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Satelliteguys.us forums are hands-down one of the best sources of information and experience on the net when it comes to FTA.

Try Satellite Guys. There are a bunch of ppl there who are way into satellite tv stuff and who are eager to help.

The old owner most likely took his hardware with him. So the poster will need some C-band gear

http://skyvision.com/store/dtv.html
http://skyvision.com/store/dsr410.html
http://skyvision.com/store/c-band_store_page1.html

http://www.satelliteguys.us/

http://store.satellitemart.com/C-band_c_62.html

http://www.sat-direction.com/

http://www.satbeams.com/

Get yourself good DVB-S2 receiver like PROF 7500 USB or PROF 7301 PCI or Azbox HD
from ebay or Ricks site http://www.gofastmotorsports.com/rickssatellitehome.htm
and check out all the HD feeds you can watch.

http://rickcaylor.websitetoolbox.com/

Satelliteguys is another good website but their wild feeds subforums is invitation only
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/

Welcome, once again, to another episode of cable operators complaining about internet delivery and content bundles. All together now - (sorry, I'm very snarky today) - cry me a river.

The real issue is that all of the current non-OTA TV delivery systems have bitten off much more than they can chew.

So far as I know, NO ONE in the USA is offering HD content as advertised:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Lite
http://www.highdefforum.com/directv-forum/29158-hd-lite-directv-picture-quality.html
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/51978-facts-about-hd-lite-e.html
http://forums.joeuser.com/309174
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2009/04/22/daily.4/
(I recognize that some of the above links seem to target satellite TV, but if you read through two things become apparent: users are equally slamming cable, and neither satellite nor cable has their arms around a solution.)

Like it or not, the #1 driver for a cable subscription is TV - and they already cannot deliver on that.

I'm not a big sports fan (but so what if I am or not?), but I can reliably report this: during a hockey and a basketball game, I DVR'd OTA and my so-called high-def service of same channels. Hockey results: OTA clear, puck actually disappeared with paid service. Round-ball results: OTA clear, paid service unable to distinguish if foot over line or ref was blind during slo-mo playback.

And here's some technical anecdotes:
1. Your channel package choice or size of bundle won't impact anything, it's backbone limited.
2. When I upgraded to "HD" satellite, my house's RG-58 didn't cut it due to bandwidth limits on the RG-58. The '58 was ok for the short wall-to-TV pigtails, not otherwise.
3. They can fiber this and cable that and MPEG-4 the other, but no one is supporting the infrastructure to get the job done.

And a real big issue - once you've made the grade to premium cable or premium satellite, and you've replaced your TV - name your reasons, they're all valid: a) I want a new one, b) new TV standards and my set is getting old anyway, c) time to branch out and support my computer and Hulu, HTPC, et al, in the living room - you'll replace that TV with an HDTV and you'll go with the HD package from your for-pay provider (cable or satellite). The HDTV is an investment-grade purchase, just like your PC (any flavor), and the HD programming is too small an incremental price increase to pass up.

Here's the invective we can now look forward to: if you're complaining about your TV quality, you'll be told the bandwidth suckers using torrents are to blame. If you're complaining about your internet service, you'll be told that the primary service is directed at TV quality. Either way, do not expect that the future holds a world where you're really going to get what you think you're paying for.

Mark my words.

(PS - No apologies to those not interested in HDTV, or TV - you're not the big market to these companies, and that's all I'm ragging on - I'm not dis'ing anyone's lifestyle or entertainment choices. HTH.)

I assume you are too far from the border to get a CBC station.
These people can help, I think you have enough time.

http://global-cm.net/
http://forums.canadian-tv.com/index.php
http://www.satelliteguys.us/canadian-satellite-services/

There are also some french language programming. ie Canal Evasion with the Tour de France.

Cookies eat up hard drive space. That is a complaint.... most /. users know where to erase cookies on hdd, but some people in public don't... especially when different websites store under different folders, etc. It's probably just a matter of time til some worm uses cookies to help id theives.

Also, not seeing targeted ads is a good thing. It means I'll probably be more likely to not spend money on the products in the ads.

