Camel's back breaking?

[kymics]

I’m reading about the loss of The Tube. I didn’t have FTA equipment when it was on Ku and I don’t have C-band now so I never actually got to experience this channel but I can see that is was popular. Also within the last two weeks, we lost GolTV to encryption which was a big blow to others.

My question is, what would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for you? In other words, if something was no longer available on FTA you would drastically lose interest or stop using your equipment all together.

 

[qwert1515]

For me it would have to be feeds, and it seems that they have found a way to annoy me by using "Dolby E" audio

 

[Davage]

For me to lose interest, absolutely EVERYTHING would have to be scrambled. Hunting out un-scrambled feeds is part of the fun. As long as there are unscrambled signals to find, I'll keep hunting and using my free-to-air equipment.

In my case, I've got a subscription to Bell ExpressVu to keep the wife and family happy. That is our guaranteed source of TV. I use the Free-To-Air to find oddball stuff that isn't normally available such as the news feeds, sports feeds, the Superbowl with the good commercials (and not the Canadian Global TV sim-sub'd commercials) as well as looking for other feeds that occasionally slip from scrambled to clear mode.

I still have an analog radio scanner that I use for listening to the airport, fire dept etc too.

 

[PopcornNMore]

If we ever lost the many RTN channels available I would be heart broken.

 

[Mr Tony]

I’m reading about the loss of The Tube. I didn’t have FTA equipment when it was on Ku and I don’t have C-band now so I never actually got to experience this channel but I can see that is was popular. Also within the last two weeks, we lost GolTV to encryption which was a big blow to others.

My question is, what would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for you? In other words, if something was no longer available on FTA you would drastically lose interest or stop using your equipment all together.

oh hell no. Gol TV doesnt mean much to me as I am not a soccer fan but lets see. I've seen in the last couple years
-The Tube go from KU Band to C-band
-The Tube leaving period (not as bad as more people had KU)
-The networks leaving G10 KU and going to C-Band (made me get a C-Band dish)
-RetroJams showing up and leaving
-The loss of a WB affiliate on KU
-Loss of a few channels on IA5
-The sadness of seeing stations that were up on KU due to hurricanes leave once they get their tower fixed.
-The audio channels on IA5 scrambling, and reappearing and rescrambling
-and many other channels scrambling

but that won't stop me. There is just too much up there mainly sports feeds. Sure we lose a station here and there but we gain channels too. And that is what makes this hobby great. You never know what you're gonna see or find.

I know some people have mentioned RTN but we didnt have until recently. Before that those RTN stations were either UPN, WB or Pax and had no variety between them. Just the same thing across the board. GolTv we knew would be scrambled but didnt know when. We got 2+ years out of it. You can't dwell on the past. Just move on and find a new feed to watch

 

[rv1pop]

I got fta for Glorystar All 5+ TBN and Daystar. So, don't go suggesting some*one* try to cut them off.

 

[lumpkin666]

BYUTV was the only thing that drug me in - first with KU, then to C-band when they moved their main feed from SatMex5.. if BYUTV is gone, I'll scale back to maybe one receiver, one ku dish, and one c-band dish for tinkering, but the family won't have receivers in their rooms/etc.

 

[linuxman]

For me, we would have to lose everything including 4DTV for me to toss in the towel.

Even then we would have my newly re-discovered OTA TV that has grown in our area in the last 4 years.

As Davage and Iceberg said above, discovery is part of the fun. Even when we lose a channel others appear out of nowhere, so I am in it until the bitter end.

Fred

 

[turbosat]

I know most of these channels are here today, and possibly gone tomorrow. Like with the Tube, I didn't have fta when it was on ku, so I had just gotten used to having it. Still I was really surprised to hear it suddenly gone. But like the others say, the hunt is the fun part, never knowing who/what you will find.
I would really miss the pbs on amc3 if it was all gone tonite, but I think they are already slated to disappear anyway, in the future, for IPTV delivery. That will really stink. But there's always something to watch on fta.

 

[Davage]

I would really miss the pbs on amc3 if it was all gone tonite, but I think they are already slated to disappear anyway, in the future, for IPTV delivery. That will really stink. But there's always something to watch on fta.

I haven't followed the progression of IPTV, so I will admit that I know very little about the technology behind it, but it seems to me that satellite would still be the most efficient way of getting the signal to hundreds of stations all at once without network lag etc. 2 to 3 hundred stations all pulling down the same program via IP would need one heck of a data pipeline.

