Fta Firmware Update

Free to air receivers (FTAs) are designed to receive unencrypted satellite television and radio programming without paying for a subscription service. By installing a suitable satellite dish and FTA receiver, a consumer is able to enjoy a large number of television channels. Most FTA receivers are designed to receive FTA signals encoded using MPEG-2 video; however, some programming can be restricted based on geographic area.

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What Equipment is Required to Enjoy Free to Air Programming?

The basic requirements for enjoying FTA programming are a satellite dish meeting the specifics required for the broadcasting service, an FTA receiver, a satellite dish motor if you want to use more than one satellite at a time, a LNBF, and coaxial cable to run from the dish to the free to air (FTA) receiver. When setting up a FTA service, both C and K band dishes generally work for most consumers. Most programming found today is transmitted n the 11.7 to 12.2 GHz Ku band using the DVB-S standard which allows smaller dishes such as those used with the popular Dish Network and DirecTV commercial services. Early users of FTA services primarily installed larger C-band dishes that were initially designed to receive analog and later digital programming in the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz frequency bands. Most FTA receivers sold on the market today require firmware for the device be updated on a regular basis to ensure services can be sustained at the installation location.

What are the Desired Features in an FTA Receiver?

Some of the important features that one should look for when shopping for a Free to Air receiver include:
– Is there an EPB (Electronic Program Guide) included with the receiver?
– Is there a built-in DVR or PVR (Personal Video Recorder) capability included with the receiver?
– Is there a S-Video output for the receiver?
– Does the receiver support OSD (On Screen Display)?
– Does the OSD include the ability to rename, move, and delete channels?
– Is there a dual tuner capability on the receiver to allow you to record one channel while watching another?
– Does the receiver have picture-in-picture capability?
– Is Dolby SPDIF output capability supported by the receiver?
– Is there a PIG/PIP interface installed on the receiver?
– Is there a “Blind Search Power Scan” capability to find all channels transmitted by a given satellite?

Popular FTA Satellite Receiver Vendors

The following are some of the popular FTA satellite receiver vendors on the market at the time of this writing.

Coolsat Receivers – Coolsat uses state of the art FTA technology. Coolsat 5000 or the Coolsat 6000 are good products. Coolsat 5000 is one of the popular Coolsat series products, with Coolsat 6000 also being a top class product. Coolsat products are also bundled with 5 years warranty with new models being released as technology improves.

Fortec Receiver – Fortec Lifetime Ultra is a decent product for most television viewers.
Pansat Receiver – Pansat is one of the major companies in the satellite television business. The company’s product range includes: Pansat 2500 Bin, Pansat 2500a, Pansat 2700, Pansat 2700a, Pansat 3500, Pansat 3500 Receiver, Pansat 3500 Receivers, Pansat 3500 SD, Pansat Bin, Pansat Files, Pansat Key Data, and Pansat Last Bin.
Viewsat – Viewsat provides a wide range of products that cater to satellite television consumers. Some of the popular Viewsat products include Viewsat 2000, Viewsat Files, Viewsat Receiver, Viewsat Ultra, and Viewsat Xtreme.
Sonicview Receiver – Sonicview has a high competitive edge on Pansat and Viewsat. There are numerous features on their latest receivers to include most of the desirable features in a FTA receiver.
Additional quality FTA satellite receiver manufacturers include Ariza, BlackBird, Digiwave, MultiStar, Twinhan, and UltraStar.

How Do You Setup a FTA Satellite Dish?

The initial setup of an FTA satellite dish can prove to be a bit challenging for the consumer who is new to free to air programming. Most satellites will be in orbit about the Earth at a range of more than 22,000 miles making the task of finding the correct satellite a potentially difficult task. The following are basic guidelines to follow when setting up a FTA dish.

