: there is more to watch on my Roku than any cable channel/satellite provider combined. What is the cost? I got the Roku 2, which at the time was a fast $79.00. What are the additional monthly fees, you are now asking? Depending on what you want to watch. . . and I primarily watch the news and PBS shows. . . the additional monthly cost is "zero".

So, I went from a fast $900.00/year for my satellite subscription to your basic nuttin' honey for my Roku.

Again, it depends on what you want to watch - if you want Hulu Plus (which, I am told, has the network programming, of which I am not interested) the fee is about $8.00/month. Not a typo - eight dollars a month. I also have Amazon Prime ($89.00/year), which has hundreds of movies and (commercial-free) television shows that can then be streamed/watched as part of yearly subscription. I find that I watch very little Amazon Prime, so may ditch it (again, I am mostly news & PBS) at the end of my term.

Most of what isn't available on Roku to stream can be found to stream on the network websites on the day after original broadcast.

BUT I don't know what kind of band width/download speed is offered by these campgrounds that advertise that they have "WiFi" (haven't been there yet). Maybe it is just too slow for streaming. . . for the moment!! If you have AT&T U-verse:

http://www.att.com/u-verse/shop/index.jsp#fbid=sYCutOotcYA

(U-Verse is my internet service provider, about $50/month), this also gives you U-verse on the road (where available). Don't know about Verizon, because I don't have that.

This whole internet/bandwidth thing is in flux. A (newer) technology called WiMax is making inroads to rural areas everywhere. There are also whispers that changes to WiFi/WiMax will enable it to deliver more content over less bandwidth.

Wimax:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX

As a tech geek, I think it is a great time to be alive. If only I wasn't so damn old!!

Since I will be hitting the road on the Poverty Plan, the cost (for me) to have any kind of tv antenna for my van is not on the agenda. Add that to the fact that there just won't be room inside my van eliminates it from consideration. HOWEVER, I will have my laptop along, and will be getting an updated smartphone before departing on my whirlwind tour For me, that will have to be enough. I will also bring my Kindle, fully loaded.

PM me if anyone has questions.

Mitch, glad to see you back in the fray.

Anne

[Bethers]

Please, put questions HERE if you have them - don't pm - as others will appreciate the questions AND answers.

I know several with Roku. Works well for some of them. But remember, on the road, it will eat your bandwidth very quickly - most I know only use it when they have wifi they can use for it (free wifi). And not just eat your bandwidth, but you won't always have a good enough connection to stream. It is a very good alternative.

[BirdbyBird]

Beth your response touched on an issue that I am too ignorant to know the answer to. When someone talks about "streaming" a movie, TV show etc, isn't that still using up part of the monthly allowance...for those of us that have limits on our MiFi usage while on the road?

[Cudedog]

Please, put questions HERE if you have them - don't pm - as others will appreciate the questions AND answers.

I know several with Roku. Works well for some of them. But remember, on the road, it will eat your bandwidth very quickly - most I know only use it when they have wifi they can use for it (free wifi). And not just eat your bandwidth, but you won't always have a good enough connection to stream. It is a very good alternative.

True about the connection, for sure. True about the bandwidth. . . to an extent. Many ISP's (Internet Service Providers) have a set amount of bandwidth they provide per month, for their monthly fee. AT&T is one of them. I understand their cap is around 250 GB, which is a whale of a lot.

So far as i can tell - please correct me if I am mistaken - AT&T doesn't care where I use this bandwidth - at home or on the road. In the last year, watching all of my tv via streaming (either on Roku or my laptop) I have never exceeded my monthly bandwidth "allowance". Admittedly, I don't watch a lot of tv - maybe 2 hours per day, max (maybe 2GB per day) - often much less than that. I do surf the web a lot (obviously!)

Of course, other ISP's might not be so liberal in their accommodation. I like the AT&T u-verse internet service, so long as everything works and I don't have to deal with a rep over the phone. Their customer-noservice is abysmal.

Also, probably would not take my Roku box on the road, will just take my laptop for tv watching. Just mentioned it here as an alternative. And there are new things besides Roku coming down the pipeline.

The strangle-hold $$monopoly$$ that the cable and satellite industry has had for far too long is beginning to loosen. And they are afraid.

Very afraid.

Anne

[Cudedog]

Beth your response touched on an issue that I am too ignorant to know the answer to. When someone talks about "streaming" a movie, TV show etc, isn't that still using up part of the monthly allowance...for those of us that have limits on our MiFi usage while on the road?

You are correct.

When "streaming" you are indeed using bandwidth. The trick here is to shop around for the provider that has the widest coverage and the highest bandwidth allowance for the lowest buck.

