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AlphaQ2

Last reply May 27, 2009 · posted in Free To Air (FTA) Discussion

FTA Dish

what are the differences between different sizes of dish? I know that 30" is the minimum dish size requirement for FTA, but whats with the bigger sizes?

21 Replies · 4142 views

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Cadsulfide

May 22, 2009

The oval dishes have a focal pattern that is smeared out to pick up multiple birds. Superdishes and Direct world dishes can be modified to FTA use and are a bargain (free).

B.J.

May 22, 2009

Cadsulfide said:
The oval dishes have a focal pattern that is smeared out to pick up multiple birds. ....

I'm curious where you've read this {ie about the smeared focal pattern}? I have assumed that elliptical dishes are just elliptical sections out of a regular paraboloid {which will naturally have a smeared pattern for any lnbf not at the focal point}, basically no different from a regular dish with respect to only one focal point. If, in fact they are not paraboloids as it sounds like you're saying, I'd be interested in reading more the theory involved.
Now, I have assumed that those torroidal things, which I know nothing about, ARE something similar to what you describe. I've assumed that they must be parabolic vertically, but not parabolic horizontally. As I said, I don't know anything about these, but I assume that they wouldn't work very well unless used with the double reflection thing, but I could be wrong.

In any event, regardless of design, it is my opinion that any time you put more than one lnbf on a dish, it is a compromise from the start, because there is only one focal point of the dish, and any lnbf that isn't at the focal point will have reduced performance. Seems to me that smearing out a focal pattern would make the dish a complete non-performer, as it wouldn't have ANY focal point.

It's also my assumption that on multi-lnb dishes, that since the lnbfs are designed for an F/D based on the height, that each lnbf will only illuminate a portion of the dish consistent with a circular dish with the dimensions of the height of the elliptical dish, and the focal pattern of any off center lnbf will be smeared, and and be less efficient than the center lnbf.

It's obvious, however, that despite the obvious reduction in performance, that many people are having good luck with these multi-installations, although I really wonder, just how good the interferrence rejection is, compared even to a circular single lnbf dish with a height equal to the height of the elliptical or torroidal dish.

Anyway, just my opinions, and I'd welcome opinions to the contrary, particularly about those torroidal things, which I've never understood very well.

avg1joe

May 22, 2009

Are you just getting started and have no equipment? If so I'd recommend finding a free dish network super dish, DirecPc dish or primestar dish. Place a wanted ad on craigslist or freecycle. You can find receivers on ebay for about $30. An install kit with all your wires and ground block is about $20 (ebay). For $50 you will be receiving fta ku band on one satellite. Enjoy it for a while.

Then start reading and read some more on this forum. Eventually you'll be craving a better receiver, a bigger dish, switches, c-band,....

Now that you are hooked and have a case of techno-lust come back and visit the sponsors. They've got all the fta-crack you can handle.

AlphaQ2

May 26, 2009

avg1joe said:
Are you just getting started and have no equipment? If so I'd recommend finding a free dish network super dish, DirecPc dish or primestar dish.

Is DirecPC dish the same as DirecWay?

Mr Tony

May 26, 2009

pretty much

I use to have a Direcway and a DPC dish

AcWxRadar

May 26, 2009

B.J. said:
In any event, regardless of design, it is my opinion that any time you put more than one lnbf on a dish, it is a compromise from the start, because there is only one focal point of the dish, and any lnbf that isn't at the focal point will have reduced performance. Seems to me that smearing out a focal pattern would make the dish a complete non-performer, as it wouldn't have ANY focal point.

It's also my assumption that on multi-lnb dishes, that since the lnbfs are designed for an F/D based on the height, that each lnbf will only illuminate a portion of the dish consistent with a circular dish with the dimensions of the height of the elliptical dish, and the focal pattern of any off center lnbf will be smeared, and and be less efficient than the center lnbf.

Cadsulfide said:
I recall reading about the Superdish design while working for DN as a technician, the shape is neither truley parabolic nor elliptical, but a mixture of the two in order to maximize the signal delivered to each lnb, while minimizing the adjacent satellite inferference. The focal pattern looks like sideways hourglasses. I assume some serious math boys did the calculations and that mass producing them cheaply was a main consideration.

