Currently, I am stationed in Korea and will be moving to Hampton Roads Virginia soon. I have been stationed in Korea since 1999 so am not all that familiar with the broadcasting options in the states at all. I am Considdering getting free to air. I will live in the city and can get expanded cable for 50 dollars a month. I could also get the dish network for about the same or a little less. If I get free to air, will I still need cable/ Dishnetwork? Will I be able to get the Discovery channel, A&E, ABC,NBC,CBS, CNN etc on FTA? I dont want to spend the money if all I will get is PBS and foriegn stations. I also dont care all that much for sports and dont want porn at all. Thanks for helping me make the decission.
Are you happy with Free to Air?
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THANK YOU for your service! I think FTA is worth, mainly because I LOVE old tv! RTN (Retro TV Network) is my FAVORITE!
yep love RTN.just started in this FTA stuff myself love it never know what you will get is what makes it so enjoyable.Now if I could get my local news I'd be all set
komobu said:
Dish Network's America's Top 60 is a good choice and start. Right now DN is running a promotion for AT60 for $19.99/mon.
A Free To Air system is a good addition if you want to develop a new hobby.
" A Free To Air system is a good addition if you want to develop a new hobby."
That's really the story. We love this stuff as a hobby, otherwise fiddling around, blindscanning, etc, is just a pain in the butt. Save time, get cable. With FTA , though, we don't have a subscription so our costs are soon repaid, and every time we get something that's not on DISH , we feel great about it. I've got a $95 a month Dish sub, and get channels on FTA that I'd rather watch.
That's really the story. We love this stuff as a hobby, otherwise fiddling around, blindscanning, etc, is just a pain in the butt. Save time, get cable. With FTA , though, we don't have a subscription so our costs are soon repaid, and every time we get something that's not on DISH , we feel great about it. I've got a $95 a month Dish sub, and get channels on FTA that I'd rather watch.
RTN is really the only reason I have FTA. Oldie goldies on G10R 
However...make no mistake. Dont expect ANYTHING like dish network OR Directv programming, or you will be disappointed.
However...make no mistake. Dont expect ANYTHING like dish network OR Directv programming, or you will be disappointed. 
Adding my .02 here as well. FTA is nice if you enjoy old tv series (RTN) and sports. And the wildfeeds are fun to discover too. And I find it interesting to see tv stations in other languages. Of course, other than English and Spanish, I don't know what they are saying! But, all the same a lot of fun.
BUT, Direct TV, Dish or cable, it isn't! If you like PBS, there is a lot of that, including HD........with the right setup. All free, (other than the equipment) and completely legal. Plus, it's fun to have your neighbors look at you while your on the roof and know they are thinking your nuts!! ( my wife thinks that too!!)
grusome
Oh, and like another poster mentioned, I do appreciate your service to our country!!
BUT, Direct TV, Dish or cable, it isn't! If you like PBS, there is a lot of that, including HD........with the right setup. All free, (other than the equipment) and completely legal. Plus, it's fun to have your neighbors look at you while your on the roof and know they are thinking your nuts!! ( my wife thinks that too!!)
grusome
Oh, and like another poster mentioned, I do appreciate your service to our country!!
do some looking around...
http://www.lyngsat.com
and
http://www.global-cm.net
have great lists of what's available on the satellites... and show what's true fta and what's not. There are lots of stuff up there... no discovery or a&e, but lots of WB/My/UPN stuff, RTN oldies like Happy days, Family ties, etc. Some news channels... FTA does not give you CNN, and fox, BUT there's one channel that is fta on a couple of the echostars that is a 6 in 1 channel. You see CNN and fox news in little bitty parts of a screen that has 6 channels on it - makes tickers hard to read, but everything else is ok,... a little distracting with that many channels on one screen, but very doable for news stories... that same 6 in 1 channel has I think travel channel, tbs, and a couple others (can't remember right off hand)... other fta news is up there too... in feeds and in other stuff like Russia Today, which broadcasts national news stories but is broadcast from Russia - but all the reporters speak english, albiet with an accent.
ONN is ok if you live in or near Ohio, but living in another state like I do makes it not all that great to watch all the time... GNF Movies and White Springs is ok, but don't expect anything like HBO or Starz on there...
There is a lot of foreign language and religion channels up there (especially on IA5), but that's by far not all that's there... if you do happen to speak another language, especially spanish, that's an added bonus. If not, that's ok... just don't put the foreign language channels in your favorite lists...
