Decisions: FTA or little dish?

[uh-oh]

Hi everyone
My husband and I have C-Band w/ 4dtv and LOVE it! Problem is that "they" keep cutting the programming...ie TCM, LifeTime, and FoxNet. We are debating on whether to go the route of KU-Band and MPEG2 or the little dish -- ie DirecTV or Dish. Neither one of us are good with technology and we have to call in someone fifty miles away (by now he is a friend b/c we call him so much!) to help us. Oh, yes, we have a big white solid dish that (knocking on wood) works extremely well.

We have heard numerous rumors that the little dish has terrible reception, but I cannot find any complaints on the Dish/DirecTV forums.

We are retired and the TV and the Internet are our entertainments of choice so we want to make an informed decision.

We like FNC, football (college and pro), boxing and all kinds of movies - modern and classic. I am afraid that the KU/MPEG choice would be too complicated for us - but I don't know this for fact, just from what I have read here.

The little dish seems like a cop out for a big dish lover, but simpler for us. If we decide to go this route, how is reception (we live in mtns and get good amt of rain/snow)?
Thanking you in advance

 

[n4bbq]

Hi,

You'll not get much of that on FTA in America. If I were you, I'd call Dish Network.

I love FTA, but that is me. There's lots of foreign language stuff and Christian programming and maybe old movies from time to time. Good luck in your chase.

 

[PSB]

Hello,
The little dish is the easy answer and the quality is not too bad as long as you do not have a GIANT TV, then the picture quality is more of an issue. But to be fair the same can be said for FTA. Some channels are great and some I am sure you would not want to watch. If you watch alot of premier channels, Food/Movies/Discovery/Si Fi...... then at this time FTA will not give you what you are looking for. If you like sports then maybe FTA should be considered. Our Super Moderator here ICEBERG recently pointed out a few weeks ago that out of 16 football games DirecTV had, 14 of them could be seen on FTA : )

If you like news, raw news then FTA is a great addition to your entertainment resources, being a C-band owner I am sure I don't have to go into all the feeds available, but the news feeds for me are the number one reason to go FTA, if there is anything happening anywhere in the world usually its on FTA LIVE.

After setting up a FTA system moving from satellite to satellite is as easy as changing channel on the remote (same as C-band). I would say with the weather you have a 90cm or larger dish would be needed, in reflection I guess I am too much of a FTA nut to get a fair and balanced (FOX NEWS and ABC NOW are FTA) opinion, I think you would enjoy KU FTA. I hope this helps slightly with your decision but read as much as you can here and don't rush into anything. With any luck the other members here will chip in with their views and take them all into account before you take the leap, many members here only have KU FTA and an OTA antenna, and they get all the TV they need : ) Nice to have you here at the SatelliteGuys.US forum!

 

[carload]

With a properly aimed tiny dish, your reception should be good except in the very worst of rain/snow storms. It happens to me maybe 2 hours per year. Be sure to put the dish somewhere you can clean the snow from it.

Dish/DirecTV seems like a no-brainer for you. Look at the channel charts, see which ones you want, then go for it. I'd choose Dish for the Superstations and less expensive sports package (which includes a lot of college and very little pro sports), but do the numbers and choose for yourself. (Others would suggest DirecTV for its exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket, if you want to buy that.)

THEN, I'd consider adding a Ku-band dish anyway. There are stray sports and backhauls all over, and it's all free after you set up the equipment. It makes a fun supplement, but it's hard to recommend it as an alternative.

 

[tdti1]

Hi everyone
My husband and I have C-Band w/ 4dtv and LOVE it! Problem is that "they" keep cutting the programming...ie TCM, LifeTime, and FoxNet. We are debating on whether to go the route of KU-Band and MPEG2 or the little dish -- ie DirecTV or Dish. Neither one of us are good with technology and we have to call in someone fifty miles away (by now he is a friend b/c we call him so much!) to help us. Oh, yes, we have a big white solid dish that (knocking on wood) works extremely well.

We have heard numerous rumors that the little dish has terrible reception, but I cannot find any complaints on the Dish/DirecTV forums.

We are retired and the TV and the Internet are our entertainments of choice so we want to make an informed decision.

We like FNC, football (college and pro), boxing and all kinds of movies - modern and classic. I am afraid that the KU/MPEG choice would be too complicated for us - but I don't know this for fact, just from what I have read here.

The little dish seems like a cop out for a big dish lover, but simpler for us. If we decide to go this route, how is reception (we live in mtns and get good amt of rain/snow)?
Thanking you in advance

I have 4dtv and I love it also, I would not downgrade to pizza dish or cable when you already have the best system out there, I would get a Pansat 2500a (like I did) if I was you for the other channels, for now maybe add ku so you can get the hits channels from nps, and then get a dvb box, or get a dvb then get ku its up to you, but don't dump 4dtv the others may have better features but the picture quality on small dish sucks and the prices are to high. I would go here www.4dtvrocks.com and join the owners only section and you will like your system even more, there are people that work at the programming places on the fourm so you will also save money with the guys there.

 

[Wayn23]

Hi everyone
My husband and I have C-Band w/ 4dtv and LOVE it! Problem is that "they" keep cutting the programming...ie TCM, LifeTime, and FoxNet. We are debating on whether to go the route of KU-Band and MPEG2 or the little dish -- ie DirecTV or Dish. Neither one of us are good with technology and we have to call in someone fifty miles away (by now he is a friend b/c we call him so much!) to help us. Oh, yes, we have a big white solid dish that (knocking on wood) works extremely well.

We have heard numerous rumors that the little dish has terrible reception, but I cannot find any complaints on the Dish/DirecTV forums.

We are retired and the TV and the Internet are our entertainments of choice so we want to make an informed decision.

We like FNC, football (college and pro), boxing and all kinds of movies - modern and classic. I am afraid that the KU/MPEG choice would be too complicated for us - but I don't know this for fact, just from what I have read here.

The little dish seems like a cop out for a big dish lover, but simpler for us. If we decide to go this route, how is reception (we live in mtns and get good amt of rain/snow)?
Thanking you in advance

Why don't you keep the C-band/4dtv system for movies as you don't get as
many channels with dish or direct and the picture looks soft and fuzzy compared to the beautiful analog and 4dtv picture. I would also get a mpeg2 FTA system to use with the big dish and you might find you really like it. I tried switching to Dish Network a couple of years ago and was so disappointed with the picture quality that I gave it away, maybe when they go to mpeg 4 they will offer a good picture but I could not stand it the way it
looks now. If you add a KU feed to the big dish you will get even more, there
are lots of sports feeds in both analog and digital.