Step 1 – Use a tool such as the Sadoun Satellite Look Angle Calculator to obtain the required information to aim your satellite dish. The tool is based on the Google Maps API and requires the consumer to enter their current street address. Once loaded, the page will provide a listing of available satellites that are visible from the input location.
Step 2 – View the output of the Satellite Look Angle Calculator once you have selected the desired satellite. The information will need to be recorded for entry into your FTA receiver or for direct use in aiming the satellite dish. The information output will be the exact latitude and longitude of the dwelling or home, the elevation for the dish (number of degrees above the horizontal the dish will need to be to find the southern-most satellite), the azimuth of the southernmost satellite, and both the true/magnetic azimuth of the location.
Step 3 – If the satellite dish as a motor, center the dish at in the middle of the range. There will normally be a scale located around the mounting tube which holds the dish. There will likely be a mechanical switch that will trip when the dish passes the zero mark that can be audibly heard if it is not possible to view the scale when moving the dish.
Step 4 – There should also be a scale located on the side of the motor mount representing the latitude for the dish (how far either south or north of the equator that the dish is located). Adjust the scale to be as close as possible to the latitude for your home’s location.
Step 5 – Using an engineering compass, site a bearing on the magnetic azimuth provided by the Satellite Look Angle Calculator. Once the bearing is taken, twist the clamps holding the satellite dish in place to have the center of the dish point in that direction. It may take a number of attempts to properly sight the dish depending on how you have it mounted.
Step 6 – Set the elevation of the dish by locating the base elevation of the motor mount (normally located in the owner’s manual or on the manufacturer’s website). Then, subtract the elevation provided by the Satellite Look Angle Calculator. Use the elevation adjustor located on the side of the dish mount to make the appropriate setting.
Step 7 – Set an inclinometer on the dish’s LNBF and rotate until the pointer of the device shows the appropriate skew number for the location. After initial setup, the LNBF adjustment can be further refined by having an assistant monitor the signal quality display on the satellite receiver while making additional adjustments until you have a clear television picture.

How Do You Setup a Free to Air Receiver?

Although a properly installed free to air receiver lets a consumer enjoy free satellite television programming, most devices require an initial setup or configuration after purchase before a consumer can start watching FTA programming. In recent years, FTA receivers have also been upgraded to support HD broadcasts and Digital Video Recorder (DVR) services equivalent to what is provided by commercial satellite services.
Step 1 – If your home does not already have a coaxial cable run from the satellite dish installation point to the external cable box, you will need to run the cable. This step can prove to be the most difficult for many consumers. You will need to purchase enough coaxial cable to make it from the dish to the cable box as well as the appropriate fasteners for the structure of the home or apartment. Some consumers will contract this part of the process to a professional installation service to avoid potential injury or damaging the dwelling. Connect the cable to the LNB coaxial port on the FTA dish.
Step 2 – If the dwelling does not have an external cable box to terminate the coaxial line form the satellite dish, you will need to choose an appropriate point to run the cable into the home or apartment. For most homes, this location will either be the attic or from the crawl space beneath the home. Depending on the length of the coaxial run, you might find it necessary at a later point to install a signal booster on the coaxial line.
Step 3 – Place the free to air receiver in the desired location in the apartment or home.
Step 4 – Connect the coaxial cable to the “SAT IN” port on the free to air receiver. For most receivers, this port will be located on the back of the device.
Step 5 – Ensure you match the yellow, white, and red cables on the receiver’s “OUT” port to the same ports on the television. If you have a newer receiver, there may be a digital or HDMI out port that can be used. Most receivers will not sell with the appropriate connecting cable for the television, so you will want to verify what type of connections are supported before starting the FTA receiver installation process.
Step 6 – Insert the free to air receiver’s power cable into an appropriate power source and turn on the device.
Step 7 – Turn on the television set and change the input source to the one being used by the FTA receiver.
Step 8 – Using the FTA receiver remote control (or control panel on the set top box), select the “Satellite” menu option. Then, pick the satellite that you installed the dish to receive from the available listing of available satellites from the menu. Once you have found the appropriate option, press the “OK” or equivalent menu option.
Step 9 – Choose the “LNB” heading menu option from the FTA receiver menu. Then, select the appropriate LNB type for the dish and the associated frequency.
Step 10 – Pick the “Satellite Scan” or equivalent menu option to download the available channels from the satellite that the dish is setup to receive programming from.
Step 11 – If required, restart the free to air receiver and start enjoying the free television programming.

