Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best DVB / FTA (Free to Air Receiver) product for me?

If you want the easiest solution then you should consider a FTA receiver , its easier to upgrade and better than doing cards, its simple to do! Plus you have a receiver that runs like any other receiver not attached to computer just the TV!  If you are a geek and like to play with computers then only consider a DVB card this is for more technically minded people and much harder to setup, the receivers are a breeze and much easier!

If you are looking for a receiver which is the most common purchase we have then we have to say that the most popular receivers are the coolsat and viewsat just because of their guides and super fast channel changing, when comparing it to a pansat the pansat feels like a dinosaur. The coolsat has been the star of FTA as it is referred to as it has been out since the beginning of 2005 and has stood out as a marked leader in FTA with the first receiver to have such a revolutionary program guide from the beginning setting the standard for things to come and it has stood the test of time with support making it a true leader! Then came the viewsat with a newer chipset second to none support and more memory. Below is our honest opinion:-

What is the best FTA receiver to purchase?

The number 1 question we get, "What is the best receiver to purchase?"

We carry only the most popular models from Viewsat,  Pansat, CoolSat, and Sonicview, there are so many different brands of FTA receivers and new ones popping up weekly, we only sell original named brand Free to air Receivers, where the manufacturer stands behind their products and offer warranty on their units.

Based on our own research, model comparison, and discussions with our customers, we have narrowed it down to few models, Listed in order of top sellers:

Viewsat models include the Viewsat VS2000 Lite, VS2000 Xtreme, Viewsat Pro PVR and Viewsat PVR 7000 with the Dual Tuner and of course the Viewsat Ultra with USB.

Coolsat which made the Coolsat 4000 Plus, 4000 Pro, 5000 Platinum and the Coolsat 6000 Premium and now the coolsat 6100 and the Coolsat 7000 Micro PVR

Pansat 250SM / 3500sd

Sonicview SV4000, 8000 HD
 

Which is the Best Receiver for Me?

This is a really hard question to answer, each receiver has its good points pro's and con's. The viewsat and coolsat have the best guides (EPG Electronic Program guides) and fastest channel changing and channel scans we have ever seen. Coolsat's was the first receiver to have a electronic program guide on the market back in the beginning of 2005 it was revolutionary , viewsat followed in their footsteps , this new generation receiver has brought a complete new meaning to the old FTA hobby, we only carry genuine receiver brands and are direct importers of these receivers, and refuse to carry any CLONE brands made in China. We feel very strongly about the brands that we sell and we sold an equal number of viewsats as we do coolsats and both these receivers work very well.In the last 3 months viewsat sales have increased dramatically at this rate Viewsat will have gained the majority of the market share in FTA. We are also now extremely proud to be one of two Direct importers of viewsat in Canada where they have a strong policy of DEFECTIVE UNIT = REPLACE not repair which is our policy for all receivers purchased from us no matter what and Viewsat (Viewtech) support us all the way with this! It is just such a pleasure to see a company support us with such issues instead of letting the customers take a hit, we are just very proud of the honesty and integrity and support we get from viewsat on this issue and are Xtremely proud to be the official viewsat Warranty program for Canadian Viewsat owners! We can proudly say that if you purchase any Viewsat brand receiver that we sell you will be getting a genuine receiver backed by our guarantee and our own warranty policy backed by Viewtech Inc! All other receivers are backed by the Manufacturer/Importer i.e Freetech for Coolsat, Panarex for Pansat! We are also Authorized distributors for the NFusion and we look after customers directly that purchase an NFusion from us with their one year warranty for defects! Nfusion is made in Korea and made to high specifications!

Below is a summary of the different receivers and DVB products we offer

Receivers that we have dropped from our product Line

Ariza we no longer carry due to its cheap design , cheap remote and copying a pansat receiver, if you want a pansat then buy a genuine pansat its cheap enough.

ExtremeView Magnum we no longer carry due to its extremely high defective rate 1 in 8 and made in china and lack of warranty offered by the manufacturer.

Orasat we no longer carry we still have a handful in the clearance section, this was one that we have nothing to say bad about just lack of sales has forced us to discontinue this receiver, very nice picture quality and its made in Korea.

Coolsat we no longer carry this line of product as they moved their lines from Korea to China, and give no real warranty false claims of 5 years which involves a customer shipping back even a DOA (Dead on Arrival) unit back and waiting months not weeks to get a repaired unit back, and if they are very luck may work or most likely have the same issues with it and then get a bill! This is the best way to see a coolsat turn into coolscrap, we have shipped back many coolsats that we replaced for customers only to get back the same units months later with the same problems the ones that powered up and had say bad audio we sold for $20 as satellite finders to some of our dealers!

