Newbie chiming in with a couple of questions:

[rumproast_face]

Very informative site; Thanks!

Well, I'm about to just get one of the "complete motorized systems" Sadoun offers ... something they have with the Fortec receiver ...

But I'm new at this, and the house I just bought in Santa Rosa, California has 2 (not one, but 2 ...??) "Dish Network" dishes up there on the roof.

Not only that, but there's a ton of coaxial running through the house .. the previous residents must've had something(s) hooked up in every room, because the cables terminate everwhere ... sometimes several cables per room ... wow, what's up with that?

Anyhow, I'm going to dismantle the 2 "Dish" dishes ... I don't want "Dish" ...

I cannot get any TV reception where I am, so I want to tune into FTA.

I wondered a couple of things:::

Is it possible to simply re-use some of that coaxial cable left here if I rerun it to my new system? Geez, must be up to 100 yards of it ...

And: If I choose to "enhance" my system later with a bigger dish (enhance the Sadoun system I'm purchasing, I mean) can I simply swap the smaller dish with a bigger one ... tweak a few components ... change a few things, and it can more or less work?

Santa Rosa is about 120 degrees west .. just north of San Francisco ... so I ought to be okay ,,,? I live in an HOA, but I am sure the equipment I install is okay.

Thanks greatly!

rumproast_face

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rumproast_face

Anyhow, I'm going to dismantle the 2 "Dish" dishes ... I don't want "Dish" ...

I wouldn't take the Dish dishes down just yet. Depending on what receiver you get now, and/or in the future, you may have a use for those. There is not much FTA video that you can get with them, but there are a lot of options for receiving audio of various types.

Originally Posted by rumproast_face

I cannot get any TV reception where I am, so I want to tune into FTA.

Make sure that you understand that FTA reception isn't the same as over the air reception and isn't going to be the same as Dishnet or DTV cable type channels. It is a bunch of foreign language channels, a bunch of channels with raw news and sports feeds, a bunch of channels with 2nd teir networks (the types you'd find on UHF), several PBS channels, and a few of the major networks (again, what you can receive depends on your equipment to some extent, ie C vs Ku band, and STB vs PCI card). You won't be able to receive things like CNN, HBO and other cable type things, and you won't be able to receive your own local channels.

Originally Posted by rumproast_face

Is it possible to simply re-use some of that coaxial cable left here if I rerun it to my new system? Geez, must be up to 100 yards of it ...

Probably, if it is RG6, however again, a year from now, you may wish you had left some of that where the previous owner's had it. If you have 2 dishnet dishes, you might use the coax from one of those with your new system, but make sure you understand exactly where it is going so that you don't accidently connect more than one thing to the same coax.

Originally Posted by rumproast_face

And: If I choose to "enhance" my system later with a bigger dish (enhance the Sadoun system I'm purchasing, I mean) can I simply swap the smaller dish with a bigger one ... tweak a few components ... change a few things, and it can more or less work?

Assuming that you get a 90CM now, the only upgrade you'd likely be interested in is to add C-band. Sadoun sells some smaller C-band dishes, which are marginal with respect to how big they are. If you go to one of those, you'd be best to add that as a second dish. A full fledged C-band dish, however is considerably bigger, ie 10' is typical, some get by with 8'. The equipment used to move these dishes is completely different, and isn't available at Sadoun. I wouldn't recommend thinking about that at this point, since C-band is really a different animal, and you'll probably do it via a separate system rather than via upgrading your Ku only system.

Originally Posted by rumproast_face

Santa Rosa is about 120 degrees west .. just north of San Francisco ... so I ought to be okay ,,,? I live in an HOA, but I am sure the equipment I install is okay.

In many HOAs, you might be limited to a 1 meter dish, which would pretty much rule out C-band. They can't stop you from having a 1 meter dish.

[rumproast_face]

wow, great info ... thanks!

Oh, I've checked out the FTA selections pretty carefully, .. I pretty much just wish to get PBS, and news ... that's about all I prefer to watch ... I don't even care much about movies, as I will rent an occassional one.

The older I get, the less interested in sports I become ... of course, I should say, the older I get, the worse off the 'Niners and Raiders keep getting ... (I'm in the Bay Area)

oh well. ...

But my wife is European .. speaks several languages fluently, and surely will appreciate some of the foreign channels.

(I'm also an EU citizen). (American, born though)

Thanks for the dish size thoughts ... I'm guessing the "motorized FTA" package Sadoun sells (I forget the dish ,,, 30 inches .. or 31 meters ... or 31 centimeters ...?) whatever it was ... anyhow, that system ought to tune me in happily ....

Hmm, ... maybe I'll leave those "DISH" dishes up there ... I have no use for them ... but luckily, our house opens up in the back (facing south - southeast, unobstructed) to spacious public open land ... just grassy level land for walking ... so I may be able to pop a bigger dish up there someday.