I never really noticed how much tv ads affected me until I started watching Free-To-Air Satellite (i.e. unencypted satellite that you can get for free once you have the equipment to get it - check out http://www.satelliteguys.us/ for more info). With FTA, I am able to watch feeds from various networks without any commercials, or see big black spots where local commercials would normally appear. I'm amazed at how much time is spent in watching commercials in tv. Also, with FTA I'm able to watch tv straight out of Cuba, and various other places in South America... some of which air American movies with Spanish, French, and other language Subtitles, all of which with no commercial breaks. Amazing stuff. The internet would be better without ads.

Get Free-To-Air Satellite with a motor and forget about paying subscriptions to either cable companies or Dish Network like companies... just pick up the free stuff, and you'll be good to go. If you speak more than one language you'll be even better off with fta! I got an fta receiver and sattellite dish about 2 years ago and love it. We get 2 Fox stations, a ton of RTN stations, Nasa, Russia Today, Al-Jazera, a couple of Cuban Movie Channels that play English Movies with Spanish Subtitles, Cubavision and Telerebelde, which are also Cuban channels, which have similar type English Movies with Spanish Subs playing that play at least once a night most nights, and several movies that play during the weekend nights... Plus we can watch a lot of NBC and ABC broadcasts, sometimes before they even hit the normal airwaves, so you can see newscasters behind the scenes before they actually do their reports... and tons and tons of wildfeeds of various sports and newscasts are all over the fta satellite skys... http://www.satelliteguys.us/ is the best place on the net to look for how to get this stuff set up... go check out their forums...

Lots of info and pictures to look at

More and more folks are turning FTA because quite frankly cable, satellite and stuff like Netflix have been ripping people off... (that's why Netflix now is trying to appeal to those they've ripped off before by offering almost half price of what they used to offer the same people). Guess this idea is to replace the Disney idea of a dvd that will chemically kill itself after 24 hours or whatever that they came up with a year or so ago. Pretty dumb, especially since it rellies on an outdated phone system that more and more folks are turning away from in exchange for cell phones, etc. (DSL being the only thing that keeps me and a lot of other folks having a POTS line - Pretty soon that need will dissappear as more and more city-wide wifi projects start up nationwide).

DSL prices recently went down, so give me DSL + FTA for now for entertainment.

If you don't know what Free-To-Air is, it's basically using a satellite dish to pick up unencrypted satellite signals - of which there are quite a few around the world... you don't have to pay a subscription for it, just the up front cost to get a dish, receiver, and possibly a motor to move the dish from satellite to satellite... No big time movie channels like HBO, etc. since those are encrypted, but there's still plenty up there... Visit http://www.satelliteguys.us/ and http://www.lyngsat.com/ for more info on FTA. (Sorry for the fta hype in this post - but I just got my system up and running about 48 hours ago, and it's still pretty dang exciting)

• A dish
• An LNB (low noise block downconverter, which sits at the focal point of the dish)
• A receiver

If you want non-English language programming or local programming, there is still tons of stuff being broadcast for free from satellites. Satellite Guys is one of the best sources for info. Check out their forums, specifically the Free to Air one. Here's a list of what is available up there for free.

If you want non-English language programming or local programming, there is still tons of stuff being broadcast for free from satellites. Satellite Guys is one of the best sources for info. Check out their forums, specifically the Free to Air one. Here's a list of what is available up there for free.

The cheapest solution for an external ATSC tuner is a used Motorola DSR-550, also known as the cable box issued with the now defunt VOOM service. You can get one on ebay for about $75. I own one, and it works perfectly. The only thing you need to be careful of is that the box you bid on must have already been activated and not "killed" (i.e., not active on the day VOOM when dark). You also need to make sure that the seller includes the remote. There are some universals (like a Harmony) that can control it, but I believe the setup requires the original remote. There's a FAQ all about this cheap solution @ http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?s=f5cd1 50bdce94a332dd31deb46b954b3&t=7178

Oh come on - if anyone meta-mods that "troll" mod on my parent post, slap that bitch up please.

The move to MPEG4 is no secret, the first MPEG4 channels are already rolling out today:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=10311 1

They showed it in one of those chats that Dish Network's CEO gives every once in a while. You can get more info here. The interesting thing is that the satellite receiver is the one that sends the video, you don't download it. As soon as you connect the cable it will recognize that there is a PocketDish at the other side (at least that's how it looked to me). I'm sure someone will make a PocketDish emulator for PCs soon. :)

I have checked DishLinux for a while (I wanted to add software of my own to the 721) but unfortunately it seems every executable is encrypted with PGP. The loader decrypts it and runs it.

