Tell me,
How many of you people on ECN, recieve a Satellite service?.
How many channels do you have?.
How much did it cost to have it installed?.
How big is your Dish?.
Just wondering?.

I have been using a 10 foot C-band dish for 17 years.

I only pay for the channels that I select, and can choose from any of the remaining non-digital channels on any of the satellites. A motor drive controlled from my remote control moves the dish from one satellite to another.

I installed it myself in 1986 for about $3000.00.

Ed

Trumpy,
I have DirecTV, 18" dish.
Reception:
East and West coast CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX Networks
3 ESPN's, History, Discover, Nickleodian, etc. About 50 channels total. All the usual free stuff(lots of evangelical channels--Benny Hinn the faith healer, in Spanish, is even better than a dubbed over Kung Fu movie!)
12 Encore and Starz channels---$extra
7 HBO channels---$extra
about 100 pay-per-view channels

Cost about $60/month
I think its highway robbery(there is no competition due to Gov/FCC geographical license system) but where I live it's the only way to get more than two or three channels...

I installed it myself.

I'm hoping "Wild Blue" is successful with its internet satellite system(delayed until 2004?). ADSL is 2 -3 years or more off here in the rural parts of northern NH.

Len

Ed,

I was always under the impression that C-Band sattelite was free since you were just chancing on getting the direct video & audio feeds that go to the TV stations and the cable companies.

All you had to do was spring for the $700+ for the dish and the receiver.

Aren't a lot of these C-Band services going away because of the "pizza dishes" (18" Direct TV dishes)?

Yes, I receive all DirecTV channels (haven't counted them, but there's a bunch). Also Direcway satellite internet service. No cable available, no DSL.
Rowdy

Had a C band until last spring when something in it died, would have cost an arm and a leg to repair.
Cable tv is available here, mom has it, but it is out of service more that it works, though she still is billed for the whole month.
Dish Network is the service we have currently, basic package $3.99 month (first 12 months), because we ordered the promo package. The service will cost $39.99 a month after promo is complete.
We do not have an movie channels or pay per view selected.
The installation was "free", if the years service was paid in advance.
Tiff

SvenNYC,

You are correct, some services have gone completely digital, and are not available on C-Band, while some still put out analog and digital signals.

I assume that eventually all services will disappear from C-Band, but at present we can still get channels such as CNN, WTBS, Discovery Channel, TNN, A&E, History Channel, Country Music TV, House and Garden TV, TNT, ESPN, Speed, etc.

There are still some free channels, such as TECH TV which is really interesting.

The fact that I am a NASCAR race fan, and cannot access FOX TV means that I will have to soon go digital.

Ed

rowdyrudy; How do you like the direcway service. I am also in a rural area with no access to cable or dsl and have been considering direcway after I upgrade my computer.

Life is way too short to watch that much TV!

dtl66: I have Direcway 2 way since 09/02. I am quite satisfied and I have some large downloads of stuff from attorneys and bar associations. You need a clear view of the southern sky. If you are a gamer, Direcway is not for you due to the latency.
Rowdy

got direct tv minimum package with public tv and east/west coast networks for 30 bucks a month.probably 50 channels and many of them i have never watched.18"dish istalled by muah.(me)there is no cable or reception of any sort where i live.went for 20 years with no tv before satellite.had to drive to the tavern to watch football in town "200 people and cable" for many years.i'm not sure if those were the good old days or not.too much "must puke "tv on nowadays.

$3400.00 Canadian for a 13 ft BUD c-band dish (AKA Big Ugly Dish compared to the new pie plate size digital dishes) and receiver installed back in 1990. At that time most channels were free. Now I pay about $380 Canadian a year to subscribe to 18 channels like TSN,CNN, A&E etc. Also there are some free channels and different wild feeds from the networks.

I kept the cable company (basic analog only) for all the local channels that are not on the c-band dish.

Direct broadcast satellite on Ku band using small 18" dishes has been quite common in the U.K. for a good few years. It no doubt became popular due to the fact that cable TV systems are nothing like as commonplace as in the U.S., and in fact have only really started to appear in the largest of cities in the last few years.

Trumpy,
In case you didn't realize this, when looking at how much anyone in the States pays for cable/satelite subscriptions, remember that they have no TV license as exists in many European countries (and NZ???).

Not sure if you guys must know about the black (grey?) market up here in Canada and DirecTv? Drive down any street around the cities where I live and seemingly everybody has a DirecTv dish. There are a plethora of websites and people here that will 'program' the HU card and you get EVERY single station that DirecTV offers. Even all the pay per view movies and adult channels, special sports events are FREE and unscrambled. No wonder its so popular. Costs about $20 for a recharge of the card, and the card lasts about 3-4 weeks before getting 'hit' by the DirecTv people.

Hence the birth of the P4 card coming from D-Tv in the very near future. This one is supposed to be 'hack-proof' to keep all those nasty Canadians stealing signals from the US direct tv service.

If you want more info....vist www.huworks.tv

Oh, by the way...what do I have?.....yes, I have satellite, but the lousy canadian one... www.starchoice.com These guys are cheaper and offer a digital signal for better picture quality. I won't touch cable again.

The restrictions on subscriptions has resulted in all sorts of ingenious "work-arounds."

Many Brits moving to the sunnier parts of Europe decide to take their satellite TV equipment with them, but find that the companies won't send decoder cards outside the U.K. for "contractual reasons." People have to use friends and relatives addresses.

