Ive been wanting to get into the FTA scene. I am TIRED of Directv. I was one of their first customers a long time ago when they bent over backwards for you. Now they have become arrogant to the point where they are worse than the cable company. The only reason I re-signed with them was because of the passing away of VOOM. Being all for high picture quality, I bit for that commercial where they pitch they will have a zilliion HD channels in a years time. Its been a year and they dont even have TNT HD!! Their strategy is HD Pay per View in order to squeeze even more money out of you. The E* forum is big with switch talk but Im sure Dish has it's issues too. Has anyone on this site ever done a what can be considered an "unbiased" comparison of D* vs E* from a picture quality standpoint considering all channels?? And now FTA. How does FTA compare in terms of picture quality?? Does it support HD formats? I installed my own 10 foot dish and Im a ex-military elec tech so I think I can handle the technology end with some guidance, but Im not real clear on what it buys me. Is it because of the ILLEGAL nature?? I would like to retrofit an existing 10' channel master mesh i have in my backyard. I asked about this before but I couldnt get specifics. Right now its positioned to follow the footprints of all the C band satellites. Comments and suggestions are appreciated.
Whats BUD? Direct vs Dish or FTA????
- Thread starter bigec2002
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FTA satellite is 100% Legal.
You will be able to retro-fit your BUD (Big Ugly Dish) for both C-Band KU band, you will need a new LNBF and the dish may need some fine tuning as KU band is much harder to line up than C-Band.
Picture quality on FTA is just as good or better than DBS on some channel but other channels are just as good as a computer web TV stream. There is some HD available but right now mainly on C-Band.
Most folks looking for HD and the 4:2:2 broadcasts use a DVB PC card, as the receivers that do the above are very expensive!
You will be able to retro-fit your BUD (Big Ugly Dish) for both C-Band KU band, you will need a new LNBF and the dish may need some fine tuning as KU band is much harder to line up than C-Band.
Picture quality on FTA is just as good or better than DBS on some channel but other channels are just as good as a computer web TV stream. There is some HD available but right now mainly on C-Band.
Most folks looking for HD and the 4:2:2 broadcasts use a DVB PC card, as the receivers that do the above are very expensive!
1)FTA is totally legit. Recieving DN with hacked equipment is NOT.
2) Picture quality on fta varies from awesome to so so, depends on how much bandwidth the broadcaster wants to pay for. There is some HD on FTA but not a huge amount.
3) with your BUD you can hook up a 4DTV reciever that will give you excellant picture quality (much much better than DTV or DN). Subscription rates for 4DTV are usually about 30% lower than what you would pay for the same channels on a pizza dish.
4) retrofitting your BUD is simple, I have a 10 channel master mesh dish now, all i did was replace the cband (only) feed horn with a chapparel corotor feedhorn with both c and ku lnbs. Now we have more tv channels than we know what to do with lol
Take a look in the cband forum on this site, there is a good FAQ there and some knowledgable people. Hope this helps a bit.
[edit] pete you type to fast ;-) [/edit]
2) Picture quality on fta varies from awesome to so so, depends on how much bandwidth the broadcaster wants to pay for. There is some HD on FTA but not a huge amount.
3) with your BUD you can hook up a 4DTV reciever that will give you excellant picture quality (much much better than DTV or DN). Subscription rates for 4DTV are usually about 30% lower than what you would pay for the same channels on a pizza dish.
4) retrofitting your BUD is simple, I have a 10 channel master mesh dish now, all i did was replace the cband (only) feed horn with a chapparel corotor feedhorn with both c and ku lnbs. Now we have more tv channels than we know what to do with lol
Take a look in the cband forum on this site, there is a good FAQ there and some knowledgable people. Hope this helps a bit.
[edit] pete you type to fast ;-) [/edit]
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Depending on the channel, it probably will be BETTER than Dish/Direct
Dish/Direct crams 12 channels per transponder. Analog feeds are 1:1 (1 channel per TP). But it all depends on how much bandwidth the company buys.
As PSB noted, some channels I've seen computer movies with better quality.
Dish/Direct crams 12 channels per transponder. Analog feeds are 1:1 (1 channel per TP). But it all depends on how much bandwidth the company buys.
As PSB noted, some channels I've seen computer movies with better quality.
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