How Do You Program a Free to Air Receiver?

Most free to air receivers are designed to be updated at various intervals with revised firmware to ensure the quality of operation remains consistent. The firmware updates typically consist of a new “.bin” file that includes the current stations and programming for the supported satellites. These files are typically downloaded from the FTA receiver manufacturer’s website and then installed onto the set top box.
Step 1 – Launch the Internet browser on a computer that is online.
Step 2 – Navigate to the website of the free to air receiver’s manufacturer.
Step 3 – Choose the receiver installed in the home from the available listing on the website.
Step 4 – Select the download link beside the latest firmware update or .bin file on the site. Accept any menu prompts and continue with downloading the file(s) to your computer.
Step 5 – Insert a USB flash drive into the computer. Move or transfer the firmware updates to the drive and then remove the device.
Step 6 – Turn off the FTA receiver unless the directions that came with the device state otherwise.
Step 7 – Plug the USB flash drive into the appropriate USB port on your free to air receiver and turn on the device.
Step 8 – Once the receiver detects the drive, the firmware will automatically be uploaded to the device. Ensure the television is turned on to see a real-time update of the installation progress.
Step 9 – Restart the FTA receiver if it does not automatically do so after the firmware update is complete to finish the installation process.

A free-to-air or FTA Receiver is a satellite television receiver designed to receive unencrypted broadcasts. Modern decoders are typically compliant with the MPEG-2/DVB-S and more recently the MPEG-4/DVB-S2 standard for digital television, while older FTA receivers relied on analog satellite transmissions which have declined rapidly in recent years.

• 1Uses
• 2Common features
• 3Controversy

Uses[edit]

Mainstream broadcast programming[edit]

In some countries, it is common for mainstream broadcasters to broadcast their channels over satellite as FTA.^[1] Most notably, in the German-speaking countries, most of the main terrestrial broadcasters, such as ARD Das Erste and ZDF offer FTA satellite broadcasts, as do some of the more recent satellite rivals such as Sat.1 and RTL. The satellites on which these channels broadcast, at Astra's 19.2° ea position, are receivable throughout most of Europe.

In the UK, all the original five terrestrial broadcasters, BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, and Five broadcast FTA on digital satellite in some form.

Ethnic and religious programming[edit]

FTA receivers are sold in the United States and Canada for the purpose of viewing unencrypted free-to-air satellite channels, the bulk of which are located on Galaxy 19 (97°W, K_u band).^[2] There is also a substantial amount of Christian-based programming available on several satellites over both North America and Europe, such as The God Channel, JCTV, EWTN, and 3ABN.

Educational programming[edit]

The PBS Satellite Service offers educational programming on K_u bandDVB from the AMC-21 satellite (125°W).^[3] As there is no standard MPEG audio on many of these channels, the AC3-only feeds require a Dolby Digital-capable receiver. They are otherwise free. Channels include PBS-HD/PBS-X as well as various secondary programmes normally carried on digital subchannels of PBS terrestrial member stations.

The main PBS New York feed is absent from the free-to-air version of the PBS satellite service to afford local terrestrial member stations a chance to broadcast material before it becomes available on PBS-X or PBS-HD. Typically, PBS-X feeds carried programmes (except news) a day later than the main terrestrial PBS network.

US terrestrial broadcasters[edit]

Many of these channels carried programming from major network television affiliates, although these are disappearing, particularly on K_u-band.^[4]

Equity Broadcasting used one K_u band (Galaxy 18, 123°W) and one C-band satellite feed as a key part of its Equity C.A.S.H. centralcasting operation; many small UHF local stations were fed from one central point in Little Rock, Arkansas via free-to-air satellite. Most were members of secondary terrestrial networks, including both US English- and Spanish-language broadcasters, and content from satellite broadcasts often fed over-the-air digital subchannels of terrestrial stations. Programming such as the Retro Television Network or Retro Jams had been provided at various times; music video broadcasters Mas Música and The Tube were formerly available at 123°W before being taken over (Mas Música is now MTV3) or ceasing operations.

