Old direct tv dish

[zapattack]

I have an old Direct TV dish with its LNB and want to go FTA. What do I need to get started? I don't want to break the bank initally just get my feet wet, any suggestions?

 

[jayelem]

I have an old Direct TV dish with its LNB and want to go FTA.

What channels are you trying to get ?

 

[PSB]

Here is what you will get with an 18" dish and DBS LNB.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=34131

You will need at least a 30" dish for 95% of the FTA channels up there.

 

[123tim]

Zipattack,

I hope that I'm adding to your post and not hyjacking it by asking this question. If the answer is yes, then maybe it will help you out.
Can an old direct TV or Dish receiver be used to pick up FTA NASA TV?

 

[john green]

I believe you would be able to pick up NASA from the Dish Network feed as it is in the clear.

 

[jh98]

Part of the fun is seeing what is FTA on the Dish and Canadian dishes. There are occasionally channels that will be FTA for awhile, for testing purposes I suppose. "Current" (the Al Gore channel) was FTA a few weeks ago for a few days on one of the Dish satellites, although I haven't seen it recently. (It's not even carried by Dish), and their was some sports channel on 82 FTA one day recently. Some of the Canadian radio stations on 91 are quite good, including the CBC.

 

[Tron]

Zipattack,

I hope that I'm adding to your post and not hyjacking it by asking this question. If the answer is yes, then maybe it will help you out.
Can an old direct TV or Dish receiver be used to pick up FTA NASA TV?

An old D* (DirecTV) receiver will not, as everything D* is encrypted, even their preview channels. Also, D* is NOT DVB, it is a proprietary stream.

An old Echostar (E*) receiver used for Dish can get NASA if it was activated, but not the music channels.

Also, even though an old Dish receiver would be DVB, it will only pick up streams with a symbol rate of 20000 (which is what all E* channels use). This means it could not be used for most of the FTA channels up there.

About the only thing old D* and E* receivers are good for is dish aligning

 

[123tim]

An old D* (DirecTV) receiver will not, as everything D* is encrypted, even their preview channels. Also, D* is NOT DVB, it is a proprietary stream.....
......About the only thing old D* and E* receivers are good for is dish aligning

Thanks Tron.
Bummer