sattelite t.v.

[scannerdaddy]

thinking of junking my directtv an getting a FTA(free to air) system. any thoughts/suggestions on what type box to purchase? thanks.

 

[gewecke]

That's what I did. Dumped comcast for the cheaper choice,free!
With the recent switch to digital from analog tv it's an easy choice to make. The big question now is how much do you want to spend on the hardware to receive DTV,or maybe you already have it?
N9ZAS

 

[prcguy]

There is a lot to watch on FTA but you will not get any fresh movies that are on HBO or any predictable sports or many other things you may be accustomed to.

If its really good and mainstream its usually encrypted and someone wants money before you can watch it.

I have nearly unlimited satellite dishes and receivers at my work and Ku analog/DVB FTA at home and I don't even bother looking for FTA stuff anymore. I'm only content now with my Directv or local off air HD.
prcguy

 

[brandon]

There is a lot of content on FTA, however much of it is either foreign, religious or really strange. In my opinion the best stuff to watch are the raw news and sport feeds. Nothing is more exciting than watching a news anchor put on their makeup, pick their nose and talk "off camera" During major incidents such fires, hurricanes, plane crashes, car chases, etc. you can often watch coverage from the local affiliates and/or view the news helicopters' video downlink. There are also international stations such as IRINN, BBC World, Al Jazeera English and Press TV broadcasting in the clear. These are always interesting to watch if you want to see how news is presented from the other side. If your a news hound you will absolutely love FTA.

As for equipment, I use a Traxis DBS3500 receiver for feed hunting. It's super cheap and has super fast blind scanning. For the 4:2:2 feeds I have a Twinhan 102g PCI card that's linked with a program called DreamDVB to view content on the computer. I have a 36" Ku band dish hooked to a USALS HH motor so the dish can be easily positioned. There is even more to be explored on C-Band but I don't yet have the space to put up such a large dish.

Check out Lyngsat for a better idea of what you can watch
North & South America - LyngSat

Ricks Satellite Wildfeed and Backhaul Forum is another good source for feed information
Ricks Satellite Wildfeed and Backhaul Forum

You may also want to visit the SatelliteGuys forums for additional info and receiver reviews
Free To Air (FTA) Discussion - SatelliteGuys.US

Good luck and enjoy the hobby!

 

[mike_s104]

more good info:

http://www.ftaconcept.com/

 

[XTS3000]

Most important for true FTA is the ability to do a blind scan - not all can do this. True blind scan will automatically get the FEC, PID of each transponder.