"FTA" is "hacked Dish" to some

[Anole]

I was just looking through the Glorystar section of the forum and ran across this comment from someone whose kid had modified their Mercury II receiver to get extra FTA channels.
Yes, just the international channels on those birds...
Then, when told to restore it to normal operation with the original channels . . .

My son had his friend over to try and fix it, and he did a software upgrade,
he said he does dish network free to air,
and thats what you have to do to fix it, is to upgrade software.

So, this little story reminded me of something that happened just this week:

I was on the way to lunch, driving through a quiet residential neighborhood.
As I came to a stop sign by an apartment building, I noticed two gentlemen in an unmarked pickup truck working on a DirecTV Ku/Ka dish.

I stopped to ask if by any chance, they'd seen any unattached old Primestar dishes around.
They knew what I meant, and knew most had been gone for a long time.
But one fellow recalled a dish he'd recently seen.

I got to talking to them about different shapes and sizes...
...then I said I really wanted one of the bigger models "for FTA use".
So, that's when the one fellow says, "Oh, for Dish, eh?"

So, here are two DirecTV installers, who've been around at least long enough to know what a Primestar is, but they think FTA = hacked Dish.

I think FTA has some image polishing to do. -

 

[stone phillips420]

seems to me the easiest fix is for dish to fix their signal ie. SECURE

 

[Davage]

seems to me the easiest fix is for dish to fix their signal ie. SECURE

Agreed 100%

I see quite frequently 18" dishes with circular LNB's listed as "FTA" dishes in our local "Pennysaver" classified newspaper..

I look forward to the day (and yes I truly believe that the day is coming) when the signals are once again secure. I'll be driving around the neighborhood on garbage day looking for reflectors, LNBs and hopefully FTA receivers that people are throwing out. :

I'll snag the dishes for recycle value, and keep the LNBs

 

[Woofle]

Reclaiming FTA -- or picking a new term for DISH pirates and reclaiming FTA again

So today I call an authorized Visionsat dealer in my local area (the only one, as far as I can find).

Asked him about the Visionsat IV 200 he had advertised. Said he no longer carries that. Funny, as the ad was posted today.

So I ask him, "I'm doing free-to-air only, so blind scan and motor control are very important. What models do you have that are good at that?" He didn't seem to know and wouldn't make a recommendation.

Starting to sound a little suspicous.

So then I asked him if he had anything from Fortec Star. He stated he doesn't carry them because they "were crap". I kind of brlstled at that, as my Merc II is a real workhorse and generally it does everything asked of it. So I asked why are they crap? He said, there was no support. Hmmm.................... wonder what kind of support he meant?

So I asked him if he sold any larger dishes. Nope, just DISH 500.

In some respects, the worst part of this whole exchange, is I said
"free to air" and I don't think it registered that "free to air" means "free to air". I was tempted to say "FTA is not DISH piracy", but I let it go. What's the point? He just sells what they buy, and he probably doesn't load illegal software on the boxes. Still, it's obnoxious when the intent is so obvious.

Perhaps the term FTA has been so compromised that it's time to come up with a new term that the hackers don't use, OR fight the good fight and insist that FTA'ers be called DISH pirates, or some other agreed-upon term, consistently until the terminology starts to stick a little.

Sigh.

 

[digiblur]

Unfortunately it is us that will have to change to "True FTA" or "Legal FTA".

 

[Tron]

I was adjusting my motorized dish the other night, and a neighbor who was watching started talking about his friend who "gets everything", and asking me if I "got everything" as well... When I explained to him what my dishes were for, he had this curious, lost look on his face

 

[Davage]

I was adjusting my motorized dish the other night, and a neighbor who was watching started talking about his friend who "gets everything", and asking me if I "got everything" as well... When I explained to him what my dishes were for, he had this curious, lost look on his face

It seems that everybody has a 'friend of a friend' who gets everything or knows how to get everything. Here in SouthWestern Ontario, a lot of computer shops are selling FTA receivers with 18" dishes. They openly admit that they are receiving Dishnet programming.

