Satellite TV or No?

sarbog

Member
Aug 22, 2008
135
Emerald Isle NC
Boat Info
'05 340 Sundancer
Garmin 7610xsv
1951 Penn Yan 9' Aerodinghy/2018 AB 9vl w/ 15 hp Evinrude 2-strk
Engines
Twin 8.1 Horizons v-drives
I have to make a decision. Adding radar to my '05 340 in August. I am also pondering Satellite TV in the future. If I am going to add satellite at some point I'd rather just buy a dual radar mount now so that when ready I just add the KV type satellite dome. But..... do I really need or want satellite? In theory it's nice and I already have Dish at the beach house so it could be bundled. However, my TV watching, and it is limited, is almost exclusively in marinas while travelling the ICW. A satellite dish will also increase my clearance requirement for bridges. I have started to think that I could just upgrade my TV to a larger smart TV and just use Netflix or Amazon Prime for viewing. that has it's limitations as well though as marina WiFi is often hit or miss. I would greatly appreciate thoughts/advice from those who have gone down this same route. Thanks!
 
Kind of sounds like you are answering your own question. Really is a personal preference, how you spend time while you are on the boat.

Mark
 
My wife and I were considering the same thing for our 320. We just upgraded to unlimited data on our cellular devices and are going try live streaming for the season through Amazon Prime and our home cable app. We also plan on upgrading the TVs to receive digital over the air programming.

We boat mostly in an urban area with good cellular coverage. I know coastal Carolina may not be the same, but it might be worth considering if the marinas you use have good cell reception.

Curious us if anyone else has experience with this set up? We have a hard time justifying the satellite setup for the limited TV watching we do onboard.
 
We have Direct TV on the boat and we recently bought a new smart TV for the salon. The Netflix/Hulu/Amazon shows get the most air time now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The unlimited data plan and utilizing my iPhone as a hotspot has served us well. We either use Apple TV or the DishAnywhere app and mirror to the TV through the Apple TV. We can watch anything on the boat that we can at home.

Bennett
 
I initially was all in for the KV route. I have slowly been questioning it. Started to consider TV upgrades as a better use of the money and decided to seek advice. Glomex gets me good reception of local channels as is. I believe you all have pushed me passed my nagging doubts and smart TVs with WiFi it is.
Appreciate the advice and insight.
 
We put a KVH with Direct TV on the boat. Hardly ever use it. Not even once a year. For us and the way we live and boat it was a total waste of time. I'll see you mine.
 
We have Direct TV on the boat with a 40" 4K smart TV, we enjoy movies, I watch a little news and we have it tied into the stereo so it is on quite a bit streaming music....
 
Not sure if this is a new feature or not but I just noticed that Netflix allows you to download shows via their apps for viewing offline. That's a game changer as you don't need to rely on Wi-Fi when you are out on the hook. Just need adequate storage on your device.
 
Not sure if this is a new feature or not but I just noticed that Netflix allows you to download shows via their apps for viewing offline. That's a game changer as you don't need to rely on Wi-Fi when you are out on the hook. Just need adequate storage on your device.

I've just started doing this.....I have a 128GB storage card in my smartphone.....I download movies and/or TV shows from Amazon Prime onto this storage card.....then I use an MHL adapter (like the one below) with an HDMI cable to mirror the screen on the phone to the TV in full 1080 resolution.....no more depending on wi-fi to watch movies.....battery drainage on the phone is greatly reduced because I am just watching a movie that is on my phone and not using the battery to also stream the movie off of the internet....you can also charge the phone while the movie is being played....

cliff
 

Attachments

  • 4148ty+3f9L__SX425_.jpg
    4148ty+3f9L__SX425_.jpg
    22.6 KB · Views: 349
Last edited:
yea ive been contemplating this same thing, but with verizon offering unlimited data i was gonna just try and stream from phone then mirror to tv. i think you need to have a samsung tv to do the mirror thing but im not totally sure.
 
yea ive been contemplating this same thing, but with verizon offering unlimited data i was gonna just try and stream from phone then mirror to tv. i think you need to have a samsung tv to do the mirror thing but im not totally sure.

