Converting DirecTv to FTA

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El Stenso

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Feb 20, 2007
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I became interested in FTA about 10 minutes ago and am curious if there is a way to use my old DirecTv dish and receiver to get FTA channels.
 
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No, you'd need a bigger dish and a FTA receiver (D* receiver will not work as an FTA), I do recall someone experimenting with a D* dish and FTA receiver, and stating they could only get some music audio channels.

And welcome to satguys.
 
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One thing you should be able to use is the pole -- something I learned thanks to this forum. :) I got hold of a Winegard DS2076 dish (76 cm), removed the DirecTV dish, and put the Winegard on the same pole. Then I added a Coolsat 5000 via a deal promoted here, and I was off to the races.
 
not recommended

This thread by Iceberg pretty much points you to the info on what you might get with that small dish antenna.
It's not much, and in my opinion it's not interesting enough to start out with.
And , depending on which DirecTV dish you have, there could be additional troubles using it
Maybe later as an add-on, it might be slightly amusing.

As mentioned, the receiver is useless.
 
I became interested in FTA about 10 minutes ago and am curious if there is a way to use my old DirecTv dish and receiver to get FTA channels.
What model is your reciever? I saw someone mentioning that a drd430 could be converted to a FTA. Not sure where I ran into that during my research, but might be worth doing a search if that's what you're looking for.
 
No DirecTV can be converted for FTA since they are not DVB receivers. Even Dish receivers (which are DVB) cannot be used for FTA since they are hardcoded only for certain TPs/SRs used by Dish.

Unfortunate, since so many go to the dump, and they would make reasonable secondary receivers if it were possible to convert them :(
 
There are some sites that are not totally on the up and up that show how to modify some DTV receivers and some varients of the 301 to run Pansat 2500A firmware.
 
There are some sites that are not totally on the up and up that show how to modify some DTV receivers and some varients of the 301 to run Pansat 2500A firmware.

Yep, I second this, I saw it too. Seems beyond my limited skills, though. And the only use the site gave was illegal. But if it makes the D* reciever a Pansat 2500A clone, why wouldn't it work for our uses? Might be of use for a single fixed dish install for like say, music in a workshop or something.:confused:

It involved JTAG, whatever the heck that is...like I said it went over my head fairly quickly.:)
 
I could possibly see how a Dish receiver might be able to be converted for FTA DVB, especially with some of the newer ones where everything is run by upgradeable software. But I'd really like to see how they make a DTV receiver (non-DVB) work with DVB signals. Perhaps the unique nature of DTVs signals is not that far removed from DVB.

In any case, I suspect it will be cheaper (and easier) to simply buy a receiver designed for FTA.
 
I could possibly see how a Dish receiver might be able to be converted for FTA DVB, especially with some of the newer ones where everything is run by upgradeable software. But I'd really like to see how they make a DTV receiver (non-DVB) work with DVB signals. Perhaps the unique nature of DTVs signals is not that far removed from DVB.

In any case, I suspect it will be cheaper (and easier) to simply buy a receiver designed for FTA.

As long as you have a processor, tuner, and memory anything can happen. I can guarantee you that the tuner in the DTV receivers can tune more than DSS modulation. Look at the DishNetwork 6000 8PSK tuner modules, they can tune DSS modulation.
 
The RCA DRD430/431 series runs an Sti5518 chipset just like the Pansat 2500. So with a simple JTAG you can convert it.
 
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