LK... Just wondering if you could explain how to have a group sub with family in 5 different places in NA. Do you have to activate the receivers at the same house...and then run them in various locations? Is it true you must have a two year agreement? Some people say you must have them plugged into the phone line at all times.Hope you had a great Christmas and all the best to you in 2007. Thanks to you , family have been enjoying FTA for 2 years. You're the best! DJ
No phone needed..in fact do NOT plug in, except maybe the account owner with ONLY 1 receiver...
I have 12 receivers on my account, but some of the reps like to limit to 6...
activate the receivers and inserted cards from same house is BEST (but not needed as long as ALL receivers are connected with cards inserted, when call is made to DTV to "activate"...many times installer will do it for U when at house....U can have the receivers ALL over NA...
others will NOT get the Locals and some (miss only a couple) regional sports games/channels, from where the account owner lives, UNLESS they live in same spotbeam and close geographical area...but will get EVERTHING else
PPV's are best ordered ONLINE using the DTV website and account owners username and password..ALL receivers on the account will then SEE all the PPV's ordered..its called "mirrored"...
when ordering PPV using the remote, ONLY that 1 receiver will get the PPV...keep all phone lines unplugged except maybe 1 at owners house..
PPV cannot trace any of this UNLESS a phone line is plugged in!...so make sure all others UNPLUG phone!
I don't know about the contract, but U can always downgrade the package to their cheapest with No penalties..U can do most all transactions ONLINE!
To get FREE installation and 4-5 receivers U must be a new subscriber who has NEVER had a DTV account EVER before..
DTV subbing is the cheapest and best thing going...U ALWAYS have TV with No problems and a minimal monthly bill..and can use netflix service ($15 month) for unlimited DVD's and share them too (if others and close by)..
I have the premium/platinum best package and get ALL the vhannels, and we all split the bill..and all get to see ANY PPV's that are ordered...U can work out the PPV money issues internally however u want..easch receiver after #1 is an additional #5 per month..Tivo service to all receivers is ONLY $5-6 a month for ALL receivers, NOT each receiver!
Obviously the cost will vary based on how many people and which package U choose...I highly suggest the "get it all" premium package (but NO HD $10 for 10 channels)...and U can always add more receivers easily to your account via the phone or ONLINE...and ALL others obviously need a dish setup, most/all channels are available on the 101W sat with simple 18" single LNB round dish (many have 2 outlets for 2 receivers, NOT 2 signals)...most other dishes with 2LNB's are ONLY for locals, which they will not get anyways unless they live in same place as account owner..Tivo requires a Dual outlet dish cause it needs 2 lines so U can watch 1 channel, while recording another...but can use Tivo with a simple 1 LNB dish, but then can ONLY record what U are watching...
The following C/P is from King Tape it explains some things about DTV and HD: All providers broadcast standard defintion 4:3 as MPEG-2 for Video and AC3 for Audio both A/V industry standards even for DVD players and DVD discs that we all use. But DTV predates these standards they use a similar encoding modulation. They use QPSK instead of MPEG-2. Both encoding schemes use almost 50:1. This is an area that I know very well because I do this for a living.
Example: Let say a hockey game of about 2 hours video taped on a digital format like DVcam if they broadcast it as is it will take about 30GB of digital video broadcast DVB. Where as if you encode to MPEG-2 & AC3 it will be down to 3G byte 10:1. Also encoding frame by frame requires compression in Mega pixels per frame similar to your digital photo camera 5MP or 6MP. Now that it is encoded you need to decode it back so you need a decoder.
No Manufacturer that makes generic decoders like to bother with equipment that receives only QPSK the current encoding modulation for DTV instead of MPEG-2 and AC3 the current industry standards for SD by all providers. But this doesn't mean they are safe forever may be for SD 4:3 standard broadcast. But for MPEG-4 HD is another ball game??? All providers today use MPEG-4 for HD
Any dish can point to their SATs 110 or 119 etc. But 2 primary things you must have - Decoder that can decode QPSK - Keys for their conditional access (DSS Videoguard)
Therefore there is a lot more to see in HDTV for future FTA No electronics code that can't be broken. It will be broken.
It is, fishing, golf, yardwork, dog track, and other interests have been keeping me busy lately...and month of March is booked.. have all my Spring training tickets for the BoSox (play the Yanks on 12 Mar)...
Good luck with the DTV sub sharing...U'll love it!...no headaches...then do FTA for a hobby and free PPV's and some away games for Yanks, Giants, Jets, Rangers etc..
LK.glad to hear you are well. You are so ready for the 07 season! Now that the Yanks and BoSox have retooled , I cannot wait for the season to begin. Thanks again for sharing all your wisdom; it is truly appreciated..Take care LK! DJ