Request for Full Kit 1st Time Buyer Recomendations

[wjflywheel]

I searched the forums and I'm sorry if the answer has already been posted I couldn't seem to locate it.

I'm sure there are as many setups as there are posters out here but I was hoping to capitalizing on the collective knowledge of the community. I used to scarf DTV by doing some HU card programming some years back but as of late have been paying homage to the evil cable gods for various reasons. It is now high time to return to the free to air community.

I was wondering if I could get some friendly advice on what setup to buy (and where to buy it), I need everything and ideally would like to keep the budget south of $350 bucks. DVR functionality is a must have and I'd like a dish that could see a couple of birds (the more the merrier, but I know NOTHING about how that works exactly). From what I read "Blind searching" seems to be a very desirable feature, unclear on that as well . I don't have an HDTV yet but I assume in a year or two when i get a swanky HDTV I'll get a swanky new sat box too, so that's not a selection issue for now. The Coolsat 7100 seems to meet my most of my needs and budget nicely based on what little I know and understand, but I just don't know enough to really go for it. I also don't know what else to buy other than loads of coax Now where did I leave that rj crimper....

Help please.

-WJF

p.s. would it be interesting to get 2 kinds or boxes on DVR and one special purpose for certain things? I'd be open to that as well.

[ricknsusan]

for the price i would go with the captive works. also the support is one of the best.

[SoDarkTheCon]

Save yourself the money and headaches, and just stick with the subbed account from your local cable or satellite provider. If you know nothing about FTA and can't handle downtime or headaches, then going legal is your best bet.

[painterguy14]

Captive works 800 pvr is a great stb. Very easy to set up, affordable( around $130), great support, usb port, & lots of great features. You can pick 1 up from 1 of the site sponsors. What kind of dtv dish do you have, you might be able to use it.

[Itaintrite]

Yeah, for the best price and value, go for a CW800 PVR or CW700 if you don't need PVR (it's around $20 cheaper than cw800). CW releasing new model CW650 in a few weeks and it'll be really cheap. So you might want to hold off if you're planning to buy several receivers

If you're looking for an IKS receiver and willing to pay up to $200, I recommend getting either a Kbox (k1heros or k2xtreme) or a Neosat ipro 2k plus. The KBox seems to be the best box right now with awesome IKS and great cardless support. I'll have to wait till hybrid IKS to really judge on the neosat.

[arboristman]

Originally Posted by wjflywheel

I need everything

budget south of $350 bucks.

DVR functionality is a must have

and I'd like a dish that could see a couple of birds (the more the merrier.

HDTV ..... that's not a selection issue for now.


Help please.

-WJF

p.s. would it be interesting to get 2 kinds or boxes on DVR and one special purpose for certain things? I'd be open to that as well.

some suggestions for your budget.

cw800 pvr OR sv 360 premier OR coolie 7100 OR cnx duo(trio for divx) OR vs Pro

2 dish 500's for 119/110/91/82 combo

that will set you up nicely for a good start.
and yes,always best to have a couple different brands/or more importantly,support teams.
grab a regular stb while your at it like a vs ultra/sv4k/captain 7100/cnx mini
for a few good examples,just be sure its of different brand.
if you read up on iks first,you may want the captain 7100usb with a dongle.(research first)

that will give you some research to do.any questions on any of the stbs just ask.
and good luck!

[wjflywheel]

Originally Posted by arboristman

2 dish 500's for 119/110/91/82 combo

always best to have a couple different brands

more importantly,support teams.

grab a regular stb while your at it like a vs ultra/sv4k/captain 7100/cnx mini

and good luck!

WOW, thanks for the outpouring of support and information.

All the advice has been welcome and there certainly is a lot to review. I followed most of it despite some of the shorthand used as it escaped me but I'll muddle through with my the decoder ring

I'll have to go dig the old direct TV dish out of the basement and post the details, perhaps i can save a few bucks by reusing it as one of my dishes.

It's looking increasingly like my path is clear. 1) Pick up two boxes, I'm currently leaning towards a Coolsat 7100 and a Captiveworks CW-800 both with usb, 2) Both will be on my local network for ease of updating etc. 3) Two dishes one purchased (any recommendations? Multi sat?) and hopefully depending on what people say after I post the details of my old Direct TV kit; that will be one.

Thanks to all who have posted thus far and thanks in advance to a robust community that will help myself and others in the future.

-wjf

[SoDarkTheCon]

I know i did not get a thank you, but at the end of the day...my advice to you will be the most accurate mon ami.

[welder5797]

viewsat online.com advertized here at top of page they have cpmplete packages including dish and stb good deals

[wjflywheel]

Originally Posted by SoDarkTheCon

I know i did not get a thank you, but at the end of the day...my advice to you will be the most accurate mon ami.

In all candor I thought your advice was overly cynical. As my original post stated I'm accustom to technical challenges and although not overtly stated, I alluded service outages from my days of dealing with ECM's and HU card programming while spoofing Direct TV subscriber cards.

