OmegaSource

Just the other day I got a phone call from someone asking about the big old C-Band dish.”My son purchased a house and there is this big dish, 10 foot dish, with satellite receiver, what can we do with this?”He mentioned receiver name Uniden UST4500 or GI 350i , something like that.You may be surprised, but you can still use it and receive lots of channels. If your big C-band dish and receiver is in working order, even if you can get only analog channels you can still get some good, cheap, and sometime free TV. The uniqueness of C-band programming Vs small dishes is that you can pick and choose your channels and purchase only the channels you want for 3, 6, or 12 months at the time.For some people who don’t need a lot of channels and would like to chose what in their programming package the BIG OLD DISH can be very inexpensive alternative to the small dishes. 

With addition of the FTA or Free to Air digital satellite receiver to your big Cband dish you will open additional door to hundreds more, really free broadcasted channels all over the sky. Even without Ku-band LNBF on your system you will get access to numerous channels on C-band that are broadcasted in DVB ( digital video broadcast ) format and are not accessible without big dish. Since small FTA receivers are unable to move the “big ugly dish” ( BUD) , but your cband receiver is, you can use your old receiver to move the dish from satellite to satellite and use your digital FTA receiver to scan them and enjoy more free channels. This way you may have very special satellite system that give you access to channels otherwise not accessible. While some people are dumping the good old big dishes to a landfill, some other people with a little effort can get lots of channels very cheep and even free from that old dish.To take a look at c-band programming prices click right here and by August 1st we should have them all corrected and updated.

Looks like people waiting for some fix for the Free to Air FTA receivers will have to wait a little longer, as the only hacked method working right now is the original dishnetwork receiver with ROM102 yellow card. How long? This is always good question. Prices for ROM102 Cards are up and switching back to the dishnetwork receivers may be expensive and not lasting, the only reliable way to get the Dishnetwork may be the official way, Subscribe.

In US this is very simple, in Canada, … more complicated , however can be done.

Gray market account setup will cost you $100.00, yearly US address fee another $100.00, and you will need a new DishNetwork Satellite receiver and card. That in Canada may be $300.00 to $600.00  Then depending on package of channels, it may be anywhere from U$29.00 to well over U$150.00 if you want most of US channels and some International, however no PPV.

If PPV is very important to you, getting Canadian system would be my suggestion. My pick would be Starchoice as there is no need to sign any contract like with BellexpressVu. Most PPV in Canada are $3.99 each, just like US but in Canadian dollar so it’s cheaper.