Anyone cruising and using Dish TV?

My wife and I plan to leave in a few months on our 42 ft trawler and do the great loop. We have started researching Internet and television options. I have found adequate level of information on StarLink here. I hadn’t even thought of it as an option but I went to a tailgating party with a friend this past weekend at a college football game and he set up his Dish TV receiver and flatscreen under the tent easily quickly and he says always dependably. I understand they have a configuration made for RVs but also used for boats? According to him those have sensors that keep it searching more regularly for the proper satellites given the boats motion. I just tried to do a search here and didn’t really find much of anything on DISH as an option which makes me think it isn’t worth my investigation? Are any of you using it or know those that have? If so I would love your thoughts as to whether this is an option we should consider.

I have a friend who uses DirectTV. He has to turn it off when he's not using it or else the satellite hunts at anchor and kills his batteries. I had a neighbor that used to complain about the noise of the motor and put his on a rubber pad to deaden the sound.

I stream, and the hotspot data and avaialability is limited. We're looking into Starlink for next year, but understand they are caged and once out of your established region lose connection. I'd like to hear more about that portion myself.

I have a DirectTv marine grade sat dish. If you have a dirt home account you piggy back off that plan for a nominal price, I believe around $5 per month. But the hardware cost was high. It works well overall. With the advent of Starlink, I wouldn’t consider Dish or DTV as viable anymore.

Fletcher500 said:

I have a DirectTv marine grade sat dish. If you have a dirt home account you piggy back off that plan for a nominal price, I believe around $5 per month. But the hardware cost was high. It works well overall. With the advent of Starlink, I wouldn’t consider Dish or DTV as viable anymore.

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I wouldn’t say Dish or DTV aren’t viable, but perhaps you meant aren’t necessary given the cost?

Streaming with Starlink can be problematic. For example my YouTube tv was locked when being in Canada for example (crossing borders). Perhaps a proxy server could help solve that but they are aggressive enforcing. And Starlink can drop to 2mbs for me at times (they apologized) though presumably it will get better.

I have satellite Direct TV and while I wouldn’t spend the $$ to install it today, I will keep the service active (depending on guests as I don’t want TV very often).

I have dish network with an intellian dish. Feel free to pm me.

Crossing borders can be challenging with any of the choices. We have Dish TV and it shuts off in Canada, so we had to get a Canadian Bell TV box also.

Our Intellian Dish equipment was installed in 2018 and was the best available choice for us at the time. I can’t imagine installing one now, with Starlink streaming available. I haven’t cancelled the Dish service yet but we are close. The choices for streaming over Starlink or other connection are very good, and we can eliminate a monthly bill and some hardware by dropping Dish.

First, I prefer streaming over Dish or DirectTV, but the question is about Sat TV.

You have a choice of Direct or Dish and you have a choice of high Def or Standard.

If you want High Def TV the better choice is Dish. High Def on Dish can be obtained with a smaller cheaper dish.

DirectTV announced the discontinuation of standard broadcast. When they will actually turn it off is unknown but when they do there will be a lot of worthless satellites receivers.

I cruised for several years with an Intellian 3 using Dish in High Def. It worked great but had some funny limitations. There are 3 satellites in the Dish network, you can only watch one satellite at a time. This means if I wanted to record two programs at the same time they both had to bE on the same satellite. If they were not then I could only record one.

When using satellite TV changing channels takes 5-15 seconds.

My only real complaint, and reason for ending satellite service, was content supplied. I do not subscribe to Hulu, DirectTV, YoutubeTV or any other live service provider. I just don’t watch TV that way anymore. With satellite, Live TV is your only choice. If that works for you than Dish is a very viable answer.

guy with a boat said:

Crossing borders can be challenging with any of the choices. We have Dish TV and it shuts off in Canada, so we had to get a Canadian Bell TV box also.

Our Intellian Dish equipment was installed in 2018 and was the best available choice for us at the time. I can’t imagine installing one now, with Starlink streaming available. I haven’t cancelled the Dish service yet but we are close. The choices for streaming over Starlink or other connection are very good, and we can eliminate a monthly bill and some hardware by dropping Dish.

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I never experienced this. My Dish worked all through Canada and into Alaska. However, it’s possible that the newer control boxes have built in GPS.

I was a bit surprised to find my Roku unit worked well in Canada as well.

guy with a boat said:

Crossing borders can be challenging with any of the choices. We have Dish TV and it shuts off in Canada, so we had to get a Canadian Bell TV box also.

Our Intellian Dish equipment was installed in 2018 and was the best available choice for us at the time. I can’t imagine installing one now, with Starlink streaming available. I haven’t cancelled the Dish service yet but we are close. The choices for streaming over Starlink or other connection are very good, and we can eliminate a monthly bill and some hardware by dropping Dish.

