FTA - want to watch football, tell me about it.

[tab76]

Hello all,
So wanted to know more about a FTA satellite set up.
I live in Houston Tx, but I was born and raised in Alabama so I love my SEC college football, and the Saints...both of which is never broadcasted in texas. I have Att uverse so I've been going to "first row sports" to watch ball games on the PC. Today I hit the link up earlier enough to watch as they tuned into the game. I notice they where on some type of satellite system and I watched as they scrolled throught a list of satellite such as "hotbird" (the only one I remember by name). Anyway they found the satellite and tuned into the game. I was wondering what type of set up would do this, and if a FTA system would do this. I would like to have a set up where I could do something like this without having to move over to dicret tv and pay out the a-- for there sports packages.

So any advise on how I might could get a setup like that?

 

[Magic Static]

Watching sports feeds is kind of the "cherry on top" of the whole FTA hobby. You have to find them. In order to do that you need to learn where to look and what you need for equipment. This hobby has gone through many changes, small and large. So you need to keep up to date. There is a lot to learn to get the most from FTA. Those who put the time and effort in reap the benifit. How much you put in = how much you take away. I hope you can find some interest in the FTA hobby and join the rest of us crazy people chasing TV thru the stars. Welcome to the forum. Visit the FAQs section and then maybe you can find the way you want to proceed. A lot of FTA equipment can be had for free or next to nothing if you know where to look. This forum is a wealth of information and we all like to help.

 

[brentb636]

With a motorized Ku band system ( I'd recommend a 1.0M dish as a minimum), you can catch a lot of college games on Saturday. If that will cheer you up, then start with that. You won't necessarily get the games you want, but it's football. Maybe you WILL get the games you want. It's a crapshoot every week !
If you want to maximize your TV input you'll need both a motorized Ku dish and a motorized C-band dish, unless you choose a larger C-band dish with a Ku/Cband combo lnbf. An 8 foot dish, though, is not welcome in some places, so you'll need to let us know the particulars of your situation.

 

[turbosat]

Wow another Tide fan! Hope you don't live in an apartment lol. As others said, you can get a lot of freebies with fta, but you have to learn the hobby, get a ku dish and start scanning the satellites about an hour before game time, sometimes you'll find what you want.
Sometimes not. Starting out now-I'd say go ahead and buy an HD fta receiver, as a lot of the feeds are in high def, and the other standard definition receivers will give you a nice black screen and great digital audio. And, not unexpectedly, some of the big operators are now beginning to scramble their feeds, but that hasn't become widespread ( yet ). To get the most possible ways to find your favorite game, a big c-band dish will be needed, get an 8' or bigger dish if possible.
And don't be afraid to post here with questions about particular pieces of equipment-before you buy. Most of what's out there has already been tried and tested by members here. Welcome to the forum , also.

 

[tab76]

if I double post here sorry, but for some reason I was having trouble...
anyway I can't do a 8foot dish, I don't have anywhere to put something that big, I can do about a 3foot dish roof mounted. I don't have much a back yard so guess I will suck with ku satellites only. I was looking online for kit and found on at Amazon with is a "FTA Complete Glorystar Satellite One Room Standard System - Free to Air Television". Is this kit a good starter kit, and not anybody know of a good one?

 

[Jim S.]

The Glorystar folks are great friends to the hobby and their equipment is solid, but as far as I know, their receivers are only standard-definition. Also, you'll probably want a motor, unless you know for sure that the teams you want to watch are all on one satellite and likely to stay there.

 

[tab76]

ok so. not knowing anything at all, I've been looking online and trying to find equip that you all are recommending and I found dish that comes with...
1 WS International 90 cm satellite dish
1 linear Ku band 10750 LNB
1 DiSEqC 1.2 HH Dish Motor (yeap motorized)
then looking at a receiver I found this... PANSAT TC-1000 HD (PVR) FTA

Is this all that is needed to start a baisc FTA setup, and are there any opinons on this equipment?

 

[turbosat]

tab WSI is a sponsor here, there's a link at the top of the page if you haven't seen it already. Not sure if they have any HD receivers.
Read through the Reviews section here for some information on some of the hd-capable receivers our folks have used.
Might do a search here too for that PANSAT TC1000, not familiar with it myself. And don't worry, you will find more stuff with a ku-only system than you'll be able to watch at one time.

 

[tab76]

I found a store here in Houston that plan on visitng in the next few days and will talk with someone there to get some advice...wow, didn't expect to find an "FTA" store but I did.

 

[bobvick]

You might want to take a look at the Manhattan RS1933. I have been very happy with mine.

 

[Tron]

Tab76, "FTA stores" are very few and far between. Most shops are trying to sell equipment and small DBS dishes to hack Dish Network, which is not what FTA is. If you find a store that sells 30 inch or larger Ku-Band dishes and caters to hobbyists, there are some members here from the Houston area that would surely like to know about it!