Sports Fanatic

[CstateFan]

I've been reading about backhauls and things I knew not existed and have a few questions before I dive in to fta satellites.

It seems most people are saying there are a lot of ameteur sports on fta, but I am curious if you can pickup the professional sports that are on broadcast television. Also, from what I understand a backhaul is the feed from the stadium to the network. Does this mean that you can see the coverage a second or two before it is shown live to the rest of the country? I live in the middle of nowhere, but only really watch tv for the sports and news. If I can get out of paying a monthly sub I would be happy to have the freedom of fta.

The main things I watch on the weekends are golf, football, and baseball. Are there backhaul feeds to the espn games? Anyway, thanks for any help on yet another noob question.

 

[PSB]

Hello and welcome to the SatelliteGuys.US FTA area.

Not only can you occasionally find live feeds but there are channels from other parts of the country that show sports. There is no way (as a sports fan) that you would be able to turn off your subscription to regular TV service but FTA is a GREAT addition.

Then if you added an analog receiver you will have more sports (mostly college) than you can watch. The down side is that you get what pops up so there is no way to find a particular game or sport, but in saying that I watch baseball, hockey, soccer, football, basketball.............if you like sports you WILL get your monies worth from a FTA set up thats for sure. Its worth it alone to watch baseball in the winter on Cubavision (need a universal LNBF) IMO.

 

[CstateFan]

Thanks for that, would a ku dish be enough or is a big dish a lot better for what I'm looking for. I was thinking that it may be possible to pickup a golf feed before they go on air even? If you watch ESPN news in the mornings on the weekends often you can see highlights from that mornings play even tho they don't go live on cbs until about 3pm eastern(mid-round). So I'm guessing that the feed is being sent around somehow?

Of course if there are too many channels then maybe finding the tournament would be almost impossible anyway?

 

[PSB]

A BIG (10' foot) dish would be best, but all of the above that I mentioned will work on a 30" dish. If you have the $, space and no restrictions the bigger the dish the better, a lot of the guys here started with the 30" (or bigger) then moved on to the BUD. (Big Ugly Dish)

I have seen some golf, but again with FTA you take what you get.

(I LOVE golf but I don't have my own bats)

 

[CstateFan]

Well I'm almost convinced to get a system. I thought of a new question. I have a lot of friends around the country that I'll catch a game with and chat online about it. When I watch on Dtv the feed is actually about 2 seconds delayed behind my friends with regular cable or aerial feeds. How does the feed on the fta feeds compare to cable? I would think that backhauls would be ahead? Is this correct?

 

[MikeI]

Yes, that correct. If you watch a game OTA like from WPIX or KTLA or KCAL or whatever local station you have, the FTA/analog backhaul should match that exactly.

 

[rangers00]

There are 4 types of signals for sports backhaul. My interest are football, basketball, hockey and soccer. There are lots of baseball around but I don't watch them.

The 4 types are:

- analog, true free backhaul; pro sports backhaul are mostly on C-band, while there is an abundance of college sports on Ku; during the college football/basketball season, you can't imagine the # of college backhuals; sometimes you get 500+ games per month; almost all the junk games of college basketball are available; I've even seen college volleyball and hockey.
- DC II fixed key, primarily on the BUD; you need a DC II subscription package to activate the receiver, such that you can receive the fixed key (free) backhaul
- MPEG2 4:2:0; I get lots of foreign soccer on MPEG2/FTA ethnic channels, mostly on Ku band; there aren't that many sports backhaul on MPEG2 4:2:0
- MPEG2 4:2:2; you need a very expensive (4-digit) receiver to get MPEG2 4:2:2; however, if your PC is powerful enough, you can use a MPEG2 PCI card (like Nexus, twinhan, etc.) with the appropriate software to watch MPEG2 4:2:2; there are lots of sports backhaul on MPEG2 4:2:2, including ESPN and ABC feeds, TNT's NBA feeds, and CBC's HNIC feeds.

If you are interested in backhauls, check out this site for real-time sightings:

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/backhaul/

 

[Mr Tony]

- MPEG2 4:2:0; I get lots of foreign soccer on MPEG2/FTA ethnic channels, mostly on Ku band; there aren't that many sports backhaul on MPEG2 4:2:0

heh....there are LOTS of sports on 4:2:0
alot of college games are going to this format, and most of the hockey I can see (college) is that too

A DVB receiver and analog setup (KU band for me) will get you TONS of stuff

 

[mk279]

Thats some good info , but you have me a tad confused in some of the terminologies .... ie: You need a very expensive (4-digit) receiver to get MPEG2 4:2:2.......can you give an example of a (4 digit)...Dreambox..Fortec or something else ???? or like Iceberg was saying "A DVB receiver and analog setup (KU band for me) will get you TONS of stuff." What is considered an "Anolog Setup and a DVB receiver" ????? 33" dish or a bud .....Isn't all FTA that I am scanning with my 33" dish and Fortec ultra KU ??? Just when I thought I was starting to get it all figured out I read the last couple of posts and started thinking out loud...which my wife really hates by the way. I have seen that 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 and was wondering what it was.

