Depending upon your TV, you may not need a receiver for the OTA antenna. Unless it is really old, many (if not all) of the sets within at least the last decade have internal tuners so that you can directly connect the OTA antenna to the coax input on the TV set. Then use the HDMI or RCA inputs for the satellite receiver and other devices.Score? Do the old "Porcupine"/Tree OTA antennas still work? The ones with multiple branches. If they do, I'd be looking at a different receiver to add OTA to the "farm", but it would expand my viewing options
There is not such a thing as an antenna for digital OTA.
How can y'all say that with this national phenomenon "as seen on TV"!?! [ Had to include it...]there is no such animal as an HDTV antenna.
Yes, different meaning through sentence structure...I had carefully crafted that sentence...
I would suggest you just start sifting thru all of the FTA section here and you'll find out most if not more than you want to know.I am in a somewhat similar situation as 74dusted in that I am considering applying CPR to an old 10'? 12'? mesh dish that has been in my backyard now for a decade or two. I didn't get it from my dad. Rather I used it for years before abandoning it for a little dish on my roof. (Dish for years and now Direct.) I'll need to move it as trees have grown up in front of it and block line of sight to the south, but not far.
At this point I'm not sure if I will go to the work needed to put it in use or not and at this point I am just gathering information. My 1st priority is getting my OTA reception finalized. Then I may stream the rest of the stuff we watch on Hulu, Sling, etc. But I know I'm sick of paying $100+ per month for 100's of channels I don't use. But, on the other hand, when my contract is up (this fall) and I cancel DirectTV I don't know how I am going to get Chicago Bears and Nebraska football. Without DirectTV I can't get NFL Sunday Ticket or Big10 network. As I said, information gathering.
OnSat and Orbit are both out of print. Is there a publication, web based or other, that has a listing of channels? One that says "This satellite this transponder has this network"? Remember the old centerfold grids?
Where is a business source for a C band satellite equipment such as receivers, etc.? And for a la carte programming? Just lurking until now this thread has already been very helpful. Thanks.
Welcome to SatelliteGuys, Matonanjin!
The most current satellite channel listing of 24/7 services is sathint.com
Likely you will find that the components on your dish only need cleaning and lubrication. You might want to upgrade the LNBs or swap out the feedhorn for a LNBF to simplify the system. Consider a DiSEqC 1.2 controller to automatically position the dish via a DVBS2 MPEG2/4 receiver.
Start a new thread with a list of the system components that you have along with photos and we will try to assist with questions and recommendations.
I am in a somewhat similar situation as 74dusted in that I am considering applying CPR to an old 10'? 12'? mesh dish that has been in my backyard now for a decade or two. I didn't get it from my dad. Rather I used it for years before abandoning it for a little dish on my roof. (Dish for years and now Direct.) I'll need to move it as trees have grown up in front of it and block line of sight to the south, but not far.
At this point I'm not sure if I will go to the work needed to put it in use or not and at this point I am just gathering information. My 1st priority is getting my OTA reception finalized. Then I may stream the rest of the stuff we watch on Hulu, Sling, etc. But I know I'm sick of paying $100+ per month for 100's of channels I don't use. But, on the other hand, when my contract is up (this fall) and I cancel DirectTV I don't know how I am going to get Chicago Bears and Nebraska football. Without DirectTV I can't get NFL Sunday Ticket or Big10 network. As I said, information gathering.
OnSat and Orbit are both out of print. Is there a publication, web based or other, that has a listing of channels? One that says "This satellite this transponder has this network"? Remember the old centerfold grids?
Where is a business source for a C band satellite equipment such as receivers, etc.? And for a la carte programming? Just lurking until now this thread has already been very helpful. Thanks.
Welcome to the C Band satellite management system. The channels have a non-blurry production in quality; highest quality of the world is the productions it shows so well. If i told you what channels, i would have to also tell you all the best channels; and highest qualities; and in fact every high quality channel is available (at 12 foot and larger not very much is missing; including ku and dbs). But a big dish can also use multi-sat technologies much easier; less costlier by using a motor to the max on them all. After 30 years of center focus; up to 20 satellites C/Ku/dbs as long as it has a clear az/el to the satellite you choose to aim them at; and the ku offset can be over 20. Without a loss of the Original production (like a movie theatre gets is the reality; UHD is their answer, but not a real one as one already had these production qualities already! And now the NFL pak is like 499 and not 99? Huh, wonder why C Band is the best? Because directv and disney and dish net have them at their studio's?
This was many years ago when it was available to c-band dish owners. Almost nearly 20 years ago before Direct or Dish existed and now obviously not available on c-band anymore. I used to subscribe to it along with several other "cable" channels. Their signal was available since the scrambling system back in the day was standard so most services used it. Even though the picture was SD only, the c-band signals were the master feeds that the cable company headends used. The audio / video signal quality were fantastic.
Yeah, $99, that was back in 1994 and, as you say, the picture quality was really good. What was even better was the days of the stadium wildfeeds for many of the games. What I loved about the wildfeeds was --- no announcers/talking heads, just stadium audio, and no commercials. To me the ideal OTA signal would be using the 2nd audio for just the stadium audio. I'm getting really tired of muting Joe Buck & Troy Aikman (the biggest whiner in all of televised sports), and occassionally Phil Simms.Remember what Sunday Ticket was on c-band satellite analog VC2+?. The network feeds turned on the Leitch scrambling system per NFL rules, all back haul or network signals needed to be scrambled. It cost $99 for the season, granted there were no red zone or other non-game channels around but not bad for $99. No HD at the time but the analog SD signal looked sooo good. What is it now on Directv, like around $300 or more now, wow!. Ahh, the memories.