Interested in buying an automotive TV Tuner so I can hook up a flat screen
for tailgating this year. Any thoughts or suggestions?
If this is off topic, please move.

If you have Dish or DirecTV, get an extra HD receiver on your account, and go to ebay and purchase a dish. Figure out the general direction of where to point it, then load up the signal indicator on the box to help you lock in the signal. I have friends who do this for OSU games, and it works great.

Here is what I did. Go on craigslist and pick up a dish for 15 bucks. Mount it on a 4x4. Bring one of your direct tv recievers from at home. Bingo. Free.

(07-22-2010 03:59 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Here is what I did. Go on craigslist and pick up a dish for 15 bucks. Mount it on a 4x4. Bring one of your direct tv recievers from at home. Bingo. Free.

Seems like a great plan to me... are you getting a spot for tailgating down at PBS?

(07-22-2010 03:59 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Here is what I did. Go on craigslist and pick up a dish for 15 bucks. Mount it on a 4x4. Bring one of your direct tv recievers from at home. Bingo. Free.

Very good idea, on Monday I will have 3 receivers. I would imagine dishs are compatible/universal to hook up to a receiver?

You are probably getting the SWM 5 satelite dish installed at your house... for HD you need to at least get the SWM 3 which picks up the 99, 101, and 103 locations. For the SD stuff you need the 5 location dish which adds 110 and 119. This site has a listing of the current dishes: http://www.solidsignal.com/p/?p=2709&d=d...enna-types

Local stations broadcast in HD.

You will not be able to see ESPN but there are usually plenty of good games on the networks.

No dish. Just use rabbit ears.

We do it every week. Works great.

(07-22-2010 04:47 PM)BearcatOtto Wrote:  Local stations broadcast in HD.

You will not be able to see ESPN but there are usually plenty of good games on the networks.

No dish. Just use rabbit ears.

We do it every week. Works great.

Some of us want the games on ESPN and Fox Sports.

(07-22-2010 04:16 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(07-22-2010 03:59 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Here is what I did. Go on craigslist and pick up a dish for 15 bucks. Mount it on a 4x4. Bring one of your direct tv recievers from at home. Bingo. Free.

Very good idea, on Monday I will have 3 receivers. I would imagine dishs are compatible/universal to hook up to a receiver?

If you have Direct TV, pick up a SWM 3 array. They are all over the place. Every time someone switched to Dish or upgrades to HD the installer takes the Direct TV dish with them. They sell them on the side on craigslist all the time.

Your Direct TV reciever will be compatible with a 3. Hardest part is putting in the time to get the dish dialed in on your mount so that you don't have to search for the signal on the SW horizon every time. First time can be a real mother. After that, easy peasy.

This set up allowed me to air the ESPN UC-Oregon State game for the peeps in a field at my farm during a pig roast. Worked like a charm.

Note: this will probably only work with Direct TV since Dish requires a live phone line (or used to) to preclude this. Direct TV doesn't really care. They walked me through it in general terms with a wink.

Have d12 standard receiver, 2LNB 18x20 dish with tripod. I have connected everything together outside correctly. I can only get as far as selecting searching for channels or do
an automated search for channels. They screen tells me that some channels have been found, then I get the Direct TV logo and "searching for signal" message. Since I can't connect I can only use the Menu board for the TV, not a Direct TV menu.

I have all of this set up on my patio and have tried to moving the dish around and I have a good idea of where to point but I am not getting a nibble securing a signal. Any thought?

You have not gotten the signal yet. Do you hear the beeps? Stronger the signal (means you are more dialed in on the beam) the louder and longer the audio signal. When you hear the signal, you know you are on to something. Its pretty unforgiving and you have 3 planes to adjust in. As I said on the other board, maybe try a cheap handheld sat finder. Make sure you have a clear line of sight. Also make sure you have the exact coordinates, azimuth and degrees from Direct for your location.

(08-10-2010 10:19 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  You have not gotten the signal yet. Do you hear the beeps? Stronger the signal (means you are more dialed in on the beam) the louder and longer the audio signal. When you hear the signal, you know you are on to something. As I said on the other board, maybe try a cheap handheld sat finder.

Are beeps automatic or do I need to program anything. If the TV screen says searching for signal, do the beeps happen automatically? I have tried a signal indicator that has the LNB and Receiver hook ups but the thing doesn't turn on at all, no lights turn on the gauge doesn't move.

The Dish on the roof is 20' behind me so I should be aiming kinda close.

Its automatic. It audibly tells you when you start to get a signal and will give you a % of signal strength per sat channel once you get to that point. Told you it sucks the first time. .

(08-10-2010 10:39 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Its automatic. It audibly tells you when you start to get a signal and will give you a % of signal strength per sat channel once you get to that point. Told you it sucks the first time. .

Thanks, I will keep at it.

(07-22-2010 02:27 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  Interested in buying an automotive TV Tuner so I can hook up a flat screen
for tailgating this year. Any thoughts or suggestions?
If this is off topic, please move.

If you're looking for something easier and more compact Directv does offer this.
Directv Satelite TV To Go

Kinda expensive but very easy to set up and very portable.