Great video for learning about how to setup your free to air satellite dish at home. This video tutorial serves as a very basic beginner’s guide to FTA satellite dishes.
For those of you who don’t know, Tivo™ is an amazing PVR system available in the United States. These guys basically invented the “PVR” and “DVR” market and they set the standard in how it should work. TiVo sued EchoStar over infringing patents that relate to the tech behind the PVR. In that lawsuit, TiVo won and the court gave them $88 *MILLION* in damages and said EchoStar would have to stop selling a PVR that violated the patents held by TiVo. So Charlie takes out the checkbook, writes a check with lots and lots of zeros and life goes on. The last part never happened actually, EchoStar appealed and was granted a little legal breathing space. The court and U.S. District Court Judge Duffey is upset that EchoStar doesn’t have its metaphorical ducks in a row but gave EchoStar even more time to get the documents it needed together.
Have any of my readers noted the certain laissez-faire attitude that EchoStar has taken in regard the intellectual property of another company? Open your dictionary, turn to ‘I’ and find Ironic. What does this have to do with FTA you might ask? Many companies that produce our favorite receivers have a type of PVR now. If EchoStar looses it may have a big impact on what pvr features can be offered by those FTA manufacturers. If EchoStar wins, well, that would be a mixed blessing I suppose.
Here is the latest from the court on this on-going and complex case. In a nutshell, the Judge is P.O.d and wants everything in his hands by the 5th of February, 2009.
Before the Court is TiVo’s Motion to Hold EchoStar In Contempt For Violation Of This Court’s Permanent Injunction. Dkt. No. 832.
The Court will hold an additional hearing on this matter in the form of a Bench Trial on February 17-18, 2009 to determine whether EchoStar’s DP-501, DP-508, DP-510, DP-522, DP-625, DP-721, DP-921, and DP-942 receivers continue to infringe claims 1, 5, 21, 23, 32, 36, 52, 31, and 61 of U.S. Patent No. 6,233,389, either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents. The hearing will be held in Texarkana and begin each morning at 9 a.m.. Each side will have five (5) hours to present their case.
IT IS ORDERED that the following discovery limitations shall apply to this matter.
1. Disclosures. To the extent not already disclosed, within 15 days of this Order, each party shall disclose to every other party the following information:
a. the legal theories and, in general, the factual bases of the disclosing party’s claims or defenses;
b. the name, address, and telephone number of persons having knowledge of relevant facts, a brief statement of each identified persons’ connection with the case, and a brief, fair summary of the substance fo the information known by any such person;
c. for any testifying expert, by the date set by the court below, each party shall disclose to the other party or parties:
i. the expert’s name, address, and telephone number;
ii. the subject matter on which the expert will testify;
iii. if the witness is retained or specially employed to provide expert testimony in this case or whose duties as an employee of the disclosing party regularly involve giving expert testimony:
(a) all documents, tangible things, reports, models, or data compilations that have been provided to, reviewed by, or prepared by or for the expert in anticipation of the expert’s testimony; and
(b) the disclosures required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B) and Local Rule CV-26;
iv. for all other experts, the general substance of the expert’s mental impression and opinions and a brief summary of the basis for them or documents reflecting such information.
2. Additional Disclosures. Each party, within 15 days of this Order and without awaiting a discovery request, will provide, to the extent not already provided, every other party a copy of all documents, electronically stored information, and tangible things in the possession, custody, or control of the party that are relevant to the above stated matter.
3. Discovery Limitations. In addition to the disclosure listed in Paragraphs 1 and 2 above, the each side may serve 10 interrogatories, 10 requests for admission on the opposing side. In addition, each side may take 15 hours of fact witness depositions and the depositions of experts.
4. Pre-hearing disclosure. Each party shall provide to every other party within 7 days of the trial the following:
a. the name and, if not previously provided, the address and telephone number, of each witness, separately identifying those whom the party expects to call and those whom the party may call if the need arises;
b. the designation of those witnesses whose testimony is expected to be present by means of a deposition and, if not taken stenographically, a transcript of the pertinent portions of the deposition testimony;
c. an appropriate identification of each document or other exhibit, including summaries of other evidence, separately identifying those that the party expect to offer and those which the party may offer if the need arises;
d. an copy of each demonstrative that the party expects to present, separately identifying those that the party expects to present and those which the party may present if the need arises.
5. Duty to Supplement. After disclosure is made pursuant to this order, each party is under a duty to supplement or correct its disclosures immediately if the party obtains information that a disclosure was incomplete or incorrect when made, or is no longer complete or true.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the following deadlines shall apply to this case.