I enjoy knowing that the really neat stuff that I see on my FTA set isn't going to "go down" every 2 or 3 days. I also enjoy seeing stuff that you can't find on ExpressVu or Dishnet such as Dr Gene Scott, hundreds of sports feeds, Lots of overseas programming including TV from Ghana Africa on C-Band. I enjoy the oddball stuff.

I know that the signals will get secured eventually through the next card swap or maybe 2 card swaps from now when they happen. As a paying subscriber, I look forward to the next card swap. I know that I'll continue to enjoy my wild feeds long after people have given up on their hacked Dish. I will probably even be buying some of their receivers for pennies on the dollar

 

[stone phillips420]

dish doesnt have a good track record for secure cards so far none are secure except sw seriies and rom 206
but for how long?
dish needs to dump nagrastar and get nds to build their cams

 

[truckracer]

When I first got into free to air, my neighbor came over and said "hey ....can you get free Hbo with that rig". I said NO and I don't want free HBO.

He said "what can you get with it" so I told him and he said "Oh....well never mind-good luck"

I do think anytime that anyone brings up free to air, we should explain to them what it is and what it is NOT.

 

[vfrjim]

I had to use a non-factory firmware (till the last one came out) for my SonicView SV-8000HD and in my signature on that forum said this:

I use the SV-HD8000 for PURE FTA but since Sonicview does not want to fix the bugs that plague the receiver, I need to use a Non-factory firmware to solve these problems. I am against signal theft.

I never got a comment on my sig till the yesterday, it was in the thread that announced a new "factory" firmware and I reported a bug on it. This was his comment:

in response to your comment about being against signal theft?

In the United States, of course, video piracy is illegal -- or is it?

Pirates quote the 1934 Communications Act, which banned the use of jamming or scrambling equipment and guaranteed the right of all Americans to receive any form of radio transmission. There was an important underlying principle behind this legislation: the radio spectrum is a limited natural resource, like air or sunlight, and everyone should have access to it.

In 1984, however, the Cable Communications Policy Act changed all that. Nudged by lobbyists for programmers such as HBO, Congress decided to make satellite TV transmissions a special case, exempt from public access. The Act begins, "No person receiving, assisting in receiving, transmitting, or assisting in transmitting, any interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning thereof...."

This reads like an attempt to protect the privacy of communications that are addressed to specific individuals. How can it apply to television broadcasts?

Well, the next section of the Act suggests that "satellite cable programming" isn't really a broadcast at all. It's a private communication, and if the signal is encrypted, the Act protects it from interference.

But that's an odd phrase, "satellite cable programming." Why is the word "cable" there?

The phrase is defined a little further on: "video programming which is transmitted via satellite and which is primarily intended for the direct receipt by cable operators for their retransmission to cable subscribers."

So, the intent is now clear. Satellite TV is considered a private communication because it is "primarily intended" for cable companies, not for broadcast to the general public.

Unfortunately, in the ten years since this Act became law, the situation has changed radically. Can HBO still claim that its signal is a form of private communication (please, don't call it broadcasting!) when there are hundreds of thousands of dish owners now paying to watch it legitimately? Can Turner Classic Movies be considered "satellite cable programming" when it is being sent only to home dish owners, and not to cable networks at all? .......so my question is who's robbing who of what in this country??

It's funny how people can rationalize about stealing.....

 

[photoman76]

dish doesnt have a good track record for secure cards so far none are secure except sw seriies and rom 206
but for how long?
dish needs to dump nagrastar and get nds to build their cams

Since Dish owns half of Nagrastar, I doubt that would happen. I suppose Dish could switch to NDS if they ever merge with Directv.

 

[truckracer]

I look at it like this - analyzing a law like that and picking apart every word is a crapshoot because people interpret words differently (especially the English language). A word changes meaning with the type of use and paragraph.

It kind of reminds me of the Gun-haters trying to pick apart the 2nd Amendment.

If someone is selling something......No matter what it is and you take it without paying them for it.....You are stealing. Real simple.

True Free to air works like this to me -
If someone is giving away candy and you take some that is truely free!
If you are walking along the sidewalk and find a fresh Hershey bar that has not ever been opened and you trust you can eat it - It is truely free.


