I keep seeing people trying to sell Dish and DirecTV boxes that they have replaced. Are these of any value for FTA? And if so, any particular model to watch for? I'm off the grid, no landline, running mostly on 12 volts in my RV, which has a Winegard dish on the roof but nothing else for TV. I'm not interested in the majority of the junk on the satellites, and sure not interested in spending hundreds of dollars a year to see the couple of channels which would be worth watching. However, if I can put a $10 yard sale box on this dish and see (LEGAL) FTA, that would be worth a try.
FTA using Dish or DirecTV box?
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Don't waste your money. The Directv boxes are designed to received circular polarized signals and signals that are encrypted. Use could use the box under your levelers and that's about it.
No.
But, if you'll tell us what sort of programming might interest you, maybe we can come up with a conservative suggestion for you.
eg:
- what language?
- would PBS interest you?
- old (classic) TV shows?
- other?
Hmmm . . . English and Tagalog PBS sometimes. Old classic TV yes. About the only current TV that interests me is documentary stuff, like Discovery and History Channel, news, etc. If God meant man to watch modern TV, He'd have given us WRITERS! Mostly I would like to play around and have something to watch other than DVDs when I am out away from town. I'm into ham radio, so this is kind of related. The only religious programming which interests me is LDS (Mormon). I know that BYU-TV is on one of the other bands. BTW, I would also like to find one or two of those larger (6-foot?) dishes that people had on their RV roofs, one to mount as an antenna, and the other to take off the antenna and mount solar panels. I thought about using one of the Winegard DirecTV crank-up mechanisms, but I don't think they can handle the weight. If you know of anyone trying to unload them in northern Nevada or northern California, please let me know.
Seems like I remember reading on another site (I don't remember where) about flashing a particular model dish or direct receiver to a Pansat 2500 but it didn't seem practical because if I remember correctly If the box lost power It needed to be reflashed.
I can't remember what receiver it was but now that I think about it, the conversion may have took more than just a flash and perhaps it converted it to Fortec not Pansat. 301 does sound familiar tho.
Edit: I did a little googling on this and from what I gathered the box only picked up dish satellites (The symbol rate was locked in to 20000), it was a hack box. It was converted to Pansat from what I read. I guess a FTA version was available but didn't work good.
Edit: I did a little googling on this and from what I gathered the box only picked up dish satellites (The symbol rate was locked in to 20000), it was a hack box. It was converted to Pansat from what I read. I guess a FTA version was available but didn't work good.
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FTA boxes are so cheap you better off just getting one of those. There is plenty of English programming on various satellites. Tagalog, not so much, a couple of radio stations and one religious tv channel (Sonshine) all on Galaxy 19. MYX was on G19 but was removed.
Good luck.
Good luck.
I did it... reflashing dish model 301... I appreciate the effort made by the programmer, but not perfected for FTA, Linear LNB does not work, does not capture many satellites even very strong, the clock suddenly goes mad with negative numbers, blocking all functionality of the device and only corrects with: reflashing ... hurts ... I do not recommend.:down
So, which CHEAP box do you suggest, and does it work with the Dish / DirecTV antenna? If the Tagalog radio stations are normal broadcasting, that will be fine. If it were that important, I'd just pay the money to get ABS-CBN or TFC. I'm not even Filipino, but the ladies that I date are all Pinay.
I am wondering the same as to which boxes to find cheap. I want something with GOOD blind scan, dont matter if it is used, for like $20 or less shipped, that comes with a remote control. I do not see myself using it enough to be worth putting anymore than that into it.
Is there a FTA weather channel up there somewhere (not The Weather Channel 214) like we see on Dish Network (362 on Directv).
Is there a FTA weather channel up there somewhere (not The Weather Channel 214) like we see on Dish Network (362 on Directv).
People who want something for nothing, often wind up buying ex-hacker boxes at yard sales.
Problem is, 90% of 'em are just crap when used for general FTA.
They don't control switches properly, or won't run a motor, or... have a host of other problems.
