New BUD owner

bcwmachine

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Lifetime Supporter
Sep 21, 2003
594
286
Cortez, CO
Needing another project (I'm not happy unless I have half a dozen or so projects going) and not being real happy with the quality of the E* SD picture on my Hitachi HDTV, I decided to go with a BUD. After much research, head scratching, confused mumbling to myself, etc. I decided to let Mike Kohl ( http://www.global-cm.net ) figure out what I needed and get them shipped to me.
This definitely is not a DIY project for the faint of heart. Installing the 10' BUD was the hardest part, rented a ditch witch to dig the trench across the drive way to the dish. The walk behind Ditchwitch didn't hack it, had to get the bigger ride on. This southwest Colorado clay is HARD. The BUD instructions wanted a 2' diameter hole 5' deep for the pole. Ended up using an air chisel with a 5' piece of pvc pipe hose clamped to it with a remote air valve to chip out the clay, and a shop vac to vacuum the chips out of the hole. Finally, after three day of chipping got to 18" diameter 4 1/2' deep and said thats good enough. Mixed the concrete (11 bags of quickcrete) and set the 4" od pipe. Used 2-1/2" pvc conduit in the trench. Punching a 3" hole through the concrete foundation to get into the house is another story. Assembling the dish took another 2 days, would have been easier if I had arms like an orangutan, reaching 5' to the center of the dish from the edge to put in screws. Got all the cables hooked up, and started tracking the dish. Took a while to get it tracking, had never done it before. Understanding the principals and doing it are two different things. Ordered a month of the 'get it all' programming from NPS ( http://www.callnps.com ) to see what was available before making a final decision on what to get. Very nice and friendly people. Really go out of their way to help newbies. They gave me a month of the digital pack free.
Looked at the SD programming, had to double check to see if it wasn't HD. The picture quality totally blows E* sd picture quality out of the water. Did side by side comparisons using the same S-vidio input on the Hitachi.
Looking at the HD programming, about the same picture quality, but a lot more choices on BUD. (East and West hbo, starz, etc.).
Only thing not on BUD that I will miss is Hallmark. I have not completely make up my mind, but I think I will keep the E* HD pack, and drop everything else.
Now all I have to do is set up my 'mediacenter' pc to time shift the bud stuff. (Another project.)
All in all, I am not disappointed in what I got. It is an expensive (about 3 grand) alternative to E*, but in my mind worth it. Since I have 2+ acres and am in the county putting up a 10' dish is no problem, but for a lot of people a BUD is not an option.
Bruce
 
Congrats on your BUD!! Now all you need is a DVB receiver and you can get the free digital stuff!

one question though...
and get them shipped to me

How much did it cost to get a 10' dish shipped??
 
Iceberg said:
Congrats on your BUD!! Now all you need is a DVB receiver and you can get the free digital stuff!

one question though...


How much did it cost to get a 10' dish shipped??

Got a Pansat 2500, shipping for everything through Mike was $300 for everything, lots of stuff was 'drop' shipped, Patriot site sez 250 for shipping.
Got a new 4DTV 922, Patriot 3.1 meter dish, Astrotel PM-93-C/Ku, C and Ku Lnb's, DiSEqC switch and Power dividers (splitters), ribbon cable, and the Pansat through Mike, had to get the HDD200 and VCII module off ebay.
If I had done some searching I could have gotten some of the stuff for less, but I was happy to pay a little more for Mike's knowledge and help. Figure overall it cost about 3000 for the complete install, including the stuff I had to get locally, and the ditch-witch rental.
 
bcw said:
Needing another project (I'm not happy unless I have half a dozen or so projects going) and not being real happy with the quality of the E* SD picture on my Hitachi HDTV, I decided to go with a BUD. After much research, head scratching, confused mumbling to myself, etc. I decided to let Mike Kohl ( http://www.global-cm.net ) figure out what I needed and get them shipped to me.
This definitely is not a DIY project for the faint of heart. Installing the 10' BUD was the hardest part, rented a ditch witch to dig the trench across the drive way to the dish. The walk behind Ditchwitch didn't hack it, had to get the bigger ride on. This southwest Colorado clay is HARD. The BUD instructions wanted a 2' diameter hole 5' deep for the pole. Ended up using an air chisel with a 5' piece of pvc pipe hose clamped to it with a remote air valve to chip out the clay, and a shop vac to vacuum the chips out of the hole. Finally, after three day of chipping got to 18" diameter 4 1/2' deep and said thats good enough. Mixed the concrete (11 bags of quickcrete) and set the 4" od pipe. Used 2-1/2" pvc conduit in the trench. Punching a 3" hole through the concrete foundation to get into the house is another story. Assembling the dish took another 2 days, would have been easier if I had arms like an orangutan, reaching 5' to the center of the dish from the edge to put in screws. Got all the cables hooked up, and started tracking the dish. Took a while to get it tracking, had never done it before. Understanding the principals and doing it are two different things. Ordered a month of the 'get it all' programming from NPS ( http://www.callnps.com ) to see what was available before making a final decision on what to get. Very nice and friendly people. Really go out of their way to help newbies. They gave me a month of the digital pack free.
Looked at the SD programming, had to double check to see if it wasn't HD. The picture quality totally blows E* sd picture quality out of the water. Did side by side comparisons using the same S-vidio input on the Hitachi.
Looking at the HD programming, about the same picture quality, but a lot more choices on BUD. (East and West hbo, starz, etc.).
Only thing not on BUD that I will miss is Hallmark. I have not completely make up my mind, but I think I will keep the E* HD pack, and drop everything else.
Now all I have to do is set up my 'mediacenter' pc to time shift the bud stuff. (Another project.)
All in all, I am not disappointed in what I got. It is an expensive (about 3 grand) alternative to E*, but in my mind worth it. Since I have 2+ acres and am in the county putting up a 10' dish is no problem, but for a lot of people a BUD is not an option.
Bruce

