i am a fta fan and use a basic sat finder meter. i know, im cheap. but i am doing okay with it, i am toying with the ku dish trying to catch some great wild feeds. i am curious about something, i get alot of the dish net sats, which are of course scrambled... anyways i have never hit any direct tv sats.. ever.. i dont understand. dont they use the same lnb as dish? also nimiq sats. i just was wondering if they use the same thing. i hit d network with the primestar lnb, actually their sats are strong, the one on 118.7 especially! when i hit it with my meter i can move the dish 4 inches and still be on the sat. kinda like g25 at 97 deg, i cant get t6, and i hit a sat over in the 70 deg area, but cant match up the tps to the lyngsat charts, so i have no clue to what sat i am on. i dont know how i am getting it because the eastern sats from 93 deg on are covered by trees but i am shooting just right through on that one.
direct tv sats.
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DirecTV uses a proprietary MPEG stream instead of DVB, and our receivers can't tune it. The Dish Network satellites have a few channels in the clear, notably NASA on 119w and GOL-TV on 110w. There is also plenty of free music on 119w 
Most FTA is on other satellites, and requires a Ku linear LNBF and at least a 30" dish.
Most FTA is on other satellites, and requires a Ku linear LNBF and at least a 30" dish.
directv uses the same lnb, I think, for most stuff, but since they are using different streams, as already said, you won't find them unless you are using a direct tv box... which is more or less illegal unless you are subscribed. I have an old direct tv box that was in basement when I bought the place. Fiddling with it actually got me in to fta in the first place. It was set up just to see 101 w and nothing else. I tried it out, and saw some of the channel list in the tv but couldn't get anything since after about 10 seconds it game me a big message that said that the subscription is outdated and I need a new card... the dish I used to do that was an 18". I used the same exact dish to pick up Nasa on 119 after I got my pansat but before I got my winegard dish, so they are on similar wave signals, just different stream types. Pretty soon, I hear dish network will move to mpeg 4. If/when that happens, fta on the echostars may go bye bye... unless maybe you have a dvb card. I think some dvb cards can tune in direct tv fta music signals, but I'm not sure exactly which ones. DVB World USB Device does not... I think Twinhan might?
Some older Sony DTV boxes can get the audio with some commands sent via PC to the serial port.
Audio is not scrambled on DTV. Even for TV channels audio is ITC.
Even some select DVB PCI cards can tune DTV signals and get the audio ITC.
DISH Network moves to MPEG-4 video using DVB-S2, which means all you'll need to do is upgrade your FTA receiver to one that receives DVB-S2 and MPEG-4, but all that gives you is barker channels and NASA.
I'm unsure if the audio channels will be changing. They're on their own transponders so they don't necessarily have to change over to DVB-S2.
Incidentally, DirecTV's HD transponders are already using DVB-S2 (and will not be using the just-incompatible-enough DVB used by the SD transponders). I presume the SD transponders might eventually move to DVB-S2 (and MPEG-4) like DISH Network has already announced.
Does anyone have a DVB-S2 FTA receiver that can scan the DirecTV HD signals?
I sure would like to know how this is accomplished, like which audio services are you really seeing, and are you really getting the DirecTV XM channels instead of the ones of AMC-4, and if you are really seeing XM for Business on 119 instead of Muzak and Sirius audio which are also on 119 (XM for Business moved to 119 to make XM more attractive for Muzak customers since they wouldn't have to repoint or buy a new dish for the 119 location, just swap the receiver).
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