Even within the U.K. (which, after all, isn't that big to start with), Sky Co. will only allow viewers access to the appropriate regional variants of BBC/ITV, based upon the postal code to which the card is sent. Thanks to the crazy way our equivalent of the ZIP code works, that has resulted in some people being rather unhappy at the "region" to which they've been arbitrarily assigned.

So much for the wonderful ideal of 40 years ago that satellite TV would open the world and provide free access for all.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 03-03-2003).]

I have both a big dish and DishNetwork.

Little Dish is easy but compression makes pictures less than ideal. Big Dish rules and if I had enough money I'd have a 4DTV(allows digital and analog reception) reciever. The trouble is, how long before big dishes are dead and gone. One thing is funny though, little dish companies use big dishes to get their signals and then broadcast it thru their satelites. So do cable companies .
Big Dishes back in the 80s and early 90s ruled. All sports could be had, just about every game in any major league for next to nothing. I was truly a big Dish junkie . Had to get over it as small dish programming is very expensive

Just an interesting note on subscription counts.

According to the web site skyreport.com there were 786,149 C Band subscribers in Jan 2002 and its dropped to 558,962 in Jan of 2003.

In comparsion there were aprox. 18,000,000 subscribers of the two US based services in Jan 2003.

There is a pay element to a great deal of the cable stuff. Yes, there is quite a bit free though, and quite a bit not available to the home dish owner.

In the early days that was the case, but over time channels started scrambling, and sometimes made themselves for sale to those that have purchases descrambler boxes.

Few are. They are just going digital and
choosing not to support the TVRO crowd anymore.

What I have:
Analogue C-band system, I have about $300-$500 invested in it (mostly scrounged and second. I self intall and maintain it, so all
it costs me there is time. Currently unsubscribed, used for the free channels.

Starchoice, $200 of the primary system new,
and around $75/each for a couple of 2nd hand systems. All self installed and maintainded.
Bill is about $40/ month CDN.

I also have a Dishnet system (unsubscribed though), I use for the EPG function and a couple of free channels DN offers.
had pieces).

Gotta put my 2 cents in.
Here in NJ, we have a"War" going on between the cable co's and the "dishes".

I hear if ya shop around, you can get a dish, and a box, installed for $0! The cable co's have an ad running now, that they will but your dish, if you come back or subscribe to cable.

The cable rate here (basic plus) no premium channels, no sports, is around $55 month.
The dishes are comparable in rates. That is the "small dish".

I'm waiting for some more HDTV channels and programing, then it's a new big TV, and whatever I need to watch it
John

Not to throw a monkey wrench in, but are the installers of the dishes concerned about the grounding of the dish mount, or the coax block they use? We're doing a job installing a dish and we're grounding both the coax block and antenna mount, to a ground rod down under. I hope this satisfies the code.

SJT:
You will have to bond the grounds together. (The rod you drove, to the existing rod/water pipe/etc.

John

Paul,
New Zealand canned the Public Broadcasting Fee, a few years ago, it was just being wasted on lots of expensive low-quality TV programmes from all over the world(mainly the States), but most of it was advertised as quality viewing!
Also, this fee used to be used to pay for our
NZ Symphony Orchestra, why the h**l New Zealand needs a bunch of old musicians, to suck NZ$2.5million out of our TV and Radio budget, is beyond me!.
But we soon got Pay TV, over here, using a Terrestrial signal, this has now been upgraded to a Ka Band Digital signal, with more channels than you can shake a stick at.
More Channels, less to watch!.

A lot of people here feel that the license should be abolished (I'm one of them, by the way). It's becoming harder and harder for the BBC to cling to their "we need it to provide a good public service" stance.

As for what's on, I'm afraid that the main networks here have deteriorated rapidly. Still, I suppose that's what you get when they hire executives who think that Jerry Springer is "quality" programming.

Is the "Nick at Nite" channel still going strong in the States? I had the cable box set on that most of the evening when I was there -- Love those old shows.

pauluk
As an American I apologize for assaulting your country with "Springer" not one of our finer exports.

Where do they find these freaks?


[This message has been edited by iwire (edited 03-09-2003).]

iwire, it seems that there's a new reality show about "Hillbillies in Beverly Hills". Another opportunity for fun to be poked at us country folk.

I bet my dish is higher than your dish.



Ed

Ed, is that a C-Band Dish?.
As Paul was saying, a lot of Ka-Ku band dishes are popular in the UK and a few other places, NZ included.
What is the wind loading on a dish like that?, hope your Chimney is built well!
PAUL, Jerry Springer is on Sky over here,
(Pay TV), there have been complaints, but if you don't like it, don't subscribe to that channel, simple as that.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 03-10-2003).]

Trumpy,
Yes, it's a c-band dish.

That isn't a chimney, it,s the base of a tower on my workshop/greenhouse for a future windmill. I'm going to try to produce some wind-generated electric heat to offset the rising cost of heating oil.

Ed

"Nick At Nite" Isn't really a channel on it's
own, but what is broadcast in the late evening/early morning on the Nickleodeon childrens channel. However, Nick's sister channel; TVLand, plays the same sort of programming as on Nick At Nite, all classic
TV.

iwire,
Don't worry, we won't hold Jerry Springer against you! Some of the talk shows produced here aren't exactly intellectual TV at its best either!

Give me Bilko, Andy Griffith, Dragnet and shows of that era over the trash that's turned out now any day.

Classic,
Yeah, I think they change over from cartoons to Nick at Nite at 7pm don't they? ("Six, central" as they would say....)