Free to air is NOT:

Someone selling candy and you put a piece in your pocket WITHOUT paying them for it- well we all know the rest.

 

[DirectDishNet]

I really hope to high heaven that dish would do something to get rid of the hackers so I can start making money again.
On my website I advertise FTA installations (True FTA) and out of 100 calls for installations 98 of them want hack crap. one call for a legit dish install and one for internationals.
There are tons and tons of people hacking these day's, And when the day comes, and it is comming soon (fingers crossed) I am going to laugh my @$$ off.......All those pirates that spent so much money for HD receivers, DVR receivers and dish's and installation parts & time...... They will be left with nothing........

I am so surprised that dish hasn't done anything by now.

The biggest question is, Why the heII would a manufacture like coolsat or viewsat spend soooooo much money manufacturing millions of HD receivers knowing that it can come to a screatching hault?.....I don't get it....

 

[Mr Tony]

The biggest question is, Why the heII would a manufacture like coolsat or viewsat spend soooooo much money manufacturing millions of HD receivers knowing that it can come to a screatching hault?.....I don't get it....

quick money...that's why.

 

[Mr Tony]

there must be something big on Dish this weekend as they nuked the hackers.....but I guess some the audio channels work for them

 

[DirectDishNet]

hahahaha!!!....... Well my FTA is up..... I'm watching locals on Galaxy10R....Mine never go's down........

 

[Mr Tony]

hahahaha!!!....... Well my FTA is up..... I'm watching locals on Galaxy10R....Mine never go's down........

same here. Mine never goes down

 

[truckracer]

Here's the thing, I love fta and enjoy the hobby and like said above it gives us a bad name to the people who have little knowledge about our hobby.

E* is mostly at fault here as far as I am concerned. They know they have a security problem and seem to only do the least they can get by with to stop it.

I believe if they really wanted to stop their signal from being hacked - they have millions to spend on security innovations- they would stop it dead.

There is probably some kind of money behind the hacking. Don't be too surprised. The world is a capatalistic place.

It ticks me off because I am paying for my tv subsciptions and know that somewhere somebody is propped up in front of their big screen tv watching what I am for FREE without having to work for it.

 

[vfrjim]

I do not know the cost of changing encryption systems, but guessing it's a heck of a lot of money or they would be doing it already. Maybe if Dish and Direct merge, they *might* do it but that is a big MIGHT.

 

[Rendered]

Unfortunately it is us that will have to change to "True FTA" or "Legal FTA".

We will have to call it T-FTA, R-FTA or L-FTA for true, real and legal.

I know this sound like a conspiracy theory, but I’m not joking. I think it is convenient for Dish to have a hacking problem for the same reason real FTA viewers don’t like it. A lot of people who happen to hear about legal FTA think it has to be stealing. So people spend their money on paying for Dish and never know that there is anything else out there. I for one heard about stealing satellite TV and thought no way, which is why it took a long time for me to research FTA. Plus it’s provides a good excuse to try and lobby for laws that make it harder for people to get into FTA.

Of course the way it is now FTA as a media platform can’t compete with a provider like Dish. It’s laughable right? But if the concept became more mainstream then you would have a decent amount of people who are signed up with dish just for specific foreign or news programming decide to switch to FTA. But what would happen to Dish if suddenly TV stations started doing the math and found that they could reach more viewers and make more money form advertisers if they switched to FTA. Then more people start to think hey there is some good stuff on FTA and all I got to do is pay one up front cost for the equipment! An industry could then start to form to provide FTA support and simplify it for a consumers market. If that happened then FTA becomes a real threat.

All I’m saying is that FTA is just a little bean on the map, but Dish and Direct TV is not ignorant enough to not know that the right amount of water could turn FTA into a BIG beanstalk.

I could be totally off on this so if I’m just being nuts please say so.

I have been researching the TV industry for the past few months, but I am still very new to FTA.




Okay Iceberg you can now say “Good lord you’re nuts”

Nah, seriously Iceberg is a neat fellow:up