Similarly, unencrypted K_u bandsatellite television was also used temporarily in the aftermath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina as a means to feed NBC programming into New Orleans from the studios of an out-of-state broadcaster; the feeds contained the content, branding and station identification of the damaged New Orleans station in a form suitable for direct feed to a transmitter (with no further studio processing) in the target market.

Paradoxically, many Equity-owned local UHF stations obtained solid national satellite coverage despite small terrestrial LPTV footprints that barely covered their nominal home communities. In many cases, this brought smaller networks and Spanish-language broadcasting to communities which otherwise would have no free access to this content.

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As television market statistics for these stations from firms such as Nielsen Media Research are based on counting viewership within the footprint of the corresponding terrestrial signal, television ratings severely underestimated or failed to estimate the number of households receiving programming such as Univision from FTA satellite feeds. The liquidation of Equity Broadcasting's station group in mid-2009 greatly reduced the number of US terrestrial stations available from K_u band free-to-air satellite; while a very small handful of uplinked terrestrial stations remain free (mostly on C-band, which requires a much larger antenna) these are from other, independent sources.

Rural and hobby use[edit]

Over-the-air digital TV signals do not reach very far outside the city in which they are transmitted. FTA receivers can be used in rural locations as a fairly reliable source of television without subscribing to cable or a major satellite provider.

Terrestrial broadcasters use some of the nearly 30 North American satellites to transmit their feeds for internal purposes. These unencrypted feeds can then be received by anyone with the proper decoder. Satellite signals are normally receivable well beyond the terrestrial station's coverage area. Enthusiasts also use FTA receivers to watch the numerous wildfeeds that are present on many of those satellites.

In theory, a viewer in Glendive, Montana (the smallest North American TV market) could have received what little local CBS and NBC programming is available terrestrially, alongside a K_u band free-to-air dish for additional commercial networks (such as individual ABC and Fox TV affiliates from Equity Broadcasting, formerly at 123°W) and educational programming (PBS Satellite Service at 125°W). There is no assurance that any individual FTA broadcast will remain available or that those which do remain will continue broadcast in a compatible format - in this example, such a viewer would have lost ABC and Fox in mid-2009 due to Equity's bankruptcy.

Signal piracy[edit]

Free-To-Air receivers generally use the same technology standards (such as DVB-S, MPEG-2) as those used by pay-TV networks such as Echostar's Dish Network and BCE's Bell TV. FTA receivers, however, lack the smartcard readers or decryption modules designed for the reception of pay-TV programming, since the receivers are designed only for reception of unencrypted transmissions.

On occasion, where a pay-TV service's encryption system has been very seriously compromised, to the extent that it can be emulated in software and without the presence of a valid access card, hackers have been able to reverse-engineer an FTA receiver's software and add the necessary emulation to allow unauthorized reception of pay TV channels. Manufacturers, importers, and distributors of FTA receivers officially do not condone this practice and some will not sell to or support individuals who they believe will be using their products for this purpose, use of third-party software usually voiding any warranties.

Unlike traditional methods of pirate decryption that involve altered smart cards used with satellite receivers manufactured and distributed by the provider, piracy involving FTA receivers require only an update to the receiver's firmware. Electronic countermeasures that disable access cards may not have the same or any effect on FTA receivers because they are not capable of being updated remotely. The firmware in receivers themselves cannot be overwritten with malicious code via satellite as provider-issued receivers are.

