EchoStar Files Suit Over FTA Boxes

[Scott Greczkowski]

Lots to see.

While I am mainly a G10R guy myself (lots of great channels and NFL football on Sunday for FREE)

But when there are special events or sporting events normally they are up there again in the clear.

If you like religious programming all kinds of free stuff courtesy of Glorystar, why pay for Sky Angel?

If you like wrestling you can watch live feeds with little to no commercials, hear the announcers talking, even sometimes practicing talking about what we are about to see next. Hell there have been rare times in the past that big events were up there FREE.

If you like foreign channels, there are loads of them for FREE, other satellite companies can charge you $20 a month for some of these channels.

If you like news, especially breaking news, the place to find all the coverage is on free to air, most of it uncensored, so you can really see whats up before TV stations edit everything down in to sound bytes, showing you only what they want you to see.

Free to Air is AMAZING, but its not for everyone. It takes time, patience, and learning. We give you the learning tools here at SatelliteGuys, the rest is up to you.

I think most of us here were at first confused by FTA (in fact some probably a little scared) but now for those folks who were dedicated to learn the ins and outs as Iceberg and others teach here then you really love it.

Long live FTA!

 

[digiblur]

wild feeds and more wild feeds is one example of fta. last season I watched a LSU game live that wasn't being shown until the next day. Try to do that with a directv or dishnetwork box.

 

[iafirebuff]

WOW! Where to start????? G10 for Retro TV is my favorite also! Oh, and I like White Springs on 129w also

Seriously, what is available FTA that is interesting? I looked into getting a FTA box back when there was a special on this website and other than PBS it didn't look like there was very much. I already get a decent PBS OTA so I passed.

 

[Mr Tony]

Wild feeds...especially if you are a sports fan. Me Im a college hockey fan.

Lets see...a typical Saturday
start around 6PM Central for the east coast games
Around 6:30 get those 7:30 Eastern star games from Michigan (the state and all its other colleges) or Notre Dame or those East coast games
Around 7:00 get the WCHA games from North Dakota, MN, Wisconsin
Might get a game around 8:30 from Denver
Then get the big dish ready for Alaska games at 10:00

One Saturday I saw 12 college hockey games...ALL FOR FREE!!!

College Football games...as Digiblur noted the quirks of some teams..some teams have PPV games for the local fans but there might be a feed that is for a replay later in the week that is free to pick up. I've seen everything from Big IA games (the big time teams battle it out) to Division IAA powerhouses like Montana to DII teams like North Dakota, Grand Valley State, etc to Division III to NAIA teams. There are lots of teams that actually publish the coordinates of the games so alumni can get them. Nothing says Saturday Afternoon like starting around 11AM with the SEC & ACC and all the East coast conferences and ending around 3:00AM with a late feed from Hawai'i

I'm not much a college bouncey ball fan but there are TONS of games there too. That ESPN game plan states what 30 games a week? I can see that many and more on ONE SATURDAY!

OK..so maybe sports isn't your cup of tea. Scott mentioned alot of the other stuff. News feeds (especially during a major event) are awesome. That Live Earth concert that NBC showed a 3 hour clipped version? FTA'ers saw it live uncut with around 20 feeds or more. When a big celebrity or politician died, tons of feeds out there.

Religious stuff-Scott already mentioned that

I like Galaxy 10 and Retro TV Network. Its like TVLand when TVLand was good. They also have Univison feeds and My Network. Also a few independent stations on that satellite too.

Want a different view of the world's news in English? How about Russia Today or AL Jazeera English or a couple other news channels? Want to see how other countries like Cuba have to offer? Dial up Cubavision. You may not understand the language (I don't) but the news stuff is interesting.

And just the weird channels out there that makes free to air awesome. Sure its not for everyone. Some people just want to hook upa pizza dish and turn channels and whatever's on that's what they watch. But FTA'ers want to explore and see what else is out there. I originally got into it 3 1/2 years ago with very little knowledge about it but have enjoyed it immensely since then

 

[RVD420]

I love my FTA.

Plenty on G10, KUIL on 101 gotta love the cheesy car dealer commericals, backhauls, wild feeds. Even can catch some PPV events free from the backhauls from time to time.

 

[iafirebuff]

Very well put Ice!

 

[Anole]

way off topic, but . . .

Seriously, what is available FTA that is interesting?

Personally, I think WhiteSprings and their old movies suck.
But, I'm not an old movie buff.
If you are, you need WhiteSprings.

I like technology, and there was nothing better than sitting in the control room with the JPL guys when the two rovers landed on Mars!
That was what? Two and a half years ago?
It was live, it's never been telecast again, and it still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up just thinking about it!
Plus, regular news conferences for many months, with new discoveries all the time.
NASA channel, FTA.