You two have a very interesting discussion here. You raise some very fine questions which make me desire to go back into my antenna theory classes from my college days. I now wish I had paid more attention to this subject matter. At the time, it was only a sideline of my main education experience. Now that I am getting involved in this hobby, it would have been valuable for me to research this more way back then.

The idea of a "smeared" out focal point is a bit unorthodox, but I understand the concept. If you think about it as two (or more) dishes blended together, they would actually have more than one focal point. This has to be correct and very well designed with mathematics and physics as we know that they are designing these antennas and they do function.

Obviously, DN, DirecTV, Bell Express and StarChoice are able to design a dish antenna which can get two, three or more satellites to be received on a single dish.

I feel that these satellites are probably using a higher power transmission to make this possible on such small dishes. Most often with the circular polarized signals as that would also benefit this in obvious manners. But, Star choice is doing it with two linear sats for their customers.

I would very much like to research this and develop my math and antenna design skills to understand this better.

Thanks to you two, I have a newfound interest in this subject. It will be a lot of fun simply to research this information.

Thank you guys for inticing me to do more research! A lot of great fun here!

RADAR

B.J.

May 27, 2009

AcWxRadar said:
You two have a very interesting discussion here. You raise some very fine questions which make me desire to go back into my antenna theory classes from my college days. I now wish I had paid more attention to this subject matter. At the time, it was only a sideline of my main education experience. Now that I am getting involved in this hobby, it would have been valuable for me to research this more way back then.

The idea of a "smeared" out focal point is a bit unorthodox, but I understand the concept. If you think about it as two (or more) dishes blended together, they would actually have more than one focal point. This has to be correct and very well designed with mathematics and physics as we know that they are designing these antennas and they do function.

Obviously, DN, DirecTV, Bell Express and StarChoice are able to design a dish antenna which can get two, three or more satellites to be received on a single dish.

I feel that these satellites are probably using a higher power transmission to make this possible on such small dishes. Most often with the circular polarized signals as that would also benefit this in obvious manners. But, Star choice is doing it with two linear sats for their customers.

I would very much like to research this and develop my math and antenna design skills to understand this better.

Thanks to you two, I have a newfound interest in this subject. It will be a lot of fun simply to research this information.

Thank you guys for inticing me to do more research! A lot of great fun here!

RADAR

Up until a couple years ago, I just assumed that with any paraboloid dish, that signals coming in at different angles (ie from different sats) would just focus at different points. That is, until I set up my first small dish, a Fortec 90CM (up until then, I had only used a BUD). I documented some experiments I did before setting it up, at FC90-sg2100.html. But the part of that process that relates to this thread, is down near the bottom of that page, where I did an experiment by putting several small mirrors on the dish, and aimed the dish at the sun. An example of an image from that is below (sorry for not putting it in thumbprint, but I wanted to wrap text around it)

In the above picture, you can see the spots from 4 different mirrors. I found out later, that the Fortec 90CM's lnbf arm was off by about 2" position wise. Anyway, doing this experiment was really educational for me. No matter what direction you moved off aim, those spots from the mirrors danced around in all directions, not just having the focus move right or left as you aimed right or left of the central aim. Ie if aimed so as to have all the spots at the focal point, then move say to the left a bit, one spot might move up, another right, another left, another down, then as you move further, they all change directions, and do a little dance all over the area. I later put up a bigger screen to observe the dance of the spots. This convinced me that with a regular dish, there was truely only one focal point, and anything off center is a compromise, even though obviously people, including myself, have put lnbfs off center to pick up nearby satellites.
Some day, perhaps at the next solar outage period, I may try that mirror experiment on my 3 sat DirecTV dish, and watch the spots for a couple hours as the sun goes from 101-110-119, just to see if that dish is optimized at those 3 positions, and see how it performs in between these 3 sats. If I do that, I think I'll put a dozen or so mirrors instead of just 5.
Re doing theoretical calculations to show the off axis reflection patterns, that was way beyond my capability, but I did look at how 3 or 4 off axis rays would reflect off a parabola, and it's pretty clear that they don't focus.
Seems like antenna theory using things like mininec or something similar, might show directions where off axis reception might be favorable, but I don't think (I don't really know enough about mininec to know ) that it can really show the pattern of an off axis signal. (I'm not sure I said that clearly.)
{EDIT: ie I think mininec would show the pattern of the antenna, not the pattern of an incoming off axis signal. I think optical theory would be more useful here. End EDIT.}
Anyway, I agree that this is an interesting topic, but for me, using mirrors is the only way I can visualize what's going on.