Date Event
December 22, 2008 TiVo’s Expert Disclosures Due
January 5, 2009 EchoStar’s Expert Disclosures Due
February 10, 2009 Parties’ Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law due
DBS companies are constantly trying to negotiate with various content providers so that their subscribers may have something to watch. The satellite provider will purchase “Retrans” or retransmission rights to specific content. Over the past few months information about these negotiations have leaked including the details of the contract between a regional provider of a number of local stations and a particular large DBS carrier. Sammy will leave the names out because it doesn’t really matter. This type of negotiation takes places every day between all of the different content providers.
Tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of customers were notified via the website of their local television station that the satellite company had refused the offer for retransmission rights and they were on the verge of loosing access to those channels. Although the deal was certainly inline with other, larger, regional providers the negotiations had broken down. In the end, the large DBS provider did pull the stations for 3 days before a deal was reached. Customers in Tyler, Jacksonville, Longview, Brownsville, El Paso, Las Cruces, and other parts of Texas and New Mexico were left to wonder what was going on.
Sammy wanted to know just how greedy the local provider was. Much like FTA, this really is the case of Goliath the Giant vs David. The DBS provider charges about $6.00 per month for access to “locals”. Keeping in mind they could not sell this service without content, what outrageous price did they fight about? Would you believe that it was only 30 cents? The final terms of the deal are unknown, but we do know this, the regional provider gets less than 30 cents. Goliath wins, David and consumers loose again and here we have another reason why FTA grows by the thousands.
As part of your FTA satellite installation you probably have a small metal or plated device that looks like a sea creature with COAX cables coming in and out of it.This device is called a DiSEqC which stands for “Digital Satellite Equipment Control” and is pronounced “Die-Seck”.
This is your average diseqc switch
In order for satellite systems to fit more channels in the same amount of space they broadcast channels using vertical and horizontal polarization.A DiSEqC is like a small phone operator for the satellite word that takes a look at all the signals coming in from the Dishes and tells them which stations to pass back to the receiver.
The receiver sends a signal in the form of a tone or by raising the voltage on line.The DiSEqC device understands these signals and tells the LNB what signal to pass to the receiver.
If you have One LNB going to One Receiver, you do not need a switch.
If you have One LNB going to Two Receivers, you most likely do not need a switch but you will need an LNB with dual outputs.
If you have Two LNBs going to One receiver you need one of the following:An A/B Switch, a 2×1 DiSEqC, a 4×1 DiSEqC, a 22KHz switch, or a 4×4 Multiswitch.An A/B switch is a very inexpensive manual switch and is not recommended.A 2×1 is not widely used any more but the 4×1 DiSEqC switch is the most popular around and often shipped free with your FTA receiver.A 4×1 DiSEqC switch has 4 coax inputs, generally 2 on each side.These are called “Ports” and go to each LNB in your satellite setup.A 5th plug labeled Out or Output will lead to your one receiver.Tip:Take notes when you install yourDiSEqC so you know which dish (110, 119, 129, etc) is on which port as you will need this to configure the receiver.
A 4×4 Multi-Switch is a higher end switch that has 4 inputs and 4 outputs.Generally they require the first port to provide power through a special injector that plugs in near the receiver.These flexible and powerful switches offer a lot of expansion as the can power up to 4 different receivers.
DiSeQC comes in many versions.The initial version (1.0) supports 2 to 4 different LNB sources.Version 1.1 supports up to 16 different LNB sources.Version 1.2 and 1.3 add support for motors and for other types of devices used to turn and point dishes.Newer devices, some still in the lab but other hitting the market use DiSEqC 2.x to automatically scan the sky and locate all the satellites and provide automatic access to all of them.
Tommy the Tech uses a simple DiSEqC 1.0 setup with a 4×4 powered switch.
There may be a lot of reasons that you’ve suddenly lost the picture on your satellite receiver.Here are some common questions and answer about the weather and its effect on your signal.
Can or snow cause the signal to be lost?Rain is generally not a problem for satellite signals but snow can be.A common problem in cold parts of the world is ice buildup on the satellite dish.Snow and ice can add a reasonable amount of weight to a dish as it builds up over a season.The most common problem Sammy finds is the very subtle movement of the dish over the winter season.Slowly the weight of the snow and ice pulls the dish out of alignment.If you live in a heavy snow or ice area you may have to make sure your dish is very well mounted and you may also install an optional year-round cover that prevents the buildup of ice and snow.Rain doesn’t generally stop satellite reception but you mind find that heavy storms bring thick dark clouds and these can cause a short interruption.A well tuned receiver with good line of sight should not experience many rain outages.