FTA receivers also have the advantage of being able to receive programming from multiple providers plus legitimate free-to-air DVB broadcasts which are not part of any package, a valuable capability which is conspicuously absent from most 'package receivers' sold by DBS providers. DVB-S is an international standard and thus the industry-imposed restriction that a Bell TV receiver is not interchangeable with a Dish Network receiver (the same box) and neither are interchangeable with a GlobeCast World TV receiver (also DVB) is an artificial one created by providers and not respected by either pirates or legitimate unencrypted FTA viewers.

Periodically, a provider will change the processes in which its encryption information is sent. When this happens, illegitimate viewing is disrupted. Third-party coders may release an updated altered version of the FTA receiver software on internet forums, sometimes hours to days after the countermeasure is implemented, although some countermeasures have allowed the encryption to remain secure for several months or longer. The receivers, meanwhile, remain able to receive unencrypted DVB-S broadcasts and (for some HDTV models) terrestrial ATSC programming. The same is not true of standard subscription TV receivers, whereby unsubscribing from a pay-TV package causes loss of all channels.

The use of renewable security allows providers to send new smart cards to all subscribers as existing compromised encryption schemes (such as Nagravision 1 and 2) are replaced with new schemes (currently Nagravision 3). This 'card swap' process can provide pay-TV operators with more effective control over pirate decryption, but at the expense of replacing smart cards in all existing subscribed receivers. While this approach is used by most providers, deployments tend to be slowed due to cost.

While smart-card piracy often involves individuals who re-program access cards for others (usually for a price), piracy using FTA receivers involves third-party software that is relatively easy to upload to the receiver and can even be uploaded using a USB device, network, or serial link (a process called 'flashing'). Most such firmware is distributed freely on the Internet. Websites that third-party coders use to share this software often have anywhere from 50,000 to over 200,000 registered users.

Another method of pirate decryption that has become popular recently is known as Internet Key Sharing (IKS). This is accomplished by an Ethernet cable hooked to the receiver that allows updated decryption keys to be fed to the unit directly from the internet. The DVB-S common scrambling system and the various conditional access systems are based on the use of a legitimately subscribed smart cards which generates a continuous stream of cryptographic keys usable to decrypt one channel on a receiver. A key-sharing scheme operates by redistributing these keys in real-time to multiple receivers in an unlimited number of locations so that one valid smartcard may serve almost 10000 viewers.

As of June 2009 this was the only active pirate decryption system still in widespread use in North American satellite TV, due to the shutdown of the compromised Nagravision 2 system by providers such as Dish Network and Bell TV.

However, this is limited by the interval of the stream of keys or also called CW (Control Words). Usually, the interval for the renewal of the CWs is ±10 seconds, but other systems (i.e. NDS3) have CW intervals of 5 seconds or less. Each channel usually has a different set of CWs for decryption and thus each box currently watching a specific channel must periodically request the current CWs from the server/smart-card for that specific channel. So arguably, the sharing of the card might not be unlimited. There are some restrictions to this like the frequency of CW changes and also the latency of the network. If the CWs do not arrive in time, there could be a freeze or crackle in the picture.

There are of course other more costly possibilities like having several legitimately subscribed cards each handling a few channels and a CW caching server.

The dependence on an external server also compromises privacy for individual viewers,^[5] as well as rendering the system incompatible with many receiver models which lack the ability to connect to an outside network and/or lack the ability to set or modify the various keys or identifiers used in communication between the card and receiver.

Common features[edit]

Installation menu[edit]

This is the main control panel that allows the user to configure the receiver to interact with LNBs, switches, motors, and other equipment. The user selects the LNB type, local oscillator frequency, appropriate DiSEqC switch port, and motor configuration. If all the settings are correct for the appropriate equipment, a signal bar showing strength and quality will appear. At that point, the receiver can be used to scan the satellite to detect channels.

Blind scan[edit]

There are 63 satellites in orbit over the Americas, 57 over Europe and a further 64 over Asia, a significant number of which will be receivable from any one location. Each of these has a different number of active transponders. Each transponder operates at a different frequency and symbol rate. Many FTA receivers are designed to detect any active transponders and any channels on those transponders. Because they are designed to do this without needing to be pre-programmed with the transponder information for each satellite, this process is referred to as a 'blind' scan—as opposed to a satellite scan, which scans according to pre-set transponder values.

