American Sports on FTA

[Beachbum72]

I was wondering if it is possible to pick up any college football or even nfl games on any of the FTA satellites or it it would be just better to subscribe to a service. Als is there any advantage to a pc card type system verses a tabletop receiver? Thanks

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Beachbum72

I was wondering if it is possible to pick up any college football or even nfl games on any of the FTA satellites or it it would be just better to subscribe to a service. Als is there any advantage to a pc card type system verses a tabletop receiver? Thanks

There is a lot of sports available. I'd recommend looking at the archives of the Yahoo backhaul list for the college stuff. Every week they list many dozens of college football games. However it helps to have both C and Ku and also both analog and FTA capabilities. Re PC card, YES. PC cards can do both HD and 4.2.2, neither of which most affordable STBs can do.

Re NFL, I follow another team, and so far out of 9 games I would have been able to view 7 of the 9 games on either FTA or local channels (local channels usually means it's a national game, so it would probably be found on FTA too). The problem is, you have to do a little searching, and there is no assurance that you'll find the game you're looking for, and you'll have better luck finding a feed if your team was a SB contender than a bottom feeder. I subscribe to Sunday ticket just for the convenience of knowing that I'll be able to watch MY team and not have to miss the 1st quarter looking for the feed, but it sure hasn't been worth the money this year.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by wejones

There is a lot of sports available. I'd recommend looking at the archives of the Yahoo backhaul list for the college stuff. Every week they list many dozens of college football games. However it helps to have both C and Ku and also both analog and FTA capabilities. Re PC card, YES. PC cards can do both HD and 4.2.2, neither of which most affordable STBs can do.

Re NFL, I follow another team, and so far out of 9 games I would have been able to view 7 of the 9 games on either FTA or local channels (local channels usually means it's a national game, so it would probably be found on FTA too). The problem is, you have to do a little searching, and there is no assurance that you'll find the game you're looking for, and you'll have better luck finding a feed if your team was a SB contender than a bottom feeder. I subscribe to Sunday ticket just for the convenience of knowing that I'll be able to watch MY team and not have to miss the 1st quarter looking for the feed, but it sure hasn't been worth the money this year.

Bill i get from your post you are a pittsburg fan. unfourtantely my team not doing any good either.( bengals) so i guest we just wait till next year. and I agree the best way to get sport feeds is digital and analog.

[vj9999]

My team is doing pretty good

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rainman

Bill i get from your post you are a pittsburg fan. unfourtantely my team not doing any good either.( bengals) so i guest we just wait till next year. and I agree the best way to get sport feeds is digital and analog.

Yeah, Steeler fan since the late 40s. Didn't come out an say that since there was a Raider fan in the discussion, and the Raiders recently embarrassed the Steelers. But finding sources for Steeler games was the reason I first got into TVRO back in the late 80s, and since then, along with receiving PBS, it has been the driving force behind me getting into new things, like Ku, VCII, DCII (for PBS), DTV (when Sunday Ticket moved), DVB/FTA, and Sirius Radio (to pick up home team audio). The NFL has been making things difficult by forcing scrambling of everything, but there are still some games ITC/FTA, but enough is scrambled that I still subscribe to DTV/Sunday Ticket for convenience. However that "convenience" is getting less convenient, since they black out games that are on local OTA TV, and tell you to go to the local channel, but after you go there, you find that an early game has gone long, and it's not there either, so you go back to the Sunday Ticket channel, and it eventually shows up there, but then blacks out again when the coverage starts on the local channel, and then if the game is a blowout, the local channels often switch to another game, and you have to switch back to the Sunday Ticket game, and hope that they realize fast enough to re-start the coverage. It is very annoying. Some times, a whole quarter of the game is missed. Next year, I may just cancel the Sunday Ticket, and if I can't find the game elsewhere, just listen on Sirius.