 

[lumpkin666]

I haven't followed the progression of IPTV, so I will admit that I know very little about the technology behind it, but it seems to me that satellite would still be the most efficient way of getting the signal to hundreds of stations all at once without network lag etc. 2 to 3 hundred stations all pulling down the same program via IP would need one heck of a data pipeline.

There's Tons of fiber out there. With the right protocol/etc, it's not that much overhead. There are lots of providers that already supply their content over fiber - heck my company's whole channel lineup (except for 3 channels) is supplied over fiber from another source far from our location.

 

[Mr Tony]

My question is, what would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for you? In other words, if something was no longer available on FTA you would drastically lose interest or stop using your equipment all together.

The only time I've seen people get rid of their FTA equipment is when they move where they cant have it (due to apartments etc) or the main one for ethnics and that is when a channel goes from FTA/Globecast to Dish/Direct and that was the only channel they had FTA for and have no option.

Got a couple boxes that way

 

[turbosat]

Hey maybe you're right, they would still need the bird to get it to the headends. That piece of info
might have gotten me goin in the wrong direction when I read about iptv.

 

[Keith Brannen]

While the loss of the RTN/G10R channels would be a big blow to me as far as watching FTA channels, it wouldn't cause me to lose interest. I seem to spend a lot of time scanning for news/sports and other feeds (in fact, the Pansat is scanning right now in another room). Pretty much have to lose everything before I'd pack it in.

Certainly don't like the loss of channels we have been experiencing the last few months, and my circular LNB at 110 is pretty much useless now that GOLTV is gone, except for the 6 in one screen (wish there was a zoom function on the Pansat). Have a spare linear, but really don't see anything else I can aim at in my range/dish positionings!

 

[DiscoLoveGrapes]

GolTV went scrambled? I guess I don't keep up too well.

When I got into FTA two years ago this place seemed to be in the throes of "The end of FTA in North America!!" madness. The Tube lost its Ku feed, as did ImaginAsain (which still is annoying to me), PBS Kids, and some EuroMusic channel on Ia5 that appeared for about 15 minutes before disappearing forever. The Carribean networks went C-band as well, and FOX was forcing Equity into scrambling one or more of its feeds due to the NFL.

On the other hand, I'm almost certain there is more FTA, and more English FTA, than there was two years ago. There are more PBS feeds on AMC3, and more English foreign channels on Ia5. More RTN channels have popped up as well.

Sure it sucks when things go dark - I also miss the FTA stuff on the Nimiq channels. However, it's a strange hobby. I'd probably only totally give up if Ia5 went dark or they went insane with scrambling G10r or news feeds. Even then I'd probably supplement it with a C-band or DCII box.

 

[jayelem]

Before taking the FTA plunge I realized that the Cuba Mux on Hispasat could vanish and it did , and was reported in Lyngsat , I don't know for how long it was gone or encrypted since updates are funny , but I did e-mail Cubavision with my concerns and how they were making a big mistake.

I never got a response from Cubavision but the mux did come back which was a sigh of relief , later I thought about how much of a loss it would be for my family to lose it , but the truth is my Mom watches and enjoys other channels much more than the Cuba mux , so I think that there is plenty of other channels to keep someone interested.

If you lose a channel It's still a big loss , and I don't mean if it just moves to Dish Net or Direct TV because then there is always a chance of subscribing to a package , but if it vanishes from FTA through encryption and is not available any other way that would really suck.

It could be worse, it would suck if someone put a second floor addition on my neighbors house , my LOS would lose birds from 91.0 - 127.0 .

 

[Keith Brannen]

It could be worse, it would suck if someone put a second floor addition on my neighbors house , my LOS would lose birds from 91.0 - 127.0 .

LOL! That is nearly what happened to me last year only months after I got into the "hobby" (addiction). I also would have lost about the same LOS (in other words, just about everything) where I have my dishes mounted.

Fortunately, we live in an older neighbourhood where the houses do not comply with the newer property by-law criteria (but are "deemed to comply"). In other words, their house was too close to the property line to add a second floor to their single floor house without getting a variance (which we wouldn't give, and would fight tooth and nail if they applied for one).

In the end, they just moved.

Oh yes, my wife was really concerned about the fact the second floor addition would block basically most of the sunlight from reaching our kitchen window. Of course, my concern was slightly different... but at least we agreed it was a bad thing!

 

[kymics]

Oh yes, my wife was really concerned about the fact the second floor addition would block basically most of the sunlight from reaching our kitchen window. Of course, my concern was slightly different... but at least we agreed it was a bad thing!

I guess line of sight is in the eye of the beholder. Oh wait, of course it is.