To build on my original post my intent was to abandon my formal broadcast TV relationship with the hardline cable companies and reengage in my original F2A enterprise. Additionally from a purely technological perspective this seems ideal and clearly the tech has progressed quite far since I last interactied with it and DTV I'm a programmer by trade, commercially Unix guy, window$ @ home if you care. And this seems like a grand opportunity to learn and ditch the cable mongrels to boot.

-WJF

p.s. You did get thanks for engagement

[SoDarkTheCon]

You can be tech guy all you want, but with upcoming changes to the way FTA is, you will be dealing with downtime and possibly depending on what you buy...lost profits. I was not being cynical, just not the right time to get into the game. Only giving you the best advice possible to save you money at the end of the day. But if you want to get into the business...all the power to you...lol, just remember when you are watching a blank screen for maybe days to weeks, I told you so...

God i miss those HU cards, Actually i miss my H card with bootloader i still have.

p.s. check your pm's please.

[wjflywheel]

Originally Posted by SoDarkTheCon

with upcoming changes to the way FTA
you will be dealing with downtime and possibly
depending on what you buy...lost profits. I was not being cynical, just not the right time to get into the game. Only giving you the best advice possible to save you money at the end of the day. But if you want to get into the business...all the power to you...lol, just remember when you are watching a blank screen for maybe days to weeks, I told you so...

God i miss those HU cards, Actually i miss my H card with bootloader i still have.

Now this is interesting, do others agree with this statement? Is your position that there will be substantial shift in the sophistication of the encoding system to make the boxes stop working? Perhaps you have some insight. I had intended to buy a system, is there a box that you feel is "safer" that others in that respect? Also what do you base your statements on with respect to the demise of FTA, is there a sea change afoot? Facts or hearsay?

-WJF

[SoDarkTheCon]

Now YOU are getting somewhere...which is you should take a few moments and learn the history of fta along with the current changes that it faces in the months to come...not hearsay...100% facts. Anything with IKS is your best bet, but you will be paying more. Just look around the site a bit and check out what the others are saying bro, i am in no way trying to be insulting, just trying to make sure you understand the risks with FTA thats all. FTA will not ever die, True FTA can be found on G10 123W, its not a big provider but the upside is it never goes down and you do not have to program anything, so in reality its 100% legal, as are a few others. Nagra 3 is on its way, its a fact and things are already changing...look at the BEV card swap and the recent downtime we face now.

Read around, you will find i do not lie about this stuff. Just giving you the info you should have before choosing to go this way. Myself i have a Subbed Bev satellite account and i have zero problems with it, i also have a few other DN based receivers.

[Sweets10]

Originally Posted by SoDarkTheCon

Now YOU are getting somewhere...which is you should take a few moments and learn the history of fta along with the current changes that it faces in the months to come...not hearsay...100% facts. Anything with IKS is your best bet, but you will be paying more. Just look around the site a bit and check out what the others are saying bro, i am in no way trying to be insulting, just trying to make sure you understand the risks with FTA thats all. FTA will not ever die, True FTA can be found on G10 123W, its not a big provider but the upside is it never goes down and you do not have to program anything, so in reality its 100% legal, as are a few others. Nagra 3 is on its way, its a fact and things are already changing...look at the BEV card swap and the recent downtime we face now.

Read around, you will find i do not lie about this stuff. Just giving you the info you should have before choosing to go this way. Myself i have a Subbed Bev satellite account and i have zero problems with it, i also have a few other DN based receivers.

Have VS Ultra using Bev -- Can you give us more info on the G10 123w where is it etc, I was looking at an Nfusion Do you know if their is a subscription fee for IKS? thanks

[tomcat01]

sweet the 123 w ku band first you are going to need to cahnge to a universal lnb one that runs a freq of 10750 then you are going to need a 33 inch dish or large depending where you are then once you get that you can point at 121 sat down and to the right just to give you a example .. or buy a 20 dollar sat finder .. then you will get alot of channels not super great but i like it ..

