30 Years Ago Today

[Carroll A]

Anything is possible lol. Although I have not tinkered with TVRO in a long time the history of it still makes it fun to talk about especially for those who were around during its glory days.

 

[dl76]

I was around during those days . 14 years old. I wish i could find the old song about cpt midnight.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[dl76]

I strongly disagree with this statement since I just put up a 7.5 ft dish exclusively to get NASA for my family.

sure did and it is fine tuned with a titanium lnb and tracking the arc now as a 10 foot dish would be , here in central SC. all kinds of wild feeds up there ..

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Even back then "hacking" was different. Back then you hacked it because they wouldn't sell it to you. (You wanted to pay for it, but they didn't want your money) Today you hack it because your too cheap to pay for it.

They probably didn't sell it to residential BUD owners way back then but I remember that subs were available elsewhere. I remember HBO was "OTA" via broadcast terrestrial microwave back in the 80's. Anyway, a similar thing exists today since they don't sell it to FTA or to those of us with 4DTV receivers anymore but is available elsewhere.

Boy have times changed. I miss the glory days of C Band.

Same here. It sucks to have spent all that time and money to put in a 12 footer and not be able to sub to anything.

 

[pdiddy]

Wow did not know I would cause a storm by bringing up history of C Band. For those who were around back then it was a fun time. I remember both Keith LA Monica and chuck Dawson both in their respective ways fighting for C Band rights.

I remember,I was there,I bought a video cipher II,to keep watching,and it cost $500 bucks back then to.And that's when $500 bucks bought more than it does now.Wow

 

[Mr Tony]

makes ya wonder why showtime is a free preview this weekend on direct tv.

"Shameless" season premier and a new show called "Billions"
They lure you in with the freeview...then you get hooked and want to keep seeing the shows

 

[iBoston]

I got my first Used Cband dish back in 1994. I LOVED it because I could get everything i wanted for under 20.00 bucks a month, and i could buy ala cart channels. I remember paying .30 cents a month for history channel. I wish you could do ala cart now a days. I got back into it for the nostalgia, and come to discover that there is far more FTA now than there was in 94.

 

[primestar31]

That's how Charlie started. Peddling big dishes from a pickup. Not sure it was his pickup.

He not only peddled c-band dishes from his truck, I heard he later peddled hacked vc2's. How do you think he really made all his money selling dishes after things were scrambled...

 

[satjay]

Always remember when we ditched cable and had the big dish set up mid 80's, didn't see any in a subdivision, lol as 13-14 year old, catching wild feed sports and listening to the announcers during there break was the best back then. I remember going through the orbit magazine and then helping my parents pick out the channels we wanted with the various programming companies

 

[Cnut]

I got my first BUD in 1989, before there was NFL Sunday Ticket. You could find just about every game on KU in those days. NBC had the AFC and had several feeds on 81W, which was there home satellite like 72W is today. The CBS games of the NFL usually showed up on same satellites week after week. Monday Night Football was still on ABC then, not ESPN. With a bud back then you could catch just about every NFL game, every week. Those were the days!

 

[avediswolf]

I grew up with a BUD in the back yard, I was so fascinated with the technology.
Although I was only 13 years old, I remember Cap'n Midnight, and tried to make something using aluminum pie pans and a Mister Microphone thinking the world could hear me. I had my own radio variety show, Live via satellite... Or so I thought.

 

[richyrich]

And I remember how beautiful the dish looked; big; modern; and how I had to yell back to the house; to see if i hit my mark; 1979. I started as a kid; watching all the channels from other lands; HBO then Showtime; I got me a moto-arm! First the movies; then ESPN; the package for ALL OF THEM was only 11.00 then to $69-89 per month. EVERY CHANNEL! And the free stuff was so pretty; they were the only channel I had on my home tv; let alone selling motors and receivers and then; oh my god; GALAXY 1 had all I needed in pay tv and the 5-6 foot dish was rolling out the door in the 1000's!!! 24 pay channels on one satellite! Cable dish!

Those were the days of 30-50 CBS and the majors channels; International meant nakeds; and the beginning of cable tv. And the dish cost 5-10k; easy (hard work) money!