Difference between revisions of "Free to Air Satellite Legitimate Reception Guide"

Revision as of 12:58, 29 March 2008

To get the most out of a legitimate, unmodified FTA receiver you will need at minimum a 31-inch satellite dish and a dish motor. There are several satellites in space that carry in the clear broadcasts. The motor will allow your dish to be redirected to whatever satellite you intend on viewing programming from. You will also need an appropriate LNB, which is mounted to the dish and allows for the actual reception of FTA channels.

A popular LNB is the Invacom Quad LNB as it will allow you to run up to 4 receivers off of 1 dish and can receive signals from both the linear and circular KU band frequencies. This is an ideal configuration for viewers in North America.

Using an 18 inch or 22 inch dish that was designed for premium paid satellite service is not recommended. For example, DirecTV and Dish Network dishes are, for the most part, too small to properly receive most FTA channels. Most FTA channels, although Ku band, are lower in frequency than the premium provider's channels. Furthermore, the minidishes used by Dish Network and DirecTV are fixed dishes, they have no motor. Since the FTA channels are spread across many satellites, you will need a motor, which allows the receiver to automatically move the dish so that you may receive all the FTA channels available.

English Language FTA Channel and Satellite List

LyngSat Charts for FTA Channels

• United States Free to Air Order by Channel Name
• Canada Free to Air Order by Channel Name
• Mexico Free to Air Order by Channel Name

The FTA Story

Free to Air or FTA uses MPEG-2 compression and was first available in the Asia Pacific area. At first it took a large antenna, 8ft or larger, to receive only a few channels that were not scrambled. The satellite technology used today, including MPEG2 compression and world wide digital satellite was basically tested in the Asia Pacific region. FTA satellite gained popularity and spread to China, and Europe. North America was late in getting FTA satellite television.

The company Hyundai made the first FTA receiver sold in the United States with the HSS-100 receiver line for around $700 cost and a typical installation cost the consumer $1200 or more with dish and receiver. That receiver was PAL format only, and North America uses NTSC. The receiver was also very limited in memory.

Free MPEG2 channels spread to North America despite commercial resistance. The big dish providers were using Digicipher 2 video standard made by the former General Instrument (now Motorola Broadband) group. Since North America is primarily a commercial market, it is standard practice to scramble satellite channels.

What MPEG2 allows for is the packing of more channels on one satellite in space. This reduces the cost to networks and thus low costs make it easier to provide FTA channels, since companies can afford to provide the channels cheaper. Digital Video broadcast channels are more abundant in Europe and Asia than in North America today. However, NPR is taking advantage of FTA technology to provide satellite channels in the clear for North American viewers.

Since corporate greed has stifled the proliferation of FTA in North America, some factors have allowed for FTA growth anyway. Today the C-band satellite channels in North America are viewed using 4DTV receivers, which use a version of Digicipher 2, take advantage of MPEG2 digital technology, but use a proprietary, incompatible version and therefore are not FTA compatible. They are different because the signals are layered together differently.

Scientific Atlanta makes a system called PowerVu which is closer to the open MPEG-2 standard, and dominates the digital broadcast market in the rest of the world besides North America. Remember, the less compatible Digicipher 2 modified MPEG2 standard is dominate in North America, again, the result of corporate greed.

Two companies are working together to promote the PowerVu alternative to Digicipher in North America. Those companies are PanAmSat and Scientific Atlanta. Since the PowerVu is closer to true MPEG2, the PowerVu system can be viewed in the clear on most consumer MPEG-2 digital receivers. There are several non-digicipher 2 digital broadcast providers in North America now that include Dish Network, Bell ExpressVu, and Sky Mexico. Those networks offer a very small handful of non-scrambled digital channels that may be received using a FTA receiver.

New networks or digital broadcast channel providers may, at first, offer their channel or channels as FTA, or in the clear. What they often do is to gain some degree of popularity then eventually scramble their broadcasts and require a paid subscription to view them. This is, unfortunately, the FTA pattern that is prevalent in North America.

Other FTA channels available in the clear to North American viewers are satellite broadcasts that originate in Europe or other parts of the world, and are re-transmitted to a satellite that can provide a beam to North American viewers. This is an expensive proposition and therefore the existence of these true FTA channels that are designed to remain FTA really depends on donations.

Signals beamed for retransmission on paid subscription minidish providers is often in the clear before retransmission. To receive these broadcasts a large 8ft dish or larger is often required.

Ultimately, the FTA channels in North America will fall into one of three primary groups.

1. . Temporarily FTA until the channel gains popularity and becomes subscription based
2. . International and foreign language channels, or public broad channels funded on donations
3. . Transmissions from other regions beamed to the U.S. for retransmission by commercial providers

There's a lot more FTA available if you live in Europe or Asia than if you live in North America.