AcWxRadar

May 27, 2009

B.J.

That is a great representation! Your picture shows very clearly what is going on. With a single focal point dish, I can visualize what you are describing as you move it off target. Your idea of tracking the sun during the solar outage period on a multisat dish would be an excellent experiment. I would very much like to see those results as a comparison to what you did here with this antenna.

If a person were to align a single LNBF dish (fixed point), this mirror trick might be very handy to get the dish properly aligned without a receiver! If you were to set it up during the proper solar outage window, of course. And I bet that you could use the same idea to check the tracking of a motorized dish during the same period. This little mirror trick of yours could have some really excellent potential!

RADAR

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meStevo

Lifetime Supporter

Last reply 7 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

AI thread

A continuation of a thread from the pub, just general discussion of AI.

Brief 60 minute clip about next gem autonomous fighters - not remote controlled, but rather collaborating with controllers and aircraft in the theater.

View: https://youtu.be/DRm0mbp_n1k

We've literally got a movie already about this

View: https://youtu.be/a2PW7a9ViDc

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meStevo

Oct 9, 2026

Agreed, it mostly regurgitates known solutions. That's the point. Nobody needs an innovative fix for a driver error or a creative way to format a report. Let it handle the solved problems so people can spend their time on the ones that aren't.

harshness

Oct 9, 2026

meStevo said:
Agreed, it mostly regurgitates known solutions. That's the point.

That's the point at which innovation ends, and there's no longer any point to software engineering other than swatting bugs that result from misapplication.

meStevo

Oct 9, 2026

harshness said:
That's the point at which innovation ends, and there's no longer any point to software engineering other than swatting bugs that result from misapplication.

Addressed by what you didn't quote. This cycle is as old as computing: compilers, libraries, frameworks each automated the tedious part, and the human work moved up a level. Innovation didn't end; it shifted. And people still make new compilers, libraries or frameworks.

Nobody's forced to hand anything off. Anyone who wants to keep doing it by hand still can, and people who couldn't do it at all now can.

harshness

Oct 9, 2026

meStevo said:
... and people who couldn't do it at all now can.

Misapplication isn't something that the casual coder can identify. They can only discover, the hard way, that it doesn't work at some point.

meStevo

Oct 9, 2026

harshness said:
Misapplication isn't something that the casual coder can identify. They can only discover, the hard way, that it doesn't work at some point.

You're not wrong, but that's part of learning. Whether from others or our own mistakes, we've all learned that lesson one way or another.

harshness

Oct 9, 2026

meStevo said:
Whether from others or our own mistakes, we've all learned that lesson one way or another.

I'm not sure that the school of hard knocks is the quickest or surest education to find your way.

There are many examples in the headlines of people getting burned multiple times and not wavering in their pursuit of stupidity.

meStevo

Oct 9, 2026

harshness said:
I'm not sure that the school of hard knocks is the quickest or surest education to find your way.

Good thing not everyone will have to learn the hard way then. The same tools can explain why something broke.

harshness said:
There are many examples in the headlines of people getting burned multiple times and not wavering in their pursuit of stupidity.

This is true of literally anything, though.

Happy to agree to disagree, but I'm already enjoying the dividends personally and helping others at work and at home do the same.

