[mythtv-users] FTA Satellite Receivers

[Aaron]

> >Could someone enlighten me a bit about this stuff?  Are you telling me 
> >that I can plug this card straight into the coax cables coming from my 
> >Dish dish,
> and have access to the pure digital signals coming from the 
> >satellites?

Yes but, there are only a handful of Free to Air channels on the Dish
satellites, you can find them here 
http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/dish119.html
the F with the box around it means FTA.

> What about encryption, etc?  I thought all of that sort
> of stuff was all smartcard protected.

Most dish channels are encrypted, and it's illegal to decrypt them.
Discussions about that sort of thing should be kept on the down low.
Some providers use the standard DVB, which works with a DVB-S card, others
use more proprietary stuff like DSS which is not compatible. 
Have fun!