Seriously, if you have DirecTV, you must get Tivo with it. You won't beleive how it changes your life. I know that sounds really corny but it's so true. With Tivo you'll never watch any "live" TV, you'll almost always watch it recorded. Why? Because it allows you to watch ONLY the shows you want, WHEN you want. It's on your time schedule, not the networks. And, it is so simple to use, don't be intimidated by it. Plus, you can fast forward the commercials, pause it when the phone rings. I could go on and on and on about how great it is.
"Best" is a relative term. Picture quality may vary slightly among manufaturers. People tend to recommend the equipment that they own, regardeless of whether or not it is the best. I would stay away from Samsung. Internet chatter strongly suggests that some of those products perform inconsistently and are frequently unreliable. I recently purchased the new RCA DTC210. I've only had it for a few days. The HD picture is outstanding and feature pack is excellent. However, it is way too early for me to offer any opinion on reliability. I purchsed through Directv as there are no local dealers where I live. Keep in mind that Directv will tell you that they will not guarantee make or model. However, insist that the representative take down your preference. Do your research and evaluate what features you must have before plunking down your money.
I agree with brian. Those TIVOs are pretty sweet, but I wont get one until the HD version comes down in price a bit. Right now, they're about $1,000. Once the price falls to about half that, I'll definitely get one. For me personally, it's just not worth what they're charging for the box.
heck, in 10 years, they'll probably be selling for $99.99.....:laugh:
F-U-C-K-O-F-F- JAMES MILLARD QUIT TRYING TO SELL YOU S-H-I-T. YOUR S-H-I-T- WELL BE TOAST IN A SHORTLY TOO. ALL THE FREE SATELLITE IS F-U-C-K-E-D. ONE LAST KICK AT THE CAT EH JAMES!
What the hell is fta? Must be a dish thing...cause I don't get it.
LK
Unregistered guest
Posted on
FTA= free to air receivers which can pick up almost any satellite...many TV channels are NOT encrypted (coded-scrambled)...with these FTA receivers U can always get SOME free Tv channels..but U can get Dishnetwork or Bev (Canadian equivalent to Directv)if U use certain software on the receiver (computer to receiver downloaded)to "decrypt" these "encrypted" satellite signals..
BTW...I guess if U live in Syracuse Utah (under your nick),U wouldn't know about these things...lol
oh yeah, I remember the 80's with those satellite dish's the size of cars and waiting for minutes while you waited for the dish to move. Yeah, fun times....NOT. My Grandpa doesn't even use that crap anymore! No thanks! I prefer to pay for good quality service instead of wasting my time searching for free crap that isn't even worth watching. If I want to be a rebel cheapskate and not pay for something I'll use the internet as my means...I know all the great places to find anything I want.
You see I live in the modern world, with Tivo, HD service, broadband, hacked Xbox media centers, hacked Tivo's that do whatever the hell I want them to, hacked everything with a hard drive. Oh, but I live in Utah, so I must be a religous extremist...I'm not supposed to know about all this stuff. Go try your stereotypes elsewhere you moron!
whatta mormonic monkey
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Brian Lampright
shuddup, you sphincter-face. Bet in Utha peeps also know how to make cheese.
LK
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Brian...I was just joking about utah...take a chill pill...
I just gave U an education about FTA...and U are way off about BIG satellite dish...U are still stuck in the 80's pal..EVERTHING is satelliete now,even radio..and GPS etc..and Tivo is already getting OUTDATED...stay up with the times before U make childish remarks...and even OLD grandpa's now all use satellite and modern technology..
BTW...dishes now are ONLY 18 inches and receive up to 1000 channels MORON!...and if U don't like FREE,then screw...go somewhere else...U have no idea why U are here or what "DSS" (these forums) even means!...U must be from one of them BIG mormon families with 10 mothers ...almost like "Deliverance"...u're all related..and now I'm NOT joking piss ant!
BTW...I can sense that U're mentally 12-15 based upon your immature attempt to "act" older
Billy Watson
Unregistered guest
Posted on
yeah ..... must be a stupid kid cus he still has a grandpa......lol
let's all act 12 and pick on the guy that lives in Utah. I'll save everyone else in the forum that doesn't want to read this crap and not bother to reply to any of the childish posts against me. I don't have time to reply to childs-play...I have better things to do. Everyone likes to pretend to be the big bully on the internet...hahaha. You make me laugh!
