Tripod or Automatic Dome Setups?

[reubenray]

I am still undecided on whether to do a tripod setup or get the Winegard Playmaker instead to use when my Trav'ler is blocked by trees while traveling in my RV. I will be using this with a single Wally plus an EHD and they are both about the same cost. I already have a LNB for the Eastern arc. If I have to get an expensive signal meter for the tripod then it will be more $$.

I would like the ease of sitting the Playmaker out there and letting it do its thing. I got pretty good with setting up the tripod when I had Directv, but being Dish has three satellites to find this may be harder. Will it be? What would be the advantage of using a tripod vs the Playmaker? I can get both Eastern and Western arcs with both of them. Will the PQ be any different?

From what I understand with the Playmaker I can only record one channel at a time vs recording two channels with a tripod setup. Is this correct? I am not concerned with getting the locals from Dish, being I will be using the OTA adapter for them.

 

[NYDutch]

The Playmaker only gets the western arc sats, plus the 61.5 sat on the eastern arc, meaning you pretty much need a clear view to both arcs when the 129 sat is blocked. The Pathway X2 on the other hand, gets the full eastern and western arc sats as needed. Aiming a tripod mounted 1000.2 western arc triple LNB is no harder than dialing in a single sat LNB, since once the skew is correctly set, that's basically what you do. The LNB is peaked on the center of the three sats, and that puts the other two in the correct position. Using a good meter that identifies the satellites makes the job go pretty quickly once you have a clear view location. There are advantages with either setup, as well as disadvantages, as you know.

 

[reubenray]

For a fraction of the cost from TV4RV I found an used Dish 1000.2 dish with a Western arc DPP LNB on Ebay that I will get to try out. I have an Eastern arc LNB already that my Dish installer gave me when he set up Dish at my house. If I have to much trouble setting it up at home I will get the Winegard Playmaker.

 

[NYDutch]

If you end up going automatic, the Pathway X2 is a better choice than the Playmaker. The X2 receives the entire eastern arc, as well as the western arc, giving you the full arc choice on treed sites. We've been on many sites where we couldn't even get a peek at the western arc, but the eastern arc was an easy shot. Other sites of course, are the other way around, and some are open enough that other factors can be used for arc choice, like which arc has the HD locals, etc.

 

[reubenray]

If you end up going automatic, the Pathway X2 is a better choice than the Playmaker. The X2 receives the entire eastern arc, as well as the western arc, giving you the full arc choice on treed sites. We've been on many sites where we couldn't even get a peek at the western arc, but the eastern arc was an easy shot. Other sites of course, are the other way around, and some are open enough that other factors can be used for arc choice, like which arc has the HD locals, etc.

With the Pathway X2 and only one cable connection being used will I still be restricted to being able to record one channel only?

Also I will be staying at a campground that you did a review on on our next trip. It is Little Cedar Campground.

 

[Brussam]

Any dome is one satellite at a time. One satellite can have multiple channels.

 

[NYDutch]

With the Pathway X2 and only one cable connection being used will I still be restricted to being able to record one channel only?

Also I will be staying at a campground that you did a review on on our next trip. It is Little Cedar Campground.

Yep, as Brussam said, all the domes restrict you to one satellite at a time, and the single LNB's used on the domes will not activate the second tuner on a Wally. Only a DPP or DPH multi-sat LNB on a 1000.2 or 1000.4 dish will do that.

Little Cedar Creek is a nice smaller campground with really friendly folks in the office, but I can't help with any satellite info for that location. Since we only overnight there, we stream our TV watching with DishAnywhere and other apps on our FireTVstick. The Columbia locals are good OTA though.

 

[reubenray]

A neighbor of mine has a complete 1000.2 dish with the Western arc LNB's he is giving to me. I can play around with it to see how hard it is to setup and then decide it I want to go the automatic dish route.