FTA - Satellite Questions

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Papi Chulo

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Jan 30, 2006
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I have heard that I can get 1500+ channels, including PPV... what gear do I need to buy?


Does it make a difference if the dish is round or elliptical?


If I go with a round dish, is it better to go with a 33" dish instead of an 18"??


Anyone dealt with www.ecanada.com ?



Which brand / model receiver would you recommend??
 
Don't know much about this since I'm a subscriber but if you go for a circular dish, the larger the dish, the better the signal strength/reception. An 18" dish will only allow you to lock onto 1 satellite on Bell (if this is what you are planning on getting with your FTA). You will need a 20" dish minimum to get both the Bell satellites (as well as the Dish satellites). Of course my recommendations only work for the Canadian cities near the US border. If you are in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, etc., a 20" dish will work. This is what I have to get my Bell high definition channels and regular channels. The high def channels on Bell are on the other satellite and not on the same satellite as the regular channels.
 
jimace said:
Don't know much about this since I'm a subscriber but if you go for a circular dish, the larger the dish, the better the signal strength/reception. An 18" dish will only allow you to lock onto 1 satellite on Bell (if this is what you are planning on getting with your FTA). You will need a 20" dish minimum to get both the Bell satellites (as well as the Dish satellites). Of course my recommendations only work for the Canadian cities near the US border. If you are in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, etc., a 20" dish will work. This is what I have to get my Bell high definition channels and regular channels. The high def channels on Bell are on the other satellite and not on the same satellite as the regular channels.
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I was hoping to use it to pick up the 2 satellites on the Dish Network (US) and maybe Bell

I think I saw a bracket that would hold 3 LNB's

I am tired of paying $100 / month for cable.. time to get it ALL for free!
 
Papi Chulo said:
... time to get it ALL for free!
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It's not really free, maybe 20-40% of the cost by the time you add up all the bits and pieces.

The best deal out there right now is the Captiveworks CW600 Premium at $99 cdn which has decent picture, guide, support and solid code. It's also upgradeable to be a PVR.

The Coolsat 5000 goes for $130 cdn - decent picture and guide. OK support. There's a bug on Bell right now that will blank the picture occasionally for a few seconds that they haven't been able to fix.

The Viewsat 2000 Extreme for $167 cdn - so-so picture and guide, fabulous support but terrible/buggy code. Loading a Viewsat is now an adventure because you're never quite sure if it will self destruct (5% chance). When it does, it has to go back to the shop, where they might charge you $75 to repair.

I would not recommend an 18" dish for multi-sat. There are brackets that some people swear by. I have actually had an 18" multi-sat dish working beyond North Bay, but it can produce inconsistent results so it's not worth the time and effort.

An 20-22" elliptical is only $20 more and a lot easier to install. It will bring in the 3 sats at 91, 110 and 119 with a 4 way adapter (the 101 position is always left blank). The 82 carries mainly HD and foreign language so it's not of interest to most people.

A 33" dish is used mainly for true FTA like T5 or US foreign language programming like 105 and 121.

I'm not sure if I would go for a HD receiver yet as they are still pricey $480-$550 cdn. The price will probably drop by mid summer when the Viewsat and Pansat models come out. All HD FTA units are only good for Bell HD right now.
 
I think I will purchase the Coolsat 7000 Micro PVR & a 500GB external hard drive.

Will it be possible to plug the hard drive into the computer and burn a movie recorded on it to DVD?
 
Good choice going with the Coolsat Papi Chulo.
 
Papi Chulo said:
....Will it be possible to plug the hard drive into the computer and burn a movie recorded on it to DVD?
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Join www.f2atv.com (free). It's the Coolsat home site. They have a Coolsat7000 forum:
http://forums.f2atv.com/forumdisplay.php?f=618

It looks like it records the movie in the satellite format called .TS, not a regular video format. You need to convert it before you can use it on a computer. There's a couple of tools for this called VideoRedo (which also removes commercials) and squared5 (free).

The one thing is the Coolsat7000 can only record programs up to 2hrs. It won't record programs greater than 2hrs.
 
Papi Chulo said:
Is it possible to pirate high speed internet???..
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It's a DOCSIS based system, so in theory it could be hacked (i.e. like uncapping bandwidth limits). It's 2-way based system and the modem could authenticate it's configuration to the ISP, so they would remotely shut you down pretty quickly (i.e. a matter of hours). http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=hack+DOCSIS&btnG=Search

It's much easier to pirate a wifi signal. In theory, someone could mount a Linksys WRT54G wireless router on the roof of their house in a tupperware container. Setup as a wireless repeater in high power mode with high gain antennas, you could sit in your house with a wireless laptop and connect to open access points a 1/2 mile away for under $100.
 
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