New Member Free-to-Air Satellite Discussion Thread

[soulker]

Hey people,

Just want a list of everything i need to use with a coolsat or viewsat reciever. I'm completly new to this so if you know which one is better i would like to know and i'm from the Listowel area.

I don't want HD but if you know which is better then tell me a good but cheaper model.(don't wanna have to spend $900 on everthing)

[HDTV101]

Originally Posted by inti333

Had never really thought about satellite until we moved into our new house last year. The previous owner was in the business and has 4 small dishes on the roof (all 24" or so...one Bell Expressvu, one generic Sony and and two DirectTv). We recently added a StarChoice elliptical.

Anyway, I am interested in FTA. My wife is from Colombia, and I see from LyngSat that we can get a lot of MPEG2 / DVB encoded channels from there on the following: NSS 806 at 40.5°W. From the looks of it, we should be able to receive it here in southern Manitoba, but I really don't know. To all of you with experience with these things, could you let me know the following:

1) Will any of the 'not in use 24" ish dishes on our roof serve to receive FTA, especially from NSS 806 at 40.5°W?

2) What type of receiver should I be buying. I need somehting basic (cheap) but reliable and easy to use.

3) Can you confirm that this particular satellite looks 'receivable' in southern Manitoba.

Thanks all in advance for your help.

Cheers.

You'd need a dish 6 feet or larger for NSS 806 since it's a C band satellite. I'd get a Pansat receiver... they are the best legit FTA receivers around and will work with C band.

6 foot dish...

[i hate tv]

Hmmm Scanny, hopefully he isn't pointed at Bell ExpressVU
If he hooked up his FTA to that, he would be breaking the law
Law breakers are BAD
If you are looking for TRUE FTA, tell us what you are trying to get, and I'm sure someone will be able to help you out

[papeete10]

Hey,

I heard about "FTA" from a friend, and just wanted to know some facts. Firstly how does it work? Is it illegal? How much does it cost? How many channels are there? How do i install "FTA"?

Thanks,
Papeete10

[i hate tv]

I would ask your friend some more questions
Real/True FTA, is Free To Air , or non encrypted channels, that you can watch, 100% legally
Any "FTA" boxes that are used to watch Bell ExpressVu, or Dishnetwork, are illegal

[Freddy75]

I am sorry, but i am totally new to this and have been contemplating on purchasing a FTA system. Being new, I am not sure what to even get. We have two sat dishes on our roof, One bell and one Starchoice. Looking at getting FTA in the next couple of days and would like anyone that has a minute to possibly point me in the right direction, live 20 minutes south of Barrie Ontario. Thanks

[tdti1]

Depends on what you want to watch, there are many channels on ku-band but if you want to really get into the hobby and get great channels having both c/ku band it a bonus, for a ku-band system a 1 meter or 1.2 meter dish with a motor is fine, for both c/ku a 10'-12' dish is best.

[anjing]

Hi,

I am still new to this FTA thing in US.
I am from Indonesia
and is wondering what kind of equipment I need to get in order to be able to receive Palapa satellite among other asian channel.

thanks

[anjing]

Btw, i am located in Virginia, USA

[mr weather]

According to Lyngsat, Palapa C2 is located at 113E which is almost the opposite side of the world from Virginia. Unfortunately, there is no physical way you'll be able to receive that satellite from your location.

The other option is perhaps the Internet. There might be feeds of some kind you could access.

[badkarma]

Now that BBC will be getting F1 rights next year, I'm wondering if I'll be able to get the BBC UK HD channel on any of the N. American satellites. Anyone know if any NA sats carry BBC HD in FTA?

[classicsat]

Not the UK feeds intended for the British Isles.
Only international (news and info only) or localised versions of the Beeb are available, and only pay.

[nakedgord]

I think this is the best forum for this and I'm pretty sure this shouldbe ok to discuss here since my only concern is the real fta (which I believe, itself, is 100% legal). If it's not ok to discuss my apologies in advance and no worries if this thread is locked.

I've been looking to ditch Cogeco when my contract is up. Either buying a Star Choice package or seeing if there was a legal, legit way to subscribe to Direct TV or whatever other options when I thought of FTA service.

I understand that most of it (I'm guessing 80%) is going to be shopping channel type stuff crap, religious stations, government legislature stations and the like but I'm thinking there must be *something* useful on the service.

Off the top of my head I was thinking that the Superstations (Peachtree TV, WGN. KTLA, WPIX and the two superstations never carried on Canadian cable - WWOR in NJ and KWGN in Colorado) might be something on there.

So I'm basically wondering

a) If anybody know where there's some sources on legitimate FTA tv like what I need, how to do it, how much it'd run and adefinative list of stations that's on there to see if there's enough that'd be worth watching.

b) If there are any *legit* dealers to buy stuff for this from? (I walked into a shop that had FTA advertising outside of the joint once and when I walked inside some disturbing chap who looked like he came out of The Shining made me realize that place wasn't selling anything legit).

c) If FTA does HD signals (AKA if WGN is carried would it's HD feed be there as well).

Thanks for any info (and I hope this thead is legit!)

[donnyjaguar]

Howdy, check out lyngsat.com for lots of information.

I have an FTA system pointed at Galaxy10R. It provides about 24 channels that are worth watching. Plenty more if I spoke Spanish more fluently. This teamed with the local DTV stations and I'm at about 50 channels. Generally speaking there is something worth watching any time. If not, DVD & VCR.

I use a Viewsat receiver and 33" dish with a linear LNB. If I were to do it again, and I probably will, I'd get a dish motor, universal LNB and the HD version of the Viewsat receiver. PBS is available on satellite for free in HDTV, btw. A lot of the FTA programming is like you say. I sometimes watch a few of them and find it very sad that many are so narrow minded and propagate things I know to be proven untrue. I guess if all TV programming had to be true there'd be far fewer channels.

[tdti1]

For the most free dvb channels you will want to get a 10' or 12' c/ku-band system, I watch mostly free programming, I do have a 4dtv for subs, you will find lots of great stuff up there, you must hunt for some really good stuff and what you find is best kept to yourself