I'll be the adult here and stop it right now!
So, question for you LK. Can your Dish DVR record shows off of all those 1000's of channels and satellites? Does the dish still have to physically move to find satellites?
btw...I've had directv for 5 years, I'm very familiar with current dish technology. I know many with dish and not a single one uses your fta stuff...why is that?
btw..if Apple buys Tivo like they're exploring, you'll see new life breathed into that company. I've used just about every DVR on the market and Tivo is the best. Too bad their business decisions aren't very smart!
LK
Unregistered guest
Posted on
New FTA receivers can record as much or more than the older tivo's...DTV tivo only allows 80 hours...New FTA's DO 100+ hours (more if U replace it with a larger hard drive) recording from SATELLITE dishs and can get 1000 channels with UNmotorized dishs...BTW,U mentioned Directv,well hate to be bearer of bad news,but thats SATELLITE from a dish!...piss ant!
and Dish DVR also records from SATELLITES with a roof dish.. Cable TV is "the past"...ancient history...they have even come out with things called "cell phones" now too,no more need for pay phones or even home phones..
here pal..some specs..
Pansat 5000HC Features & Specs Main Features Free To Air DVB/MPEG Compliant Multi Functions EPG (Electronic Program Guide) Automatic PAL/NTSC Conversion 2 LNB input (F-Type), IF signal Loop Through
Excellent Performance Fast Channel Change 10,000 Channels S/PDIF (Real Time Clock) Timer USB interface
Friendly User Interface 65536 Color Graphic 5 Favorite Channel List Channel Edit (Sort, Move, Parental Lock, Skip, and etc.)
Software Upgrade Software Upgrade using RS-232 (REC to REC, REC to PC) & USB
PVR Functions and Twin Tuner Functions Tested up to 80 Gbytes HDD Time shift (buffering) : 2 ~8 Hours ( Depend on HDD) Recording time: up to 150 Hours (Depend on HDD) Variable Forward Play Speed : 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, ½, ¼, 1/8 Variable Reverse Play Speed : 1, 2, 4, 8, ½, ¼, 1/8 Region Selection for Replay Variable Combination of Watching and Recording Simultaneously with PIP Function: Live Watch or Recording + Live Watching or Recording or HDD Playing Grouping for Cascade Playing Editing recorded file Pre-Recording (Program Reservation)
Specifications Tuner (Smart Search) / LNB 2 Input Connector F-type, IEC 169-24 IF Input Frequency 950MHz TO 2150MHz IF Loop throughout 950MHz TO 2150MHz IF Frequency Zero-IF Input Level -65 dBm~-25dBm LNB Power 13/18V DC 500mA Max DiSEqC Control Version 1.3 Compatible Band Switching 22KHz Tone Demodulation QPSK System Rate 1~45 Msps (SCPC, MCPC) Viterbi Decoding Rate 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 Reed Solomon Decoding FEC: 204, 188, t=8 DiSEqC 1.3 Compatible (STAB USALS)
Mpeg transport Stream & A/V Decoding Demultiplex According to ISO/IEC 13818-1 Input Stream Max. 90Mbit/s Aspect Ratio 4:3, 16:9 Video Resolution 720 x 576 Audio Decoding MPEG layer l and ll Audio Mode Single/Dual Channel, Stereo, Joint Stereo Sampling Frequency 16/22, 05/24/32/44, 1 48khz
Microprocessor & Memories Main Processor EMMA2 CPU Clock 200 MIPS Flash Memory 4 Mbyte SDRAM 32 Mbyte EEPROM 32 kbit Data Port Connector 9 Pin D-Sub Type Protocol RS232 Asynchronous Data Rate Max. 19,2kbps RF Modulator Connector IEC 169-24 Male/Female Frequency CH 3 (61.25MHz) CH4 (67.25MHz) Output Channel Ch 3-4 TV Standard NTSC Preset Channel CH3, Changeable by Menu Screen
Front Panel 4 Digits LED Display Channel Number Display 8 keys Power, Menu, Select, Exit, Channel Up/Down, VOL Up/Down,
Rear Panel IF Input F-type Connector IF Loopthrough output F-type Connector 3 Phone (Cinch) Video, Audio L, Audio R Digital Audio Out S/PDIF or AC-3 optical S-VHS Modulator RS232 Serial Port 9 Pin D-sub Type
Remote Control Type Infra-red (Carrier Freq : 38 KHz) Battery 2 x 1,5V AAA Type HDD 80 GB (50 hours) Interface USB Ports
Others Inputs Voltage AC90-250, 50/60Hz Power Consumption Max. 55 Watts Standby Power Less than 5 Watts
Dimension 340 x 245 x 65 mm 5 kgs Without HDD
LK
Unregistered guest
Posted on
FYI..FTA and Dishnetwork receivers USE directv roof dishs...and the many U know who don't know about FTA are ignorant,like you...and should PAY cable TV or DTV..