With the Apple TV, you can mirror anything from an iPhone to any tv.

Bennett
 
yea ive been contemplating this same thing, but with verizon offering unlimited data i was gonna just try and stream from phone then mirror to tv. i think you need to have a samsung tv to do the mirror thing but im not totally sure.

'chromecast' will mirror the screen on the phone to a TV wirelessly but I am not sure how well this would work at the same time you are streaming a movie.....that could really put a strain on the battery.....maybe using a charger could keep up with the power drain and not deplete the battery charge while streaming a movie and casting it to a TV.....but I have read the quality of the picture is much better with the direct wired connection compared to a wireless cast.....

cliff
 
You have received some great suggestions. I echo a couple of them: Verizon MiFi hotspot, with unlimited data. Apple TV. DirecTV apps on iPads and iPhones. Works great. Wife gets to binge on Hallmark Channel in salon while I binge on Netflix in the front berth. Best part in my mind is this is all portable - take it to any port.
 
My boat came with an older Satellite TV system with a single direct TV box.
I activated it with the cheapest plan they offer because I'm going to get some kind of discount for being an AT&T unlimited data wireless customer, but getting activated was a nightmare.
Overall, the customer service with direct TV is horrible, and there are a lot of stations that I've never heard of and probably won't watch. But I do like being able to watch the news, and am looking forward to being able to watch some football on the boat this fall.
Honestly, if my boat didn't come with it I probably wouldn't invest in Satellite TV. There are other ways to watch TV on the boat that don't require an investment of thousands of dollars up front.
Once my AT&T discount ends I'm probably going to ditch direct TV.
My original Glomex is missing. I'm going to replace it so I can have local broadcast channels.
I also have an iPad on my unlimited data plan, an Amazon Prime account, my cable provider lets me stream recorded programs that are on my DVR, and I'm a Netflix subscriber because my daughter uses it when she is away at school. I've only had the boat a short time, but any entertainment viewing I've done has been through connecting my iPad to the TV and either streaming or playing stuff I downloaded on wifi at home. It works flawlessly and the content is much better than what direct TV offers.
An added bonus is since I'm a satellite radio subscriber, I added Bluetooth to my boat's stereo and I stream Sirius/XM from my iPad.
 
We have a Sea-King satellite unit on our boat. We have Bell Express Vu at home, so we have a Bell receiver on board and get all the channels that we get at home. I know nothing about Apple TV or most TV's in general. Is this something that we can use on our boat? What are the basic requirements to get going? Do we need a smart TV? How do we integrate this Apple unit into our existing system that has a 32" TV? Additional information: my wife has an iphone and an ipad-air tablet.
 
I hadn't thought of it but I do have my "Dish Anywhere" app on the phone and Ipad. Not being particularly tech savvy, how do you connect the Ipad to the TV to watch? If that is simple and inexpensive then it is a no-brainer, I don't need satellite.
 
I hadn't thought of it but I do have my "Dish Anywhere" app on the phone and Ipad. Not being particularly tech savvy, how do you connect the Ipad to the TV to watch? If that is simple and inexpensive then it is a no-brainer, I don't need satellite.

Apple sells a "lightning digital AV adapter" for about $50. We connect that to the iPad or iPhone then run a 10ft HDMI cable to the TV.

If you have a smart tv on the boat, you should be able to download the Dish Anywhere App straight to the TV and watch using the Marina wifi.

With the Verizon unlimited plan, you can also connect your smart tv to the internet through your phone. Your phone becomes a "wifi hotspot" and non-cellular devices (smart TV) can connect to the cellular network through your phone or iPad.

My wife and I use this set up for our work laptops but have not tried it yet with the smart tv at the house. Our boat has older TVs so we just use the HDMI cable.
 
Last time I updated my Verizon MIFI - the salesperson in the store said that MIFI's are going away. People just using phone or tablet as hotspot.

not sure if they were correct or not about the longevity of being able to buy one. I love MIFI's, have been carrying one for years.

Mark
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,861
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top