Anyone own a FTA satellite dish setup?

[swbsam]

Moving into a new home and considering just getting Cable for internet access and either a rooftop antenna for TV or dishnetwork.

A 3rd option would be a FTA satelitte but I don't really know a think about it.


Here are my questions:
(I'm in NYC, btw):

1. What sort of channels do you receive (locals? international channels?)
2. What's the price of entry apx?
3. Is it wife friendly or more of a geek toy?


Any other experiences would be great.
Thanks!

 

[olds]

FTA = Frankfurt To America
or
Fuck The Army

 

[dabuddha]

Screw Dish. Find my thread (too lazy to search for it) to find out why!

 

[meltdown75]

i'm not so sure it's a good time to get into FTA. dishnet has been scrambling large blocks of channels with their new encryption method - Nagravision 3. you can google on it and find out quite a bit. rumour has it that it is already cracked, but if you were asking me, i'd say "not a good time to buy". good luck though.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: swbsam
Moving into a new home and considering just getting Cable for internet access and either a rooftop antenna for TV or dishnetwork.

A 3rd option would be a FTA satelitte but I don't really know a think about it.


Here are my questions:
(I'm in NYC, btw):

1. What sort of channels do you receive (locals? international channels?)
2. What's the price of entry apx?
3. Is it wife friendly or more of a geek toy?


Any other experiences would be great.
Thanks!

to answer your questions - 1) you get everything and it is all unlocked.
2) my Viewsat Ultra cost me $180 CDN... i would think that model is a bit cheaper now. there is no HD or PVR on this model though - it's entry-level / budget.
3) it is wife friendly. to update the programs, all you do is put the .pcx file on a USB key, stick it in the front of the receiver (ultra model - not 'extreme' which uses a serial interface and is a pain in the ass IMO), and program the receiver using the remote. quite easy IMO - my wife did it a bunch of times when i wasn't around.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Originally posted by: swbsam
Moving into a new home and considering just getting Cable for internet access and either a rooftop antenna for TV or dishnetwork.

A 3rd option would be a FTA satelitte but I don't really know a think about it.


Here are my questions:
(I'm in NYC, btw):

1. What sort of channels do you receive (locals? international channels?)
2. What's the price of entry apx?
3. Is it wife friendly or more of a geek toy?


Any other experiences would be great.
Thanks!

Here is a good forum with answers to your questions: DBSTalk.com

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
i'm not so sure it's a good time to get into FTA. dishnet has been scrambling large blocks of channels with their new encryption method - Nagravision 3. you can google on it and find out quite a bit. rumour has it that it is already cracked, but if you were asking me, i'd say "not a good time to buy". good luck though.

That's very, very funny - I called a local FTA dealer and he said the same exact thing, but being very vague ("Now's not a good time to buy. Wait or week or so, i should have more information... Then..."

Seemed quite fishy to me - if I understand this correctly, are free to air receivers picking up dishnetwork feeds, and not just the locals + foreign language stations?

 

[mrSHEiK124]

People who get FTA satellites because they want FTA channels (eg. my dad and other FOBs) do so because they want int'l foreign language channels. Everyone else uses BEVu hacks on FTA boxes to get free Dish Network.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: meltdown75
i'm not so sure it's a good time to get into FTA. dishnet has been scrambling large blocks of channels with their new encryption method - Nagravision 3. you can google on it and find out quite a bit. rumour has it that it is already cracked, but if you were asking me, i'd say "not a good time to buy". good luck though.

That's very, very funny - I called a local FTA dealer and he said the same exact thing, but being very vague ("Now's not a good time to buy. Wait or week or so, i should have more information... Then..."

Seemed quite fishy to me - if I understand this correctly, are free to air receivers picking up dishnetwork feeds, and not just the locals + foreign language stations?

you understand correctly, kind sir

i used to get all of dishnet AND all of Bell Expressvu, which was nice. then BEV switched to N3 - 100% - quite suddenly. so all of those channels dropped right away. Dishnet seems like they are phasing out blocks of channels at a time. first to go was the porn, then the HBO channels and other "older" movie channels. my PPV movies are still working, and while i haven't had much time this week to check the status of the other channels, at least some of them are down because my Travel channel is down.

 

[Pepsei]

not a good time to get into FTA, seriously.... remember that BEV switched to N3 a long time ago and has yet to be cracked.... maybe they (whoever cracked N2) are waiting until all Dish channels goes to N3 before doing anything. And even then, the coder (for the box in question) needs to take that info from the cracker and create a new .bin file

there is a way to by pass this, call ihub or something, but screw that, you have connect your box to the internet to get it to work.

 

[drnickriviera]

Originally posted by: Pepsei
not a good time to get into FTA, seriously.... remember that BEV switched to N3 a long time ago and has yet to be cracked.... maybe they (whoever cracked N2) are waiting until all Dish channels goes to N3 before doing anything. And even then, the coder (for the box in question) needs to take that info from the cracker and create a new .bin file

there is a way to by pass this, call ihub or something, but screw that, you have connect your box to the internet to get it to work.

Dish is 100% N3 now. From what I hear, the hacker that broke N2 is now working for the company that made it and helped with N3.

 

[meltdown75]

boo urns