LK
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Here's a little FTA history lesson for you..I taught U more tonite than u've learned in the last 10 years!
MPEG-2 Reception
Basics and A Brief History In the American Market
HISTORY & TECHNICAL BACKGROUND:
Asia and the Pacific Rim were the first places in which MPEG-2 free-to-air reception was used on a large scale. The difference between those markets and America was that prior to the mid 90s, it took literally very huge antennas to get even a few dozen channels...making TV reception of many channels an impossible dream. MPEG-2 technology was a breakthrough that allowed great reductions in per-channel transmission costs. Mass consumers in those regions never had the chance to spend lots of money on more costly analog equipment. Their first exposure to satellite TV was more often than not in a digital format. No 15 to 20 year learning curve of various stages of analog receivers prior to going to digital, like we did here.
So the Asia-Pacific market was a test bed on how to get it right, with costs coming down due to companies from the Far East trying to compete for the huge mainland Chinese market. Then Europe....now America.
Hyundai was the first receiver brought into the U.S., with its early versions of the HSS-100 series of receivers. Wholesale cost was around $700, it had a memory limited to 99 bouquets, or groups of channels, and the graphics only worked in the PAL video format. Viewing on our NTSC format required a direct connection to a VCR or monitor and some programming tricks to "make" an NTSC picture. We have come a long ways in the last three years, with many significant improvements in design of receivers, and great increases in memory capacity.
MPEG-2 is a worldwide satellite transmission standard for digital broadcasting. It is the wave of the future, because of the simple economics that can allow 8 or even 10 video signals to occupy the same space as one channel of analog transmission. Just as some analog signals can be scrambled for subscription use, digital channels can be transmitted either scrambled or in-the-clear. In-The-Clear is known in the digital TV world as FTA or Free-To-Air. Since it is a worldwide standard, there are more MPEG-2/DVB (digital video broadcasting) channels available in places such as Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, than presently found in the American market. National public broadcasters in other parts of the world have adopted MPEG-2 as a cost-effective way to distribute their signals on limited budgets.
Spread of free MPEG-2 signals into North America has been previously hampered by the dominance of the Digicipher 2 video standard made by the former General Instrument (now Motorola Broadband) group. Receivers such as 4DTV and other versions of the Digicipher 2 actually have the letters MPEG-2 stamped on them, but are not compatible with the rest of the world. The difference comes in the way that signals are layered together, especially in the encryption process. It has given the Digicipher 2 a protected monopoly in America. Scientific-Atlanta's PowerVu system is more closely related to MPEG-2, and it has a lion's share of digital channels in the rest of the world. It helps that the worldwide PanAmSat satellite system works closely with Scientific-Atlanta in promoting this digital alternative. What is unique is that when signals are NOT addressably encoded, the PowerVu system can be viewed in-the-clear (or Free-to-Air) on most consumer MPEG-2 digital receivers. Several DBS systems in North America use the MPEG-2 platform, and when they choose NOT to encode channels, signals are also available in the same manner. These include Echostar's DISH Network, Canada's Bell ExpressVu, Mexico's SKY MEXICO, and the former Sky Vista and AlphaStar...once on Telstar 5 but now out of business.
This unusual mix of compatible free-to-air systems has presented the opportunity for a great number of channels to become available to North American viewers. There are always a few channels in the transition between in-the-clear and subscription transmission mode. The ultimate goal in many cases is for a subscription service, but some channels have been in-the-clear for months and even years before reverting to scrambling. When a channel goes into that mode, arrangements are usually available with one of the small dish DBS services to sell a subsidized priced receiver when making a long-term commitment to a subscription. We shall concentrate on the channels that continue to transmit in a free mode.