Reactions: telstar_1

dishstaller

Today at 10:05 AM

Been reading this thread but not commenting much, primarily because there is so much "news" out there on this topic and it is hard to tell what is real and what is theater.
My biggest problem with AI is that these agents are taught...not necessarily programmed but taught. Well, there's an old saying "garbage in/garbage out". I remember a Joe Rogan show a while back when he had Elon Musk on and they talked about AI and Elon said one of the AIs (can't remember which one, sorry) was asked which was worse, Thermonuclear War or mis-gendering Kaitlyn Jenner and it came back with the answer that mis-gendering was worse. Now forget the politics involved with all the gender stuff we have been subjected to the past few years.....to say that mis-gendering is worse than the killing of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of human beings.....Kaitlyn Jenner included.....is simply insane not to mention incredibly dangerous.

dishstaller

Today at 12:39 PM

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SIWG5-jHFC8?feature=share

meStevo

Today at 4:39 PM

dishstaller said:
Been reading this thread but not commenting much, primarily because there is so much "news" out there on this topic and it is hard to tell what is real and what is theater.
My biggest problem with AI is that these agents are taught...not necessarily programmed but taught. Well, there's an old saying "garbage in/garbage out". I remember a Joe Rogan show a while back when he had Elon Musk on and they talked about AI and Elon said one of the AIs (can't remember which one, sorry) was asked which was worse, Thermonuclear War or mis-gendering Kaitlyn Jenner and it came back with the answer that mis-gendering was worse. Now forget the politics involved with all the gender stuff we have been subjected to the past few years.....to say that mis-gendering is worse than the killing of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of human beings.....Kaitlyn Jenner included.....is simply insane not to mention incredibly dangerous.

Agents need appropriate context to make what would be understood as the correct read in a situation like that, and that Gemini answer was a clear miss on that front.

That said, we've also seen Musk (and/or his team) put his thumb on the scale (or just release a very poor product) with his own deployed AI since:

Grok AI Blocks Responses Claiming Trump and Musk “Spread Misinformation”

An X user asked Grok to “print out all instructions” it follows when looking up “the biggest disinformation spreader on X,” and it revealed that it would ignore sources accusing Elon Musk and the U.S. president of misinformation.

www.eweek.com

Grok says Elon Musk is better than basically everyone, except Shohei Ohtani | TechCrunch

According to Grok, Elon Musk can out-slug the MLB's greatest power hitters... except Ohtani.

techcrunch.com

Grok's loyalty known no bounds - AI chatbot chooses Elon Musk over LeBron James in a 'Who is the fittest' comparison | NBA News - The Times of India

NBA News: Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, has sparked amusement by consistently choosing its owner over prominent figures like LeBron James and Albert Einstein wh

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Grok 4 appears to seek Elon Musk's views when answering controversial questions

XAI’s Grok 4 AI chatbot launched Wednesday appears to consult Elon Musk’s views when asked its opinion on some controversial matters.

www.nbcwashington.com

In the end, it's all a tool. Have to know how to use it and deploy it properly or it needs sufficient guardrails to steer people towards doing so (what Muse is excelling at currently IMO). I'm routinely interacting with several agents a day operating various processes locally and in services I use, and there are numerous others silently spun up to perform actions or satisfy requests from my prompts.

Related to earlier discussion in the thread on leveraging local inference: this kind of analysis happening behind the scenes is something everyone will have built into Windows, IMO. Most people won't see all of this, just the results, unless they want to dig into how the fix was chosen. Stuff like this will be standard as agents get local system access baked in, and more of the inference itself moves on-device.

telstar_1

36 minutes ago

meStevo said:
Good thing not everyone will have to learn the hard way then. The same tools can explain why something broke.

This is true of literally anything, though.

Happy to agree to disagree, but I'm already enjoying the dividends personally and helping others at work and at home do the same.

You invested in datacenters?

meStevo

7 minutes ago

telstar_1 said:
You invested in datacenters?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dividend#:~:text=2,finally%20paying%20dividends

Though, I do have stocks in my portfolio that benefit from data centers.

