Some FTA Q and A's I found in a digest:
newbie w/ alot of questions
Posted by: "Pete Snidal" [EMAIL PROTECTED] pete_snidal
Date: Tue Jan 8, 2008 7:47 am ((PST))
>I'm wanting to know this in cause of one I hear there a uprise in fta
>sys, so so happy w/ my directv, and all the analog to digital
>converison talk..
>
>1. Is free to air the same as the one I remember my parents having
>yrs ago w/ 10ft dish in bckyrd? I really do'nt have room for such a
>dish.
Not necessarily. The 10-footer is a K band dish. The smaller Ku Band
dishes are being used both for commercial direct-subscriber TV and
also
for the FTA sats.
The difference is that the DS dishes require that you pay a
subscription fee,
and use service-specific hardware (dish and receiver) for the provider
you use.
FTA service is provided for some sats as a series of unencoded "come
and watch
for free" signals. One such sat is Galaxy 25 at 92 degrees West. (I
think. See
www.lyngsat.com for info on the various sats.
>2. How free r we talk? My wife and I like local ch. and discovery,
>history, hgtv type channels along w/ disney for are son. Basically am
>I going to have to subscrbe to these indivually chans to watch them
>if I can still get.
What? This is a pretty garbled question(s). What I can tell you is
that
the channels you like are not available on FTA TV.
>3. I already have direvt tv so is any of that equipment compatible w/
>fta equipment?
No. You need a different dish, aimed at a different sat, and a
different
receiver. You don't have to interfere with your present system
(Dishnet?)
You can connect your receivers so you can switch back and forth from
one to the other. You still pay the fee for Dishnet, but your new
channel
choices (lots of radio in there, too) are free. Two dishes now on
your
house, two receivers (STB, or set-top boxes, in your house.)
With FTA receivers, there is also a possiblity of externally
re-programming
them with "bin files" so that they will decode encoded TV from
commercial
providers. Trouble is, the providers keep changing their encoding, so
it's a
constant fight to stay on top of their game. Also, it's illegal -
they call it
"stealing signal" (some of us call it decoding a signal they send onto
our
property without us asking for it, so screw 'em!). Whichever attitude
you
adopt, it's still questionable whether it's worth the 30 bucks a month
or so
for basic TV service. Stealing signal is an interesting hobby, but
it's also
a real pain in the ass for most people. However, many of us find that
the
Really Free FTA programming is interesting. A lot like listening to
international
short wave radio used to be. International in scope, strange but fun.
A lot
of Arab, Oriental, Latino, even Russian programming comes down off of
GA25, for instance. And there are more. I just stick with the one
sat, since
I don't feel like bothering with multiple dishes, actuator motors,
etc. GA25
has enough channels for me.
