TV aerial or 4G/5G Antenna ??

[Wasp056]

Just bought our first Motorhome, after our first attempt at buying from a Private seller last year ended in us buying a MH with a built in Swimming pool!
This time bought from a reputable dealer a DRY van that comes with a full Hab certification and all the other safety checks....

However the MH does not come with an External TV aerial fitted, so my question is....

In this modern day and age of streaming would it be better to fit a Good Omni-directional External 4G/5G Antenna, and a decent 4G/5G Router inside to stream to a network device or Smart TV.

Yes i understand cost of equipment is not cheap Router + unlimited data Sim Card v Free Terrestrial TV, but just wanted to know anyone's else's experience of this comparison.

Thank you (First of a huge amount of questions coming to a Forum near you !!)

 

[Lee Rasberry]

There are products on the market that combine both functionalities into one Antenna:

Maxview Combo Range - https://maxview.co.uk/product-categ...-vehicle/wifi-for-motorhome-wifi-for-caravan/
Falcon - https://falcontechnology.co.uk/prod...et/5g-ready-internet-solutions/evo-dtv-range/
Teleco Wing Lan 11 - https://www.telecogroup.com/en/products/dvb-t2-and-dvb-t-omnidirectional-antennas/wing-lan-11

I'm not aware of any others at the moment. Obviously you will pay a bit more for an all in one solution compared to just fitting Mobile Internet, but it's cheaper than fitting both separately, and you only need one hole in the roof.

Lee

Disclaimer - I work for Maxview and designed the Combo range so I have a bit of a bias

 

[starquake]

Read a book

Even my kindle needs wifi when I finish a book.

 

[Wasp056]

Great post, so helpful. Thank you so much

 

[j8snl]

Just bought our first Motorhome, after our first attempt at buying from a Private seller last year ended in us buying a MH with a built in Swimming pool!
This time bought from a reputable dealer a DRY van that comes with a full Hab certification and all the other safety checks....

However the MH does not come with an External TV aerial fitted, so my question is....

In this modern day and age of streaming would it be better to fit a Good Omni-directional External 4G/5G Antenna, and a decent 4G/5G Router inside to stream to a network device or Smart TV.

Yes i understand cost of equipment is not cheap Router + unlimited data Sim Card v Free Terrestrial TV, but just wanted to know anyone's else's experience of this comparison.

Thank you (First of a huge amount of questions coming to a Forum near you !!)

I actually have both fitted in my van. To be honest rarely use the TV Antenna instead opting for a streaming solution almost everytime.

There's some references in the replies to Kodi / IPTV. If that's not a route you want to go down but you are a Sky Customer one of the best streaming solutions is an Apple TV box because it will support the Sky Go App on your TV, very few devices will actually support this out the box.

We use a Netgear M2 router connected to a MaxView 4G roof antenna with 2 x TS9 connectors alongside the Apple TV which gives us apps for streaming and live TV such as Netflix, ITV/STV player, BBC iPlayer, Sky Go with all our subscribed channels etc so more than enough choice. And it all works incredibly well

Before fitting the Netgear into a cupboard with the roof 4G antenna we actually used a Huawei B618 Router (also mentioned) without any roof antenna and to be honest that worked very well inside the van despite all the metal. The 4G roof antenna with the TS9 connectors does work better but we didn't need to do that to get started 4 years ago.

We use our MoHo an average of 12 nights a month every month and use a Vodafone Data Sim for £12 a month with 150GB Data which is generally always enough. As a backup we also have a Smarty Sim with approx 100GB on it for £8 a month which I can swap to if Vodafone is having a problem, the beauty of that one is it's PAYG and if I need it I use their app, pay the fee and it's working within the hour without renewing every month.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Tiny]

Have a sat dish but never use it, on the mh when bought. Fitted a 4G aerial and router and use it all the time, with a fire stick. Also have a small Blu-ray player for occasional use.

 

[CherylnMick]

When we bought our motorhome back in October 2018 we just had a stick arial on the roof and we couldn't watch any programmes as it pixelated every time the stick moved in the wind. Good job we are avid readers too! We spoke with Addy and Sophie of Motorhome Wifi at the NEC and subsequently bought one of their 4G Antenna systems and had it installed at RoadPro. We also purchased a Firestick from Amazon and we have never been in a situation whereby we cannot stream Netflix, Prime and Disney. We rarely watch regular TV apart from the Sky News on occasion but the channels are there if we want them.
We did find that when all our blinds were shut the motorhome acted like a faraday cage and we couldn't get a signal on our phones, but that too changed when we had the Motorhome Wifi system installed as we are connected to the router. Even on cloudy days we have a good signal. We have an EE sim on a monthly contract and because Mick and our Son have EE mobiles we don't have to pay any roaming charges when in Europe and we get a competitive monthly rate of £14 unlimited data. We are very satisfied with our system and wouldn't want to go back to a TV arial unless there was a problem with our wifi setup and if we need to we keep a small Antiference arial in one of the lockers with a pole for emergencies.

 

[dunnah01]

We're heavy TV users (7hrs most days) and we rely on 50% Freeview and 50% Fire stick in the UK and 50% satellite and 50% Firestick in Europe (we still have unlimited roaming)
Watching 'normal' telly on a Firestick or smart telly is a PITA when changing channels due to lead in adverts so Freeview/Freesat wins hands down. If you watch Netflix/Prime type stuff then not such a problem