A real great site for BUD owners is http://www.satforums.com I was with them for several years. Join the owners only forum for additional info. regarding the use of the generic satellites. My BUD came down about a month ago. The only reason was due to tree growth obstructing my view. Have fun scanning the skies.
 
Too bad NPS is about to offer the 922 for $600 including a year of HBO/MAX next week.
 
rtt2 said:
Too bad NPS is about to offer the 922 for $600 including a year of HBO/MAX next week.

That always happens to me.
After much thinking and so forth, I buy it, and 2 weeks later it's on sale.
Don't know if the 922 NPS is offering is a referb or new, but either way it's a good deal.
I figured that as soon as I got a BUD all the sat's would die.
 
In any case you might wanty to check the battery in the 922. There have been many reports of 4DTVs dying because of bad batterys.
Even if the recever is new there is no telling when it was manufactured. I am not to handy with a soldering iron so I had a buddy do it for me just to be on the safe side and had him replace the battery for me.
Good luck and happy viewing!!!
CBAND is great and the best PQ you can get.

What package have you subscribed to?
 
rtt2 said:
In any case you might wanty to check the battery in the 922. There have been many reports of 4DTVs dying because of bad batterys.
Even if the recever is new there is no telling when it was manufactured. I am not to handy with a soldering iron so I had a buddy do it for me just to be on the safe side and had him replace the battery for me.
Good luck and happy viewing!!!
CBAND is great and the best PQ you can get.

What package have you subscribed to?

NPS's almost everything for a month while I figure out what I really need/want. And yes, the CBand pq blows dish SD out of the water.
 
What a monster project, it sounds like a lot of fun (and hard work) I would really like to install BUD, I am sure it will be well worth it, well done!
 
So I would assume that the 4DTV offers more HD than what Voom does. Do they make an HD DVR? Is the programming actually cheaper? I figure that the hardware is probably a little more expensive.
 
I am not cost conscious at all with my BUD programming. I guess I am stupid; but it is my real splurge in life. I have my BUD at the Vermont house and almost like it more than skiing. When I go up to the house I love the programming and variety sooo much I don't wan't to leave. It is just too bad I can't install a BUD at home (community & trees).
When you narrow down your programming choice, make sure to call a NPS outbound rep. You will get the best deal through them. I get pretty much everything, but have been able to keep costs under control trough the years with my rep.
 
Is superstar still in the programing business? that was who i dealt with for some of my bud programming... still have my old uniden and gi recievers with irds, still plugged in so vc2's should be good. No s video though :( also have a standalone vc2 unit with no ird.
 
Yea Superstar aka Netlink aka TurnerVision are now all one company. Just a few months ago GemstarTVGuide sold Superstar to Echostar. Now the 200,000 subs that were Superstar are controlled by Charlie.
Charlie's hope is to convert these subs to small dish customers. I hear reps get cash incentives to convert customers to DBS. Its really an end of an era now that the majority of CBand subs are controlled by the DBS giant.
I understand its business.
Rupert would not be as merciful in control of Superstar if he bought it. At least Charlie started in CBand and knows the business.
 
bcw said:
Now all I have to do is set up my 'mediacenter' pc to time shift the bud stuff.

Bruce

If you don't know about it, you might want to take a look at Tape It All. You can buy just the software, if you want. No need to get their whole package.


-- Kirk
 
Stargazer said:
So I would assume that the 4DTV offers more HD than what Voom does.

You would be wrong. There is less available then what Voom offers.


Do they make an HD DVR?

No.


Is the programming actually cheaper?

Usually it is.


I figure that the hardware is probably a little more expensive.

It's a lot more expensive and some of it isn't made anymore.


-- Kirk
 
Congratulations on your setup, I have been a happy BUD user for over 10 years and like you said SD PQ kicks dirt all over the other systems. I just want to say that although 4DTV has less HD then Voom the SD PQ is so good that I can live with that for now. I also like the fact that 4DTV has so many more movie channels and the programming is much cheaper.
 
Did you get the Hitachi that has virtual HD in it to make SD look more like HD? If so does it actually improve the SD picture quality or does it not do anything for it?
 
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