Very cold weather can also slow down the motor causing alignment issues.If you live in a very cold region you will want to check with the manufacturer of your equipment to make sure that it supports the normal conditions you live in.Some of the lower end units are not meant for extreme cold.
Twice a year the Sun comes into alignment and creates sun spots that interrupt satellite signals for a few minutes at a time.This will happen off and on through the day for a couple days and never at night.
It’s rare that the weather outside will affect your reception so fire up the Fireplace Channel, grab a cup of hot cocoa and relax.
It’s that time of year again and so it’s time to build my dream configuration.
Start with the Winegard 30” dish.This is an excellent dish for all major satellite providers and all FTA signals floating around in the sky.If the neighbors complain, I’d be just as happy with the 1000.2 DPP Triple LNBF.A single dish that automatically points to 110, 119, and 129 and includes the LNBF.
The CaptiveWorks 4000 HD receiver may be on the top of my wish list right now because the advanced living room entertainment features are far beyond what Sammy is used to.It’s hard to find this receiver in stock so Sammy would still be happy with a Sonicview 800 HD version 2.
Sammy still loves the DPP44 switch with the power inserter for the 2nd year running, I’m going with this one.
The most fun, Sammy wants to try the SadounDigipower SG2100 motorized dish mount this year it’s single control cable setup and “Go To X” DiSEqC 1.2 compatible technology.
Post your comments and tell N2News what your dream wish list is this holiday season.
N2News would like to wish all our members and non-members a very safe and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Attention Members: New Dish ECM in effect right now. If you’re channels are freezing or lost please hang tight as we are now uploading new fixes for some receivers in our VIP members section now. More files for more receivers are expected within the next hour or so. I will post an update on here once I have more receivers with autoroll files.
Not a member? Need the new updates and codes to get your satellite TV back up? Join N2News now for all the latest working autoroll BIN files and fixes for all major brands of FTA receivers.
I know that owning a free to air receiver can be a pretty overwhelming and confusing situation at first. There’s so many different terms and words you’ve probably never heard before. Example: FTA, Autoroll, Nagra, firmware, software, flash cards, loaders, receivers, and many more. Hopefully after reading this article you’ll have a much better understanding of all of these words and you’ll be able to more knowledgeably navigate yourself through the setup or installation of your home Free to Air satellite TV system. Please keep in mind that I am going to keep this article as simple as possible. Free to Air satellite TV isn’t as easy as it sounds. Testing with FTA requires one to research and read up because FTA isn’t always fun. Sometimes it can be a very frustrating experience. So, before getting yourself a free to air receiver make sure you read as much on the subject as humanly possible because it will make the road to satellite TV much less bumpy for you. Alright I think we’re ready to get started now. Here is many of the most typical free to air terms you’d hear or read about.
FTA or Free to Air
Free to Air has been around for almost a decade now at least to the general public anyways. FTA is the abbreviation of the phrase “Free to Air”. FTA simply means what it says. Free satellite transmissions that are meant to be completely free to the public. Many different television networks around the world broadcast 100% free channels that anyone can intercept to watch TV in their home or business. This is sometimes referred to as “true free to air” because this is what FTA receivers are essentially designed for. Within recent years FTA has become much more than just this. The free to air satellite market is now a billion dollar industry. All over the world people have started using their FTA receivers to illegally intercept common satellite TV companies that offer channels for a cost by programming their satellite system to decrypt the signals. This is mostly how FTA gained it’s huge popularity.
True Free to Air
True FTA describes using free to air as it was intended. Intercepting satellite signals which are completely free and are in place for the general public to use at their own will. These satellites are completely legal to point your dish at. Some channels that are available for free as true free to air satellite feeds would include, weather channels, some sports channels, and other information type stations. There are some entertainment channels available as True FTA feeds. The only issue with True FTA is that there are not normally any more than one channel per satellite. This means that in order to have 10 channels of free TV you would either need to point 10 different satellite dishes at 10 different satellites or you would have to purchase and install / setup a dish motor. Dish motors are great if you set them up properly. The dish motor would mechanically move your satellite dish and point it automatically depending on which channel you decide to watch from all of the way inside the house.
FTA Receiver
An FTA receiver is a piece of electronic equipment that is connected to your television and a satellite dish pointed properly. Think of it as a cable box for your TV. Except it’s connected to a compliant satellite dish usually mounted on your roof or fence. FTA receivers come in almost unlimited makes and models. Some of the most popular brands of free to air receivers available today would include Pansat, Viewsat, Coolsat, Captiveworks, NFusion, Sonicview, and many more. Any of these brands are completely acceptable as a first receiver for anyone. Each brand has it’s own unique set of features and options. This is why, again, that reading and researching is so important when getting into the FTA “scene”. You want to pick out the receiver that you would benefit from the most. This part is completely up to you. I can’t really help you out with deciding which receiver to purchase. My only advise is get aware of what certain features are including “fast EPG” and “PVR”.
