Internet TV Streaming Options?

[Mike Groves]

All,

Since we've purchased our vacation RV lot at Pacific Shores, and we've also purchased hi-speed (60Mbps) internet, we thought we might cancel our Dish Subscription, purchase Comcast at home (we now have Dish), then use the On the Go app or some other technology to basically beam our Comcast subscription over the internet to our location at Pacific Shores.

What are others using for internet video?  I like FOX News, and my wife likes BBC America so these are necessities for us (well for both of us to be happy!).  I've read here about Roku, for example, but how's the pricing?  If we dumped Comcast at home and simply used Roku for both locations, what might we pay for services? 

Any experience would be helpful!

Mike

[Larry Williams]

Did you know you can stream the dish network with Dish Anywhere if you have the right receiver at home? It requires a hopper or an older 722K with the sling adapter. You can watch anything from your receiver over internet. If you don't have that receiver, you can still watch On Demand things with Dish Anywhere. If you subscribe to Blockbuster online you get all of Stars on demand too. Check it out. They have versions of Dish Anywhere for PC, and Android and iphone.

[John Hennessey]

In order to see most channels on Roku you must have a current subscription to a carrier that covers that channel. For example Dish does not participate in the Roku Disney channel even though it is on their satellite network. Check to make sure the channels you want participate with your provider.

[William Jordan]

A choice you might have is sling box .. Since you have a great internet connection the sling box will control your home tuner just like your there and send it over the Internet to you. Anything you can see at your home receiver including your DVR content  can be sent to your RV. Of course if anyone is at home still,  they can't use the tuner / cable box as you are using it ( or they have to watch what you are :-) )
Nothing out there yet will stream all the content especially over the air programming. Can't you receive OTA programming on the Newport repeaters ?

[Larry Williams]

A choice you might have is sling box .. Since you have a great internet connection the sling box will control your home tuner just like your there and send it over the Internet to you. Anything you can see at your home receiver including your DVR content  can be sent to your RV. Of course if anyone is at home still,  they can't use the tuner / cable box as you are using it ( or they have to watch what you are :-) )

That is basically what Dish Anywhere is doing. The hopper or 722K with sling adapter both have a sling box as part of the receiver. Dish Network now owns Sling and have incorporated one them into their newest devices.

[Bill Stireman]

We use Roku all the time but we can not get Fox and Friends or CNN on Roku.  Only on cable.

Bill Stireman
'04 Beaver Monterey Laguna
400 HP Cat

[Mike Groves]

Great info from all,

What we currently have at home is simply Comcast internet, and our Dish satellite using VIP-222k which drives one TV in HD for us, and then our daughter has an HDTV but its driven by the other output of the VIP-222k which is SD.  But kids watch online, and do stuff online mostly, and our son has a Netflix subscription which she "borrows".  In the coach we have another VIP-222k which we turn on when we're on the road.

Comcast internet is about $68/month and the Dish is $75/Month and we're now paying $30/month at the site in Newport and an additional $14/month for the 2nd VIP-222k when we're there - total $187. 

When we spend something extra, we have an unwritten rule that we try to save something, so that's what's brought us here.  Comcast offers the "Doubleplay" for just a bit more than the full internet price (about $85), and if we could simply stream that content to Newport, since we have a hi-speed pipe at either end of it, then we could actually have what we need, at least in Newport and at home, for less that we started with - total $115.  At least during the promotional period. 

So, based on the feedback here, I guess we'd need two receivers from Comcast, if we're controlling one (if we get the slingbox setup).  Or Comcast says we can stream content to our Samsung cell phone, and our Samsung DVD player in the coach has a feature where we can mirror our cell image to it, and therefore to the TV.  With all that data flying around, the idea of broadcasting the image from the cell phone to the DVD/TV seems like a lot going on and I wonder about the resolution.  As far as I know all of this data is moving within the router we have now at Newport - Pacific Shores.

In the past, no way could we use Comcast because we wanted the same programming on the road, but now, perhaps we can have Comcast, and the "satellite connection" is now replaced by the internet connection.  Obviously, if we're not in Newport, we'd not have a truly hi-speed connection so camping in other locations would be without all the programming unless we ran into an unusually good internet connection - which hasn't happened for us.

Then, we do have the OTA in Newport, as the repeaters get the major networks there.  But we do enjoy more choice.

Can slingbox connect directly to the TV we're watching on remotely or is it only for a computer or phone, like the Comcast anywhere?  Does the Roku connect to the TV and will is "talk" to Slingbox - does it have a Slingbox App?  Has anyone used that?  Is it HD?

Thanks!
Mike

[Joel Weiss]

The Roku connects to your TV via HDMI and to your wifi network which gives it internet access.  I assume the Slingbox also connects to the TV.

[Larry Williams]

The Sling box actually connects to your home device (Dish or comcast) and broadcasts the signal over the internet to an app on your tablet, phone or PC.  So you would need some way to get the video to your RV TV. The same is true of Dish Anywhere and probably comcast anywhere.  I don't thing roku has an app for sling or dish anywhere, but it may have a browser to connect to dish anywhere.  I use an hdmi adapter for my tablet.