Not to mention a whole laundry list of other stuff.

 

[Labgate]

I just can't stop watching The Tube Network, a FTA channel.

And the wrestling feeds are great with a Quali-TV receiver.

Labgate

 

[htownjoe]

wild feeds,wild feeds,and more feeds. the thing is most people have no clue! the other day i was hooking up a house and the gentleman was talking about the astros. i mentioned i watch them at times via feed. he asked if i meant internet feed. i told him about the backhauls about twice a week. he said he thought the big dishes were the same as the small ones! i explained to him all the programming you can have for free on a bud or a fta ku dish. he asked me to find him a bud and come hook him up. i asked him if they were the same as the small ones why do the tv stations pay so much to have 20 of them take up a whole tower instead of a small lot of 20 pizza pan dishes. fta is better for me than any ppv channel will ever be because of the suspence of not knowing what will happen or what someone will say. i have heard some real crazy comments and seen some really crazy things via wild feed. have any of you ever caught a mexican feed on amc1 tp 16 on c band analog? i watched a police chase the other da

 

[N5XZS]

For me, that is love of TV DXing in the FTA satellite band is very much like Short Wave Radio in many ways!

I have seen rare TV stations oversea pop in from time to time, here in the good old USA.

I also like to watch any live sports feeds, even my beloved UNM Lobo team!

Love to watch out of town local news from around the USA, other than Albuquerque, NM TV market.:

For me FTA is a very fun hobby to play with, and I will enjoy it for many years to come.....

Keep on TV DXing!!!

 

[Tron]

You won't find anything like Starz or HBO, but if you cancel your pay satellite subscription, invest a one-time payment of $200-$300, and use the money you save on not paying a satellite bill every month to buy your favorite movies on DVD, you'll LOVE FTA!

 

[mastermesh]

and use the money you save on not paying a satellite bill every month to buy your favorite movies on DVD, you'll LOVE FTA!

or just save that money, buy some blank dvds, a dvb card, and record movies on the computer like a tivo sort of but with a lot more handholding, and then start making a dvd collection of these... works just like vhs libraries in the old days, but picture quality is better. You could even go the vhs route if you wanted to, but I don't like that since it requires fta box to sit on one channel (if you have to do that WGMU, KUIL, WMQF, or KKTU are good places to watch or record movies on the weekends)... most of the movies are from the 80s and 90s, but a lot of them are still pretty darn good movies... shucks, just last weekend between all those channels, I think there was Princess Diarys, an old Van Damn movie, and some others... I usually get about 3-5 movies that are worth burning to dvd per weekend doing this sort of stuff (mainly record to dvd to playback later when wife is home since my Friday is here Monday as far as work weeks are concerned). I usually just tune in g10r on weekends, and move over to pick up Create TV on Weekday mornings (back to G10r after work) so that I can record the painting shows at 9. I have a BFA in Painting and love picking up new techniques and ideas from Bob Ross and his hippy happy tree friends, that One Stroke Lady, and the watercolor guy.

 

[duchen]

Stealing is Wrong and Bad For Us!

I am new to free to air. But, I am enjoying it.

I have a DIRECTV system and a C/KU system. If I want to watch pay programming, I pay DIRECTV or NPS for it.

I was so happy to find the "Satellite Guys" forum, Mike Kohl's listings and FTA List because all of these sites discourage hacking and promote legitimate FTA. It is refreshing (compared to other sites I first discovered) and Satellite Guys, its members, Kohl and FTA list should be proud of yourselves!

Stealing is wrong, legally and morally. Selling softwear or receivers loaded with softwear to steal satellite signals is much different then selling a Betamax was in the 80's. The Betamax was introduced to allow recording of programming sent free to homes. While it was still illegal to record and re-sell that programming, it was not illegal to record and use that programming in your home.

Intercepting DISH isignals is simply illegal. DISH sells its programming and Congress has passed laws making it illegal to steal DISH signals. Stealing the signals is no different than stealing a book at a book store.

People who steal signals have the potential to hurt those of us who just want what is legitimately free to air. Theft of encrypted signals creates a financial incentive to change industry standards or create a countermeasure to kill the legitimate reception of FTA.

Programmers who choose not to scramble know that the FTA community is "out there" and it boosts their advertising revenue. But, if the wholesale cable or satellite providers are losing money because of thwe misuse of FTA receivers, they will try and stop even legitimate use.

I enjoy out of market news, programs, stations, movie feeds, wild feeds, the wierd stuff etc. :up I hope to be able to continue to do so. So, let's hope that this lawsuit has a positive effect.

