New 4100 King -- Hopper or Genie?

[pcardoza]

Hi All!

We took delivery of our shiny new Cyclone 4100 King yesterday. Looking at satellite options and any advice would be welcomed. I don't really care whether it's DISH or DirecTV, but would want the Genie or Hopper setup, depending which. I would use a portable, tripod mounted dish.

The Cyclone has three coax inputs in the utility bin. The furthest left works with the park cable, so I assume the other two are for satellite? We have 4 TV's - Main living room, bedroom garage and outside storage bin.

Has anyone installed a similar setup in their Cyclone? Recommendations would be welcomed with open arms!!!!

Thanks,
Paul Cardoza
2014 Cyclone 4100 King
Foxboro, MA

 

[danemayer]

Hi pcardoza,

Congratulations on your new Cyclone and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family.

There are lots of satellite considerations. I'm not sure how your Cyclone is pre-wired for satellite, so maybe another 4100 owner can tell you if the satellite wiring goes to each TV location. On Landmarks, as an example, even though there are 4 locations, satellite wiring goes to the living room and the bedroom. If you want it in the basement or to the outside entertainment center, you either need to run additional wiring or wireless transmitters/receivers.

You might want to take a look at our owner-written Getting Started with Satellite TV Guide. It explains some of the equipment considerations and will help you sort through some of the decisions.

Let me add that we've had some recent posts about Dish network and Wineguard's Pathway X2 dish which is supposed to allow you to watch 2 different programs on different receivers. People are having some difficulty making that work.

 

[jbeletti]

I have DirecTV and the Genie. But, if I were starting over, I'd try the Hooper from Dish. Reason being two-fold:

1. Their HD programming is on fewer satellites, allowing the portable dishes to be used and still get HD programming. Not possible to get HD programming from all satellites on DirecTV on portables at this time.

2. Dish "seems" to be more RVer friendly, especially as it relates to being able to call up and say "okay, I'm in this town now, give me the locals for here".

Jim

 

[Crumgater]

We have DirecTV and Genie at home, and take our mega-HD dish and an extra receiver with us when we tailgate. On the road, we don't need it as we hardly ever turn on the TV when out 'glamping' in the wilderness.

Jim's right, though, if you want to use one of the smaller, portable devices instead of the latest-greatest home-style dish and still get HD channels... Dish would be the better option.

We love our DirecTV, so we'll be stickin' with it. We've always had great customer service with them, too (over the last 16+ years).

If you do go DirecTV, be sure to get a referral from a current customer - it will save both of you $100 ($10/month for 10 months)!

 

[Bohemian]

We have the Genie and the Mini Genie. This is perfect for a camper and requires no additional new wiring to fully function in the RV. Works great. As far as HD antennas, yes, the portable automatic antennas do not get HD for Directv at this time A big disappointment. We will use the standard Directv HD antenna on a tripod and align manually. The settings are available of the web. Adjustments are not difficult.

I don't know anything about Dish beyond what is posted on the web

 

[scottyb]

We have Direct and Genie at home and like it pretty well. Their customer service is hands down better than Dish (long story). We use Dish in the RV on a pay as you play plan because we use a Tailgater, but it is only good for one Solo receiver.

 

[porthole]

Had Dish HD for 1 week before canceling - customer service stinks.

Been using Direct since then. As long as you are willing to be limited to either the automatic rooftop antenna or be comfortable with the dish and tripod setup to get HD service.

Personally, I like the flexibility of the DireTV DVR and genie system.

We had DTV installed at the house.
When we travel I take the main receiver with us. I leave one of the house's spare bedroom Genies in the trailer all season.

The DTV DVR Genie system is capable of 5 channels at one time, good for multiple recording options, and 100 hours (approximate) of HD recordings.
If in an area of no view of the satellites (trees) all of our recorded shows are available to watch.

The newer DTV stuff has RF capable remotes, great for mounting receivers in cabinets with our limited room. My receiver mounts vertically on a 2" by 2"
piece of angle behind the main TV.

To make the transition easier I got and use an extra remote and power cable (standard AC supply cord with the "figure 8" end).

The DTV system uses a "power inserter" to supply power to the dish, so along with replacing all the factory installed cable I added DTV branded power inserter and splitter in the basement.

Some of my experience is here
//heartlandowners.org/showthread.ph...t-disappointed?p=317228&viewfull=1#post317228