Why? Because they were released with buggy factory firmware, and only hack-ware was ever developed for them.
No effort was made to enhance the receiver for general FTA usage.
There are a couple of notable exceptions.
Fortec Mercury II and follow-on boxes with the same board (the Dynamic?), lost hack support many years ago, and are decent for FTA.
Coolsat 5000 & 6000, plus Visionsat IV-200's both had hack support, but also good independent development for proper FTA.
There's even 3rd party FTA-specific firmware for the two Coolsats (but not other models)
Likewise, I wouldn't get too excited over other Fortec models, either.
Problem is, 90% of 'em are just crap when used for general FTA.
They don't control switches properly, or won't run a motor, or... have a host of other problems.
Why? Because they were released with buggy factory firmware, and only hack-ware was ever developed for them.
No effort was made to enhance the receiver for general FTA usage.
There are a couple of notable exceptions.
Fortec Mercury II and follow-on boxes with the same board (the Dynamic?), lost hack support many years ago, and are decent for FTA.
Coolsat 5000 & 6000, plus Visionsat IV-200's both had hack support, but also good independent development for proper FTA.
There's even 3rd party FTA-specific firmware for the two Coolsats (but not other models)
Likewise, I wouldn't get too excited over other Fortec models, either.
The reason why I stated the cheap price was due to hearing about a lot of people getting these for really cheap on ebay. I do not have much knowledge on FTA receivers though but have heard about some having a good blind scan while others did not have a good blind scan.
Seeing these list of FTA receivers that you just mentioned will help me find a good one.
Seeing these list of FTA receivers that you just mentioned will help me find a good one.
For fast blindscan and sheer all round easy to use, nothing beats those CS 5000 or 6000 receivers. Only caveat is they are not HD or DVB S2 capable.
Pansat also makes an excellent receiver. I have only seen the 2700 and the 3500 in action but with factory firmware these two boxes are hard to beat for blindscan an general ease of operation. These units are only sd not hd. Pback, I like my Coolsat 5000 too.
I agree on the Coolsats. I have a 5000 and sold 2 others here on the board. Great machine
Pansat is good but blind scan is slow
Pansat is good but blind scan is slow
So, which CHEAP box do you suggest, and does it work with the Dish / DirecTV antenna? If the Tagalog radio stations are normal broadcasting, that will be fine. If it were that important, I'd just pay the money to get ABS-CBN or TFC. I'm not even Filipino, but the ladies that I date are all Pinay.
Like some of the guys here have suggested the Pansats, or the Coolsats are prettygood .
Given the limited amount of programming you want to receive, I would think just about any box would do.
Only the larger Dish or DIrectv dishes will work but you will need to replace the lnbs with linear models.
I never listen to the radio stations (they are both religous based) since they are Tagalog however the one tv channel does have a news program from about 5.30 pm central to 6.30pm central time. Too bad the MYX is gone, your friends would probably have liked it.
There are a couple of websites that offer free programming from the Philippines.
I know one is linked below. My wife (Filipina) watches it sometimes but she is too busy as a student to watch a lot of tv.
http://www.pinoychannel.tv/
I just noticed you are in Nevada, I assume LV which has a lot of Filipinos. You are probably aware but just in case you are not, the Jollibee east of the strip (I forgot the street it is on) has a market and you can probably rent some Filipino movies there. A new Jollibee just opened on the west side near 215. I have not been to that location but it may have a market also where you can find some videos. (If you are dating Filipinas then you know what a Jollibee is.)
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So, which CHEAP box do you suggest, and does it work with the Dish / DirecTV antenna? If the Tagalog radio stations are normal broadcasting, that will be fine. If it were that important, I'd just pay the money to get ABS-CBN or TFC. I'm not even Filipino, but the ladies that I date are all Pinay.
Some Dish/Directv antennas are interchangeable depending on what you want to look at. Dish/Directv receivers are good only for Dish and Directv viewing. That's it.
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