4DTV is great - even the wife thinks so!

[trinidex]

So we've been using DirecTV for a couple of years, paying like a good little customer.

We've had CBand stuff before, but like many, we got lazy, bored, whatever and stopped using it.

Whilst reviewing our monthly bills, we noticed that our little dish sub seemed high, certainly more than we originally thought and so we dug around on the internet to see what the 4DTV equivalent would cost us.

We found out, dusted off the DSR920, replaced a couple of wires on the ol' mesh dish, and mapped in the necessary satellites.

We subbed with NPS for "Digital Essentials".

I was worried the wife would hate the wait for the dish to move - but she doesn't, she thinks it's cool that we have an alternative to the little dish and can save money!

It's true we've lost a couple of channels, but with the subs we have, we get most of what we want to watch anyway - and we can add little bits as and when we want!

I have read concerns about the quality of the re-uplinks for NPS' exclusive content, but I have to say, on my 37" LCD it's totally acceptable - and did I mention cheaper?!

 

[tvropro]

Good for you coming back to the C band side. C band may be missing a few channels but the Masters and price make up for it. I never jumped ship and I'm in it for the long haul. NPS's G3 channels are ok to a point as long as there is no action on the screen that's when it rears its ugly head. The latest word I heard is NPS is still waiting for the Motorola tech to oversee the flash upgrade that is needed on there relic encrypter. There hoping for sometime in July.

Things really needed to get C band subscription going again are:

1) NPS needs to up there bitrate on G3 so the picture improves.

2) NPS and SRL need to aggressively go after getting every C band channel available in 4DTV compatible mode.

3) They really need to get another receiver such as a Starchoice clone to replace the old dinosaur technology were running.

 

[Inno]

Right on!! More folks should be doing it too. That's the only way to keep 4DTV alive.
I love the fact that I can save $$ and pay for only the channels I want. I don't want to sound like many of the commercials I keep hearing, but "in these troubled economic times, it only makes sense to subscribe to 4DTV". lol

Good to hear another 4DTV success story from a happy watcher.

 

[trinidex]

I live in constant fear that "they" are just gonna give up on us - that would be a huge shame - we need an alternative to little dish.

Maybe no one is doing anything whilst the 920 et al are still working - I mean let's be realistic, these were built well, IMHO

The Skyvision DSR410 has added life to the system so maybe in time we'll see converted/modded StarChoice or something - here's hoping!

 

[tvropro]

I live in constant fear that "they" are just gonna give up on us - that would be a huge shame - we need an alternative to little dish.

Maybe no one is doing anything whilst the 920 et al are still working - I mean let's be realistic, these were built well, IMHO

The Skyvision DSR410 has added life to the system so maybe in time we'll see converted/modded StarChoice or something - here's hoping!

If we keep subscriptions up that shows there is a market for it. So there is the answer in a nutshell if you own a 4dtv or 410 subscribe to at least one thing. Make your voice heard :up

 

[eurosport]

Things really needed to get C band subscription going again are:

1. HD
2. umm....HD, and;
3. More HD

 

[tdti1]

We found out, dusted off the DSR920, replaced a couple of wires on the ol' mesh dish, and mapped in the necessary satellites.

Remember to have the battery replaced in your 920 if you have not done so already.

 

[stone phillips420]

all starchoice irds are dinosaurs as well

waiting for them to come out with new irds, but not holding breath

 

[tdti1]

all starchoice irds are dinosaurs as well

waiting for them to come out with new irds, but not holding breath

The 635 should be out late next year.

 

[bassist]

Only thing keeping us on DN:

the ESPN's!!! Why the hell aren't the espn & FSN channels available for cband subscribers??

 

[tvropro]

Because ABC/Disney/ESPN don't want to deal with C band NPS says. FSN wanted tall bucks when we had them before so NPS canned it.

 

[Corrado]

The 4DTV providers need to offer renewal incentives to loyal subscribers to help keep them from jumping ship. This way when they receive one of the dozen monthly ads from the little dish guys, they may not be tempted by the latest promotional offer.

Agreed that some sort of HD offering would help greatly. Whether it's increased choices or equipment...something. HD is the future.

 

[eurosport]

Agreed that some sort of HD offering would help greatly. Whether it's increased choices or equipment...something. HD is the future.

I like my 4DTV, I hope 4DTV/DCII stays around for a long time, but without access to more HD, I fear that it will ring true: Hd is the future, 4D will be the past.

 

[tvropro]

HD would be very nice. Maybe if we keep showing there is support for the 4D and new interest someone may get that new receiver done.

 

[14karat]

Yep... where's that 4HDtv receiver at?? Maybe call it a 5D...

 

[bassist]

Because ABC/Disney/ESPN don't want to deal with C band NPS says. FSN wanted tall bucks when we had them before so NPS canned it.

This might be true; however, it seems to me that it would increase their indirect sub revenue a little if they would offer programming for cbanders. Both espn & fsn scrambled feeds are located on several sats. It seems that it would require minimal effort/expense for them to sell BUD owners their offerings.

 

[trinidex]

Remember to have the battery replaced in your 920 if you have not done so already.

Yup, did that, got a new faceplate and firmware upgrade to 6D too!

 

[trinidex]

This might be true; however, it seems to me that it would increase their indirect sub revenue a little if they would offer programming for cbanders. Both espn & fsn scrambled feeds are located on several sats. It seems that it would require minimal effort/expense for them to sell BUD owners their offerings.

Now that's the funny thing isn't it? We all look at Lyngsat, we all scan the skies, we know what is out there, how hard would it be to allow them to be subbed? After all, we're doing the hard work, we point the dish, find the signal, skew the LNB, all the fun stuff, we're prepared to pay for the programming - sheesh!

 

[trinidex]

The 635 should be out late next year.

What's this - StarChoice (boo!) or something we can all use (yay!)?

 

[truckracer]

my mom lives with me now. I am sort of anti-cable and pizza dish. We have C/Ku FTA and digital OTA tv.

I have a 7.5' dish on a vbox connected to a pansat 9200HD for her bedroom.
She can watch whatever sat she wants and it does not affect the rest of the house.
The other tv's in the house uses a 10' c/ku system with another pansat 9200HD in the living room on a 46" toshiba 120hz LCD HDTV.

The other tv's in the house come off the 10' dish's multiswitch (a powered directv switch) and range from fortec ultra lifetime SDTV receivers and a pansat 2500 on the kitchen tv.

The living room pansat communicates with the vbox and positions the dish.
It works pretty well for us.

She has figured out how to edit her channels and scan in new ones. she's not up to manual pid entry yet but maybe someday. she likes FTA.
We also have two dsr-905 4dtv sidecars. they work well.

even after the equipment costs and maintenance (which i do myself), we still save over having a pizza dish with 6 receivers and all the fees and contracts that go along.