Novice question

[Greysquirrel]

With my cable company giving us another raise on 3/1 I started looking into FTA like at lot of others it seems after reading a lot of forums.
I notice there are on some forums threads about downloads to load into your receiver all in windows format and I have a Mac so they do me any good, but what I want to know what are these files for, they say they are bin, key and code files?
Do I need these files to enjoy FTA or are these just for advance hobbyists?
I hate to think I would have to buy a new computer just for FTA viewing.
Haven't bought any equipment yet, still doing research but most likely will have more questions when I get close to crunch time.

 

[Anole]

define FTA

Well, real "FTA", is the reception of unencrypted programs from satellite, as mentioned on these two lists:
FTAlist
Global-CM
same info, slightly different presentation.
Those are lists of Ku-band satellites, operating around 12ghz.
Typical dish size needed is 30 to 40 inches, for the bulk of available programming.

There are also some FTA on C-band, down around 4ghz.
That's received on the 8 to 10 foot dishes you see in people's back yards.

The stand-alone receivers sold by advertizers on this forum for legitimate FTA use do not require loading of anything from your computer to work properly.

If the programming listed in the above links is useful and interesting, then welcome to FTA.

 

[Mr Tony]

With my cable company giving us another raise on 3/1 I started looking into FTA like at lot of others it seems after reading a lot of forums.
I notice there are on some forums threads about downloads to load into your receiver all in windows format and I have a Mac so they do me any good, but what I want to know what are these files for, they say they are bin, key and code files?
Do I need these files to enjoy FTA or are these just for advance hobbyists?
I hate to think I would have to buy a new computer just for FTA viewing.
Haven't bought any equipment yet, still doing research but most likely will have more questions when I get close to crunch time.

every box will work for legit free to air as is (if new). Anole has posted a couple links to the channels up there 24/7. There are tons of feeds, which are signals that come and go all the time. News feeds, sports feeds.

I love free to air for the sports feeds. Watched seven college hockey games last night. Most with no commercials (its the live feed).

Unfortunately, some people feel the need to defraud companies by loading illegal 3rd party software into the reciever to steal signals from subscription companies. We do not condone that here

 

[Greysquirrel]

Thanks guys for the replies the links and information are helpful but I think that I may have gotten some wrong info on another forum or I am reading the programming wrong.
I asked if I would be able to receive The Science channel, Bio, BBC America and Discovery channels and the NBC and CBS feeds as I cannot get them OTA at my location and was told yes to all. Is this correct and I am reading the programming wrong or these channels are not available over FTA?

 

[voomvoom]

Thanks guys for the replies the links and information are helpful but I think that I may have gotten some wrong info on another forum or I am reading the programming wrong.

Maybe the info you got is from a forum that deals with stealing, which is not tolerated on this forum.

I asked if I would be able to receive The Science channel, Bio, BBC America and Discovery channels

To get these channels you will need a subscription from Directv, DishNet, your Local Cable, or you will need to get a 4dtv receiver and maybe a C-band dish, and subscribe with one of the 4dtv providers.

and the NBC and CBS feeds as I cannot get them OTA at my location and was told yes to all. Is this correct and I am reading the programming wrong or these channels are not available over FTA?

To get NBC or CBS you will need a C-band dish and for CBS you will also need a receiver that will do HD. You can also get NBC on ku-band, but you will need a receiver that will do 4:2:2 color coding. Good Luck!

Al

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

You can get all the nets on G16 C Band (need minimum 6 footer). You can also get something like 20 English channels on G10 with "minor nets" like RTN, My TV, CW, etc. You can also get ABC and Fox there. Everything else is feeds and they come and go. You might want to try a fixed dish on G10 to see if FTA is for you.

 

[Greysquirrel]

Thanks for the replies, maybe I got onto a hackers forum or those who responded just didn't care I should go back and see if those posts are deleted.
The idea of a fixed dish on G10 sound like a way to go then I could manually move it to another satellite just to see what I can pick up and if it is worth adding a motor. Getting a low end receiver that I could put into a bedroom and getting a better receiver later may may be the way to go to start.
Thanks again for the information.

 

[voomvoom]

You can get all the nets on G16 C Band (need minimum 6 footer).

I forgot about the Carribean mux.

Al