Thanks, MK

 

[Shawn95GT]

I think by four digit they meant price-wise... as in > $1000.

Analog and a DVB would be an analog reciever (for Analog Feeds) slaved to or in conjunction with your DVB reciever (CoolSat / PanSat / Fortec / whatever).

Yes with a 33" and a Fortec you're just hitting Ku. With an analog reciever you can see the analog stuff on Ku (The D in DVB is for Digital).

The 4:2:0 / 4:2:2 has to do with how the video stream is composed / compressed. The 4:2:2 is a lot higher quality picture and requires for processing power on the recieving end.

I found this link a little while back that explains it technically:

http://forum.matrox.com/rt2000/Forum8/HTML/000052.html

I hope this helps!

 

[mk279]

Thanks for the info...would those old Uniden C band receivers be an example of an anolog receiver ????

 

[Shawn95GT]

Thanks for the info...would those old Uniden C band receivers be an example of an anolog receiver ????

Hehe - I asked this earlier - the answer is yes, if they do Ku as well.

 

[rangers00]

Thats some good info , but you have me a tad confused in some of the terminologies .... ie: You need a very expensive (4-digit) receiver to get MPEG2 4:2:2.......can you give an example of a (4 digit)...Dreambox..Fortec or something else ???? or like Iceberg was saying "A DVB receiver and analog setup (KU band for me) will get you TONS of stuff." What is considered an "Anolog Setup and a DVB receiver" ????? 33" dish or a bud .....Isn't all FTA that I am scanning with my 33" dish and Fortec ultra KU ??? Just when I thought I was starting to get it all figured out I read the last couple of posts and started thinking out loud...which my wife really hates by the way. I have seen that 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 and was wondering what it was.

Yes, the 4-digit means the receiver costs in thousands, like Tandberg Alteia/Alteia Plus, Tandberg TT-1260, Wegener Unity 5000, etc. Almost all 4:2:2 recievers are commercial grade, not targeted for consumers. The entry fee for this game is about $2500.

With that kind of investment, you can subscribe your favorite sports packages (Sunday Ticket, Extra Innings, Game Plan, Full Court and League Pass) on DirecTV for 3-4 years, if your interest is really sports backhaul instead of the satellite hobby.

And analog setup + DVB receiver is to feed your satellite output from the DVB receiver to the analog receiver. Why do you want to do that?

Because if not, your analog receiver is connected directly to the dish, you can only connect to 1 dish (say, SBS6, which has a lot of analog sports feeds). If you slave the analog receiver to the DVB reciever, you can use the DVB receiver to switch between satellites (using a DiSEQC switch), and boom, your analog receiver is thus connected to as many as 4 satellites.

 

[PSB]

Thats the way my analog box is hooked up. Its slaved to my digital receiver, if the digital receiver is on a Horizontal channel then the analog is also on Horizontal...... Other than that it works PERFECT. Adding an analog receiver must be easiest and cheapest way to get more from your FTA system : )

 

[mk279]

So basically with my 33" dish and a SG2100 motor with my Fortec, all I have to do is add a General Instruments receiver and I have it all covered ???? I have been looking at some old C band receivers on eBay and I was wondering if there is somethings I should or shouldn't be looking for. Thanks, MK

 

[PSB]

As the "BERG" said make sure it will work for KU and C bands and you are good!

I use the Toshiba TRX-1520 works a treat, it was a gift from my pal Iceberg : )

 

[rangers00]

So basically with my 33" dish and a SG2100 motor with my Fortec, all I have to do is add a General Instruments receiver and I have it all covered ???? I have been looking at some old C band receivers on eBay and I was wondering if there is somethings I should or shouldn't be looking for. Thanks, MK

Wow, you have a motor? that's even better. Adding a motor to my setup is always my New Year's wish list, but with the # of analog and digital FTA channels and clear backhauls in the sky that I am interested in (practically very few), I just don't bother.

Yes, GI is one that works for you. There is one ongoing on Ebay that goes for $2.00. Shipping can easily go 10X of the receiver cost. That tells you the worth of analog receivers...

 

[Mr Tony]

Analog receivers (especially with no VCII board) can come very cheaply

I bought 4 off Ebay
Toshiba 1520 (that I donated to Pete) cost me $15
Toshiba 1420 (the replacement) cost me $18
Uniden Supra was $40
Uniden 4000 (I think) was $15

so for under $100 I have 3 receivers that can get KU analog if I so desire

 

[mk279]

As the "BERG" said make sure it will work for KU and C bands and you are good!

I use the Toshiba TRX-1520 works a treat, it was a gift from my pal Iceberg : )

Hey Berg .......you have any more of these lying around ??????????????? LOL

 

[Shawn95GT]

one just ended on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5773698329

Shawn