Channel edit/sort[edit]

Once a scan is complete, the channels can often be sorted alphabetically, in satellite/transponder order, or in scrambled/unscrambled order. Additionally, third-party software often allows the option of sorting by the channel's Station Identification (SID) number. This is so that the individual channels can be numbered in a way that mimics the lineup of Dish Network or Bell TV. Channels can also be renamed or deleted, either in an on-screen menu or with external software.

The most popular software used to configure and sort channels was a database program called Channel Master, which allowed the user to name, number, sort, and delete channels and then save them in a format that can then be written to the receiver. The file created that contains channel information is called a channel list. This channel editor application is not affiliated with the similarly-named antenna manufacturer and appears to have last been updated in 2008. Many older and discontinued receiver models are supported in Channel Master, though most newer and less popular ones are not.

User settings[edit]

Most FTA receivers give the user the option of configuring the language, aspect ratio, TV type (NTSC/PAL), and time settings.

Typically, most FTA receivers can accept an MPEG2 video stream in either PAL-compatible (540/704/720 x 576) or NTSC-compatible (640 x 480) image formats and convert it for display on either a PAL or NTSC monitor. There is some loss of image data due to NTSC's lower resolution. Some receivers also support output to SCART, S-Video, HDMI or component video.

Parental control[edit]

All FTA receivers contain a parental lock feature.

DiSEqC switch and motor control[edit]

Unlike package receivers promoted for use with a limited number of satellites controlled by an individual pay-TV provider, an FTA receiver is designed to be capable of receiving any free signals from all available satellites visible in a given location. To fully exploit this capability, most K_u band FTA receivers will control a DiSEqC motor which can rotate a single dish to view one of any number of multiple satellites.

An alternate approach of pointing a fixed dish (or LNB) at each satellite to be received (then feeding the individual signals into a remotely controlled switch) is compatible both with standard FTA receivers and the more-restricted pay-TV 'package receiver'. The most common standard for use with FTA receivers is a DiSEqC switch which normally allows automatic selection of signal from four satellites. A simpler two-position remote switch operated by a 22 kHz tone is also occasionally used for North American reception, but this configuration is not compatible with European-style universal LNB's which use the tone internally for band-switching.

A toroidal antenna may be used with multiple LNB's to receive multiple satellites in various locations over a 40° arc. Unlike the single parabola of a standard satellite dish antenna (which is best adapted to focus one target satellite to a single point), the toroidal antenna uses a reflector pair to focus multiple signals to a line.

Individual adjacent or near-adjacent pairs (such as Glorystar on 97°W and 101°W) may be received, due to their close proximity, with two LNB's on what otherwise looks geometrically to be a standard parabolic dish. The outputs from these individual LNB's may then be fed through a switch to a receiver, providing access to all signals on both satellites.

Electronic program guide[edit]

An on-screen program schedule can be accessed that also contains descriptive information about a selected program. The availability and quality of programme guide information varies widely between broadcasters (some provide nothing) and the ability of receivers to collect and store guide listings from multiple sources is also variable. Receivers with more memory (or storage on external devices such as hard drives) are often, but not always, better equipped to store and retrieve on-screen programme listings. In some cases, a receiver with both satellite and terrestrial tuners will provide on-screen guide support for one mode of operation but not both.

PVR functions[edit]

A few high-end receivers feature the ability to record programs, pause, and review live TV. Often, a hard drive is not included when the unit is purchased, which allows the user to install any desired hard disk drive. Many newer units are equipped with a USB 2.0 port that allows the user to connect a portable hard drive; at least one unit (the Pansat 9200HD) uses external SATA as PVR media storage.

Some receivers, such as TripleDragon or Dream Multimedia's Linux-based Dreambox series, provide local area network interfaces. This allows the use of network-attached storage to provide PVR-like functions (some of these models also include internal hard drives or USB) and allows the unit to be controlled or updated via network.

