There's NOTHING Any Good On FTA!!!

[Bibbler]

How many times have you heard that? There are no "good" channels, just foreign broadcasts and religious channels...

If you search for FTA on the net, you will find one of two things (1) Hackers who want to hack FTA equipment to illegally rip off DISH, or (2) statements like the one I posted above. An example is the moron who posted on Slashdot:

"Don't Bother! Unless you happen to like eccentric religious programming and bizarre foreign channels, you'll quickly find there is nothing to see in FTA DVB broadcasts in North America".

So I suppose it was my "Ham Radio DX Mentality" that drove me to FTA a year ago this month. I also happen to really love Wild Feeds and Backhauls (Probably my favorite part of FTA)...

But are there any "good" channels??? In my opinion, My "1st Favorites" that I have saved are better than any Basic Cable package out there. Here is what I have stored in the "1st Favorites" section:


Networks

WPRU ABC
WVXF CBS
WVGN NBC
WSJX Fox
KUIL Fox
WMQF Fox
WSJP CW
CW East CW
CW West CW
WRBJ CW
WZRB CW
WVGS RTN
WBIF RTN
WSAV MyNet
WBTW MyNet
Ion East ION
Ion Mountain ION
Ion Pacific ION


Movies & Entertainment

GNF Music
AMG TV
GNF Movies
Sentanta Sport
Fashion TV
Ebru TV
Qubo


24 Hours English News & Information

ABC News Now
Ohio News Network (ONN)
Al Jazeera English
Mhz Worldview
Saudi TV 2
Russia Today
CCTV 9
NASA 1
NASA 2
NASA 3
PA Cable Net
Pentagon Channel


Educational

Montana PBS
New York Network
KUEN

And of course, I have 30 music channels saved in my music favorites (60's, 70's, Blues, Standards, and Arena Rock are my favorites)...

On my other favorite lists, I have my favorite feed channels and semi-regular backhauls..

Remember, Because of my bad LOS, I can't get ANY sat west of about 110, and that includes what some consider the mother of all FTA sats, G10.

I have digital cable in the house here (well, it came with the package, Cable, telephone, and HS Internet) and I use it for exactly 3 channels (Fox News, Speed, and ESPN 2). The rest of the time, I'm all FTA.

But probably the best part of FTA is the folks I met here and on the Satellite Guys forums. People here held my hand when I was a Noob (who thought I knew it all because of 20 year old analog experience) and guided me when I was ready to throw everything in the trash (Hey Bill, remember the "bent" LNB arm?????????.

Sadoun has been a pleasure to deal with both on the phone and in person in his store...

So next time someone tells you "there's nothen on FTA", just chock it up to ignorance. We who enjoy this hobby receive programming few others have ever seen, and get a slant on the world few would understand...

Thanks Again to you all! (I'll continue to ask too many questions in the future )

Al

[keebs]

i agree. i am trying to ween my family off of directv, slowly, with no avail. but i love it. i could live off of it. there is so much stuff on directv that i do not watch. but i need it for hockey. i dont know why but i am strangely drawn to this hobby?

[rainman]

yep we watch cable when the wife is awake but as soon as she goes to bed on come the FTA receivers love to just go searching from time to time to see what i can find.

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by rainman

yep we watch cable when the wife is awake but as soon as she goes to bed on come the FTA receivers love to just go searching from time to time to see what i can find.

Exact opposite in our house. She is the FTA user. Once in awhile I will go looking for something but I am 4DTV if I watch TV. I think if it wasn't for the fact the dsr922 moves the big dish she would just get rid of the "extra" receiver sitting in the stack. She is using the 922 for PBS at the moment only because the little motor quit working and I have not had time to replace it so she is locked on IA6 for the small dish.

[datacom]

I got my 31" Fortec dish, Mercury 2 and sg2100 in April. I've had it up since that time and have been working on it just about every day still to no avail yet. I've sent the reciever in to Sadoun and they've sent it back apparently with nothing wrong with the reciever. Yet I still look forward to the day when my first picture comes across my screen. I'm hooked for sure and I haven't even gotten a picture yet. Gotta love it.

