Since we live in the boondocks (Nate hates it when I say that) and travel a bunch, readers often ask about our TV situation. Do we have cable? Subscriptions? How on earth do we keep up with shows?
These are the important, nitty-gritty day-to-day details that everyone wants to know.
I've found that a lot of off-grid folks and road tripping families forego television altogether, either because it's confusing to figure out on-the road or they simply choose to spend their downtime reading books instead. I love literature, but there's a TON of amazing educational and historical programming that our family enjoys on-screen. It's also a good break for my brain after a long day, and a fun conversation-starter.
There's nothing like cuddling up together and watching an engaging movie or series that we can all get into. At home or while we're traveling, TV time serves as a nice little reset or even a quick distraction while Nate and I quietly regroup and figure out the next day's plans.
Cable providers don't come out to where we live so we tried the cord-cutting thing, but missed the ability to get real-time event updates and record entire seasons of our favorite shows. Oma and Opa's house is nearby and they've used our sponsor DISH for years, so that was a great introduction to satellite for us. When we lived with them we got totally spoiled being able to find our remote and voice-control channels using the Hopper 3, which allows for 16 simultaneous recordings and 2000 hours of TV (do people seriously watch that much TV?). And with recent updates, we can access our Netflix account as well as YouTube and Pandora directly through the DVR system!
As we started traveling more, we realized that DISH Anywhere was a game-changer for keeping up with the latest-and-greatest in TV from afar. We can watch live, recorded and OnDemand stuff on our phone and up to five simultaneous devices, and I can download shows onto the HopperGo portable DVR to watch without an internet connection later.
I also use it to screen stuff in the car for the kids on long road trips.
The app lets me keep them entertained on long-haul flights or – my favorite use for it – streaming directly through our projector for an out-of-this-world campsite movie night. We've impressed countless friends and family members with this functionality. There's nothing quite like eating a warm, campfire-roasted s'more while enjoying the latest HGTV offering and chatting about the perfect home destination.
They even have pay-as-you-go RV service with portable dishes for anyone who spends a serious amount of time on-the-road. We've encountered dozens of like-minded road travelers and they've always recommended DISH for mobile systems, hands-down.
The price point is perfect for us. We opt for the simplest package, and we've never received any sort of pushy sales pitch. DISH offers Flex Pack for just $39.99 guaranteed for two years so that families can get an easy base package with all of their favorites, adding on any additional channels to meet their needs, and not have to deal with the hassle of wildly-varying prices after a brief initial contract period. The fact that it coordinates with outside services such as Netflix and Amazon Alexa shows that the company is progressive and in-tune with their customers' needs (we're a Google Home household so I'm holding my breath for compatibility with our device, but the voice remote meets my hands-free needs). And it lets us auto-skip commercials! Oh, and did I mention that installation is free, and they set up 75-minute appointment windows?
Clearly, DISH has chosen to listen to their audience as opposed to trying to dominate every households' entertainment attention span. To me, close-minded competition and price-gouging are what got people started on cord-cutting. It's a relief to see a company taking a stand against those practices.
If you're looking to take TV from your house to the road, give DISH a call at 844-669-8705! Now through July 30th, DISH is offering new customers their choice between 3 awesome promotions: Free TV Mounting (use code MOUNT4753), a free Polk soundbar (DISHSOUND967), or free Bluetooth headphones (BTOFFER852).
What are some of your favorite shows?