One should be able to monitor one's bandwidth useage by going to one's account on the provider's website. Using too much, back it down. Not using much, ramp it up.

The terms used on promotional websites and account pages seem to often to purposefully obfuscate the meaning of what is being said. When I need an english translation I turn to the world-wide dictionary: Google.

Anne

[Bethers]

Anne, home service bandwidth and what you'll have on the road with MiFi or sharing your phone - is a totally different ballgame. Some here have gone over their bandwidth just keeping up with their blogs. I streamed the concert for New York after the last weather related problem there and used up my bandwidth by mid-month - without doing much else, and missing at least the first hour of the concert. It's not unlimited. And no where near your 250 mentioned. Most get 5 gig. You can pay for more, which is what I then had to do. I try hard to stay on my budget, and that means NOT paying for extras like that ($5 for each gig over 5, I believe).

And most of them are now "slowing" down their users on the old "unlimited" plans. They can then still claim "unlimited" but the users get really, really slow service until their next month again. And you wouldn't be able to stream a thing then.

And Tina, that streaming uses up a ton of bandwidth.

[BirdbyBird]

I have never tried to watch a movie while on the road because I suspected that was the case. And as you commented there have been several months that I just made it under the wire if I was posting a lot of pictures to the blog, etc. I get little warnings on the MiFi so it helps me be aware when I am coming down to the end of the months allotment....

[JudyJB]

Bandwidth on the road is very expensive. I have 10 Gigs a month through my Verizon Hotspot for $80, plus my costs for my unlimited cell service voice, which totals to about $150 a month. Costs for more Gig are $10 per 2 Gig. You can go through this VERY quickly, as you know from your 2Gig per day at home, so no streaming. Also, most campgrounds that do provide WiFi limit streaming, so that is a problem also.

I went for 7 months full-timing with just air TV and occasional cable in commercial campgrounds, but depending on where you are, air or antenna TV can be nonexistent or consist of 2-60 channels. My experience was that the channels in most places were in Spanish or were trying to sell you something. I also got frustrated having a channel die on me in the middle of something. You got only local channels, not the cable channels you may be used to, also.

Also, you need to be aware that a satellite and a TV are going to drain your batteries very fast unless you have an electric hookup. (You mentioned solar, which leads me to believe you will be relying on that instead of hookups.)

I like the noise of TV at night, so I finally broke down and bought a satellite. If I were just vacationing or part-timing, I might have skipped it, but I REALLY like my TV and am very happy I have the satellite. It has made a lot of difference in my boredom level.

[BirdbyBird]

I have Sirius Radio and use that if I need background voices or music at night. I am getting better at positioning the inside satellite that is used with the "residential" dock....I do need to transfer the radio from the traveling dock in the day to the residential dock at night. I enjoy BBC, NPR and my choice of music going down the road.....

[Cudedog]

Anne, home service bandwidth and what you'll have on the road with MiFi or sharing your phone - is a totally different ballgame. Some here have gone over their bandwidth just keeping up with their blogs. I streamed the concert for New York after the last weather related problem there and used up my bandwidth by mid-month - without doing much else, and missing at least the first hour of the concert. It's not unlimited. And no where near your 250 mentioned. Most get 5 gig. You can pay for more, which is what I then had to do. I try hard to stay on my budget, and that means NOT paying for extras like that ($5 for each gig over 5, I believe).

Beth:

I think you are probably right, but since I like to argue I got onto the AT&T website, and used their "chat" function to ask about my AT&T U-verse account.

This is the text of my chat:

___________________________________________________

Anne: How many GB do I get with my U-verse account?

Kinjal [at&t rep]: You are getting 250 GB per month.

Anne: Ok, thanks. If I go on the road, how much do I get from an att hotspot?

Kinjal: Let me help you with this information.

Anne: thank you.

Kinjal: You are most welcome.

Kinjal: Hotspot is the free AT&T service, so you will be getting unlimited data from Hotspot.

Anne: Define "unlimited".

Kinjal: There is no restriction for data usage on Hotspot.

Anne: So I can stream a movie at a hotspot?

Kinjal: Yes, you can steam anything from Hotspot. It's just like Wifi network which you are using from home.

Anne: Ok, Thanks!

Kinjal: You are most welcome.

Kinjal: Anne, we are always at your service regarding any issues with U-Verse. And, please do not hesitate in contacting even for a simple issue.
________________________________________

Beth, what you are saying makes a lot of sense. . . but the above is direct from AT&T.

Oh well. . . probably I will find out for sure when I get on the road.

Thanks!

Anne