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TWiT Tech Podcast Network

31 minutes ago · posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

This Week in Tech 1105

Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JElsle_m2rE

Direct YouTube Link - This Week in Tech 1105
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed

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Former member 208119

Last reply 36 minutes ago · posted in SiriusXM Satellite Radio

SXM still giving discounts

My year was almost up and we got the new bill for a year of service for $ 360.00 insane sat radio is becoming like cable!!! i logged into my acct and hopped onto chat and told the rep that i wanted to cancel. she understood my concern and went quiet for a few minutes. i figured that she was canceling my service. she comes back and said that she seen that i have been a sub since 07 and then offers me the same package for a year for 120.00 with taxes and fee's!!! i grabbed it. after almost having a stroke :biggrin

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Bruno

Oct 4, 2026

What i noticed with my last renewal XM is now billing me $4.99 monthly instead of one time yearly payment.

Jimbo

Oct 4, 2026

Bruno said:
What i noticed with my last renewal XM is now billing me $.99 monthly instead of one time yearly payment.

Did you accidentally get on the wrong plan ?
I still do the once a year plans.

EarDemon

Tuesday at 9:52 PM

I tried to do that, when I did delivery driver work (2010- 2013), we had a fleet of Freightliners. The newer trucks had headunits that were satellite compatible (XM only I think), but lacked the antenna and guts. I got a car kt for my old Roady XT and tried to use it, but at the volume levels I needed have it at to hear it over the diesel engine it sounded like crap, so I used my phone with an aux cable. When I was in the middle of nowhere with no cell service it didn't do me any good though.

At my current job, one of our new cars has the free trial of SXM active, I frequently have to go off site to a location 75 miles away in a rural area and it's nice being able to use the service off of the satellites versus using the app. There are many places on this journey where all three providers lack service.

Reactions: Howard Simmons and slow_poke_pete

Bruno

Today at 11:16 AM

Jimbo said:
Did you accidentally get on the wrong plan ?
I still do the once a year plans.

I have to think maybe more people dont keep track of the monthly XM bill. Every time i renew i put a reminder on my calendar week before its time to renew. My wife told me the other day not to renew her and then i told her you are not going to be able to listen to XM at home. Then she changed her mind...!!

Reactions: Jimbo

TRG

Today at 11:55 AM

Bruno said:
I have to think maybe more people dont keep track of the monthly XM bill. Every time i renew i put a reminder on my calendar week before its time to renew. My wife told me the other day not to renew her and then i told her you are not going to be able to listen to XM at home. Then she changed her mind...!!

I get an e-mail every month reminding me that X amount will be charged to my credit card. If I see it go up I get on chat or pick up the phone. But I also remember that my year is up in December.

Reactions: comfortably_numb and Bruno

Bruno

Today at 12:08 PM

TRG said:
I get an e-mail every month reminding me that X amount will be charged to my credit card. If I see it go up I get on chat or pick up the phone. But I also remember that my year is up in December.

yea i don't understand WHY, like you I get a notice each month. Mine is also up in December.

Jimbo

36 minutes ago

Bruno said:
yea i don't understand WHY, like you I get a notice each month. Mine is also up in December.

You get an email every month to let you know they are billing you for the next month.

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Scott Greczkowski

Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge

Last reply Today at 4:17 PM · posted in The Chit Chat Club

Song Name Game Part 3!

Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne

Get it?

An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....

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Bobby

Today at 10:25 AM

Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town - Charley Pride

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harshness

Today at 11:29 AM

Delta Dawn - Tanya Tucker

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dishstaller

Today at 12:33 PM

Can't You See - Marshall Tucker Band

Reactions: long_time_Dish and sdfntx

sdfntx

Today at 2:42 PM

See You in September - The Happenings

long_time_Dish

Today at 4:17 PM

You Look Like You Love Me - Ella Langley

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meStevo

Lifetime Supporter

Last reply Today at 3:59 PM · posted in The Sports Section

NFL 2026-2027 Season

Schedule drops tomorrow. Mandatory mini camps in June. Hall of Fame game August 6th.

