My Internet Sucks

[Waynedb]

 The one off stuff on FTA sat is more interesting to me, I don't have a C-band dish up anymore but I do have a motorized 1.2 Meter Ku Dish and a 1 Meter fixed dish. I have seen some 4K feeds in the wild and there is usually lots of sports, in the past when I had my C-band dish I could get lots of crazy stuff, there was a channel that you could upload your own videos to, it was before Youtube got popular.
 
 At one time HD Net and HD Net Movies was unencrypted on C-band, I think they locked it up when they signed a deal with Dish, all the channels used to pop up first on the big dish, many were unencrypted.
My old Analog Monterey 95 receiver used to give me SD video quality that made the overly compressed crap on the little dishes look sick, some feeds used 36Mhz wide transponders for really great PQ.
My 4DTV digital C-band receiver got the R5000HD mod so I could record to a PC, SageTV could change the channel and move the dish as needed through the same USB cable that it used for recording.
 
With the internet video so readily available, I don't play around with the FTA stuff much anymore.

 

[LarrylLix]

Are you using Direct TV, DISH TV or Bell TV?
 
I remember a while ago folks not liking Bell TV going to Direct TV and folks here not liking Direct TV going to Canadian Bell TV.
 
$40 per month is a great deal!
 
Here the transition was from the BUD (big ugly dish) analog stuff with a Houston Tracker 8 over to first digital offerings on the BUD then over the the smaller dish DTV stuff (first one here was DTV). 
 
Way back you could see different compression ratios between movies and just news stuff.

Yeah, years back it was the other way around. I am with Bell sat.
 
Prices are Canuck Buck so take off 26% for U$anian.
I was paying about $67 per month for a fairly decent (not listed) package only issued to complainers. This was during signup years  after I suddenly told them I just wouldn't have TV if I had to pay for their "Best" package. (about $90?)
 
I was frustrated and was going to drop to their "Good"  for about $40 per month but when I researched Bell's website I noticed they off a Basic package for $20 / month.
I addition they now have filters you can click on to eliminate unwanted stuff for comparison. Usually it's been frustration to the point where people just grab any package due to difficulty comparing. Now it was different.
 
Here is what happens. I eliminated Radio Stations (60?), French channels (15-20?),  Low definition (60-80?), Time shifted duplicates from the western satellite (20-30?).
What I was left with was about 20 good,  basic big network, channels and The Basic package had them all.
 
Now the fancy stuff.... After ordering an individual channel, a la carte at $7, wife wanted one more at $4-5. Then  I see the package that any ten of  the speciality channels can be individually picked for $20.
 
Had the grandchildren up for a week and swapped one of our special channels for a cartoon channel  and then back when they left. Other than some old receiver software, it went well and didn't cost any more or have any time delay or minimum time snags.
 
So in the end I sit about $41 for all the Basic networks and 10 custom selected channels. Plus the $4 digital service BS, a few other small junk charges and taxes.
Receiver is $15 per month with a five year special rebate of $15 = $0. No contract or obligations
 
Receiver has been replaced about 4 times now over 4 years after the channel swap only worked one way, and a few defective ones as replacements.