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I agree about not installing one now unless streaming versus starlink is problematic.

Which Intellian? I have a TracVision UHD7, which is 4K with DTV and it says it is compatible with Bell, but not 4K then. Just curious about your experience with Bell. Or how far north from Seattle I can get and still be allowed to watch 4K DTV.

Another expensive not needed satellite dish, my KVH TracPhone V7HTS - 10 Mbps system. Depreciated from $$$ in 2019 to ???

But hey, the domes match.

I have used a Dish tailgater antenna for three years. I pay under $10 for the r/v box/receiver, which is an additional cost of the household service charge. As noted above, disconnect the power to the box while you cruise or you will limit the life of the dome (I learned this the hard way). In a heavy wind, or rain, I will loose the signal at the dock. Rare, but it happens. This system would not work at anchor. I just got the T mobile hotspot and this works fantastic-to the point I have not hooked up my Starlink yet. We're paying about $15 for the hotspot with our t mobile account. I will start the Starlink service when I start to cruise full time.

Capt. Rodbone said:

My wife and I plan to leave in a few months on our 42 ft trawler and do the great loop. We have started researching Internet and television options. I have found adequate level of information on StarLink here...

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I have not done this but I have known people who had a home in the US with cable service while they were living in a second home overseas. I believe they were using Sling to watch US programs, from their US home, while they lived overseas. This might be an option to investigate.



Later,
Dan

bowball said:

I agree about not installing one now unless streaming versus starlink is problematic.

Which Intellian? I have a TracVision UHD7, which is 4K with DTV and it says it is compatible with Bell, but not 4K then. Just curious about your experience with Bell. Or how far north from Seattle I can get and still be allowed to watch 4K DTV.

Another expensive not needed satellite dish, my KVH TracPhone V7HTS - 10 Mbps system. Depreciated from $$$ in 2019 to ???

But hey, the domes match.

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We have an Intellian I6 antenna and boxes for both Dish HD and Bell TV. The whole setup has been almost more trouble than it is worth, but part of that is that we kept changing locations (and countries). Seems like we were always changing boxes or satellite settings or having some issue with being out of area for whatever we wanted to do.

Dish worked in Florida but barely or not at all in the Bahamas. It all worked in Anacortes WA but wouldn't work in Sidney BC. I called tech support (Dish) and they said they don't provide service outside of the US so couldn't/wouldn't help. I still don't know if the actual problem was due to location or if it was unrelated problems and just unsupported by Dish.

Canadian Bell TV works fine but is another account, another box and different settings. Content naturally targets the majority of their customers so it's easier to find hockey and CFL than some of the sporting events that I might prefer.

Even though I already paid for the Intellian setup, I'm looking forward to going to all streaming with Starlink. It just is simpler and the choices of content are unlimited. I can't imagine writing the check now to install sat TV when other choices are better and far less expensive.

Sat TV feels almost as obsolete as our KVH V3 sat voice/data system that is now an expensive paperweight after KVH killed the service (7 year old unit). That equipment will all be removed from our boat and go in the dumpster where it belongs. That will leave an empty dome into which I'll be moving the Starlink dish. Out with the old and in with the new. RIP KVH.

guy with a boat said:

Even though I already paid for the Intellian setup, I'm looking forward to going to all streaming with Starlink. It just is simpler and the choices of content are unlimited. I can't imagine writing the check now to install sat TV when other choices are better and far less expensive.

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This is my feeling. I currently have a Dish/I3 set up but it’s turned off. I have been using a cell hotspot set up for streaming. Since Canada was closed do to Covid I just had no need for the Sat system. Now that Canada is open I plan to switch to Starlink and drop the Cell hotspot system.

Tiltrider -

How did the cell system work for you? I ask because we purchased our boat (new to us) with a wifi extender and cell hotspot installed. We have used the wifi extender with great success thus far, but have not exercised the cell hotspot yet.

Highland Mist said:

Tiltrider -

How did the cell system work for you? I ask because we purchased our boat (new to us) with a wifi extender and cell hotspot installed. We have used the wifi extender with great success thus far, but have not exercised the cell hotspot yet.

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The cell system worked great in the US. My plan does not work in Canada. My experience is that after Blind Channel cell service is mostly non existent. I found that most marinas have good WiFi. I streamed all over the Gulf Islands with little trouble. I suspect that come next season I will have Starlink.

My boating is east coast. Florida to ny. I have kvh tv5 with dish network . I get hd programming. We tried direct tv but the picture quality is so low on hd tvs that its un watchable. The sd on dish is better than dirct tv also.