 

[RVD420]

you would have to pry my FTA boxes from my cold dead hands before I give it up.

Too much goo stuff.

I even have a FTA box and P* dish pointed at 87w for the kids. They watch it more then Nick or Disney.

 

[turbosat]

Viewsat files report

Go over to SkyREPORT.com - Satellite Industry Daily News, Information, Data and Research for direct-to-home, DBS, C-Band, Local Channel, Broadband, High Speed Data, PVR and Interactive Television. if you want to see the story. Hope they got deep pockets......

 

[chevy]

Viewsat has always been about hacking.

Lousy motor control, no blind scan.

That's not entirely accurate (re: "no blind scan")

There is no blind scan on a Viewsat Platinum, but my Viewsat Xtreme DOES have blind scan (and it works quite nicely by the way)

And pretty sure Viewsat's other models that came out after Xtreme, also DO have blind scan.

Platinum doesn't - so if were talking about it in partucular - that's correct, It's an older model

BUT then... when it comes to other than Viewsat older makes / models of FTA receivers, NOT all of them have blind scan anyhow. Far from it actually.

 

[mastermesh]

Interesting email. Got an interesting email on July 20th that I didn't get around to reading til today... Apparently the folks running hashhu.com are getting busted in this stuff too. I don't know much about them, and actually forgot that I was registered on their free forums... think I registered there before I found satelliteguys.us and totally forgot about the registration there and a few other forums after joining up here... anyways, I think they are all hackers over there... Kinda funny that they say they are legal and can't be touched since they are off shore...

here's the email:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Jul 20, 2007 11:26 AM
Subject: Paramount Breaks His Silence

Things have gone too far and I must break my silence on this issue due to the recent events involving Viewsat. Over the last six months the community has come under heavy fire from Dish Network and Bell ExpressVu. So far their tactics are working, I am preparing a very large statement which will reveal everything in detail that has been happening over the last 6 months and how we can come together as a community to stop this. Dish Network relies partially on the community in their tactics, they pit people against eachother, they start rumors and spread their propaganda throughout the community creating confusion and fear, and for some people who spread rumors irresponsibly, this can create trouble for everyone. Numerous people from this site have been contacted by Echostar, were threatened and extorted, and did not give in to their demands. As far as I am concerned this site is completely legal and exercising it's rights protected under the United States Constitution and the!
Canadian Charter of Rights. This is why Echostar resorts to coming after people with threats of frivolous lawsuits rather than law enforcement.

This site is hosted in Hong Kong which means it's completely offshore and cannot
be touched by any law enforcement, and no matter how many dollars Dish Network or Bell ExpressVu attempts to sue HashHU or Viewtech Inc for, we will never give ANY information out to them. I never have, and I never will. No frivolous lawsuit will shake this site from it's firm footing within the community. Our members made this site what it is. Your information is safe, I never have and never will work with any of the providers despite the rumors that have been going around, which I might add were started by Dish Network and SI Leaker themselves to hurt this site, it's credibility and our traffic. There will be some information about SI Leaker posted as well in this statement, as well as the signal integrity departments of dish network and expressvu's tactics.

HashHU is here to serve the community's best interest. The community and HashHU will rebound from this barrage of scare tactics and propaganda being given out by Dishnet, stronger than ever. Expect my statement within the next few days. Remember this line. United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

For the post on the site, go here.

<Link Removed - Do not link to hacking sites here>

I'm not posting this to "talk about hacking..." or to give links to their site but to sort of give another side of the story, maybe?... He's sort of right, part of the reason they think all FTAers are hackers is because so many of those idiots are out there that are breaking the laws. Community does need to lend support to the legal users so that we all aren't hurt by the illegal stupid fools, which this guy emailing me may or may not be?!?...

It's kinda funny to watch this sort of manifesto crap show up...

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

There scrambling like roaches. I love it.

If I didn't want my name or email address associated with those sites, I would go over to those sites and help spread false rumors etc.

Lesson of the story is, if you want your Dish Network then PAY for it.

 

[digiblur]

There scrambling like roaches. I love it.

If I didn't want my name or email address associated with those sites, I would go over to those sites and help spread false rumors etc.

Lesson of the story is, if you want your Dish Network then PAY for it.

Reminds me of how they teach the kindergarten kids what happens to a story as it told over and over and over through each classmate, it changes dramatically by the 20th hand

 

[stone phillips420]

Reminds me of how they teach the kindergarten kids what happens to a story as it told over and over and over through each classmate, it changes dramatically by the 20th hand

can you say telephone!