DISH Tailgater on the way...

[go6car]

We are about midway through our camping season and the Actiontec works pretty well! A little bit of a delay in the back bedroom when changing channels, but I'm so glad that I even can, that I don't mind!

[BarryD0706]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Just got the DISH Tailgater today, plugged it into a house TV to make sure it worked before I try installing in the Coachmen. Works great.

Hooking it up to the RV tomorrow, I hope. I believe I have co-axial cable from the DVD player to the TV. It seems to me the best thing to do is take the co-axial input to the DVD player and plug it into the Tailgater receiver as satellite input and plug an HDMI cable from the receiver into the HDMI on the TV in the living room. Then use the TV inputs to select co-axial or HDMI, when I want to switch between the DVD player and the Tailgater. Should I get some kind of HDMI splitter and try running a long HDMI cable to the bedroom? I'd just buy another DVD player for the bedroom.

Any thoughts?

First, I think it's unlikely that your DVD player has any coax connections (unless it's really old). And I'm not following your connection from the DVD to the Sat receiver. I agree with using your TV menu to switch between sources, HDMI-Sat and whatever your DVD connection is (probably also HDMI or composite video (yellow)).

[Hugh R]

Got it hooked up. And it works. The tailgater only seems to work with a direct connection to the receiver, from their cable from the Tailgater to the receiver.


Dish confirmed this. It won't work with the house cable hookup or any splitters. Some units it may work, but DISH say most don't. The Actiontec seems to work just fine. I'm beat too much wiring and figuring out.

[DrJMB]

Totally agreed. Too many restrictions with this Dish setup. I am not satisfied with the dish tailgater. From research after the fact I found the Vuqube AKA Flex would have been a better choice and is compatible with both Dish and Direct.

[BarryD0706]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Got it hooked up. And it works. The tailgater only seems to work with a direct connection to the receiver, from their cable from the Tailgater to the receiver.

Dish confirmed this. It won't work with the house cable hookup or any splitters. Some units it may work, but DISH say most don't. The Actiontec seems to work just fine. I'm beat too much wiring and figuring out.

It will probably work with "Park Cable" wire; you just have to disconnect it from the back of the antenna booster control (which contains a splitter).

[BarryD0706]

Originally Posted by DrJMB

Totally agreed. Too many restrictions with this Dish setup. I am not satisfied with the dish tailgater. From research after the fact I found the Vuqube AKA Flex would have been a better choice and is compatible with both Dish and Direct.

Dish has the advantage that they offer a pay-as-you-go plan so you can just pay for the days that you are actually camping. The Tailgater is cheaper. Once it's wired, it's wired.

[Hugh R]

Originally Posted by BarryD0706

First, I think it's unlikely that your DVD player has any coax connections (unless it's really old). .

Sorry, meant RCA plugs.

Question. I turned the DISH receiver off last night (green light out) and today, I checked and the receiver was very hot. Is this normal?

I called DISH and they said "Well it is hot in So Cal today, is it in an open or closed cabinet". Duh, I seriously doubt its supposed to be so hot on the top when its off that it is uncomfortable to my hand. Its on a shelf, but it was hot, hot compared to the ambient temp in the RV. I unplugged it. I'll let it cool down or an hour or three and see if it still works.

BTW, I can confirm that DISH charges on a rolling 30 days, not calender month. $19.95 for the basic 120 channel programming. End of the 30 days the contract stops and you can renew with a phone call or I think online or with the unit itself.

Service getting started was pretty good. Took a few minutes longer than I would have expected, but I suspect they don't do as many Tailgater contracts as compared to regular house contracts.

[BarryD0706]

Yes, it's normal. They do get quite warm. Like a lot of electronics these days, it doesn't really turn off. (And if you use an external switch to kill the power, it won't function properly after a day or two.)

[Hugh R]

Thanks Barry:

Seems odd to me, my DVR in my house doesn't get hot at all (slightly warm maybe, but not hot) and its on 24/7. But I'll keep an eye on it.

Had to look it up never heard of a Sanibel. Very, very cool.

[Hugh R]

I found that DISH is charging m $59.95 for America's Top 120,(not $19.95 as I incorrectly posted above) where if I had it at home it would be $29.95. I understand that I'm renting it month-to-month, so they want more. I called and asked about getting a year or two service contract at the $29.95 rate or there abouts. They said "No". Seems to me that it should be all the same to them whether beaming to my house or RV. Guess not.


BTW, for those of you new to it, the green power button may go on then off in a minute. Don't be tempted to keep pushing the power button. Let it start (green on) and if it turns off, let it sit for a few minutes, it will eventually come back on and cycle.

