Another RV’ing season’s in the books, and depending on where you live, you might be getting ready to stow away that RV for the winter. You probably know a lot about this process by now. You clean it, drain the fluids, make sure everything is in good shape. If you’re putting in on a sloped driveway, you put down wheel chocks. Stuff like that is second nature by now.
What if I told you that there was something you needed to do with your RV’s satellite TV system. What if I also told you it probably wasn’t what you expected?
RVs and Satellite TV – still a great match
Satellite TV for RVs has been around for about 15 years now. RV satellite systems are reliable. It seems like they work forever without a lot of maintenance. And, RV satellite TV is still a great value. You get hundreds of channels and don’t have to worry about data overages or being too far in the woods to get a cell signal. If you have a view of the southern sky, you can get satellite TV in almost any case.
Chances are, you think of your RV’s satellite TV system as “set it and forget it.” For the most part, it is. You don’t have to change fluids, or have it tuned up, or anything. It just works. And it works so well you might have left it untouched for ten years or more. That may even mean a standard definition TV built into the cabinets. Don’t worry, we don’t judge.
What you need to know
By now you’ve realized that DIRECTV has begun to limit standard definition service. Standard definition TV was phased out from broadcasts in the late 2000s — over a decade ago! However, DIRECTV has kept standard-definition versions of its channels for all these years to help people like you. However, the number of channels has gotten smaller and smaller. Almost all local channels have stopped offering standard definition at this point.
And now, there’s another concern. DIRECTV will be changing all its channels, even the standard-definition ones, to the MPEG-4 encoding scheme that their high-definition channels use. That means in order to get them, you’ll need an HD receiver. This is true even if you’re using an SD TV or other SD equipment.
Only Solid Signal can help
There are very few places where you can still get the receiver you’ll need to keep working with your older RV satellite setup. The H24 receiver is in short supply, but we have them. This is the receiver you’ll need to keep outputting a standard definition signal. It’s also the one that works best with satellite TV systems for RVs.
The techs at Solid Signal are familiar with all the systems from the past 15 years and we can help you do the upgrade right. Give us a call during East Coast business hours at 888-233-7563 and we’ll get started. You may qualify for a free or low-cost upgrade, and we can tell you that when you call! If it’s after East Coast business hours, fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you, usually within one business day.