[Joel Weiss]

The Sling box actually connects to your home device (Dish or comcast) and broadcasts the signal over the internet to an app on your tablet, phone or PC.  So you would need some way to get the video to your RV TV. The same is true of Dish Anywhere and probably comcast anywhere.  I don't thing roku has an app for sling or dish anywhere, but it may have a browser to connect to dish anywhere.  I use an hdmi adapter for my tablet.

If the Slingbox stream displays on laptop then I think you ought to be able to use a Chromecast to "throw" the signal to the TV.

[William Jordan]

This may not apply, but a few years ago The stand alone slingbox ( i have no idea how Dish does it) Had Two boxes one that is connected at home to your home tv " receiver" via HDMI cable and ir transmitter for the remote control of the tuner dvr be it  directv comcast ,whatever. Also a smaller receiver box that connects in your RV to the TV and your internet. The Rv box acts to display HDMI on the TV and send signals to the home setup. (your "remote control") once you buy the equipment there are no fees. With the advent of apps for tablets and phones they may now just offer that.

[Larry Williams]

Ok, I think I have the scoop now. The prior user was right, there used to be both a sling box and a slingcatcher available.  Both were hardware boxes, one to connect to your receiver and one to hook to a remote TV. Sling has discontinued the slingcatcher now that tablets and apps are available. Now you do the receiving end with an app for your tablet that is capable of sending that signal to on to a roku or Chromecast device hooked to your RV TV. Roku has an app to interface with the tablet app. I don't know much about chromecast devices, but I think it is similar. Dish Anywhere does not have the roku or chromecast interface (yet).

[Mike Groves]

Thanks all and here's an update on Comcast and its ACTUAL COST versus what they told my wife on the phone.

As I'd said, we had Dish and were paying $75/month plus another $14/month when using it in the coach, and added to our Comcast internet at $65/month that was a total of $154.  The Dish subscription included no movie channels at all.  When my wife spoke with Comcast, she got us basically everything they had for the reputed price of $110/month - quite a savings if you consider our plan of simply using the Comcast anywhere via our high speed wifi with Charter at our Pacific Shores lot when there on vacation.  So at $110, adding the $30/month Charter bill we have hi-speed in both home and vacation home at less than we're paying before, and we have all the movie premium channels.  Too good to be true right?!!  RIGHT!

So, once we get it running, we get our first look at the bill and $18 has been added on to the bill for those taxes and fees these companies are all too willing to leave out of their offers.

And then, the real kicker, we bought their PREMIER PACKAGE, and my wife is English, so to her (and also to me) when you say PREMIER PACKAGE that's got to be your Number 1 Package - Crème de la Crème, right?  Oh, its only STANDARD DEFINITION....lol  wow!

Ok, so you have to pay another $10/month to get HD on the package...So, now were at $138.  But as my wife is quick to point out, we do have all the movie channels and evidently everything else we had with Dish, so we're didn't recover all of our hi-speed monthly cost on the coast but about half of it, so not bad.

I've ordered an Android to HDMI cable, since we've tried casting our phone picture to the TV while also using the same wireless connection to get live video from Comcast and the picture is jittery.  Hopefully the cable will work.

I've read that slingbox WILL NOT transmit the full 5.1 surround sound data, so since I spent money on the new surround sound in the coach and it sounds really good, I am hoping to have the surround sound through the phone, but maybe that's not going to happen.  We'll see.

Thanks again for the input.

For owners at Pacific Shores, we're going down on the Friday of Owner's Week (leaving the following Monday).  Anyone else going?  We're at Lot 53.  We'd love to meet other BAC members if you're down there.

Mike

[David T. Richelderfer]

Hey, one of my pet peeves has always been the FACT that sellers of goods and services in many cases do not cite the ACTUAL COST of purchasing their goods and services.  Go to McDonalds in Washington, for example.  Order something that shows its cost is $1.00, throw down a $1.00 bill on the counter, and they want $1.07 or some such thing.  I tell them almost every time their board above the till says $1.00, not $1.07.  They say the extra is for taxes.  I say they should include the taxes on the board so I know what the ACTUAL COST is.  They're all fricken idiots... and by far the worst is the incompetents in our government.

[Edward Buker]

Mike,

We use Dish on the road and we get HD and Dolby Digital in the RV after handling the HDMI cabling issues that the RV lacked. We simply grab our DVR receiver from home and it is all programmed to record the shows we like and we can "hop through commercials" at the press of a button. When we leave home it is seamless as far as unwatched episodes and movies because they come with us.

Dish via satellite leaves us not having to worry about campground wifi infrastructure and bandwidth issues. You could try and stream and record  late at night for the next day I guess. If you were to have cable internet at each site in the park this option would work but that is pretty rare and there are fees.

As multiple people stream over wifi the bandwidth is used up readily and the whole wifi network becomes a marginal source for this kind of video streaming. Just curious what is provided at each Pacific Shores site for internet and if you are relying on wifi and how is it working out? Just can't imagine that wifi would be reliable for live streaming of things like the news real time.

Later Ed