Free To Air Questions:

Q. What other equipment do I need to use a FTA receiver?

A. You will need to have a properly pointed 18" DirecTV or Dish net dish and LNB installed, with a RG-6 feed from that Dish. That's it!!

Q. Will this receiver allow you to view DirecTV?

A. NO, DirecTV uses a totally different broadcast system.

Q. Will this receiver allow you to watch all Nagra Encodings.

A. YES, Free To Air Receivers are able to receive all Nagra Encodings.

Q. Ok, what can I view with this receiver?

A. Free To Air Receivers will allow you to receive and view the following Satellites

All Dishnet (Echostar) Satellites, (61.5W, 110.0W, 119.0W 121.0W, 148W...etc) All Available channels.
All Movies, All Sports, All Adult Movies, All Specialty Channels !!!

All other NAGRA Encoded Satellite Streams

Q. Do I need any special dishes or LNB's?

A. If you only wanted to set up the receiver to watch Dishnet satellites, then NO.

You can use any Dishnet or DirecTV 18" satellite dish and either a Dishnet or DirecTV LNB. They are the same frequency.

This receiver comes with a Switch for use with 4 sat feeds into 1 input. This is needed for a multidish install
( I.E. Echo 110.0W and 119.0W)

You will be able to hook-up 4 different Satellite feeds in to the switch and view 4 different Satellite feeds.

If you wish to receive European Satellite feeds, then you will need a 30" dish and a different type of LNB.

Q. Where do I get support?

A. Right Here, we will try to post all the info you need

IS FTA LEGAL IN NORTH AMERICA?

Absolutely. By definition, it is FREE to air. Free channels, and a receiver to watch them with. There is nothing wrong with Free to Air. The government knows that, the big companies (Dish, cable companies) know it, and so should you. Free to Air has been around long before all of this craze revolving around the industry. Nothing has changed. On a other hand watching Canadian satellites providers is highly illegal and will be prosecuted by law. That is why we will not help you in any way to watch Canadian television using your fta receiver.

IS IT LEGAL TO BUY FTA RECEIVERS FROM ANY WEB SITE

Absolutely. It doesn't really matter which site is selling the receiver, if it is FTA, then you can purchase it. Even if the site advertises illegal decryption, you can still buy it, as long as when you receive it, you are watching FTA. That is why there are factory manufacturer software files.

You, as an end-user, are never at risk, simply because FTA receivers are fully legal. It would take a stakeout at your house, watching you download encrypted channels to come after you for signal theft. If you see an ice-cream truck with antennas outside your home, watch out. Other than that, don't even think about it.

SHOULD I BE CONCERNED ABOUT ANYTHING?

Not at all. If you ever get a phone call from Echostar or a lawyer's office, never, even for a second, worry about it. They are not coming after you. Don't incriminate yourself by even listening to the call. Politely say "I only watch FTA programming. bye.. I'm in the middle of dinner". Because you are not at risk, never put yourself in this situation. They can never prove otherwise. Remember, you are only watching FTA programming. Period.

THE FUTURE

Basically...Just enjoy TV. Don't worry. Don't be paranoid. No one is ever coming after you. No one is suing you. No one is watching you. No one can prevent you from watching FTA television. Don't even worry about your dealer, and records of purchase. As far as the law is concerned, you purchased FTA.


I have known all along that these box's would be very hard to prosecute for Dishnet, after all they are Free To Air units made by various manufacturers. You aren't modifying dishnet cards.

Q. What is the best Receiver

Currently the best receiver is the Sonicview ,Viewsat, either the Xtreme or Platinum editions.  As of right now the newest receiver that has come in is the Sonicview SV 1000, which is faster and has more options than the Viewsat Receivers.  For Example it has a guide that show programs 7 days ahead and much more.  Sonicview is being supported by the same company coders as Viewsat and currently the Viewsat Receivers have the best support thus far. For example, the Viewsat and Sonicview receivers are the first receivers working after a hit.  The are also the easiest receivers to program, it only takes about five minutes.  The instructions even include a video visual aid on how to program the receiver, it is very easy to follow.

FTA Reliability? Which ones?

There's always lots of talk on in the threads and even polls about which receiver is better.

Most of us vote and comment passionately on the receiver dear to our hearts because we're staring at that model sitting somewhere near the TV.

But while there are inherent physical and software differences between various receivers, most of us don't look at the whole picture, and the last few days demonstrate it.

While we can argue about the power and merits of Pansats vs. Coolsats vs. Viewsats, I think you can all agree that each of these brands has some powerful receivers, good programming, fast switching, EPG, etc. In other words, some decent programming coupled with good speed hardware.

Based on the last few days, perhaps some older and slower receivers won't make it. Whether due to not enough computing power or simply, support will be dropped for them in favor of inticing the hordes to upgrade and buy the latest and greatest coupled to various excuses why the old simply won't work.

Having blabbered on about this, consider that while Pansat's Blacklist, Viewsat's Mr. Viewsat and Coolsat's "programming team" are singly depended on when it comes to programming your proprietary boxes. That means if Blacklist gets run over by a truck or Mr. Viewsat gets fed up and leaves, THERE WILL BE NO NEW CODE OR SUPPORT for a while, if at all.

There's talk the Blacklist is on Vacation until the 9th, etc. Tell you what... If I was Pansat, I'd send him a 1st class ticket home and a 1-week all expense paid trip at some other time. So, the reason things aren't out quickly is not because of anything except that this is a hard fix and there are problems/issues with some receivers as well.

Consider: If you bought an apartment building with 1000 units. Would you rent it to a single tenant and depend on him to pay his monthly 1.5million in lease payments? You would? Then you would have to Enron, right? And you'd be bankrupt right about now.

I think you heard that putting all your eggs in one basket is always a bad idea. Instead of 1 tenant, why not have 1,000. If any leave, so what? There's a lot more. That's like 1 coder responsible for all the code vs. many all over the world.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we're all playing with fire when it comes to standard FTA units.