I might even be able to situate my dish right on my deck ,,, there's quite a bit of clear sky view.

... thnk I'll order that system ...

Thanks!

rrf

[rainman]

I would go with the 36 inch dish the extra signal gain is well worth the cost.

[elgemcdlf]

You can use the coax as long as it is at least RG6 as Bill stated. You might even get lucky and find out it is RG11. As he said make sure you know what is what as to the runs of coax. If you start with a 90cm dish you should be just fine for Ku reception with no need to upgrade the dish later.

I pulled the DN dish off my house when I bought it just because I won't have such a thing I found FTA searching for Spanish language channels and have been very happy with the results. For the investment costs involved with the systems sold by Sadoun I think you will be pleasantly surprised with what you are able to receive.

More and more channels are moving to AC-3 (Digital Dolby) and the Fortec's pass the stream but do not decode it. A surround sound receiver with fiber optic input might be a unit to consider. A bunch of PBS on 87 but most is in AC-3.

[wejones]

I pulled the DN dish off my house when I bought it just because I won't have such a thing

Well I don't have a DN dish either, but I have 3 DTV dishes. One is actually subscribed, but one of them is permanently aimed at one of the DBS sats, from which I can get LOTS of FTA audio channels, although it takes a PCI card for most of them. I also have a DTV lnb strapped onto my big dish so that I can surf for FTA on other sats. I don't mind receiving Dish or DTV or Nimiq, provided it's FTA.

More and more channels are moving to AC-3 (Digital Dolby) and the Fortec's pass the stream but do not decode it. A surround sound receiver with fiber optic input might be a unit to consider. A bunch of PBS on 87 but most is in AC-3.

Yeah, I was going to mention that. Anyone who likes PBS is going to want something to decode AC3. I use a Soundblaster Extigy myself. Another option, right now at least, is to pick up the PBS stuff with a DCII receiver, like a DSR-4200. If you got a C-band system, a 4DTV of some kind might be recommended, but with just Ku, I think a 4200 off Ebay would be the best bet. The DCII channels don't require an AC3 decoder. However the status of PBS is questionable. The only thing they seem to want to insure will remain up there is the C-band analog signal. But if you have both C-band and Ku and both analog, FTA, and DCII, there is a LOT of PBS up there.... at least now. 90% of my satellite viewing is PBS.
Another thing, even if you get a system with the Fortec receiver, if you have a relatively fast computer I'd recommend getting a PCI card for the computer. I have 2 Twinhan 1020a cards and a Broadlogic. I really recommend the Twinhan 1020a over the cards that Twinhan currently sells, but for PBS, it probably doesn't matter. You can still get 1020a's on Ebay.
But the PCI cards have the advantage that they will do AC3 audio, unlike the STB receivers. Actually the card itself doesn't do AC3, but the software does. The PCI cards will also do the PBS HD channel too, which is nice, but for that you need a pretty fast computer, unless you can also pick up a Roku HD1000, which they aren't making anymore either. For SD or if you're streaming to a Roku, all you need is about a 500MHz computer, but for HD, you need faster than 2 GHz. I have about a 2 GHz computer and it will just barely do PBS HD, but won't do faster HD sports feeds. However streaming to my Roku, everything looks fine.

[elgemcdlf]

What type of processor? RAM? My small computer is a 2.4 Pentium 4 w/ 256 mgs RAM and my Linux box is a 3.4 P4 with 512. Has a few other goodies for speed also Kinda partial to my Linux box. XP is good for playing solitaire

[rumproast_face]

YIKES !

What on earth (or what out there ...) is AC3?

Something different (or in addition) I'll need to the system I was about to order?

I just was hoping to get some PBS stations .. some news ... maybe communicate with some extra-terrestrials ... but not a whole bunch else.

Obviously, I'm new to this stuff.

PS: One of you that posted is from Maine? My wife and I went to Acadia a couple of years ago ... aw man, ... one of Earth's truly heavenly places !
... and the blueberries everywhere! Incredible!

[William Eng]

AC3 is digital encoded sound used in a stereo system. PBS runs several shows at the same time but you need an additional device to decode it, otherwise you hear nothing. The satellite receiver sends out the sound portion as an optical signal. Some people use a stereo system to decode this, others use Extigy, others use their computer. Yet they are the same shows shown in different time zones. Nevertheless, you can get PBS with sound from Montana PBS. Its great. I even joined their membership and in return I get a monthly TV guide detailing their programming. Since there is a 2 hours time difference (I'm in Eastern time zone, while Montana PBS is Mountain time zone), I use my VCR to tape what I want to watch.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

What type of processor? RAM? My small computer is a 2.4 Pentium 4 w/ 256 mgs RAM and my Linux box is a 3.4 P4 with 512. Has a few other goodies for speed also Kinda partial to my Linux box. XP is good for playing solitaire

