FTA need help getting started

hescalante · #1 10-18-2008

Hi everyone I would appreciate if someone could help me
Im new in the FTA world, currently I have a 50 inch panasonic plasma so I would like to get an HD system, after some reading I think 3 of the best HD receivers are CaptiveWorks, SonicView and Nfusion (correct me if im wrong) but I dont know which one is the No. 1 (support, quality, speed, etc) also need help in the antenna because I have no idea on what antenna/LNB's do I need to get 110, 119, 129 from DN and 82, 91 from Bev, tnx for your time in advance and congratulations for the site, I have found it to be very useful

**TD52** · #2 10-18-2008

well the cw4000 is my next FTA because it is a computer with a media center added .... so I find it the best one to get but remember the file are written in Linux and they have but 1 coder for that system...so the fixes come out slower...buy It is update-able off the net so you do have to wait long for a fix
and if you think you can set one up get a Wingarde 33" with a H/H motor and get everything but Dave but who cares It has the sane as DN and you also get all the free INT channels and also the HD programming

hescalante · #3 10-19-2008

tnx TD52 for your reply, I have some other questions, I have researched for the CaptiveWorks unit and actually I would consider on buying the 3000 because the 4000 is too expensive for me right now, is the 3000 a good unit? its almost the same as the 4000? another thing that I dont understand is the 8PSK board, what does it do? do I need to have one of these to get HD channels? I know is a decoder basically but that's it, also dont know if the 3000HD already has one installed, and for the support, you said that CaptiveWorks usually takes more time to get the fixes but how much is that? because I dont want to be without tv for 3-4 days each time it goes down :S, and for the antenna I found that one you told me to get the 33inches winegard but I have no idea on the LNB (I think this antenna only needs one LNB because of the rotor right?) that I need to get all the satellites (82, 91, 110, 119, 129)
tnx in advance for your time

**TD52** · #4 10-19-2008

first a 3000 does not use a 8psk board it uses a skywalker external unit
the difference from the 3000 and the 4000 is the 4000 has the HD built in is faster with a bigger cpu more memory and has 4meg also and can run the n3 when they change over
and you can get a dish 1000.2 and use that setup and add another dish with it to get the others ..... that dish and lnbs are made to do that

verndawg · #5 10-19-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by hescalante

Hi everyone I would appreciate if someone could help me
Im new in the FTA world, currently I have a 50 inch panasonic plasma so I would like to get an HD system, after some reading I think 3 of the best HD receivers are CaptiveWorks, SonicView and Nfusion (correct me if im wrong) but I dont know which one is the No. 1 (support, quality, speed, etc) also need help in the antenna because I have no idea on what antenna/LNB's do I need to get 110, 119, 129 from DN and 82, 91 from Bev, tnx for your time in advance and congratulations for the site, I have found it to be very useful

You cannot go wrong with a viewsat and the dish you require depends on where you are.

**..razz..** · #6 10-19-2008

Hello hescalante,
And welcome. You have a lot of reading to do before you make this huge investment into HD. My suggestion to you is to buy a inexpensive model of what you like. And then learn about that model and get used to it. This is a great hobby to get into but can be very expensive also. I don't suggest you get into this hobby at the top. It's better to learn what you like and don't like about several models and make your purchase on that knowledge.

**TD52** · #7 10-19-2008

this hobby is real expensive ..in the last 25 years I think I could have bought at least 2 more house with cash and had new cars every year
but I was stupid and spent almost all the money and only own 2 house and 2 vehicles
I had 6 houses at one time and I spent more on my truck than what I paid for it
so do as "rass" says buy what you can afford and know you can loss the money spent if things change ....sort of like gambling you do play unless you can afford to lose it

hescalante · #8 10-21-2008

tnx to all I really appreciate your attention
again I was reading some more to buy smarter, in my case HD is a must have, so going with the cheapest receiver would be the viewsat max HD that its $320 with s/h and buying later the 8psk module, the antenna would be first a Dish Pro Plus 1000.2 and latter on adding the other antenna for 82 and 91, the question is... would I be able to view HD without the 8psk or not? or just some channels? also dont know if the lnbf will be connected directly to the diseqc or do I need a DPP44 switch even when I will connect only one tv set?
tnx again I know you have put a lot of time researching and appreciate you share your knowledge with me tnx =)

**DJBio** · #9 10-21-2008

But 1 other thing is do u want True Free-To-Air or just dish and bev?
If i was just getting in to the hole FTA thing i would buy nothing smaller then a 39" FTA with a motor and a invacom LNB

hescalante · #10 10-22-2008

for now just dish and bev, another thing that worries me is the N3 or nagra3, some says that not all receivers would be N3 ready, I know that N3 is just a way of encryption so I dont get this statement, also digging on the max HD receiver I saw that this is a new model and doesn't have good support by now, is this right?, also in the download section for ViewSat the only file that I found for max HD is a .peg file, no .bin file, I dont know if "bin" is just a standard way of calling it no matter what the extension is, if someone could help me with these...
tnx again