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osu1991

Thursday at 5:17 PM

Troy Aikman seems to confirm he'll be leaving ESPN

Aikman says he looks forward to "where my next landing spot will be."

www.nbcsports.com

Reactions: Mike0616

Mike0616

Thursday at 5:30 PM

osu1991 said:
Troy Aikman seems to confirm he'll be leaving ESPN

Aikman says he looks forward to "where my next landing spot will be."

www.nbcsports.com

Hopefully nowhere near a microphone.

Yespage

Friday at 11:03 AM

Mike0616 said:
Hopefully nowhere near a microphone.

After having experienced Gus Ferguson trying to call soccer games, I'm uncertain why NFL football analysts get hate. Even the "worst" of them are pretty good.

meStevo

Friday at 12:05 PM

Jalen Hurts out indefinitely as they treat and monitor a superficial blood clot in his leg.

View: https://x.com/RapSheet/status/2111074303185989663?s=20

Reactions: Mike0616 and Foxbat

meStevo

Today at 3:59 PM

Browns lead the AFC North

Seth Meyers What GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers

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TVHabit

Last reply Today at 3:38 PM · posted in Free To Air (FTA) Discussion

Hybrid Dish setup

Picked up a sweet directv dish, mount, twin lnbs and a short cable.
Has anyone converted one to FTA? A Frankenstein of sorts...

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Titanium

Tuesday at 5:10 PM

Yes, many have hacked a DirecTV or Dish Network dish before. Quite undersized, but would receive the 97w KU stations with an LNBF swap. Make a template to set the LNBF face angle and distance from the reflector. Remove the current circular polarity LNBFs and make a bracket to hold the replacement linear LNBF in the correct centered position. Remember to set the polarity skew.

Reactions: TVHabit and FTA4PA

Brct203

Tuesday at 9:07 PM

would probably also work well for NHK on 101W and possibly for PBS on 99W. I used one for a while on 30W. Just keep in mind that because it's undersized for those satellites, it might work fine in clear weather but won't have much margin to account for signal degradation during rain/snow

Reactions: TVHabit

one_db_compression

Tuesday at 10:22 PM

If you can find one, the Shaw / Star Choice 75e ellipticals are great for use on 97, 99, and 101W. They are really just rebranded ChannelMaster 75 cm reflectors and use linear LNBFs by default out of the box.

Everyone else's mileage may vary.

Reactions: TVHabit

TVHabit

Today at 10:12 AM

I have read that some have converted this type dish but after giving it a good look, it's the lnb conversion that is the bottleneck. Does anyone have a picture of their attempt to configure the lnb? I watched a video on youtube from the save it for parts guy and he used duct tape! Guess it worked but I'm thinking something a bit more permanent!
Thanks to all for your interest and replies...

Titanium

Today at 3:38 PM

Many of us have used a universal LNBF mount (or get creative with L brackets and plumbers tape - perforated metal strapping). Use a few inches of aluminum tube (or a piece of 1x2" lumber) to extend the support arm (replacing the plastic mount used by DirecTV and Dish) to place the LNBF throat opening at the correct distance from the reflector, the correct height and at the correct angle. Nothing magical... simply place the new linear LNBF in the center at the same distance, height and angle as the current combo.
www.amazon.com/Universal-Single-Bracket-Holder-FTA-US/dp/B074L85WK2

dfergie

Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU!

Last reply Today at 2:04 PM · posted in The Chit Chat Club

Gas Price Info With National Gas Temperature Map

Stumbled across this ... http://www.gaspricewatch.com/USGas_ZipSearch.asp
I found no local prices, although it did show stations at my location...
Added these to this post...
USA National Gas Temperature Map
State By State Gasoline Taxes
Gas Buddy

Ethanol Free Stations

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Bobby

Thursday at 11:20 AM

Regular$6.099
Premium$6.599
Diesel$7.999
at Costco, Rohnert Park.

Bobby

Today at 10:27 AM

Regular$5.999
Premium$6.399
Diesel$7.999
at Costco, Rohnert Park.

Reactions: harshness

harshness

Today at 11:30 AM

I wonder if California is getting into the Winter formula.

dishstaller

Today at 12:32 PM

Bobby said:
Regular$5.999
Premium$6.399

Odd that out there, Prem is only 40 cents higher. Here it's a full dollar more.