I'm running my DVB cards on a non-pentium, running Win2k. Approx 2 GHz. can't remember the ram, either 512 or 1024, but I've been told that the cache ram is more important.
I've also been told that the drivers for the cards aren't as good for Linux, however I don't think that would matter, since any computer is fast enough for getting the info from the card. It's the video hardware and software that's important. The ROKU is basically a Linux box, and it isn't nearly as fast as any of my regular computers, but it's basically doing nothing but video so it's efficient. I'd expect that once you put the whole Linux system on there, it would slow down just like the Windows things do.
I'm kind of partial to DOS myself. I did a comparison once of programs written to do a simple process written for DOS, Windows3, Windows95, WinNT, all on the same computer, and that was about the order of the speeds, ie with DOS fastest, and WinNT slowest. The thing is, that the more you ask an OS to do, the less efficient it will be. The nice thing about both Linux and DOS is that you can trim down the OS to just what you need. For working with TIVOs, someone made a complete LINUX OS on a 3.5" floppy disk.
I had decided to switch over to Linux at one point, but nowadays, it's nearly impossible to get by without Windows, since nearly everything new is written for Windows. A card like the Twinhans, or even the software for the STBs like the Fortecs, all require Windows when they first come out. Eventually people will write 3rd party drivers for Linux, etc, but by that time the device is obsolete, and/or the Linux version is obsolete. About 6 times, I've tried to go back to Linux only to find out that the programs I've wanted to run on Linux wouldn't work on the version of Linux I have. Same thing for Apple computers. I've got a couple Comodore 64s, a RS Color Computer, 2 versions of Mac computers, one computer running Dos, one running Win31, one that runs both Win95 and WinNT, one running Linux (4 if you include the TIVOs and ROKU), two running Win2k, and 4 running WinXP. My favorite is the Win2K computers, but I mainly use the WinXP computers. Haven't used the Macintosh computers for about 8 years, and only occasionally use Linux. I dislike Windows, but I fear that we are stuck with it.

[elgemcdlf]

Linux wasn't really intended for mainstream desktop usage although there has been a push to try to get it there and with more work from hackers it could make it. The more people hacking out code for things such as drivers and apps the sooner it could make a serious challenge. I use it for programming. The OS comes with all the tools required to build almost anything.

The concept was/is that if you want to run your DVB card in it write the driver then publish your driver to the Linux community. It gets incorporated into a release and Linux steadily marches forward. Linux is where E-Commerce came from

[wejones]

Originally Posted by William Eng

AC3 is digital encoded sound used in a stereo system. PBS runs several shows at the same time but you need an additional device to decode it, otherwise you hear nothing. The satellite receiver sends out the sound portion as an optical signal. Some people use a stereo system to decode this, others use Extigy, others use their computer. Yet they are the same shows shown in different time zones. Nevertheless, you can get PBS with sound from Montana PBS. Its great. I even joined their membership and in return I get a monthly TV guide detailing their programming. Since there is a 2 hours time difference (I'm in Eastern time zone, while Montana PBS is Mountain time zone), I use my VCR to tape what I want to watch.

With the combination of C-band, Ku-band, commercial DCII and FTA, you can get a really wide variety of PBS type programming including but not limited to Nebraska PBS, Oklahoma PBS, Utah PBS, Montanna PBS, Georgia PBS, Lousianna PBS, plus the national feeds, ie the eastern and pacific feeds mentioned above, there is a 1 hour delay during prime time, plus there is Annenberg CPB channel and a Create channel, plus several channels PBS uses to uplink individual programs. There is a LOT of PBS up there, and I've left out a couple.
The word is that PBS is switching to content delivered via network, so it may be that much of what is available now may go away, but the more modes you can receive, the longer you can continue to view PBS via satellite.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by rumproast_face

PS: One of you that posted is from Maine? My wife and I went to Acadia a couple of years ago ... aw man, ... one of Earth's truly heavenly places !
... and the blueberries everywhere! Incredible!

Yeah, I'm originally from Pittsburgh, and my wife is from Illinois, but we lived in Maryland, and it was so darn hot and humid down there that we decided we were going to move to some place cool. We took vacations all over, from Del, Pa, Wisc, Mich, NY, Vt, NH, and finally Maine. We hadn't decided until we saw Acadia. That is one special place. But don't go there in the summer, as it is one big traffic jam. Best time is early fall or late spring, before and after the crowds are there.
We ended up about a 3 hour drive from Acadia, but we get up there every couple years.

[rumproast_face]

Well, my computer has the platinum extigy card (spelling?) ... I enjoy streaming all the time ... even video on the computer isn't bad .. not great, but not bad ..

I'll inquire what type encoder I may wish to purchase in order for my system to be "least incompatible" ... so to speak.

Yeah, that one highway up into Acadia, that runs more or less along the coast ... a bit cramped at times .. and aw geez! they put the main campground there at Acadia in an old swamp ditch ... hawwwwly moly! man, oh man! .. those were some serious mosquitoes there ... they had attitude!

Will