Dish-Satellite... to Roku-Streaming?

[Jim & Alice]

I have had a “Dish Satellite Traveler” on the Motorhome for years, works fine.   We recently decided to install a RV Port (Cover), and will lose my Dish Satellite Signals when we park under it.   I do have a robust Wifi.   I am looking at moving TV viewing from Dish to internet Streaming services… and am pondering a Roku device plugged into my Samsung TV (HDMI), and trying the ‘Fubo’ streaming services for TV channels that we currently watch.

Anyone been thru this before?   Any advice to offer?   Thanks in advance!

[Twotoes]

If you want to keep your Dish sat system you could always mount a permanent dish on the roof of the  RV Port. 

[docj]

We dropped DirecTV six months ago and use YouTubeTV exclusively..  Since you are doing this at your own property you probably have access to a fixed internet connection (cable or fiber). If that's the case I wouldn't think twice about making the change to streaming.  If you have to use cellular internet connections, the question is more problematic.  However, as long as you have more than one connection to rely on you should be Ok,  We use several cellular connections plus a park WiFi in a Load Balancing router to keep us connected.

 

[GlennWest]

We have dish but have not used it now for a year or better. Bought a ROKU device and never looked back. 

[Second Chance]

We're still using a combination of Dish (with a Pathway X2 antenna to get around the obstruction issues) and a Roku TV for NetFlix, Prime Video, and several of the other offerings. I have considered YouTube TV (we have unlimited data on a Verizon Mi-Fi), but sometimes find ourselves in places where the cellular signal or bandwidth won't support streaming. We'll gladly reconsider if our situation changes someday.

Rob

[Jim & Alice]

12 hours ago, Twotoes said:

If you want to keep your Dish sat system you could always mount a permanent dish on the roof of the  RV Port. 

Thought about that, Twotoes, but that would require a cable link from the permanent dish to the Motorhome's Dish system.   I am looking for something less involved.

[Jim & Alice]

DocJ... GlennWest... Second Chance... Thanks for the response, guys!   Yes, DocJ, I do have a reliable CenturyLink Internet Wifi into our lot.   Been excellent for years now.   And it appears to me that 'streaming' will be the wave of the future...    I will keep our Dish account for when we are in locations not served by Hi speed WiFi (about half the year).

Again, thanks for the feedback, Guys - I will try to put up a post on this with what we end up doing... and how it is working.

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

I now have a fiber connection 100 Mbs and could stream like crazy but still use Dish for most of our TV activity because the enhanced program guide and other features.  Streaming looks interesting but by the time you get all the channels that I use with Dish, my subscription bill would be almost as high.  It would be nice if there was a common program guide for all the streaming services.  It is a matter of choices and a solution for one is not the solution for another.

When we had our trailer built, we added coax feeds for a ground tripod dish.  We still had that option when we got the Trav'ler roof dish.  When we were in winter residence in Texas we use a dish mounted on the Coach House feeding into the trailer because a tree blocked the Trav'ler  on our lot.  When we bought the motorhome, I added an external coax input for the ground tripod dish because we still used it a couple of times a year.

[trailertraveler]

20 hours ago, Jim & Alice said:

am pondering a Roku device plugged into my Samsung TV (HDMI), and trying the ‘Fubo’ streaming services for TV channels that we currently watch.

I have been using a Roku TV, Roku premiere and Roku Ultra with a fairly large number of free streaming services and apps. I recommend the Ultra or any other device that has an ethernet connection and 5G wifi. When using a cellular connection, I tether the cellular device to the router and connect the Roku to the router by ethernet. This eliminates wifi hops and seems to reliably give better speed to the 'Roku which improves the streaming experience. If you are in a park/campground with robust enough wifi and 5G access points, the 5g is often less crowded and much faster. As we travel, we have found some areas that have a wifi system with an SSID of cablewifi. Subscribers  to a number of high speed internet providers can log into these hotspots using their provider credentials. If your high speed internet provider has a hotspot system, you may be able to use that in some commercial parks. I see Xfinity, Cox and Spectrum hotspots quite often in parks with park models or long term stays. We have an Xfinity account and have had good luck with using their hotspots at times.

If you have cable TV, check apps like Netflix, ABC, NBC, Fox, , History, A&E and many others to see if you can log into them for free with your cable TV provider credentials. Xfinity gives us access to many with CBS being the one major network exception (they want a separate membership). Also check out some of the free streaming services like Pluto, Tubi, Crackle, and Filmrise. Locast can provide free streaming access to local OTA stations in some areas of the country.