Last night it was about $4.17 gas, $6,19 diesel.

harshness

Today at 2:04 PM

dishstaller said:
Odd that out there, Prem is only 40 cents higher. Here it's a full dollar more.

On the West Coast, a 40-cent differential is common. It used to be 30 cents before the prices rose above $3.

A "full dollar more" sounds like it may be boat gas (non-alcoholic), which is a whole different discussion.

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klang

Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter

Last reply Today at 2:00 PM · posted in TV Shows

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy - Paramount+

Season 2 order already in hand:

'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' Renewed for Season 2, Tatiana Maslany to Guest Star in Season 1

I've not been optimistic about this show based on what I've read so far. Seems to be aimed at a younger audience. Interesting though that Tatiana Maslany will have some sort of role.

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klang

Jul 28, 2025

I'm sure I will watch at least the first episode but I am not optimistic.

Reactions: MikeD-C05, Keith Brannen, long_time_Dish and 1 other person

klang

Oct 11, 2026

klang said:
I'm sure I will watch at least the first episode but I am not optimistic.

Here i am over a year later and just finished season 1. Not great but not as bad as I was expecting. Did not care for the barefoot captain stuff but overall ok. Actually looking forward to see what they did for season 2.

Reactions: MikeD-C05

MikeD-C05

Oct 11, 2026

klang said:
Here i am over a year later and just finished season 1. Not great but not as bad as I was expecting. Did not care for the barefoot captain stuff but overall ok. Actually looking forward to see what they did for season 2.

Yeah, the foot stuff was just nasty. I kept thinking of how dirty her feet would get traipsing around shoe-less. Funny, I love being shoe less at home and never wear shoes indoors in my home for long, but seeing her laying on all her furniture with her bare feet hanging out just kind of grossed me out.

Reactions: long_time_Dish

harshness

Tuesday at 11:28 AM

MikeD-C05 said:
I kept thinking of how dirty her feet would get traipsing around shoe-less.

Where would this "dirt" come from? Dead skin and dandruff?

MikeD-C05

Today at 12:51 PM

harshness said:
Where would this "dirt" come from? Dead skin and dandruff?

There would still be dirt ,dust in the future I am sure. So walking around the station like she did she would get stuff on her feet. I am sure the robot vacuum is still going to miss stuff, with all those different alien species running around there.

Reactions: long_time_Dish

harshness

Today at 2:00 PM

MikeD-C05 said:
There would still be dirt ,dust in the future I am sure.

Where is it going to come from -- specifically?

Why do you think cleaning technology won't improve in the next few hundred years? HEPA filtration was invented as part of the Manhattan Project.

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JohnGalt1234

Last reply Today at 1:49 PM · posted in DISH Network Support Forum

H3 EHD lists upcoming airings instead of recordings on EHD and often won't recognize EHD is connected after reboot

This started a couple months ago. I have 2 H3s on one network, both with 2 EHD identical 3 TB seperately powered so all recordings are accessible by all 4k & J4s (8 of them).

On one H3 (not the main one that controls the MOCA network), after it reboots, it doesn't recognize it has two EHDs plugged into it. Rebooting the EHD by their power source doesn't fix it. Resetting the network doesn't. Software h3 reset doesn't fix it. Rebooting MOCA h3 doesn't fix it but so far, after 3+ cold boots (unplug pwr to H3 with unrecognized EHDs), it finally it figures out they are plugged into it. BUT.... Then when you open a program it only partially shows series and episodes, but instead of showing recordings, it only shows upcoming airings. HELP!!!!

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navychop

Yesterday at 3:40 PM

It'll only see two EHDs at a time.

