Why did we wait so long?

[turbosat]

I'm curious, how many of you waited a while to get into digital FTA? Of course , I wished I hadn't waited so long, once I got a feel for it. I think I was a hold-out, being a big dish user since 1987, and when all the beautiful analog channels started going away, I just got aggravated at having to buy more and more equipment.
Plus>I thought all digital video looked like what I had seen on my friends dishnetwork setups, which sickened and depressed me, so I didn't want dvb if that was as good as sat tv was going to be in the future. Boy was I in for a surprise. With the right signal parameters, some digital looks Almost as good as the old NTSC analog (but not quite lol) as far as standard def. Don't have experience with any HD equipment yet so I can't gripe about that yet.
Glad I finally took the plunge though, I was really missing a lot of great tv without the fta box.

 

[drhydro]

I got into FTA DVB pretty much as soon as I found out about it LOL.

 

[gabshere]

well i don't know how many of ya'll remember "Smallear" they sold one of the first ( that i heard of ) digital receivers . it wouldn't scan and i think it held 100 channels & 20 sats..... so you would have to manually enter everything .....but i didn't get into it and just let my c-band system sit and got DTV system.

so i have no excuses , just should have done it sooner

 

[stogie5150]

I had been halfway considering it since 2001 or so, but I didn't have any idea what was up there, and that's what kept me from taking the plunge. My parents had a 10' fiberglass dish form the old days, but they took in down in the 90's sometime, after everything scrambled and cable came to our neighborhood.

Only after enduring price increase after price increase from Directv, and at the same time realizing that there was only a handful of channels we watched, was the decison made. I started reading on the internet, and I found a link to satelliteguys, and Ice and Turbosat got me started, early in 2007. After sampling it for awhile, I realized that I HAD to have a c-band dish, so I worked on my wife until she relented. September 2007 was the cutoff date for Directv in my house, almost a year ago, and the only thing we miss is Center Ice. We SURE don't miss that 100.00 bill in the mail every month, lemme tell you that!

 

[jayelem]

That all depends as to when the earliest blindscanning receivers came out , I hate to imagine what it would be like entering everything manually when I was a Noob + the fact that I like catching wild feeds.

I had enjoyed C-band many years before and was somewhat ignorant as to what FTA was , I had looked at a Satellite chart and I saw that Cubavision Intl was broadcasting on Pas 9 , first thing I thought was Wow I bet my Grandma and Mom would like that.

I'd look up stuff on the internet off an on but it took awhile to commit myself to my first Ku FTA setup , I bought several Tele-Satellite Magazines and researched the channel charts quite a bit , stumbled upon Sadoun and Satellite Guys Forum .

In hindsight maybe I could've gotten into FTA w/ 90cm dish back in 2004 maybe even a tad earlier.

Maybe someone can enlighten me and establish a timeline as to when the earliest Mpeg 2 signals were active and the first Consumer type FTA receivers were selling actively.

I would've liked to have seen news feeds of major events of the past decade , Katrina and 9/11 come to mind , back then it was me and my $200 dollar shortwave radio which I really enjoyed.

 

[Radioguy41]

I think I was a hold-out, being a big dish user since 1987, and when all the beautiful analog channels started going away, I just got aggravated at having to buy more and more equipment.

Me too.

Plus>I thought all digital video looked like what I had seen on my friends dishnetwork setups, which sickened and depressed me, so I didn't want dvb if that was as good as sat tv was going to be in the future.

Me too.

Boy was I in for a surprise. With the right signal parameters, some digital looks Almost as good as the old NTSC analog (but not quite lol) as far as standard def.

Me too.

Glad I finally took the plunge though, I was really missing a lot of great tv without the fta box.

Me too. :clap

 

[Anole]

We SURE don't miss that 100.00 bill in the mail every month, lemme tell you that!

So, $1200 a year saved.
If you allocate say half that to spend annually on FTA, you're still putting money in the bank!
And no reason to be shy of spending $1000/yr, either.
. . . or using it to finance that new hi-def TV set...

Gives a whole new spin on the price of FTA, doesn't it?

edit: Even $20-$30 a month on 4DTV subscription is cheap by comparison.

 

[brentb636]

I never even heard about until we subscribed to Dish Network a couple years ago ( the installer saw all my computers, etc, decided I was a techie, and suggested it) . Then I jumped in, but I never knew it existed. I still pay $105 to Dish every month, my wife is wedded to the dual tuner DVR .

 

[Anole]

Brent -

Buddy of mine had a Dish PVR and a non-PVR receiver a few years ago.
His wife learned how to use the PVR, and hogged it totally.
When she wasn't recording, she was offloading shows to a DVD recorder!
I know - I was their blank DVD-connection. Supplied her with hundreds!

