Your RV TV and Wireless TV services

Yes, there are now ways to expand your RV TV Service to Digital and HD, etc, without having to get into rewiring all of those coaxial cables, AV selector boxes, and such.

Up until now, to find out about the latest and best available technology, you had to search through a wide sampling of manufacturers and distributors; read RV magazines, consult with your RV manufacturer tech department, and much more, in order to figure out how to upgrade your TV and it's Satellite/Antenna service in your old RV.

But there are other tools available to expand your options for movies, TV shows, and Music, from other vendors.

I recently moved my home base from South Carolina, to South Florida, and a key part of my move was my desire to update my home TV and WIFI to the latest technology available.

In my present home, after taking an honest and critical view of my equipment, I had to accept the fact that I had a system of technical chaos that I had built over the past decade.

I had a 4-year-old LCD TV in my living room, a 7-year-old LCD TV in our bedroom, and 2 very old Analog TV's in our guest bedroom as well as our Sunroom.

Add the fact that I also have 4 different generations of Satellite boxes, an old DVD player, a first generation Blue-Ray player, and an old WIFI modem, as well as an ancient wireless printer that was always locking up..

Then add the world of cables, you know, HDMI cables, coaxial cables, A/V cables, audio cables, HD Video cables, and USB cables.

And of course power cables and surge protectors.

Essentially what I had was a personal technological mess spread around my home. I called over a friend and we had a serious and unbiased look at the mess as I was packing, and I decided that the move was the perfect time for me to take that leap into a major upgrade of our entertainment systems in our Florida home.

So, being the tight, penny-pincher that I am, I cried for a few days, and then decided that a lot of this old stuff had to go, and I needed to purchase some new and better "stuff".

With great pain and anguish, I first designed what I considered my "perfect system". Then, I started getting rid of the older equipment, by giving it to family members and charities such as Goodwill.

At this time, I am in the process of selecting and installing the pieces of my new and better home system.

Now, I won't go into my system and it's components, but rather I will try to describe what I learned, and how it can be used in upgrading your RV entertainment equipment.

Wireless TV's are now available from almost all of the major manufacturers. Some have the wireless transceiver components built in, while others, have a USB port that you can plug a wireless module into.

Once your TV is accessible via your home/RV wireless system, a wide variety of additional entertainment options become available to you on your TV.

When your TV has wireless capability, you can download movies from services such as NetFlix, and ITunes to name just a couple.

Many even provide you the capability to access such popular packages as; Facebook (a social network), Pandora (a popular web-access radio service), YouTube (a video service), and other such web packages.

There is even a wireless hard-drive on the market that allows you to store your movie purchases (up to 300 HD movies) via iTunes for you to watch at a later time.

Also, the major satellite services and even the better cable services, are finally offering new and more flexible interface boxes, with HDMI outputs, and some even offer slave boxes for sending satellite movies and shows to a “slave” receiver for a second TV in your RV.

In our RV, both my wife and I use our own PC's (one main Laptop PC and 2 iPads specifically), along with a wireless printer/scanner/copier.

For my RV wireless service, as we travel around the country, I have a popular vendors data card so that we have access to the world via the web, regardless of where we travel and stop in our RV.

So that more than one person at a time could use the data card, I purchased a cheap (and small) wireless router that my data card could connect to, and I ended up with a relatively cheap, but quite functional personal wireless network in my RV.

We could both access our email, and we could both shop, plan our travel routes, do our research for our writing, when needed, and I could write and manage my Blogs, Hubs, and books over the web.

But, our TV’s, although both are HD, still had to get their input, either from the old crank-up antenna for local stations, or from thee hard-wired satellite antenna and satellite decoder box.

With the introduction of the new wireless TV's, and now the availability of the new satellite boxes, it is time, in my opinion to take the next step to having wireless RV TV.

Think about it. If you need to upgrade your RV TV anyway, why not go ahead and install a wireless version of the TV, and get the new wireless satellite receiver? That leaves you with only one more technical step to take, and that is to get a new satellite receiver that is HD capable.

OK, your satellite box will still be hard-wired to your satellite antenna, and your main TV will be hard-wired (HDMI) to your satellite box. But now you can mount your additional TV’s wherever you want in your RV, with one of the new “slave” satellite boxes.

Of course, you still have to run AC power but that is a lot easier than running the signal cables.

And look at what you now have. Not only do you have your local antenna and satellite programs available the same as before, but you now have more entertainment options available via the web; Movies, TV shows, videos, radio stations, custom music channels, and more.

Please keep in mind that, along with this new access to the web, you must remember that while using the web for all of those services that I mentioned, they are not free.

When you download a movie, or a video, or whatever, you are using up your data card’s allocated capacity.

A capacity that is limited, depending on your contract with your vendor, and it must be managed judiciously. You need to shop around and get the maximum capacity available for your personal needs at the lowest cost.

And, really, that is the only real drawback to having wireless in your RV that I can see.

Otherwise? It's here, and it’s ready for you to install and enjoy the new flexibility and variety of wireless TV in your RV. Today!

As a note, when traveling in the RV, I always compare the cost of using my (limited) personal data card with the cost of free, or low-cost, generally unlimited wireless access in many campgrounds, and if the numbers are right, I slave my wireless router to their system.

Warning#2:

I have to add this warning also. Technology is changing so dynamically that you have to accept the fact that whatever I mention here, and whatever is on the market today, will be obsoleted relatively soon, and the newer stuff will always be better, more flexible, and cheaper.

Accept it! You just need to do your research diligently, and at some point, “bite the bullet” and grab what will best meet your entertainment needs now, install it and use it.

You see, if you wait forever, you will always be that guy sitting up in the campgrounds public TV room, arguing with the others like yourself over what channel to watch, every night.

Whatever you decide, the options are exciting and ready for you right now.

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