The use of desktop personal computer cards to deploy DVB-S or terrestrial digital television tuners allows the computer's hard drive and network storage to be used to archive electronic programme guide information and recorded television programming. Most or all of the base PVR functionality becomes available by default at little or no added cost.

MPEG4 and 4:2:2[edit]

Most standard FTA receivers support DVB-S, MPEG-2, 480i or 576iSDTV received as unencrypted QPSK from K_u band satellites.

Rarely supported by stand-alone FTA receivers, but likely to be supported by FTA DVB-S tuners for personal computers, are MPEG-4 and MPEG2 4:2:2, variants on the MPEG compression algorithm which provide more compression and more colour resolution, respectively. As personal computers handle much of the video decompression in software, any codec could be easily substituted on the desktop.

High-definition television is also beginning to be supported by a limited-number of high-end receivers; at least one high-end stand-alone receiver (the Quali-TV 1080IR) supports both 4:2:2 and HDTV.

4:2:2 is a version of MPEG-2 compression used in network feeds such as NBC on K_u band (103°W). Some broadcast networks use 4:2:2 encoding for otherwise-unencrypted transmission of sports events to local terrestrial stations, as it provides slightly better colour than the standard 4:2:0 compression.

In some cases support for additional standards (such as DVB-S2, MPEG-4 and 8PSK) will also become necessary to receive a viewable signal.^[6] The use of newer means of modulation and compression is likely to become more widespread for high-definition television feeds, in order to partially offset the larger amount of transponder space required to deliver high-definition video to television stations.

Terrestrial DTV[edit]

In countries using the DVB-T and DVB-C standards for terrestrial digital television and digital cable, a few higher-end receivers provide an option to install terrestrial DVB tuners either alongside or in place of the stock DVB-S tuner. Dream Multimedia's DreamBox series, for instance, supports this in a few selected models.

In countries using ATSC, inclusion of terrestrial tuners in DVB-S FTA receivers is rare, with one key exception. Some HDTV FTA receivers incorporate terrestrial ATSC tuners. These typically do not support ATSC's unique major.minordigital subchannel numbering scheme or the on-screen program guide but are capable of displaying (or timeshifting) local HDTV with no loss in detail. Channels from these receivers are numbered using FTA conventions, by which the first channel found is most often arbitrarily given channel 1 as its virtual channel number.

HDTV[edit]

A few high-end receivers feature HDTV. In North America, these often include an ATSC over-the-air digital television tuner and MPEG-4 support. A few HDTV units allow for the addition of a UHF remote control. However, an 8PSK module can be installed in place of the UHF remote and allows the receiver to decode the format used on most Dish Network high definition programming.

These units are superior to DVD recorders for time-shifting HDTV programming, as most DVD units down-convert OTA HDTV signals to standard-definition to match the limitations of the DVD standard. An HDTV FTA receiver with ATSC capability and USB storage can record one channel from a terrestrial or satellite DTV transport stream entirely losslessly, although the on-screen guide for terrestrial reception is often limited and viewing or storage of analog NTSC channels is not supported.

Controversy[edit]

Availability of free programming[edit]

While significant amounts of programming remain free, there is no assurance to viewers that any individual broadcast currently available free-to-air will remain so. Some will inevitably move to incompatible signal formats (such as MPEG 4:2:2, 8PSK, DVB-S2, or MPEG-4), change from free to encrypted, move to different satellite locations (often across bands, where C band reception requires much larger antennae) or shut down entirely.

Many of the signals are backhaul or 'wildfeed' video destined to individual stations, or are feeds to terrestrial transmitters programmed remotely. These were not intentionally created as direct satellite broadcasts to home viewers, but often had been left unencrypted (in the clear) on the assumption that few people were watching. As free-to-air receivers became inexpensive and widely deployed in the 2000s, many of these feeds moved to C band (requiring a huge dish), were encrypted or changed to incompatible modulation or encoding standards which required more advanced receivers, even though the corresponding terrestrial television broadcast may still be free-to-air in its home community.

