FTA Receivers and Hardware

Many people get confused when attempting to buy hardware for their new FTA system. Here we explain the basics so that the average 'newbie' can as least guestimate the costs and setup time.

Satellite Dish and LNB Converter

Obviously, you will need a satellite dish for your FTA system. These days, you don't need dish 6' in diameter! In fact, many dishes are now about 12"-18". Depending on your region and what your exact purpose for the satellite dish, your local dish provider can guide you to the right one. Often times there are many choices available, suiting your budget. Once installed, the satellite picks up a signal from a satellite. These signals are very high frequency and the cabling necessary to house these signals is very expensive. Enter the LNB or Low Noise Block Converter. This is a piece of hardware, usually attached to the end of the satellite antenna. What it does is convert the signal to lower frequencies so that the signal can pass through normal cabling with degradation and the FTA receiver in your living room can 'read' it. So, the signal hits the parabola of your dish, is directed to the LNBC where it is converted and sent through cabling to your FTA receiver - pretty simple huh?

FTA Receivers

FTA receivers have been around longer than you might think. The reason FTA is becoming popular only now is the result of a) more exposure via the internet, and b) technology prices decreasing. You may have paid $5000 for a satellite receiver in the early 80's, where now you can get a state of the art FTA receiver for about $200. FTA receivers are just like VCR's in the sense that they are 'set top' boxes with LED displays. Newer receivers have PVR (record shows) capability and many other features such as 7 day program guides, etc.

FTA receivers are the brain of the FTA operation. They take a signal coming from the LNB and decrypt it so that it can be viewed on the television screen. Different receivers decrypt in different ways, but in most cases you will need what are called FTA keys to decrypt channels. You can find FTA keys on many websites. Make sure you chose one that is trustworthy and offers support for you setup. FTA Keys used to have to be inputted by a professional - usually people would take them to a satellite store and pay big prices while waiting for their receiver to be 'programmed'. These days, receivers are much easier to program. Some receivers, like the NFusion Nova, connects wirelessly to your internet and does all the work for you! Some popular FTA receiver brands are NFusion, Coolsat and PAnsat. There are also many 'clone' receivers that use the same codes as these three main receiver types.

DVB PCI

As receivers became less costly and easier to manage, some manufacturers decided to start making receivers for the PC. These are called DVB PCI cards. Essentially they are FTA receivers that plug into a PCI slot on your PC. There are many advantages to this. First of all, downloaded updates, FTA Keys and firmware updates are a snap. Second, you can easily watch television right on your monitor. Another advantage is the PVR capability - it is much easier to record and view television on a computer screen where you can 'see' the menus, fast forward, skip toggle etc. These DVB PCI cards can also attach to your television so that you can watch them channels in the comfort of your living room. Many people watch television on their PC monitors while surfing the Internet or working (!).

Future of FTA Hardware

New technology is growing exponentially. The future of FTA seems to be two fold. One new technology is fully automated 'wireless' satellites. No more cabling when installing. The satellite dish will work wirelessly, and will automatically adjust to receive signals from different satellites. All of this can be controlled right from your PC. Further, the technology of the PCI cards will probably grow as well. In time, there will be no need for updates and no wait time with outages. Autorolls will be fully automatic in the sense that you never have to configure anything - it is all done automatically via the internet.

Who knows what other technological advances we may see in the future (like the transfer of electricity wirelessly). We can only wait and see - and then wait again for the prices to go down!