FTA Compliant Satellite Dishes
This part is easy. There are so many different satellite dishes on the market today that you could choose from to set up your FTA system. You are basically looking for any type of KU Band satellite dish. KU Band describes a style of satellite dish. You’ve definitely seen KU Band dishes before. They are the small dishes which connect to the side of someone’s house or on their roof. They are not the big ugly dishes that you may remember from the 1990’s. KU Band satellite dishes are very inexpensive and highly available. Starting out around $29.99 USD they can get as expensive as $200 USD depending on what you are looking for. Example: If you want high definition (HD) channels then you would need a dish with an extra LNB for connecting to the second satellite in space with HD channels on it. Many manufacturers sell FTA compliant dishes in electronic stores and online venues. Fortec Star and Ariza are probably the most well known dish names for FTA purposes.
LNB
LNB means low noise convertor. It’s easy to get very technical here but I’ll keep it extremely simple. The LNB is the little box at the end of the arm which extends from the actual dish part of the satellite dish. It’s the small piece of electronic equipment which points at the center of the dish. The LNB receives the signal that bounces off the satellite dish. You connect your LNB to the coaxial cable which runs directly to your FTA receiver inside your house. The coaxial cable runs down through the arm of the dish and to the FTA box. This keeps the cable protected from the elements. Most times an LNB will have 2 separate places on it’s underside to plug 2 different coaxial cables into. This basically means that you can connect two FTA receivers to the one LNB. These LNB’s are called Dual LNB’s. You will most likely want to get a dish with a dual LNB. That way you can watch satellite TV on up to two different TVs.
FTA Firmware
We’ll start with the meaning of Firmware. Firmware is essentially software which is built in to a hardware device. Firmware is built into almost all your home electronics. Even using your remote control on your television is using the TV’s built in firmware. This is the software that tells your TV to change a channel when you press “channel up” on your remote control. The firmware is usually always built directly into your electronic device’s hardware but sometimes using a flash drive that you connect to the device you can update, change or install the device’s firmware. This is what happens when you own a free to air receiver. The firmware which is installed on all FTA receivers today can be altered and changed by uploading a binary image file (BIN File) to the receiver and executing it via your FTA firmware. Your FTA receiver’s firmware is capable of opening BIN files to update, change, or rollback parts of it’s FTA firmware.
FTA Software
Because FTA receivers can be connected directly to a home PC or USB stick it’s sometimes necessary to update your FTA receiver by plugging it in to your PC with either a USB cable or Serial cable. In order for you computer to recognize and utilize the receiver connected to it, you will have to install software on your computer that properly uploads files depending on the model of box you have. Each FTA receiver has it’s own unique FTA software that you will need to download and install on your computer if you want to upload Autoroll BIN files to your FTA receiver. Depending on how old your receiver is, this may not be applicable to you. Newer FTA receivers don’t have the need for FTA software because they use USB flash drives to be updated rather than software on your actual computer.
FTA Files
You may of hear the term, “FTA files” used to explain many different types of files used by your FTA receiver. FTA files is a general phrase used to describe a number of different files, BIN files, software, firmware, and update files. Most of the time FTA files is another way of saying Free to Air autoroll BIN files. If you are going to keep your satellite TV up and running all the time you will always need to be downloading whatever new FTA files are available for your particular receiver model. By FTA files I could mean either new software, firmware, BIN, or update files. On average you will be required to download new FTA files via an FTA Support website at least once a week. This is why finding the right FTA file support is so important when owning a FTA system.
FTA Keys
Depending on what you are using your FTA receiver for, you might be interested in learning about what FTA keys are and what they are used for. FTA keys are sometimes needed in order to update your receiver’s firmware to decrypt certain channels and satellites. If you are changing your FTA receiver’s keys you should be aware of the laws and regulations in your area that in place about doing this. The only reason you’d be changing keys would be if there isn’t a new Autoroll BIN file available yet for your receiver and you really need to watch some TV. The FTA keys are a series of numbers and letters which are currently active with the satellite company for unlocking certain channels. Ultimately you would go to your FTA support website and find the new keys released that day. You would go into the menu of your FTA receiver via the remote control and your TV and change the numeric and alphabetic fields with the new or latest FTA keys.
1 Month Free to Air Receiver Files and