A great number of the channels available free-to-air in MPEG-2 are those from other countries. Such availability is contingent upon somebody paying the bill for satellite transmission across the ocean, and then retransmitting to the North American market. In some cases, the North American signal is made available on one of the small-dish systems such as DirecTV or DISH Network for a monthly fee, but the incoming feed from overseas is left in the clear. The reason is primarily economic, with the logic that very few people will go to the trouble of installing a large C-band antenna in this day and age to view one free channel, when they can have it delivered by alternative methods for what some might consider to be a reasonable fee. Problem is that this "free" reception sometimes gets too popular, and the bean counters at DISH Network decide to encode the incoming international feeds, thus forcing all to subscribe. This happened recently with Polish services, then Russian, and who knows what next. A great number of Arabic channels are presently in the clear...a few are incoming feeds for DISH Network, and several others are sponsored and paid for by different governments in Arabic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The latter wish to make their signals available around the world to expatriates as well as the rest of the world..as a window into their culture. These governments pay to keep these signals available free of charge to individual viewers with satellite equipment. Such benevolence goes against the U.S. model of commercialism and paying for TV, but it helps explain why some languages are readily available here and others are not. Somebody has to pay to get it on satellite, and if a country or a language does not have either a sponsor or an adequate number of paying customers, then it will likely not be available to our market.
You didn't answer my question about why I don't know a single person who uses FTA. You just resorted to name calling. Why is FTA not mainstream if it's so wonderful? You are you the only person I've ever heard talk about it and I've been reading posts on this site for months. Why are you the only person talking about it if it's so great? If it's so awesome, then everyone and they're brother should be using it, but they're not. Why, and don't cope to name calling because you can't come up with an answer!
How many satellites can you get from a dish network dish that is pointed at the dish network satellits? And don't tell me all of them, because that's impossible. Your dish can only pick up the satellites within the beam that it's pointed at.
LK
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I did answer,you're ignorant!...I guess U can't read either....and need eyeglasses and are deaf too......yes more insults...90% of these threads are about Pansat,an FTA receiver,so OBVIOUSLY its MAINSTREAM and VERY popular by all the posters in these forums!..U don't read too well pal..and 90% of former DTV testers now test FTA at all and every DSS site,not just here!..U live in a world..go do some reading if U want info,school is out from me to you..a little info can be dangerous,in your case!
Anonymous
Posted on
Yeah Brian WTF where have you been FTA is huge, most sites have gone over solely to FTA. Look around all you see are FTA threads.Tell those people, who have not heard of FTA, to roll the rock from their caves and step out into the real world.
Mojo
Unregistered guest
Posted on
dont bother......he cant understand. hes from utha
I've only been reading the threads that pertain to DirecTV and other more popular subjects, which is why I never read anything about FTA.
Now that I know a little about it it's definitly not mainstream, it's a techno-hobby. Which is fine, but don't pretend that it's mainstream, because it's not...atleast not in the US. Mainstream is Dish,DirecTV,Cable,OTA, etc... I've never used an FTA setup...obviously...but it sounds like it's still just as cumbersome to use as the old-school version was. You can only pick up a few satellites at a time, so you still need a dish setup that moves to aquire different satellites...if you want all of them. The websites I found suggest atleast a 30" dish, not an 18". And they suggest even larger for some applications.
I can't find any info on a TVGuide menu system for the DVR that ties it all together so you can EASILY search a guide and tell it to record shows off of the various satellites. Does this exist for FTA? If not, easy of use sucks...which is why this will never be mainstream. Once a master guide exists, then I could see more people adopting this. Am I wrong in this reguard? How do you find a specific program that you want recorded and then how do you program the DVR to record it. I imagine that you're finding the programming information on the internet, and then manually going into the DVR and telling it which satellite to turn to, at what time, and what channel. Is that accurate?
If I were from another country and wanted some local programming from that country, I totally see this as a benefit. But for the average american, it's too cumbersome and the ease of use isn't there for this to be mainstream. Neither DirecTV or Dish Network even have any info on their website about FTA....they only have "International Programming" information which might be using FTA.
Not even close to being mainstream... Sounds like a fun hobby for some of you though.
LK
Unregistered guest
Posted on
IDIOT..its easier than testing DTV...but all you know is a DTV subscription..hell anybody can do that!...even a moron can call and subscribe..