FTA Receiver

An FTA receiver is a satellite receiver which can receive free-to-air (FTA) satellite transmissions. Most free-to-air satellite transmissions are encoded using MPEG-2 and the receiver decodes this signal and passes it to your TV.

A free-to-air receiver set-top box looks very much like a DirecTV or Dish Networks set-top box but cannot decrypt satellite transmissions from either of those networks.

FTA receivers also come in the form of PC peripherals which allow you to decode and watch satellite TV on your computer.

There are a number of features you should look out for when buying an FTA receiver.

These include:

• Electronic Program Guide (EPG)
• On-screen display (OSD)
• Picture zoom
• Picture-in-picture
• Personal video recording (PVR)
• S-video output
• digital audio (optical/SPDIF or co-axial) output
• Blind search power scan – to enable it to find all the channels broadcast by a satellite
• The ability to move, delete and rename channels

In addition to a receiver, you'll need a few other things to receive free-to-air satellite transmissions. Firstly, and most obviously, you'll need a satellite dish. You should opt for either a C Band dish or a Ku Band dish. C Band dishes operate on a lower frequency spectrum than Ku or Ka Band dishes and so are less susceptible to degraded signal quality caused by adverse weather conditions, known as rainfade. Ku Band dishes operate on a higher frequency than C Band but a lower frequency than Ka Band dishes. They are more susceptible to rainfade than C Band dishes, but can be much smaller and in some cases as small as two feet in diameter. C Band dishes vary from three to nine feet in diameter.

You'll also need a Low Noise Block (LNB) which amplifies the signal after it has been captured by the satellite dish and then down converts it to a frequency usable by the set-top box.

Finally, if you want to receive FTA satellite transmissions from more than one satellite, you'll need an antenna motor, to enable the satellite to turn around.