He was lucky to be able to watch his plain receiver.
Then, he replaced the plain one with another PVR....so he could use one...
Guess what? Yep, the wife took over BOTH PVRs!
(maybe he shouldn't have put a DVD recorder on PVR #2, eh?) -

Now, he just puts in his requests, and if there's no conflict, she records his shows for him... as long as they're not fighting...

I don't know what to suggest.
Maybe you should get her a job; that way she won't have time to watch so much TV, and you could drop the subscription channels.

I know I can't give up Speed Channel, or Sci Fi channel.
Discovery, History, BBC America, and a few others are also necessary.


- Addicted -

 

[brentb636]

Her solution is for me to leave retirement and get a job ! I'm still contemplating that idea , don't see too many advantages, but there are a few.

 

[DishDigger]

I just heard of FTA this year & decided that it would be a good 2nd unit for the house -- heck, no monthly notes -- how can you go wrong? I never knew all that stuff was up there beaming down for folks to tap into & make a great hobby.

I'm still not really IN to it, though I'd like to be. Maybe I'll build it up as time goes on and I learn a little bit about what it's all about. I sure found a good site to learn about it -- -- thanks....:up

 

[phlatwound]

Very good question, turbo, with a very easy answer for me at least.........

I STILL wouldn't be into FTA if I hadn't found this website, and all the great folks that hang here!

Thanks! :up

 

[Larobpra]

Very good question, turbo, with a very easy answer for me at least.........

I STILL wouldn't be into FTA if I hadn't found this website, and all the great folks that hang here!

Thanks! :up

Ditto that!:up

 

[ACRadio]

Maybe someone can enlighten me and establish a timeline as to when the earliest Mpeg 2 signals were active and the first Consumer type FTA receivers were selling actively.

I would've liked to have seen news feeds of major events of the past decade , Katrina and 9/11 come to mind , back then it was me and my $200 dollar shortwave radio which I really enjoyed.

The Nokia receivers and a few others were selling in 1997, but signals were kinda sparse because MPEGII was still quite new. I didn't get a receiver until 2000 (I think it was a BEC) because of an illness I was battling. The third or fourth receiver I had was a Smallear ST9900. There was something I didn't like about it so I didn't keep it long.

 

[Mr Tony]

When we bought our cabin in 97 or 98 there was a 5 foot dish and a Radio Shack receiver for G5 in the yard. Lasted until 01 when the cabin burned down and the dish fell in the lake (it was placed near the lake and the lake eroded the lake shore away and the dish fell in the lake. We scrapped it)

Didnt get into FTA until late 03 when I got it to "save a few bucks" on my ExpressVu bill. Got it for the radio stations that were FTA at the time (but cost 7.95 a month on Evu). The receiver was basic. 10 transponder entry, no way to edit channels, etc (story has been told before)...basic unit

Added a 30" dish later and used it to ghetto move to different sats. Had the marks on the back of the mast for G3,AMC6,G11,G10 etc for quick moving.

Got a Pansat 1500 in late 04 which had blind scan. Thing is slow as dirt but 4+ years later its still used as my "dish aiming" dish

and the FTA farm has grown dramatically since then

 

[iafirebuff]

I found this site about a year or 2 before I joined. I read up alot and then decided to take the plunge. I was very skeptical - I thought it was too good to be true. I was wrong! I LOVE IT!

 

[lumpkin666]

I bought a FTA system within 2 weeks of learning about it (for a specific religious channel). We had analog for years, but basically didn't care for what we were getting from the analog system compared to the bundled cable packages with the same channels and 8 tuners. Once I learned about what I could get for my family from a true FTA dvb receiver, we got one that same month.

 

[Inno]

I was a C-Band dish user since the early 90's (not exactly it's heyday) and when things started going digital I thought "crap.....now only the networks and cable companies will have access". I didn't put too much thought into it after that until someone gave me a receiver which had a botched "hackware" job done to it. I got the factory firmware, setup a dish that I'd been saving (until then I wasn't sure why) and I haven't looked back! I get the same old excited feelings I used to get while tweaking my first C-Band dish, spending more time on the pursuit of extra channels than I ever do watching them.
Just purchased my 2nd receiver (a Coolsat6000 from E-bay for $16.50 which unfortunately looks like it has hackware on it) and I'm poised to set up a 10' c-band and a couple of other Ku dishes this fall.......that'll bring the total to 5 and I'm still looking for more!!!!
I rarely drink, don't smoke or do drugs but I'm pretty sure this is far more addicting that any of those things..........and I don't get into too much trouble doing it!!

 

[empiretc]

I rarely drink...

messing with my FTA stuff almost requires a 6-er. Kinda like working on the lawn .

 

[Inno]

Very good question, turbo, with a very easy answer for me at least.........

I STILL wouldn't be into FTA if I hadn't found this website, and all the great folks that hang here!

Thanks! :up

After being given a receiver as stated, it still took a LOT of visits to this site to get off on the right foot........even with a lot of C-Band experience.