[reho33]

Ditto. Montana PBS has excellent programming. I agree with all of the above. Just because DVB has more channels in Europe doesn't mean that someday it may improve here. The profit driven model of the USA might not allow it to expand further than it is right now. You will probably never see premium content like on cable or DBS but look at it this way...... for the person that lives in a real fringe area that canno't receive broadcast TV, FTA fills the bill. On Ku CW,MY,PBS,and some other networks are free for the taking. With a little more effort (c-band) NBC,CBS,ABC are also there. Granted , you might not get your local news but you will get network programming. In Europe and the Middle East, they had to use FTA out of need as there was little if none broadcast programming available. Problem is, it takes work. People want instant gratification so FTA is not for them. Of course if there were a system that was so simple to setup a child could do it, I would sell those systems on QVC.......would make a hell of a gift! Think of it. 250-300 dollars for a system with a motor AND easy to setup? I think that they would go flying off the shelves......

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by reho33

Ditto. Montana PBS has excellent programming. I agree with all of the above. Just because DVB has more channels in Europe doesn't mean that someday it may improve here. The profit driven model of the USA might not allow it to expand further than it is right now. You will probably never see premium content like on cable or DBS but look at it this way...... for the person that lives in a real fringe area that canno't receive broadcast TV, FTA fills the bill. On Ku CW,MY,PBS,and some other networks are free for the taking. With a little more effort (c-band) NBC,CBS,ABC are also there. Granted , you might not get your local news but you will get network programming. In Europe and the Middle East, they had to use FTA out of need as there was little if none broadcast programming available. Problem is, it takes work. People want instant gratification so FTA is not for them. Of course if there were a system that was so simple to setup a child could do it, I would sell those systems on QVC.......would make a hell of a gift! Think of it. 250-300 dollars for a system with a motor AND easy to setup? I think that they would go flying off the shelves......

I actually expect the US to go subbed DVB before to long. After all just look at the big dish as an example. I know of one uplinker who is uplinking 4DTV content in dvb format (I found their channels on C Band complete with their name). The channels I found were premium channels not available without a sub of some sort with the exception of the mux on C Band DVB but they are not intended for DVB and am confident they will go encrypted before long. So if that uplinker is doing in DVB I think before long we will see a use for CI receivers here in the US.

Combine this with all the happy little HA people and small dish is really the only realistic option for the masses (dish wise). As I see it for the big dish providers it will be either sell out to DN or DTV, slowly watch the decline of their business or opt in for something like a FTA system that you can sub to.

[reho33]

I agree. But you know that the hardcore DCII people will always say that the picture quality is better with DCII on C band. So Getting back to your other point, you say that there might be a future service that will be DVB and Ku but all a sub would have to do is get a CA card for that Mercury 2 and be all set? If it could be competitive, it might just shake up the Dishway 2 provider unholy alliance. Think about it, no unique equipment, al-la cart decisions, etc. Might even be able to use existing birds without expensive new launchs, sats, etc. Someone in the industry told me that it costs about 200 million dollars just to build, test, and launch the new satellite. Not to mention the insurance if it" blows up on the pad", and the task of ground control to maintain it every single miniute of every day. All of this so a person can say" Theres nothing good on TV". Think about it.

[be236]

So, what's the business model in Europe that allows so many excellent FTA channels, many of what we would consider "premium" here?

Is it advertisement? Is it government taxed on your FTA receivers when you buy it or taxed on a regular/monthly basis, etc?

It is ashame how Europe gets these freebies, while we in USA profit-model don't. (heh).. shucks!

[boroda1]

Many of European networks are sponsored by governments, like VOA. There are 3 countries on this NA continent, compare to how many is there, also now is EU. Every country has several business models, there is a "rival neighbors" factor too, I think. Similar situation is on shortwave: they have Radio Luxemburg, Radio Monte - Carlo, BBC, Radio nederlands, just to mention a few. There are many SW stations here too, but it's not close to what you hear when you turn your radio in Europe.

[be236]

Ah ... excellent point... in Europe, lots of countries... here in NA, just three! heh.. d'oh! ;-)

[Vitruvius]

Bibbler, your list above is great. I seem to get most of those on my K system, and additional PBS stations since I got a dolby decoder. One major reason I like watching the news channels on FTA, especially Russia Today, is that there are no commercials. I have this bad habbit of changing channels everytime a commercial comes on.

I was just currious, you have now set up a motorized C-band 6 ft. Dish. Have you expanded your list of channels now, and found new favorites? I am surely tempted to get a 6 ft system from Sadoun but have heard that 8 1/2 feet is better.

Thanks...

[rainman]

yep go with the 8.5' dish. and there are alot of programing on c band lot of sportsman channels and RFD tv is on c band all my favorites.