try this site for your answers www.satellitehelp.com Andyvan ----- Original Message ----- From: intricate.rm To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 11:54 PM Subject: [TVRO] Re: Novice seeks 4DTV answers and satellite knowledge for C, Ku bands
Thank you for your candor and comprehensive experience based reply. I appreciate all points of view and would rather know this now than after buying a 4DTV receiver, dish, etc. The wish for a NON DISH NON DIRECTV system may be moot as I've 60 foot City Ash trees bordering my southernmost perimeter. DISH and DIRECT reception was very good despite these monstrosities but I am familiar with the needs of a BUD Dish. I enjoy technology and esp in an area that most dismal consumers would not venture. I am not a fan of NPS and liked the basic under $30/month packages offered through SkyVision as I too view perhaps 6-channels at all times, non-of which feature multi-million dollar prima donnas who enjoy their blatant oral political incorrectness. Let me get back on track. Can I obtain sat to PC with a PC expansion card and what cost might be involved with a subscription? I am VERY computer savvy and build and configure PC's for years so please be as technical as you can and hold nothing back. Id like to sample some sat programming if possible on my desktop and am leery of the USB type plug in's that might work on my laptop. I am attentive to all suggestions. Thanks again for your commentary and I look forward to your next reply. Regards, --- In [email protected], "Tamara Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "intricate.rm" <intricate@> wrote: > > > > Hello...I am new to this group and to satellite technology. However, > > after I recently canceled my DISH subscription, I happened upon a site > > called Skyvision in which a la carte programming was shown. Impressed > > with what I saw at Skyvision, I am curious to learn more about the > > 4DTV satellite system however I fear that the cost for a 4DTV > > receiver, dish,and feedhorn excludes my budget. Can anyone suggest a > > primer that will detail what hardware I would need to obtain basic a > > la carte programming and how I would configure a satellite system for > > such an a la carte package? Also, I cant seem to find ANY installers > > in the Southern California area and realize support for 4DTV type > > systems is rare. Any suggestions or replies to my questions is greatly > > appreciated. > > > > Thank you kindly. > > > > A Novice to Satellite > > > You are right about the money. You are right about the lack of > vendors. You can listen to music on the AM radio that came with your > car. You can spend hundreds of thousands for home audio. It will > sound better by far but only you can determine the value. > > It is the same with 4DTV. The prices are somewhat less as the parts > are often free from another individual abandoning BUD technology. You > first should check to see of some jackass has managed to outlaw new > dishes in your community. You then must locate a spot with an > unobstructed view of the southern sky. From where you are that would > be near the horizon in the east to about 20 degrees west of due south. > Then plant the vertical pole securely. The size of the pole depends > on the size of the dish you should get for free. Depending on how far > this is from your viewing location, you would then have to purchase > new cables. You cannot use the so-call universal LNBFs. If the free > dish includes a Corotor and 2 LNB's then you would need two coax RG6 > or RG11 runs and one multi conductor for the positioner/polarity. You > then must point the axis of the polar mount at Polaris. All the > moving you have done for your free dish by now will have gotten the > feed horn away from the prime focus. You will need signal meters to > position the feed horn both axially and rotationally. You must then > carefully and patiently locate each satellite. 4DTV receivers don't > do automatic. This is not exhaustive. There are many other things > the installers did that escape me. If you are lucky there is a duffer > in his mid thirties to late fifties nearby to complete this picture. > > Lastly, there are only 2 digital packages available for subscription. > Discovery HD is separate. You have the same situation as with Dish, > Directv, or cable. You can't get only the channels you wish to watch. > NPS used to sell the annual for their Essential at about $200 and > Absolute at about $300. Discovery HD is about $55 and requires a > HDD-200 decoder which of late seems to command $300 to $400. > > As this point, you may think this a long winded "DON'T DO IT!" Your > alternatives are theft of service (DON'T DO IT), pizza dish, cable, or > a good OTA antenna. If you go BUD you will enter a world of hobbists > primarily. If you approach the entire process as entertainment not > just the program material, it can be rewarding. You will be spending > lots of money, time, and psychic energy. I have not yet mentioned the > FTA DVB receiver nor the PCI card for your PC. > > Good Luck. > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
