CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Moose · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 788 Location: Minnesota

With the convenience of the small satellite dishes sold by Dish Network and DirecTV, those huge satellite dishes have pretty much gone away. But not totally as I still see the occasional one in rural areas. Does anyone still use one of the big satellite dishes? Can they receive HD programming? Is there any advantage to them over a small dish? My situation doesn't allow for a big dish - heck, I would barely get away with a small dish, considering the hills, trees and buildings around me. No room whatsoever for a large one.

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4901 Location: Flower Mound, TX

There are a few BUD users here. One of the local guys has one (and it is hooked up to a 1208/2) and he is not even out in the country. The signal is better than DirecTV or Dish, but not much better than a good cable provider. They have HD but have a more limited offering than other providers. The available C/Ku band HDTV is (to my knowledge):
Discovery HD Theater
HBO East
HBO West
Showtime West
Encore HD East
Encore HD West
Starz! HD East
Starz! HD West
PBS
Wealth TV

(East and west are insignificant as thy show the same thing.) This list pales in comparison to the HD I'm getting from Verizon.

Here is the forum you seek:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/index.php

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:43 pm Post subject:

You might find some info interesting in these two threads:
http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3480
http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4038

One real advantage of a BUD (big ugly dish) is ZERO rain fade, no matter how big the snow flakes are or how dark the rain cloud is. Probably not worth all the downsides, though. I have a Channel Master GainMaster dish and I rarely ever get rain fade. Only the very heaviest snow or nastiest rain storm/clouds. It's a once-a-month for a few minutes kind of thing in the summer and just a few times in the winter.

My old man still has a nice BUD in his back yard and we've been toying around with playing with, but it hasn't moved up the priority list, yet.

SC

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:56 pm Post subject:

I saw some kids using one as a toboggan once. It was the fiberglass model. I think they scored it from the cable company when they moved their offices across the street. Looked like a good time Smile

Bucketfoot · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 698 Location: Centennial, CO

I designed several BUD satellite receivers, but could never get the better half to let me put one of them ugly things up in the yard Smile

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:28 am Post subject:

HD in the analog realm kicked the crap out of the Ku digital dishes. Not sure if that's still true today, but about 4 years ago the difference was very noticable.

ambok · Guest

many people is still using big satellite dish. . . Very Happy

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

I had one at my old Duplex mounted on the detached garage. I Had , well still have the 4Dtv receiver but it has an error code. Anyone want to try to fix it?

It did catch HD stuff back then but i didn't have a HDTV. When i built my new home in 1999 the dish just sat up against my house in the back yard where it still is today.

Athanasios