Dish uses 3 satellites if you want the hd, Make sure you set the kvh system to ( i forget the actual setting) to not switch back to the sd equivalent after a certain period of hunting. If not it will time out and switch to sd automatically. Once your locked in to the satellite, switching from hd to hd channels works well. We normally turn off the kvh at the end of the evening or it will go into hunt mode when the reciver turns off. Spinning away all night. There seems to be no way to connect the tv reciver and the kvh switched together . Tv system is 110v and the kvh is 12v dc. I had tv3 on my last boat and it worked well . The higher the number the bigger the dish. Better and farther out reception.

I've had really good luck with my KVH Satellite dish connected Dish Network. At the time, it was only $5 more per month to get an additional receiver box on the boat (maybe more now). Just connected and we got all the same channels as we did at home. If you don't already have an "in motion" satellite dish that moves with the boat to lock and keep the signal, watch ebay and other sites (including this one) to purchase the tracking satellite dish (used) as a new one will set you back quite a bit. Of course there are other options now besides satellite.

Dish TV

I was able to use Dish in the Abacos. I used a unit called follow me, in which you set the azimuth according to your lattitude and then a servo motor could be used to tune into the satellite. I don't see it for sale any more. If you are tech savvy and use it only while docked or quite stationary, you could get away with just an ordinary satellite dish. You just have to align it every time.

Shrew said:

I stream, and the hotspot data and avaialability is limited. We're looking into Starlink for next year, but understand they are caged and once out of your established region lose connection. I'd like to hear more about that portion myself.

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Our Starlink worked all the way from Olympia, WA, up to just South of Petersburg, AK
That's the only cage we found . . . and it's supposed to be expanded in 2023 . . .

However, rumor has it that with the new firmware update, the in motion reception will go away if you travel faster than 10 to 15 mph . . . . Lucky for us we travel at 7.5 kts!
We tried T-mobile hotspot . . . sucked in Canada, and didn't work at all for us in Alaska, so we cancelled the service. ATnT mobile hotspot was very "spotty" for reception . . . we use as a backup/last resort.
I've seen lots of "Trac Vision" and Direct TV dishes for sale from people who went to Starlink . . ..

Just out of curiosity, what does Direct TV charge monthly for their service?

For those of us who cruise south to Mexico we used to get Dish tracking 77 West. It was flawless as far as we went down to Puerto Vallarta. It has been shut down now so there are no U.S. stations being broadcast for boats down there. For this trip we have set up Starlink and were able to put the dishy in the empty KVH M7 dome and it is working great. We have heard from cruising friends already down there that so far Starlink is working well. So as of now your only US TV option will be Starlink. If you have a Mexican address and can purchase a SKY Mexico receiver and an LNB to replace the Direct TV one then you can get Mexican TV and maybe some movie packages.

We are ditching DTV

Having been DirecTV customers for years in our home and on our boat we are pulling the plug. The installation of Starlink had transforming our cruising.

First the content on DTV is not much more than advertising and bad movies and tv shows.

Second the coverage is spotty. We were in Halifax NS this summer and the signal was unwatchable. We were in Georgetown Bahamas I the spring and DTV wa dead.

This spring we installed a Starlink. 150-300 mb/s download speed when at anchor or off shore. The only time we lost connection was in the Gulf of Maine on the passage from Cape Cod to Cape Sable. Once we were within 20 miles of a cell tower it was back.

Starlink allows us to use the internet just as we do in the living room of our home in Utah. And that says nothing about the upload speeds which are just as fast!

We installed the antenna in one of the two domes on the mast. One has the KLH antenna inside and now the other has the Starlink. Super clean install.

DTV generally works fine, but their customer service is terrible if you have a problem and it has been for years. They knew these new technologies were on the horizon so they stopped investing in the infrastructure and keep spending down at every level. There really is no good reason to get DTV or Dish with Starlink available. And 5 or so years from now we will be talking about a new gizmo to replace Starlink.

DISH tv

We have the KVH TV6 dome and DISH tv works pretty well for us. The antenna is expensive, however I bought the equipment "used" from maxmarine electronics in FL for about one third the price of new. The equipment was basically new so quite satisfied with that. DISH is a US service so it doesn't work that far into Canada. On the east coast I lost service somewhere between Halifax and North Sydney in NS. If you want coverage in Canada, Bell TV works with this antenna. Once you absorb the cost of installation, the monthly cost is only $5 added to my home DISH plan. I'm not sure how this will develop and I am evaluating Starlink. However for now the DISH solution works well and relieves some of the stress on the 100gb cell router plan that we have for internet service. Maybe Starlink will make this an obsolete system, but I will continue with it for another year or two while Starlink works out the kinks.