ATTN:satillite dish owners

[royceg420]

I want to get a dish for the sole purpose of watching UFC/Pride/and whatever else they have for NHB but I don't want to spend all that extra money all year for 1 or 2 events. If you would, please tell me what kind you have(DSS,Direct TV,etc..) and how many, what kind, and how often events are broadcasted.

[bobby_steeles]

i'm interested, too. do you have to sign up for a whole year? i'm too lazy to look this up or call people...

[hounddog]

it can be more or less expensive than cable. depends on the package you choose and your current cable subscription, if any.

I have DirectTV. I have two boxes, i get the get total choice package -- .total choice
-- plus the sports package.

total choice: $31.99
local channels: ~$5
Second Box: ~$5
Sports pack: $10
total: ~ $52

I am not charged city, county taxes as I was with cable.

PPV events come about every 4-6 weeks or so.
Scrap cable. Cable sucks

[bobby_steeles]

i'm with you man. cable does suck.
is the $5 for local channels getting you nbc,cbs,abc? otherwise you need an old fasioned antenna for that, right?
how long are you signed up for?

[vortrex]

people...

you buy a directv box and dish for $50.

you then buy an H card for $200-$300

you then buy a smart card programmer for $150

what do you get out of this? free TV. that's right, you get ALL the movie channels, ALL the sports channels, 4 channels of 24x7 porn, ALL the pay per view movies, and ALL the pay per view special events.

just this past weekend I watched two pay per view movies ($8), pride ($25), and boxing ($50). as you can see, it's worth the initial investment...

[bobby_steeles]

when your card gets fried, is the programmer used to fix it? or is it just for setting it up?

[vortrex]

the programmer is used to add "scripts" to your card which open up all the channels for you. directv puts updates on their system whenever there is a big pay per view event (2 weeks ago wrestlemania, last week boxing). when they do this it breaks your card. there are some amazing people out there who usually the very same day write a new script to work around the directv update. case in point, last week for pride there was an update on friday which knocked out all my channels. got on the web and found the new script an hour before the intial playing. downloaded and installed to my card, was able to catch the pride replay 3 hours later. it takes some work, but I find it is all worth it.

the best sites out there without a doubt are:

www.dss-stuff.com for your hardware needs.

www.dsshangout.com a forum with live support.

both sites are run by the same person. everyone there is very helpful in getting your system up and running.

[vortrex]

oh yeah, sometimes directv gets really sneaky. a couple months ago they put something out on the stream which fried, and I mean actually fried, the bootrom portion of the H cards. this was the most drastic thing ever done. I lost TV for a couple weeks until people developed and manufactured a device which boots your damaged H card. really just a circuit board which slides into your satellite receiver where the card normally would go. you then insert your card into circuit board. this is another item you would need, because I hear the kill signal is still out on the stream every 30min. this is a $95 part. if you really want to get creative you can use "emulation". I haven't tried this, but it's the safest method to use. it involves running your satellite setup through a DOS computer. this is the safest way to go, I think it's virtually unbeatable.

[phillyman]

I have directv and Dishnetwork

Ok this is how it goes.

Directtv if you like to watch a lot of of sports has a little more to offer.

Dishnetwork is cheap per month if you want all the movie channels they have to offer.

Pride use to only be on Directv but they are showing it on Dishnetwork now.

If you go to www.ubid.com you can bid like $9.00 and get the Dishnetwork (and probably Directv) and free installation. You have to sign a contract for a year to pay at least 40.00 a month or somewhere around there. I got my system and instalation for $9.00. I hear Sears sell certificates for Directv for $50.00 which includes the system and free installation,(which cost $200.00 alone).

Note if you want to watch different channels in more than one room you need to buy a nother reciever which cost anywhere from $75.00 to $100.00 monthly charge for additional recievers is $5.00 for each one. Hope i covered it any question please ask me

[bobby_steeles]

thanks philly man. i have one more question, if you buy the certificate frome sears, can you cancel your service at any time?

[sknydave]

dss


I just bought a dish a couple days ago and I think I'll try my hand at the emulation route. Lets see what happends!

[phillyman]

Hey Bobby

I thinks for the Sears certificate you have to sign a year contract also. Only bad thing about the sat is if it snows or rains hard you lose your reception.

[vortrex]

I live in SF, needless to say it POURS in the winter time. I'm also on top of a huge hill with very powerful winds, to the point I am amazed the dish hasn't been ripped off the house. I have never lost an reception due to weather.

[Shrimp]

Do you get channels like CNBC, TNN, and Discovery via sat?

[phillyman]

vortex and shrimp

Vortex i beleive in SF you a positioned better to the sat than i am in Philly I dont lose it ofetn but i do lose the signal one in a while shrimp yes yo do get those channels my my friend has a cable system that doesnt have tnn so he cant see raw. but on sat it is available