here this is what you can get for shows

True free to air(FTA)channels that never go down by providers at 123w KU


Monday 10 December 2007 @ 1:59 am
FTA=free to air.
Free to air channels are very fun to have,though not many of them are premiums and such,there still very interesting and enjoyable to have.These FTA channels remain up at all times and are not attacked by ecm’s as These channels are not encrypted.
A great starting point is 123w-G10r.
This bird requires a minimum of a 30″ dish.(depending on your location,it may be larger).
This can be determined here:
Galaxy 10R at 123.0°W - LyngSat Maps
Use the map to get your DBW strength,and the corresponding chart to the right to determine the dish size required.
You will also need a linear lnb.
So what kind of channels are located on this satellite?
Have a look here:
Galaxy 10R at 123.0°W - LyngSat
Note the band info to the right.Scroll down to KU band.(the C band requires a large 6 foot to 12 foot dish,C band is another topic).
As you can see there are some Foreign channels but most are English.We will focus on the English.
You can view an ABC,a FOX,and many RTN (retro tv network) some radio channels and more for some examples.
For some examples of programs and events that can be seen on 123w KU band:
live with Regis and Kelly
Wheel of Fortune
Jeopardy
ABC Primetime Nightline and Good Morning America News
Major league Baseball
Bonanza
The Fugitive
Ironside
Manniz
Streets Of San Francisco
21 Jump Street
Wild Wild West
Hawaii Five-o
The Untouchables
Mission Impossible
Mork & Mindy
Magnum P.I
Perry Mason
Marcus Wlby, MD
Cowboy Up
World News Now
America This Morning
Good Morning America
The View
7 News at noon
Eye for an Eye
The Nanny
Mad About You
Family Ties
Beverly Hillbillies
Get Smart
Hogans Heroes
All My Children
Gomer Pyle, USMC
Little House on the Prairie
One Life to Live
General Hospital
Happy Days
Lucy Show
Andy Griffith Show
Cheers
Reno 911!
Hunter
The A-Team
Cheaters
Cops
Get Smart
Girlfriends
Gunsmoke
Jerry Springer
Seinfeld
South Park
Stone Undercover
Renegade
UFC Wired
Off Beat Cinema (featuring movies)
24
American Dad
American Idol
Bones
Desire
Family Guy
House
King of The Hill
The OC
Prison Brake
The Simpsons
So You Think You Can Dance?
Trading Spouses
The War At Home
Unreliable Sources
Out There TV
And more.If this satellite is for you,then get yourself a dish and linear lnb and enjoy some tv that never goes down.
This is what FTA receivers are made for,and why they are 100% legal to own.any bin file will work at any time ,even factory bins of course as this is their legal purpose.
Enjoy tv that never goes down.FTA.Information the big providers don’t want you to know.

[ricknsusan]

Originally Posted by SoDarkTheCon

You can be tech guy all you want, but with upcoming changes to the way FTA is, you will be dealing with downtime and possibly depending on what you buy...lost profits. I was not being cynical, just not the right time to get into the game. Only giving you the best advice possible to save you money at the end of the day. But if you want to get into the business...all the power to you...lol, just remember when you are watching a blank screen for maybe days to weeks, I told you so...

God i miss those HU cards, Actually i miss my H card with bootloader i still have.

p.s. check your pm's please.

yeah i still have a few h cards and the bootloader. those were the good old days. LOL

[captain]

Originally Posted by wjflywheel

Now this is interesting, do others agree with this statement? Is your position that there will be substantial shift in the sophistication of the encoding system to make the boxes stop working? Perhaps you have some insight. I had intended to buy a system, is there a box that you feel is "safer" that others in that respect? Also what do you base your statements on with respect to the demise of FTA, is there a sea change afoot? Facts or hearsay?

-WJF

Hi Mr. Wheel: 1st off I agree 110 percent with SoDark, you need to treat fta as a hoppy, an ALWAYS have a sub, wheather it is cable, dtv, or even local tv antenna. now i will give you the flip side of thing's.

Now my 1st fta receiver was a pansat 300a an that was back maney moons ago, an got my 1st satellite (10-foot c-band) back in 1980. an i am 1 of few here that use fta receivers for what they where intended for "True FTA". now on 1 ( I got 3-big dishes up an running) of my systems 10-foot dish, with C & Ku lnb-fs an a Satopia receiver (with factory firm-ware) I have almost 2400 channels, now some channels don't care about, but their is over 3/4 of them i do care for, movie channels, network feeds, an a hole buch of sporting events, an they all are in the free an clear. the other night watched the Nascar race in HD on C-band with no commercals, an even a few weeks ago they had a UFC ppv fight, we also watched that on C-band in the free an clear on HD. their are shows like Monk, Walker Texas Ranger, 3-Stoges, an maney more that are on fta, an if you know where to look at what satellite you can always find something to watch. an in the last few months I have been finding more HD programing that is in the clear than i have ever found before. but a system like this one is not for every one, most people would get lost, or don't know what satellites to look at, or even how to set 1 up.

Now this hacking of receivers has been going on for a wile, an the providers are seeing this an are trying things to put a stop to it, an it is only a matter of time. now N-3 is already in play an running on the satellites, but these company's have not got all their receivers up graded as of yet, but i bet with in a year it will happen. now this was a major problem in Europe (haching of receivers) an when they changed over to N-3 about 3 years ago, it still has not been broken to this day. now look back at dtv an the cards an how long it has been. now I don't want to discourge you at all about fta, but you need to remember what fta stands for "Free To Air", not how to hack a receiver an see what i can steal. an if you decide to get into it treat it like a hoppy, not as a prime tv viewing source.

So Good luck Mr. Wheel an hope this bit of info helps you out about getting a fta system up an running, an SoDark has a REAL good point, the down time is going to be more an more for the hackers. an I don't condone theft at all, wile their is ALOT of good shows to watch on "Free To Air" satellite.

[SoDarkTheCon]

Originally Posted by Sweets10

Have VS Ultra using Bev -- Can you give us more
info on the G10 123w where is it etc, I was looking at an Nfusion Do you know if their is a subscription fee for IKS? thanks

I would wait and see what other cheaper boxes are going to offer IKS, and then go from there. But the nfusion is a great box along with the Ipro, but i am here to try and save people money with my helpful comments. There is no fee for IKS, just the box and your internet connection and setup hardware.