Recommendations...

[jhay_19]

C/P

So without a guarantee that you will be watching DN/B3V a year from now why should you buy an FTA? Because even an inexpensive box with current support is well worth it. For around $100 you can get a CaptiveWorks. If it were only to run for a month it will pay for itself, and DN will be running for many more months on the current Nagra2 based BINs.

1. If you don’t have a dish setup for DN do it now or plan to move your dish to receive DN programming. B3V will go down first and chances are that a solution for FTA will not be available for awhile when it goes down.

2. Buy a box from a major supported manufacturer such as Viewsat, CaptiveWorks, Sonicview or Pansat. These guys have been in the game a long time and have excellent support. They are most likely to be here a year from now and have the money and technical ability to bring you a Nagra3 solution.

3. Buy a good box. Don’t get a 2800 or a Viewsat lite. Get the newer boxes with plenty of processing power and memory. It will be required.

4. Make sure the box you buy has a cardslot. It is likely that an AUX solution will come out long before a full Nagra3 BIN.

5. Consider getting a linear dish for use with true FTA. There is much free and legal programming available on several different satellites should DN/B3V go down for awhile.

6. Get a quality outdoor OTA (over the air) antenna. This can easily be diplexed into your existing cables so that you have your locals available in the case of a blackout. It is a good idea in any case during storms or other conditions that can knock out your satellite signal.

7. If you are in the United States and have TV’s that are not digital get the converter boxes so that you can receive OTA digital programming when analog is turned off in February 2009. Visit dtv.gov for more information and vouchers to get these boxes cheap.

8. Unless you have excess money to gamble I recommend waiting to purchase HD FTA boxes. There are currently no true FTA HD broadcasts and the future of DN/B3V HD broadcasts are somewhat up in the air. A better view will be available down the road. Plus if there is a significant blackout time the prices on these units will fall dramatically.

9. Consider the Nfusion Nova. The Nagra3 cards are capable of being cardshared and the Nfusion is setup to do this. It has not been announced that they will be going this route but it is a likely possibility. Both Dalster Electronics in Canada and King FTA in the USA carry Nfusion. Both are Freedom sponsors with banners at the top of the page.

What can be done with older, slower and unsupported boxes

1. DN & B3V. They will continue to function (if they have current files) until the Nagra2 streams are shut down.

2. Globecast. I have not seen an announcement of a N3 cardswap for Globecast. Plus 90% of GC is true FTA so all FTA units will work with it.

3. True FTA. In addition to GC there is plenty of true FTA on Galaxy 10R and several other North American satellites. Even DN has a handful of true FTA channels that should continue to be broadcast in the clear.

4. If you know how there are ways to patch nagra1 and nagra2 into some other satellites that have limited channels encrypted in older nagra systems. If we are down for an extended period and any of these channels are of any value you will see instructions and/or patches to do this on FreedomFTA.