getting started:
I believe your old single LNB DirecTV dish is currently pointed at 101° .
Don't think you 'll get anything with an FTA receiver on that bird, with the circular LNB on your dish.
If you can repoint the dish to 119° , then you could get NASA and Angle One (a religious channel), as well as a few barker channels from Dish Network which are not encrypted.
If that is sufficient to get you into the hobby, then that'd be great.
For something more serious, I'd recommend a 36" dish, equipped with a linear LNB (not circular).
They are generally marked Universal or Standard, in the adverts.
Standard would be a little easier to use, but if you find Universals, they will work fine as well.
Here's a good
beginner's list for what's on the various Ku-band birds.
And as to how to
aim a dish at any satellite, here is one of the better web sites.
Yea, all the standard def DVB FTA receivers have composite video out (yellow RCA plug).
That should hook to most any analog TV with a video input.
Many SD FTA receivers also have S-video output, and some even have Component out.
It's common to find optical or coaxial Digital audio out, which you would hook to your hi-fi for Dolby decoding.
And of course, they all have the usual red/white RCA audio outputs, too.
Tell us what sort of programming you like, any restrictions on hardware (height, size, location, cost) you might have, etc, and we'll try to tailor the best answers for you.
Also, we can recommend for and against some receivers, so run that by the guys here before you spend your money.
Welcome aboard! -
