I just "stumbled" on this subject over at the Satellite Guys and it all seems pretty "secretive" as to what channels etc. one can capture using these setups. They say "do not" even mention SAT Provider subjects or you can be BANED from their site. Naturally, this has made me MORE CURIOUS than ever about what these people to pick up using this equipment??? They are having a contest giving away a FTA Receiver, 36" Dish, rotating motor etc.....
Trying to find out MORE about this technology and what it offers to the owner I have now found that you can buy FTA HD Receivers too....such as the COOLSat 8000 HD.....BUT I cannot find anyplace to find out what these systems actually offer you.....even IF you can capture HD Channels this way and which ones????
IF you know the answers to these questions and more please advise and direct me to proper Link[s]!

TKS Michael

PS.....are these LEGAL?:confused:

Sure there Legal. And it's a great Hobby as well !!

Just some info:

http://www.ftavideos.com/

http://www.sadoun.com/

Ah, the good old days of CBand wild feeds. We could watch any show we wanted and we LIKED it-without commercials. FTA is fixed key (unscrambled) feeds from different sats. It's a hobby that requires involvement as they can move at any time. Available feeds are listed at such sites as lyngsat.com. The site that sells you the receiver and etc can help and should. It's not cheap. Receiver, dish, dish mover, etc. Like mentioned, a hobby-which costs $.

FTR, very little of what you're going to get is going to exceed what you will find by way of an OTA antenna. There is very little HD on FTA.

One major use is if you're missing an affiliate in your region for a network like the CW, you'll find one FTA, but probably not from your locale. Otherwise, most FTA is just Spanish (or other) language programming. There are a few cable networks still on FTA in C-band but not much. Lots of salvation. If you're in the right region you may be able to sneak some cable stuff off of the European FTA sats, but don't bet on much.

Anyone who tells you that FTA includes most of what you get on cable is lying. If you do get those channels, you will be getting them illegally.

Yes, you'd be disappointed if you expected cable offerings over FTA-those days are over. An explorer into FTA as mentioned, should research available feeds. Decide if what's available is desired and remember, assignment can be changed at any time. THIS is usually posted at any sellers site. AND remember, just cause the window is open, viewing the act is illegal. Which means just cause HBO(or whoever) is not scrambled, you're NOT suppose to look.

Viewing something open is illegal??? Anyway, from my understanding most of the FTA is junk as it is mostly propaganda, shopping, foreign language, and religious content. There are sometimes open feeds of network stuff, which might be worthwhile to some folks. As far as I know, these channels are free & perfectly legal.

Look at the channels in green that are beamed to North America
http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/United-States.html

What the big draw with certain receivers is that they are hackable in that the cards can be reprogrammed easily/constantly to receive feeds that are scrambled. Of course, this is highly illegal which is why discussing it in public could get the website in trouble with the authorities. The last part is why I never bothered getting into the FTA scene.

What the big draw with certain receivers is that they are hackable in that the cards can be reprogrammed easily/constantly to receive feeds that are scrambled. Of course, this is highly illegal which is why discussing it in public could get the website in trouble with the authorities. The last part is why I never bothered getting into the FTA scene.

Beware of the Black Helicopters overhead !! :D

fta has been around for years and years. you can get it legally with c-band signals, where one would need a BUD (big ugly dish) to get those feeds. you can also use the smaller ku sats, like those that dish network uses. but there isn't much worth-while to veiw for the hassle. if you want to talk about things that are illegal, then you can pick up dish network. there are even high def receivers capable of getting those feeds. the coolsat you mentioned will pick up a few sd signals and even some mpeg2 hd signals. but it won't go mpeg4, which satellite is making the switch to. there is another brand that will. i won't mention it here. but even it needs to be altered with an add-in, semi-proprietary board that will get you the turbo 8psk feeds. but i don't think many of those are available unless you go illegal. the set-up i mention is not illegal in it's own sense. but if you modify the firmware, BAAM. you are guilty of piracy. you should steer clear of all that unless you are willing to take the chance of getting in some trouble. it's not worth it.

Should point out that the discussion of FTA being limited is particular to the US.

In Europe there are MANY FTA broadcasts - all of the BBC and ITV services in the UK are available FTA on satellite - and many other national broadcasters in Europe provide their main terrestrial services FTA on satellite. DVB-S is the standard for SD, with DVB-S2 being introduced for some HD. MPEG2 is the standard for SD, with H264 the standard for new HD services. DVB-S and DVB-S2 PCI/USB cards are also available to receive these - with experimental Windows Media Center support.

It is also possible to subscribe legally to some pay-TV services with FTA receivers, as is the case in Europe, as many have one or two Common Interface slots, that allow a Conditional Access Module to be added, which in turn accepts a subscription smartcard. CI modules are also available for PCI/USB DVB solutions. However increasingy, satellite platform operators are moving towards providing proprietary receivers (Sky in the UK have only ever done this for their digital broadcasts) as it allows tighter control of the encryption system, a unified EPG, and a single interactive system to be deployed.

THANKS ALL! For the input and informative/knowledgeable feedback concerning "FTA"...... after learning just this much I believe I can make an informed decision to NOT go down this road.
I wish to remain legal-beagle and do not want those Black Choppers hovering over me pad....I will stick with Cable or whatever.

TKS Michael

I enjoy the additional channels I get on FTA. I block the TeleVangelist channels and the infomercial channels, but I still enjoy Fashion TV, Al-Jazzera, MHZ WorldView, Russia Today, Saudi TV2, EBRU, and numerous radio channels like WRN, all in English.

The foreign channels run many music shows, often featuring modern music styles, that require no translation.

There are several other radio channels, like Radio Netherlands and RVI (very, very good), which play lots of good music, and Polskie Radio, which has nighttime programming on a par with many XM/Sirius channels.

That's all just on Galaxy-25. You can swing over to adjacent sats for some interesting looks at Asian news and features (mostly Chinese dialects, but some in English), and all the way over to galaxy-10R for many of the smaller-market network feeds of CW, Fox, etc. Those will sometimes have "Arena Football" (recognized my hometown venue, the Macon Coliseum once, when Arkansas played there).

When there's nothing on the FTA or OTA, I just watch a DVD, VHS, or listen to the radio or CD.

FTR, very little of what you're going to get is going to exceed what you will find by way of an OTA antenna. There is very little HD on FTA.Actually there is a lot of HD up there, lots of sporting events in HD most of them commercial free. :)

You will find folks secretive about "whats up there" because if some people found out their programming was going out in the clear many things would scramble asap.

I can't tell you the number of PPV events I have watched for free over the years with my Free To Air setup.

For some FTA has a bad name as some receivers can be modified to pick up Dish Network. We at SatelliteGuys consider it hacking... because well its HACKING, and thus don't alow discussion of the topic.