BTW, the Actiontec transmitter/receiver works well. A very slight echo, but I think its more the acoustics of the Coachmen than the units. Highly recommend it, versus monkeying around with wiring and trying to fish cable. Directions were easy and it worked the first time I started it.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

I found that DISH is charging m $59.95 for America's Top 120,(not $19.95 as I incorrectly posted above) where if I had it at home it would be $29.95. I understand that I'm renting it month-to-month, so they want more. I called and asked about getting a year or two service contract at the $29.95 rate or there abouts. They said "No". Seems to me that it should be all the same to them whether beaming to my house or RV. Guess not.

BTW the cable has to connect directly from the satellite receiver cube to the receiver, it doesn't want to connect in any way through house cable, due to it receiving and supplying power to the cube.

Tell them the receiver is at home not your camper.
They don't know where your receiver is.

I use my shop receiver in my camper duting the summer.


Turbs

[1nshort]

That's because the coach is RG59 coax. Dish needs RG6 to handle the bandwidth at the proper signal level. I do not use the dish pay as u go. I have a home plan and bring my home receiver and reprogram it for my destination zip and reprogram it when I get home......works fine.

[BarryD0706]

Originally Posted by 1nshort

That's because the coach is RG59 coax.

Really? In a 2013 model? That's pretty unusual. I know that everything in mine is RG6.

[BarryD0706]

If you're paying $59.99 before taxes/fees then you must have the 120+ package, or you've added Blockbuster. Just 120 should be $49.99.

You can use the "house cable"...just not the stuff in the "house" that it's connected to.

[Hugh R]

120+ the wifey wants to see UCLA football games.

I'll look into RG6 cable but I know when I plugged it into the house hookup I got nothing. Something to do with splitters and such and the power back to the cube.

I've had it a month and two weekend trips, so I'm still sorting it out. I'm looking at running the RG6 cable out of the console area and fishing it down to the back left cabinet where the power cable is and storing the cube there. Doesn't look too difficult. I'm tired of running it from the console area through the Kitchen window.

[Hugh R]

Originally Posted by f1100turbo

Tell them the receiver is at home not your camper.
They don't know where your receiver is.

I use my shop receiver in my camper duting the summer.


Turbs

I'll try that, thanks.

[BarryD0706]

I went back and looked at your (way) earlier posts regarding your expected usage pattern. Please read my post #29 here: http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...v-44857-3.html.

If this works for you, you're way better off without a contract!

[BarryD0706]

In my look back in time I see that I hadn't created my drawings of how to use the existing "Park Cable" when I was here before.

You need to change to the things marked in red here to use the existing RG6 cable for your Sat.


The "booster control" that the "Cable In" is connected to looks like this on the back:


(In case you don't know what I mean by "booster control", it's the switch plate that your TV coax is connected to that has the little black button on it where you turn on the antenna amplifier.)

And by the way, I agree that if you don't have RG6 cable in your RV it isn't going to work regardless.

[dadndadn]

I have the Dish Tailgater in my unit. It is simple to get the signal distribution using the existing wiring in the camper, if it was originally wired to either share the antenna or the cable from the campground. If you let me know how your RV is setup in those regards, I can send you very detailed instructions on how to do this. A trick I learned on the Tailgater...if it stops working, which it may, it is because of a temperature change in the plastic housing, and the dish inside of it gets in a bind and will not move. Simply remove the screws that hold the top of the housing together off, the search your satellites out again. This allows the unit to move freely and find the satellites. After finding the satellites, there is very little movement between each of them, so you are safe to gently put the top back on. Dont worry about the screws while using it, it does overlap and is water tight. Then when done camping, just put the screws back in for when you are traveling. I leave the handle off of my unit just because of this issue. Also, on adding the usb hard drive to your receiver, it is a good idea if you camp at state parks or campgrounds with lots of trees, as you sometimes dont get a good signal and the satellite does not pickup anything. If you let the receiver record a lot of shows you like while sitting at home, then you will have something to watch in the evening when camping. You wont be disappointed in the tailgater after you figure all the little tricks to it out.

[1nshort]

For you dishers out there that want to add a USB drive to your unit might I suggest you purchase an Enterprise hard drive. It is designed to withstand the heat of running 24/7. I use several hundred of that type at work and in 6 years have only had a few fail. Normal hard drives found in computers are made too run for periods of time and be off for a good bit, they do not handle running 24 hours a day continuously, and yes, they do cost more. So your choice here is do you want cheap or reliability....you get what you pay for.

1nshort