FTA Newbie Questions?

[bigjohn]

Can someone explain the basics of FTA functionality??

Are they capable of receiving all Dish and Bev channels?

How are they any better than a standard Dish or BEV receiver?

Thanks!

[Chief]

Upside:
1) No card needed
2) Multi-satellite capability - choose from 7 birds
3) Thousands of channels available
4) No messing with JTAG's, etc

Downside:
1) Initial cost
2) No channel guide for DishNet or BEV
3) Spotty support
4) Tricky to operate and program
5) Will NOT work with DTV

[bigjohn]

Do you just need a FTA receiver to get started??

[jock smith]

Do you just need a FTA receiver to get started??

if u do a hell of lot of reading u will not need to ask eny ?????
js

[bigjohn]

if u do a hell of lot of reading u will not need to ask eny ?????
js

Thanks for the help! Is there a newbie guide that you can point me to??

Also, I'm seeing a lot of these "Is there a fix...." questions. Are the FTAs a frequent ECM target now??