Also there is a file in the root partition that seems to be a list of files on the disk, also PGP signed. When the system boots it checks and if there is any differences between the list and the disk and if there are any it does a full reinstall.

If anyone wants to know more go here and here . These are 2 threads on SatelliteGuys detailing what I found out while replacing the hard drive.

I have checked DishLinux for a while (I wanted to add software of my own to the 721) but unfortunately it seems every executable is encrypted with PGP. The loader decrypts it and runs it.

Also there is a file in the root partition that seems to be a list of files on the disk, also PGP signed. When the system boots it checks and if there is any differences between the list and the disk and if there are any it does a full reinstall.

If anyone wants to know more go here and here . These are 2 threads on SatelliteGuys detailing what I found out while replacing the hard drive.

I have checked DishLinux for a while (I wanted to add software of my own to the 721) but unfortunately it seems every executable is encrypted with PGP. The loader decrypts it and runs it.

Also there is a file in the root partition that seems to be a list of files on the disk, also PGP signed. When the system boots it checks and if there is any differences between the list and the disk and if there are any it does a full reinstall.

If anyone wants to know more go here and here . These are 2 threads on SatelliteGuys detailing what I found out while replacing the hard drive.

I would say that SatelliteGuys.Us has the bigger FTA forum but both should definitely be checked out.

I would say that SatelliteGuys.Us has the bigger FTA forum but both should definitely be checked out.

Check out this thread.

It appears that they did have signal problems in the West Coast, but they were trying to get another satellite up to help fix that problem:

"Those slots might be used to expand Voom's limited transmission capacity, to create a backup for the single satellite it launched last year off the East Coast of the United States and to improve its ability to reach the West Coast."

"Cablevision Systems Corp. Wednesday won the bidding for two orbital slots that could help fill a gap in its Voom nationwide satellite TV service.

The two orbital positions would allow satellites to reach mainly the West Coast.

Since Voom launched service in October, its single satellite, whose orbital position is off the East Coast, has been weakest in transmitting TV channels to the West Coast, especially the Seattle and Portland areas."

I can't get cable where I am, so I'm stuck with going with one of those pizza dishes or USDTV. Or so I thought. USDV does not get the scifi channel and thats a must for me. So I looked at the Pizza dish companies, and I really don't feel like paying $30-50 a month for so many channels that I won't watch. So I though I was stuck with USDTV, BUT a lightbulb came on in my head. I'm going to aquire a BUD (Big Ugly dish) from someone who has "upgraded" to a digital quality DBS dish. Snag a 4dtv reciver off of ebay and get my basic subscription programming from NPS. Plus I'm going to add a FTA reciver just because the feeds are there. THEN if after I spend so much money on all of this, I want a DBS system, I'll do it the hard way; I'll get Star Choice.

Links of intrest:
http://www.satelliteguys.us
http://global-cm.net/CAN/legal.html
http://www.bigdish.info/main.html
http://www.callnps.com
http://lyngsat.com/freetv/United-States.html
http://www.orbitmagazine.com/

I can't get cable where I am, so I'm stuck with going with one of those pizza dishes or USDTV. Or so I thought. USDV does not get the scifi channel and thats a must for me. So I looked at the Pizza dish companies, and I really don't feel like paying $30-50 a month for so many channels that I won't watch. So I though I was stuck with USDTV, BUT a lightbulb came on in my head. I'm going to aquire a BUD (Big Ugly dish) from someone who has "upgraded" to a digital quality DBS dish. Snag a 4dtv reciver off of ebay and get my basic subscription programming from NPS. Plus I'm going to add a FTA reciver just because the feeds are there. THEN if after I spend so much money on all of this, I want a DBS system, I'll do it the hard way; I'll get Star Choice.

Links of intrest:
http://www.satelliteguys.us
http://global-cm.net/CAN/legal.html
http://www.bigdish.info/main.html
http://www.callnps.com
http://lyngsat.com/freetv/United-States.html
http://www.orbitmagazine.com/

Firewire will never be enabled on the Dish 921 HD DVR.

I recommend you read this.

The FCC links are about midpoint on the page.