Originally Posted by Sparks

Other satellite providers are as Aron62 mentioned, available with a big dish. This would be a 6 - 10 foot diameter dish. That is why it is called BUD for Big Ugly Dish.

I understand that the large dishes are not very popular with the neighbors in the suburbs and in towns. I also understand that some housing authorities will not allow them in certain housing developments.

If you are in a place where you can put up a 6 foot dish and point it in a Southerly direction. A service that is being sold by SkyVision is available. The premium package is just under $30. The Basic package is just under $21. In addition; the Starz Encore package is $16 per month. The Showtime, TMC, Flix and Sundance package is also $16 per month. The HBO package that includes the Cinemax channels is $22.50 a month. All of the premium movie channels will total $48 per month. All of these monthly prices are when it is paid annually. For slightly more you can also pay monthly or quarterly. I also understand that you can subscribe to any part of it or all of it that is available. If you only want one movie package you do not have to get the rest of it.

I understand that this service will function anywhere in the 48 states with the six foot dish. I would need to do some research for other areas.

The catch is that you must buy your own equipment and install it yourself or get help installing it. Considering the price difference I think that it is worth it if you want this programming. The entire equipment package, if you need all of it is $329.95 plus tax in Minnesota plus shipping.

You can get all of the details about this at www skyvision com. On the left side of the screen go down to DSR-410 Equipment and Programming. This puts you on a page of information where you can select information to do with getting the receiver box only or the entire equipment package. You can also select the programming packages that I just mentioned.

To get a better comparison in detail of what is available in the program packages. At the top right of the screen select Tech Support. Then go down the left side of the screen and under DSR-410 click on the top item DSR410 Channel List With Technical Information (pdf).

With a large dish it is also possible to subscribe to other services and program packages that are also available through SkyVision. Another place that sells the big dish or what we call C Band programming is at www bigdish com. These other program packages would require yet a different box.

I have subscribed to Directv and Dish Network. I get tired of paying big money to watch commercials. I do enjoy the commercial free movie channels but as a whole I get tired of it. I also get tired of paying for 250 channels and there is nothing on that I want to watch.

What I did was drop the last one that I subscribed to that was Dish Network. I have had a big antenna on the roof all along and with the additional DTV channels. I now have much more programming available. In addition to that I put up a couple of smaller dishes for the more powerful "KU Band" or Free To Air (FTA) satellite TV. This adds a lot of additional channels to view that includes some MyTV, ABC, Fox, RTN, Some independant stations and others. With the RTN stations it is the same programming on some of the RTN stations that I get. These stations do not follow the same schedules and with these stations being in different time zones from New York to Washington state. They are running the show later in the west if you missed it in the East. This is all free and legal. The minimum equipment investment to get the FTA viewing with a dish small enough to put up no matter where you live is less than $300.

I plan to write a detailed description of all of this to do with FTA satellite TV in the next few days. This will have to do with selecting equipment. Determining what is available to view and a little about dish installation. I plan to post it on this forum for anyone that might be interested.

In case you did not know - The FCC has ruled some time ago that housing authorities, land lords and municipal codes cannot prevent or stop someone from installing a roof top antenna or a satellite dish that is not more that 30 inches in diameter.