TV or not TV

[sharon]

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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.

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Well heck, there goes some of the entertainment when Mitch is at a GTG!

[Bethers]

You won't find many hot spots to do that unless you intend to travel to where AT&T has one ... usually in a store or their stores. Using their regular service is NOT a hot spot - using their towers is not a hot spot. The hot spots are their free wifi locations which I can do anything when connected to one. Can't remember the last time I was connected to one.

Now maybe you do have something else with the U-verse - but I have a feeling the unlimited from their hotspot is the same as I have with mine - you need to have another talk with them about connecting on the road using regular data connections, not at one of their hot spots.

Editing to ask whether you can even keep u-verse when you move into your rv as it's a residential service?

[mitch5252]

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Anne, by "hotspot", is your chat guy not referring to the "free" AT&T hotspots located around the country (30,000 of them, and as indicated by this map - http://www.att.com/maps/wifi.html#fbid=-6R6M1pgoFY), NOT the PERSONAL Hotspot? When browsing the personal Hotspots, I did not find any plan that offered unlimited usage.

Color me confused.

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[mnladyus]

I hope this post can keep going. I'm very interested in all this chatting and I'm trying to learn more about TV or Not.

[JudyJB]

How will you connect to this "hotspot"? At home, you connect through a modem that is either wired or wireless, but connected via cable to your provider. On the road, you do not have a cable, so you need to connect in someway over the airwaves.

I looked up AT&Ts wireless hotspots near where I am right now. You can go to a Starbucks nearby, the public library, the local college, and a nearby hotel. It is unclear if you can sit in the parking lot or need to be actually in the building.

[snowball]

we signed up with Direct TV when my husband first retired...for the most part it's been good for us we boondocked for the winters using solar panels and when we were low on battery using a generator to recharge them..my husband watched tv in the day time into the early evening he was usually in bed by 9 now me rarely watched it in the day time except for an hour of Dr Phil...depending upon my schedule or what I wanted then I turned it off then it was on again (we had two tv's) around 8 or so depending upon the night schedule what was on that I wanted to see...then off around 12:00 so we had the tv on lots...won't have it on that much now so perhaps won't have to use the genny as much but will see. The pain with Direct is getting it aimed...but it's receivers and portable dishes shouldn't cost that much (the $700) probably that is the satellites that you can get at camping world or Hughes some of those...I really wish one could customize what they want I'm paying lots for lots of stations I don't watch my husband was into sports not me...but you can't not get some things if you want others ....
sheila

[Cudedog]

How will you connect to this "hotspot"? At home, you connect through a modem that is either wired or wireless, but connected via cable to your provider. On the road, you do not have a cable, so you need to connect in someway over the airwaves.

I looked up AT&Ts wireless hotspots near where I am right now. You can go to a Starbucks nearby, the public library, the local college, and a nearby hotel. It is unclear if you can sit in the parking lot or need to be actually in the building.

My computer (HP Pavilion dv7) has wireless connectivity built in. I connect wirelessly to my AT&T "2 Wire" modem/router in my home. My computer is not physically connected to the router.

When away from home, I have a menu on my computer that shows any wireless networks within range, and whether or not they have security. If they are unsecured, I can connect to them (or if I have their password - not likely).

I can connect to an AT&T hotspot in much the same way.

Whether or not you can connect to an AT&T hotspot outside a building depends upon where the router that is broadcasting the wireless signal is located, how strong the signal is at your specific location in the parking lot, and on whether or not the computer you are using has wireless connectivity built in (or an external wireless card).

If you are an AT&T internet customer already, and all of the above is true, you will probably need to enter your log-in and password to connect to their hotspot. Your log in is often just your primary AT&T email address and your email password.

If you have the right equipment connection happens pretty much automatically.

There are also many places that you can connect wirelessly to the internet, without AT&T, for free. Many McDonalds now have wireless internet, and Walmart is beginning to offer it in some stores.

I have done it outside the local library when visiting my father in Hemet, Ca. from the comfort of my car. I have done it in the parking lot of a hotel. I have done it at Starbucks. Wireless signals are not in the boondocks - yet - but they are everywhere in large cities. Enough free bandwidth to stream video? Perhaps not.

But you should be able to do it at an AT&T wireless hotspot, if the person at my AT&T chat was correct.

Anne

[Bethers]

Anne, I don't think you're understanding what we're saying. We've all been traveling and connecting a long time. The hot spots you're talking about on your plan are not the same as getting a regular at&t signal. They are only available at certain locations and you have to go to them.

Most of us have either at&t or Verizon services that allow us to connect pretty much anywhere. And I use WiFi when it's available so that I conserve my bandwidth allowances.

No one is arguing that you can't connect at an at&t hot spot, just that it'll be an inconvenience to have to find them to stream your tv, etc, that you were talking about here.

[mitch5252]

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Maybe to make it a little more clear - the AT&T "hotspot", like Beth said, you must "go to" and be within its broadcast range in order to pick up the signal on your device. These AT&T "hotspots" allow unlimited bandwidth to AT&T customers. I think my podunk little phone carrier has "hotspots" in our county seat offering unlimited bandwith. However, I really don't want to drive 15 miles to use this service!

Let's refer to our "personal" hotspots as MiFi. So, for instance, you can be sitting in my driveway, far-far-away-from-anything-digital, and use your MiFi to get online to check your email, the Forum, etc. With this method, you would NOT want to stream anything - far too expensive and slow. On my iPad (Verizon Prepaid), I pay $20/month for 1Gb. Verizon Prepaid's largest plan is 10Gb for $80/month. As far as I know, there is no wireless provider that offers unlimited data usage. But I could be wrong; I don't keep up with that stuff like I used to.