The onus is on receiver vendors to voluntarily indicate, whenever they use lists of currently available FTA programming for marketing purposes, that free channels frequently may appear, move and disappear, often on a permanent basis, with no advance notice. One North American example was Equity Broadcasting, once a major source of small local terrestrial stations on free satellite television. Equity filed for Chapter 11bankruptcy on December 9, 2008 and most of Equity's terrestrial stations were sold at auction in mid-2009.^[7] As many of the stations (such as New York state'sWNGS and WNYI) were sold to Daystar and now originate nothing, the corresponding unique free-to-air signals (Galaxy 18, 123°W) are no more.^[8] Even where a signal still exists, an incompatible signal format such as that of the NBC feeds (AMC 1 at 103°W, now requires 8PSK, DVB-S2 and HDTV support to receive anything) can remove a channel from virtually all standard FTA receivers.

Receiver obsolescence[edit]

Many receivers will provide options for hardware expansion (such as to add 8PSK reception or DVB Common Interface TV subscription cards) and firmware upgrade (either officially or from nominally third-party sources). Most often, once the individual receiver model is discontinued, this support and expandability rapidly disappears from all sources. The migration of existing feeds to formats such as MPEG-4, HDTV, or DVB-S2 (which many current receivers do not support) may also result in viewers losing existing free programming as equipment becomes rapidly obsolete. Unlike digital terrestrial set-top boxes, most standard-definition DVB-S receivers do not down-convert HD programming and thus produce no usable video for these signals.

There have also been incidents where existing receiver designs have been 'cloned' or copied by competing manufacturers; a manufacturer will often reduce support for a widely copied receiver design. In some cases, malware has been released, ostensibly in the same format as existing third-party firmware, in an attempt to interfere with the further use of a widely cloned receiver's design.

Legal issues[edit]

FTA receivers are ostensibly designed for free-to-air use but can be adapted for other purposes. In some jurisdictions, this dual-use nature can cause problems. Thus, combatting piracy involving FTA receivers has been difficult using legal means.

Popular brands[edit]

Peripheral equipment[edit]

See also[edit]

• PBS Satellite Service formerly on AMC-3 (87°W), now on AMC-21 (125°W)
• GlobeCast World TV (former television service) and ethnic television on Galaxy 19 (97°W)
• Glorystar and religious broadcasting on Galaxy 19 (97°W)
• Equity Broadcasting formerly on Galaxy 18 (123°W), now defunct
• Home2US free-to-air and subscription ethnic programming on SES-1 (101°W)
• Retro Television Network on AMC-9 (83°W, C-Band)
• White Springs Television formerly on Galaxy 27 (129°W), no longer on satellite due to uplink failure
• Bell TV, Dish Network and pirate decryption issues surrounding these systems

References[edit]

1. ^'Satbeams - World Of Satellites at your fingertips'. Satbeams Web and Mobile.
2. ^http://www.lyngsat.com/galaxy19.html - the largest source of free ethnic satellite TV in North America
3. ^http://www.lyngsat.com/amc21.html carries a wide range of PBS educational programming
4. ^Free TV from the United States, Lyngsat satellite TV directory, Christian Lyngemark
5. ^A website Satscams.com, owned and operated by NagraStar LLC (a joint venture between EchoStar and Kudelski), contains a long list of boasts of lawsuits and litigation against individual Internet Key Sharing end users and receiver manufacturers such as nFusion, Kbox, Viewtech, Sonicview, Freetech and Panarex.
6. ^'Lyngsat - AMC 15/18 at 105°W requires 8PSK, C-band, MPEG4, DVB-S2 for NBC reception'. lyngsat.com.
7. ^'MSN - Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos'. www.msnbc.msn.com.
8. ^http://www.lyngsat.com/galaxy18.html - the former home of Equity Broadcasting on FTA DVB-S, now largely vacant

External links[edit]

• Channel Master editor (archived, last update October 2008)