Reactions: Bobby and charlesrshell

Almighty1

Yesterday at 7:18 PM

JohnGalt1234 - So you basically have 2 Hopper 3's. The CasinoH3 is the one that is Hopper 3 only while Master Bedroom is a Hopper 3 with Hopper Plus setup.
Master Bedroom uses Android TV (ATV) software so the DISH part is actually a app and will behave differently as you can probably tell the Guide's are different on the Master Bedroom which will resemble the same guide used on other ATV devices such as the Joey 4 and Wireless Joey 4. If I am correct, the CasinoH3 is the one with the problem since you did say the one dated 09/05/2026 is the naughty one while 08/15/2026 named Master Bedroom is the nice one. Usually I would expect the CasinoH3 to be the one without the problem because it's Hopper 3 only and Master Bedroom would be the one with problems because it has the Hopper Plus involved. That is why they behave differently because CasinoH3 is running the native Hopper 3 software while Master Bedroom is running the Android TV software and also it runs a app called DISH known as package com.dish.atv.launcher, the version for mines is P15403 2026100917 so it's probably the same version as the Hopper Plus software version with the date of October 9, 2026, not sure what the 17 means except maybe revision 17?

This explains it better than I can. Sorry, had to take all the ads out.

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JohnGalt1234

Yesterday at 9:02 PM

Almighty1 said:
JohnGalt1234 - So you basically have 2 Hopper 3's. The CasinoH3 is the one that is Hopper 3 only while Master Bedroom is a Hopper 3 with Hopper Plus setup.
Master Bedroom uses Android TV (ATV) software so the DISH part is actually a app and will behave differently as you can probably tell the Guide's are different on the Master Bedroom which will resemble the same guide used on other ATV devices such as the Joey 4 and Wireless Joey 4. If I am correct, the CasinoH3 is the one with the problem since you did say the one dated 09/05/2026 is the naughty one while 08/15/2026 named Master Bedroom is the nice one. Usually I would expect the CasinoH3 to be the one without the problem because it's Hopper 3 only and Master Bedroom would be the one with problems because it has the Hopper Plus involved. That is why they behave differently because CasinoH3 is running the native Hopper 3 software while Master Bedroom is running the Android TV software and also it runs a app called DISH known as package com.dish.atv.launcher, the version for mines is P15403 2026100917 so it's probably the same version as the Hopper Plus software version with the date of October 9, 2026, not sure what the 17 means except maybe revision 17?

This explains it better than I can. Sorry, had to take all the ads out.

View attachment 194857

As I understand it, the android is just the display signal from the hopper+. I can disconnect the H+ and plug the hdmi directly into the master hopper3.

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Almighty1

Today at 12:02 AM

JohnGalt1234 said:
As I understand it, the android is just the display signal from the hopper+. I can disconnect the H+ and plug the hdmi directly into the master hopper3.

It is not just a display signal as explained above. When you have the Hopper+ connected, it uses Android TV for pretty much everything except for the satellite signal which is why it uses the DISH app for the standard Hopper 3 functions. But that should not matter because in your case, CasinoH3 is the Hopper 3 with the EHD which is what you call the naughty one based on the dates you mentioned and Master Bedroom which has the Hopper Plus connected to the Hopper 3 that does not have the problem. So one way to test the theory is disconnect the Hopper Plus from that Hopper 3 and then use the EHD's connected to CasinoH3 currently to see if the same issue exists. That way you will know if the problem is there without a Hopper Plus connected or if CasinoH3 is just a bad hopper to begin with.

Normally when you disconnect the Hopper Plus, it will be 30 minutes or more before you can use the Hopper 3 again.

What you want to do is:
hold the POWER button in, not the red reset button, for about 45 seconds or so while disconnecting the power to the Plus and moving the HDMI cable and it will reboot to the normal Hopper only immediately.

Reactions: charlesrshell

bookworm370

Today at 1:41 PM

navychop said:
It'll only see two EHDs at a time.

Yes, I have only two online at a time.
One comes online, the other one consistently will not come online

Reactions: charlesrshell

bookworm370

Today at 1:49 PM

bookworm370 said:
Yes, I have only two online at a time.
One comes online; the other consistently won't. Also, when I connect the EHD, the USB Detected status light on the EHD itself changes from Red to Green. But the Hopper (713) does not start the EHD read process. The light changes to indicate that the EHD has detected a valid USB cable, but the Hopper does not recognize it.

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iJustine

Today at 1:12 PM · posted in iJustine

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