Even with my home (A)DSL, if I want to watch something on ON DEMAND, I start the download the night before and can watch it the next day...that's as demanding as I can be.

My personal opinion - if live television is important to you, satellite is the only way to go, unless you limit your camping experience very close to large towns. Another benefit of satellite is that you can load up your DVR with tons and tons of shows/movies and watch at your leisure. However, it's not the live nightly news, or tonight's episode of The Amazing Race.

I know the dome antenna I bought was expensive, but I was so very tired to TRYING to get the standard dish pointed in the right direction, altitude, and skew...VERY frustrating. I was willing, in this case, to trade off moo-lah for convenience and less frustration...

Oh, one more thing - for those of you with smartphones/tablets, there's a cool app called TV TOWERS. It shows where tv stations are
located all over the county. This allows you to point your roof antenna (not satellite) in the right direction to pick up the regular broadcast stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, etc.) I think it was free, but I don't recall for sure.

Wow, all this before my second cup o' joe...

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[CricketSail]

Thanks for all the replies! I will have to read through them a few more times. I do plan on being totally solar if I can pull that off. I know others who have managed that. I know A/C and internet are going to be a huge drain, but I will work on it. I have a Roku box and it's been most of what I've used at home this year, pulling in Netflix. I recently tried Hulu plus, but was instantly put off by the advertising. The last few weeks I've been seeing how I can use the laptop, just so I get a sense of what is hardware, and what is program, dependent. That's how I discovered that Satellite requires the upgraded reciever, I think it gets the IP from the laptop so will talk and stream to it, as well as the TV.
I'm going to check the TV set up on the RV today (I didn't get into the details when I was deciding on the rig - I wasn't buying it for the TV at that point). More on this later.

[mitch5252]

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I'm still not understanding what the satellite receiver has to do with the laptop?

How old is your receiver? Sounds like it's pretty old?
Do you happen to know the model number?
And someone told you to take that receiver "on the road", it would have to be upgraded?

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[havingfunnow]

The terminology is confusing -- mostly because companies use the same terminology to describe different things. It makes me angry.

When I'm home, I use AT&T internet service. It comes into my router via a cable, where it is converted to a wifi signal. I can use a laptop or tablet or roku box anywhere within range of that signal. (I can also switch my phone over to that signal to make calls on that wifi signal.)

When I'm traveling, I can do the same thing anywhere there is a free wifi hotspot or an AT&T wifi hotspot. Nice, but I've never been in a campground with an AT&T wifi hotspot. Some have free wifi hotspots, but I've always encountered slow and intermittent service with them. (Possibly an external wifi antennae would help with that problem -- I haven't tried.)

3G and 4G phone signals can be converted to wifi with special devices or special software on a phone. You have to pay a monthly fee for that signal, and it covers a very limited amount of data. When you've used that, you have to buy more. Some companies advertised "unlimited" data, but they throttle back the speed at a certain point. I've never heard of a company offering enough data to allow unlimited streaming video. You also have to be in a geographic area where your phone company provides reliable 3G/4G service. That can be a real problem. (An amplifier antennae can make the signal stronger -- I haven't tried one.)

Have I got that right?

My practical take on this is that when I buy internet service, I'd better ask a whole lot of questions to clarify what I'm getting. I find that often the salespeople and support people don't actually know what they're offering.

[mnladyus]

The app called "TV TOWERS" was 99 cents when I got it. Being honest, I've never tried it. When I go camping, I like to get away from a lot of that stuff, so I don't have a tv in the camper. Maybe I would miss TV if I was on the road a lot.

[Cudedog]

Beth & Mitch:

I salute you on the creation and maintenance of this website. A difficult job well done. You have my congratulations.

It seems that I have misunderstood how the free sharing of information on this website was to occur.

My mistake, and for that I apologize.

You say "to-may-to", I say "to-mah-to": Two things that sound the same, but are different.

I have written 3 posts on this thread, including this one. For clarification, I did not say:

That a personal "hotspot" and an "At&t hotspot" are the same thing. It isn't. (to-may-to, to-mah-to)

That a Roku box was a viable alternative to streaming on the road. It isn't.

That I was planning on moving out of my house into my van to go on the road full-time. I'm not.

That a cellphone could be used for streaming. It can't.

That live television is important to me. It isn't.

That I need to have another talk with the At&t rep about connecting on the road. I don't. (to-may-to, to-mah-to)

That I don't understand the difference between hotspots and data connection. I do.

That I knew all about campground wi-fi. I don't.

Well, enough.

Color me chastized.

Anne

[mitch5252]

You say "to-may-to", I say "to-mah-to": Two things that sound the same, but are different.

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Anne, I'm sorry you feel as if you were being "chastized"...for what, I am not sure. A technical topic like this, and sharing of all ideas, is helpful to many of the members here, myself included. The terminology can be confusing and sometimes clarification is necessary (i.e. HotSpot/MiFi). I consider myself a somewhat tech-savvy, and your post(s) about the AT&T HotSpots sent me scurrying to look for a data plan that offered unlimited usage or even 250 Gb.

But I did have to chuckle...on the quote above, I'm gonna bet you meant to say, "to-may-to" "to-mah-to" - Two things that sound DIFFERENT, but mean the SAME.

So, how 'bout we get back to a nice and informative technical discussion(s) on the merits and costs of various Camping Entertainment Mediums! (no, Sharon, NOT me...)

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