I used to have digital cable + internet a few years back... now we have fta + dsl. Money wise, fta has been a saving grace even though I did need to replace a dish motor once already (probably more my fault than the motors - DON'T put silicone around the motor to weather proof it - just around the coax connections that go up to the motor... on the coax and stuff around the motor proper, use sillicone tape and/or electrical tape if need be, but not the liquid sillicone stuff like I did).
when we had cable, I spent about 110.00 a month for the whole package - including on demand movies, high speed internet, and quite a few movie channels... I do miss on demand some, but not that much... especially since the options with that were really limited. Overall, FTA is more or less like a basic cable package without movie channels... which ain't too bad... especially considering there's no monthly fees.... Also, if you get an invacom quad lnb on a motorized dish you should be able to get both linear and circular ku channels, so in theory, if you did go fta, and some day down the road get a bonus or something and have a lot of money to spare, you could get dish network, and use the fta setup to pick up the disn network channels, and be a-ok with that one motorized dish instead of doing the gawdy things a lot of folks end up doing and having dish network put like 2-3 18 inch dishes on the roof pointed in different directions...
Really want to figure it out...
Take a look at global-cm.net's list, then go sign up for a free acocunt at titantv.com and enter the channels from global-cm's list to see whats on the schedule for a lot of the tv channels up there.
http://www.lyngsat.com
and
http://www.global-cm.net
have great lists of what's available on the satellites... and show what's true fta and what's not. There are lots of stuff up there... no discovery or a&e, but lots of WB/My/UPN stuff, RTN oldies like Happy days, Family ties, etc. Some news channels... FTA does not give you CNN, and fox, BUT there's one channel that is fta on a couple of the echostars that is a 6 in 1 channel. You see CNN and fox news in little bitty parts of a screen that has 6 channels on it - makes tickers hard to read, but everything else is ok,... a little distracting with that many channels on one screen, but very doable for news stories... that same 6 in 1 channel has I think travel channel, tbs, and a couple others (can't remember right off hand)... other fta news is up there too... in feeds and in other stuff like Russia Today, which broadcasts national news stories but is broadcast from Russia - but all the reporters speak english, albiet with an accent.
ONN is ok if you live in or near Ohio, but living in another state like I do makes it not all that great to watch all the time... GNF Movies and White Springs is ok, but don't expect anything like HBO or Starz on there...
There is a lot of foreign language and religion channels up there (especially on IA5), but that's by far not all that's there... if you do happen to speak another language, especially spanish, that's an added bonus. If not, that's ok... just don't put the foreign language channels in your favorite lists...
I used to have digital cable + internet a few years back... now we have fta + dsl. Money wise, fta has been a saving grace even though I did need to replace a dish motor once already (probably more my fault than the motors - DON'T put silicone around the motor to weather proof it - just around the coax connections that go up to the motor... on the coax and stuff around the motor proper, use sillicone tape and/or electrical tape if need be, but not the liquid sillicone stuff like I did).
when we had cable, I spent about 110.00 a month for the whole package - including on demand movies, high speed internet, and quite a few movie channels... I do miss on demand some, but not that much... especially since the options with that were really limited. Overall, FTA is more or less like a basic cable package without movie channels... which ain't too bad... especially considering there's no monthly fees.... Also, if you get an invacom quad lnb on a motorized dish you should be able to get both linear and circular ku channels, so in theory, if you did go fta, and some day down the road get a bonus or something and have a lot of money to spare, you could get dish network, and use the fta setup to pick up the disn network channels, and be a-ok with that one motorized dish instead of doing the gawdy things a lot of folks end up doing and having dish network put like 2-3 18 inch dishes on the roof pointed in different directions...
Really want to figure it out...
Take a look at global-cm.net's list, then go sign up for a free acocunt at titantv.com and enter the channels from global-cm's list to see whats on the schedule for a lot of the tv channels up there.
well lets see
-C Band dish
-4 KU band dishes
-3 analog boxes
-7 digital boxes for FTA
what do you think??
I've only been in the hobby for a few months but I really enjoy. My wife thinks I'm nuts sometimes but pffft what does she know.
If all you want to do is watch television, it may not be the way to go. There's quite a bit of fiddling you have to (need to?) do and the content isn't the same as pay services.
If all you want to do is watch television, it may not be the way to go. There's quite a bit of fiddling you have to (need to?) do and the content isn't the same as pay services.
I find I "have to" fiddle more than is required I bought my FTA for the RTN stations, but have since been playing much more with the dishes, and such.
I bought my FTA for the RTN stations, but have since been playing much more with the dishes, and such.
As for me I just like to TV DXing, and that's FTA dish makes it look like shortwave radio, where you never know what you can tune in!!
I like to pick up live raw news and sport feeds and any exotic overseas TV stations that's sometime spills overhere in southwest USA, thank's to Nahul-1 which shares' AMC-6's satellite location at 72*w.
Also thank you for your services, and come on down to our AAFES BX anytime if you swing by at Kirtland AFB!
I like to pick up live raw news and sport feeds and any exotic overseas TV stations that's sometime spills overhere in southwest USA, thank's to Nahul-1 which shares' AMC-6's satellite location at 72*w.
Also thank you for your services, and come on down to our AAFES BX anytime if you swing by at Kirtland AFB!
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