We do not have an unlimited cellular hotspot account, so once throttling kicks in streaming is limited to on device viewing. Our Samsung android phones and tablet do not have the capability to connect to the TV by cable as iphones do. They do have a feature called Smart View which can be used with the Roku devices to view what is streaming on the device on the TV. No network connection is needed as it is with casting. The device connects directly to the Roku by wifi.  Smart View seems to require a faster cellular connection than to just view on the devise. Because it uses both the wifi and cellular radios in the phone/tablet, using Smart View draws down the battery pretty quickly. The phone/tablet can also shutdown to prevent overheating, especially if you connect it to a charger or use a Wilson Sleek to boost the cellular signal.

Hope this helps!

Edited June 7, 2020 by trailertraveler

[Jim & Alice]

16 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

Hope this helps!

Thanks, trailertraveler!   This is great help.   I especially noted your comments on:   Roku devices, 5G, Ethernet, and locast streaming.   I will check all these things out as I go along.   The immediate need will be to handle the loss of Dish due to a RV Port Cover being constructed that our MH will be parked under.   In this location (Wellton, AZ) we are serviced by Centurylink for WiFi coverage.   Other locations that we stay throughout the year generally have fee-based WiFi that I may (or may not) also use the streaming service.   Also, my wife is the TV watcher in our family.... and she is not very technically inclined... so simplicity of use (Streaming vs. Dish remote) will end up also being a factor as to what gets used where.

[GlennWest]

I should add, we have prepaid Verizon unlimited. It is not offered anymore unfortunately. We are grandfathered in.

[Jim & Alice]

27 minutes ago, GlennWest said:

I should add, we have prepaid Verizon unlimited. It is not offered anymore unfortunately. We are grandfathered in.

Yep, really does make a difference to me - I have an 'unlimited' Verizon that throttles down at 15 GB.    And it really does throttle down.   I keep it for traveling purposes.   Glad you have one that is grandfathered in.

[bobsallyh]

Jim and Alice, we don't have a port on our lot in the Foothills, but I just got a second dish, concreted in a steel pipe. I dug a shallow trench from the pipe to near the fiver. Then when we get back to the lot, I simply pull the cable up out of the sprinkler box I buried and hook it to the portable dish hookup on the fiver.

[docj]

9 hours ago, Jim & Alice said:

 Also, my wife is the TV watcher in our family.... and she is not very technically inclined... so simplicity of use (Streaming vs. Dish remote) will end up also being a factor as to what gets used where.

My wife also likes to have a simple TV interface and she is quite able to use the channel guide provided by YouTubeTV.  In actuality, it is little different from what she was accustomed to with DirecTV.  With the exception of HBO, every channel we watched on DirecTV is on it.  The only one that has been missing has been Comedy Central and it is being added later this summer.

When she turns on the TV in her sewing room it boots to the Roku home screen which gives her the option of YouTubeTV, Pandora and several of the other streaming channels we subscribe to (Acorn, Britbox, Amazon, etc).   She has no problem navigating those icons.

Edited June 8, 2020 by docj

[trailertraveler]

10 hours ago, Jim & Alice said:

so simplicity of use (Streaming vs. Dish remote) will end up also being a factor as to what gets used where.

Since we have an Xfinity account that provides access to the streaming channels we use, we do not have a separate subscription to You Tube TV. Unfortunately the Xfinity App only works on the Roku devises I have when they are attached to the Xfinity router (Wifi or ethernet). I have no idea how it knows, but it does. The Xfinity app does work on the phone and tablet, but knows if you try to use the Smart View feature to project to the TV and will not allow this.  So, we use each channels' app. We have to use the Xfinity channel guide or the TV Guide app on the phone or tablet to see what is on the live broadcast/streaming channels if we do not know the schedule. 

Edited June 8, 2020 by trailertraveler

[Jim & Alice]

14 hours ago, bobsallyh said:

Jim and Alice, we don't have a port on our lot in the Foothills, but I just got a second dish, concreted in a steel pipe. I dug a shallow trench from the pipe to near the fiver. Then when we get back to the lot, I simply pull the cable up out of the sprinkler box I buried and hook it to the portable dish hookup on the fiver.

Bobsallyh, one of the mistakes I made when we bought our (great) motorhome, was to have a new Traveler Dish installed on the roof, but only feeding a new HD TV that I installed in the living room.   That means I don't have an external portable Dish hookup.   Many times have I regretted that mistake!   Thanks for the thought.

[Jim & Alice]

14 hours ago, docj said:

My wife also likes to have a simple TV interface and she is quite able to use the channel guide provided by YouTubeTV.  In actuality, it is little different from what she was accustomed to with DirecTV.  With the exception of HBO, every channel we watched on DirecTV is on it. 

