As technomads, many are surprised to hear that we opted not to have a satellite TV receiver installed on our Oliver Travel Trailer, and ask if we miss having that sort of media content in our lives. It was a standard option for our unit, but with wanting solar panels it was an easy decision to leave it off to get the extra wattage.
I had actually removed myself from most cable TV before going nomadic – with things like digital video recording and ondemand viewing, I could concentrate my viewing time to only be for the shows I wanted, and usually commercial free. I’ve also been a Netflix customer since 2000, and love receiving things on DVD to watch at my own pace.
Here’s our general media setup:
- We have a Mac Mini as our media server that we load up with content when we have access to bandwidth (generally from iTunes).
- We have an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid that plugs into our Mac Mini to receive TV & FM Radio digital signals to pick up local content if desired.
- We have Netflix ship our disks to our address in South Dakota, so they show up whenever we receive our regular mail delivery. And when we’re in one spot for a while, we’ll change our shipping address with Netflix and receive them directly.
- And I’ll also buy a season of a TV series I want to watch on DVD so that we have options for when we’re in between Netflix shipments and don’t have bandwidth available to download content. I can then usually resell the TV series via Amazon Marketplace for near close to what I paid for the series.
This has been working out rather well for us. Unfortunately, streaming video content is not usually an option for us, as most cellular data networks (what we use as our primary internet access) have a cap per month on them, at a rather unreasonable 5GB. We just have to be ok with not seeing things as they air, and avoiding spoilers to our favorite shows – such as the Battlestar Gallactica series finale from last week, which we’ve not yet watched.
Great report. Thanks. We opted to set our solar panels out on the ground. It remains to be seen just how much of a headache that will turn out to be. How did the bicycle lock thing turn out ?
harm n’ bett
I like having our solar panels always out, even if they’re not always ideally pointed at the sun. At least they’re usually some charge coming in during the day. Ideally, I’d also like to have a panel that we could place out on the ground and optimize for the sun angle. But I wouldn’t want to depend on that for our uses, as we’re not always somewhere we can put something out safely, and solar is often our own power source.
Thankfully, the U-lock was locking the two bikes together and not to something else. So, we were able to load the bikes up still locked to each other onto the bike rack. At least we were able to get in motion, and we can deal with the problem later. But.. grrr.
Great advice on the LCD, it’s not something we think about as we full time and go all over the place. Since we keep a kitten and ourselves in the trailer, we’ve always got the temperature moderated. But for those that have to winterize, taking care of LCD panels should be part of the process too.
Love the new web page layout…
We keep wishing that the wireless Broadband services would increase their band limits too as we do some of the sames things you do on the road.
The difference is that in our 38′ Motorhome, we do have two tv’s and full DVD and video setups.
I know you live in a warm climate, but you may want to warn your readers that the new LCD digital TV’s and monitors do not like freezing temps and will break if it gets too cold… hence the Liquid part of the LCD acronym.
Living up north, we take our stuff inside and/or leave an electric heater or two small ones for backup going to keep it above freezing inside if we store it for any length of time.
Happy Travels,
Wes and Kathy Waddell