That is good to know, Docj.   I anticipate the most difficult task in this move is going to be 'managing change'.   The more I can make it look procedurally like Dish, the easier things are going to go.   If I can make this automatically power up to the Roku screen (channel menu), I think that will be half the battle.   At the moment we are without Centurylink WiFi while our Lot construction is being completed, but as soon as I have WiFi service restored I plan on having the Roku devices ready to go, having started the streaming contract(s), and (even) having read the manuals.   Then I can  jump on the transition from Dish to Roku Streaming.... 

[docj]

8 hours ago, Jim & Alice said:

 I anticipate the most difficult task in this move is going to be 'managing change'.

One feature we especially like about YouTube TV's user interface is that you can re-order the channels in the guide and can even disable those you know you will never watch.  That way, alll the shows you are interested in show up at the top of the guide.

[dewilso]

I’ve used YouTube TV for a few months, replacing my Dish account, on a Roku stick. I am usually using a Visible phone as a hotspot. Last month we streamed 136GB. My only complaints are the remote control really sucks, sometimes it acts on a button push, sometimes it won’t. I also get buffering a couple times a day. This happens whether I’m connected to Visible, or a hard line DSL. I suspect it’s YouTube, not the Roku or internet as it doesn’t seem to happen on other Roku channels or apps or what ever you call them. Most hated is the Remote.

[docj]

3 hours ago, dewilso said:

I’ve used YouTube TV for a few months, replacing my Dish account, on a Roku stick. I am usually using a Visible phone as a hotspot. Last month we streamed 136GB. My only complaints are the remote control really sucks, sometimes it acts on a button push, sometimes it won’t. I also get buffering a couple times a day. This happens whether I’m connected to Visible, or a hard line DSL. I suspect it’s YouTube, not the Roku or internet as it doesn’t seem to happen on other Roku channels or apps or what ever you call them. Most hated is the Remote.

Are you using your remote in IR mode or with radio frequency (RF) control?  We use all our Rokus with RF control and don't have any problems.

As for the buffering issue, I agree that it appears as if YouTube TV has more problems with this than do Netflix and some other "channels".  When a slowdown in your internet speed is detected the video stream is supposed to be reduced in resolution to avoid rebuffering.  That's why the picture can become "grainy."  YouTube TV can do this, as can all the other channels, but I don't think its process for doing so is as sophisticated or as rapid as, for example, what Netflix uses.

Edited June 10, 2020 by docj

[dewilso]

Is RF or IR a choice, or different remote? 

[GlennWest]

Youtube looks too much like sattelite to me. 

[Jim & Alice]

10 hours ago, docj said:

One feature we especially like about YouTube TV's user interface is that you can re-order the channels in the guide and can even disable those you know you will never watch.  That way, alll the shows you are interested in show up at the top of the guide.

DocJ. that could make a significant difference for my wife.   We are in the process of recording the channels we watch on Dish... and will use that list to determine the optimal Streaming lineup.      Thanks for letting me know about that ability (re-order channels) on YouTube.

[docj]

16 hours ago, dewilso said:

Is RF or IR a choice, or different remote? 

As far as I know it's the same remote.  For the "stick" type of Roku, which hang on the back of the TV, only RF is used.  Only the Rokus that have "consoles", such as the Ultra, can be used with IR AFAIK

FWIW we recently replaced a Roku Streaming Stick+ with a Roku Ultra to see if it would improve WiFi performance.  It was really difficult to determine beforehand if the Ultra was going to provide much, if any, better performance with anything else.  To our surprise the Utra is much faster in acquiring channels or switching between them.  I've now gone ahead and ordered another Ultra to replace the aging Roku Premier on our other TV.

[Jim & Alice]

Got er' done... summary:

Just to wrap up our experience - We moved our Motorhome under our new RV Port, love it, quite happy with it.   We had Centurylink WiFi in place prior.   Bought a Roku Ultra device (Amazon), hooked it up to TV (HDMI), linked Roku Ultra Device WiFi to our Home Centurylink network.    After successful linkup, We took advantage of the many, many "7-day free trials of channels & programs.   I would mention, for us, the quality of video & audio is excellent - there is 'some'variation between streaming providers, tho.   We settled on Fubo with "Fubo Extra" add-on to receive all the programming that we (wife) wanted.   I want to thank all that commented a couple months back - it made the whole process go smoothly, and come to a successful conclusion!

  

Edited August 13, 2020 by Jim & Alice