History of FTA

In 2003 Free to Air (FTA) started to become more popular with the PCI cards for computers known as the DVB cards to many, followed by the Blackbird and Silverbullet receivers and then by Fortec Lifetime and Pansat receivers. These receivers were very basic with no EPG and very basic cheesy remote controls. In 2004 the boom towards FTA started with high sales for receivers like Fortec Ultra, Pansat 2500a, Dreambox, Blackbird and Silverbullet as well as many clones started to emerge at an alarming rate!

In 2005 the makers of Fortec and Pansat and blackbird continued to dominate the markertplace with no new models by the major companies and lots of sales, in Febuaray of 2005. Freetech officially released their coolsat 4000 Plus and soon followed with their coolsat 4000 Pro, Coolsat made a revolutionary receiver with the coolsat 4000 Plus, the guide (EPG) was the biggest improvement and for any  FTA hobbyist this receiver had all the features that all the other FTA receivers lacked with in terms of a rich GUI (graphical user interface) very user freindly features, easy 123 setup, smart menu and guide, and a remote control that felt like a real remote control unlike the fortec Ultra and the pansat 2500a, a univeral remote control at that! Due to word of mouth and the high volume in sales for fortec and pansat the coolsat didn't start to take off until Sept 2005 with the coolsat 4000 Pro. This was a strong and reliable unit that was made in Korea, Although the coolsat had an EPG a real working EPG it lacked speed and was sluggish in pulling the Guide but they had no real competition in the 123 Easy setup market, the only receiver that had richer features was the dreambox but with a higher price point and complicated setup and Linux operating system , the dreambox stayed as a Geeks receiver and a very specialist product.

Then along came Viewsat from Viewtech, although viewsat has the original vs2000 (not the Viewsat vs2000 Platinum) it was new and never really made an impact or took much marketshare in the FTA market, the Viewsat VS2000 Platinum that came out in October 2005 started to make a very strong presence as the guide was far superior then the coolsat 4000 Pro in terms of speed ,both had a full working EPG but Viewsat with the coaxent processor and 16MB memory was able to process the guide at lightening speeds and made the sluggish slow refreshing guide on coolsat 4000 Pro seem even more inadequate, and the word started spreading! Viewsat started to gain momentum and sales in a BIG way, sales of the viewsat vs2000 Platinum soared at an alarming rate, and viewsat were on its way and even started to surpass sales of the coolsat in November and December of 2005. If it was not for the introduction of the coolsat 5000 Platinum viewsat would have dominated the marketplace if coolsat did not answer back with the coolsat 5000 Platinum, the coolsat Platinum copied viewsat's success using the same coaxent type processor and 8MB Ram producing a guide just as fast as the viewsat with their amazing user friendly menus and EPG. Sales started to turnaround for coolsat again and they began to keep their very strong hold on the marketplace with very high market share. Viewsat also created a new model in the beginning of 2006 with the Viewsat vs2000 xtreme and continued to manufacture more than one model still keeping the viewsat vs2000 Platinum due to its popularity. in the first quarter of 2006 viewsat and coolsat sales continued to grow with a slighty higher marketshare leaning towards coolsat. Viewsat continued to manufacturer in Korea and coolsat started to ship from Hong Kong but our import documents show the country of origin to be China, coolsat tried to hide this from all distributors by shipping from the USA but eventually this secret came out with the high defective rate and the bad business practice from freetech to have what they termed a limited warranty program, which was very limited, nonetheless coolsat and viewsat sales continued to the point that both companies could not keep up with supply and demand, but coolsat continued to have a slight edge on the market.

The big turnaround came in June, July and now August of 2006, Viewsat sales went through the roof and viewtech the makers of the viewsat watched sales increase to a level that has been unprecedented and the parallel amount of sales between viewsat and coolsat which was a tug of war and always had coolsat slightly ahead of the game, stopped with a dramatic drop and slide in sales for coolsat. We estimate that the sales for June, July and August so far have shown to be 85% towards viewsat and 15% towards all others which includes coolsat,pansat,dreambox and others.

As we move on toward christmas 2006 Viewsat has taken 50% of the FTA marketshare and all other FTA receivers have taken the 50% with Coolsat second and Sonicview a close third with pansat.

Looking at 2007 onwards We have dropped the coolsat line of products due to their dishonesty and bad customer service. We have learned that false 5 Warranty which entails a repaired unit at a cost to the consumer which coolsat offers, is not the way to go. Dealing with honest companies like viewsat ( 2 year warranty) and sonicview (1 Year) is the best for the customer where they truly give the best customer service and warranty in the business a defective unit is a replacement no questions asked and this is why Viewsat and sonicview will continue to dominate the FTA Marketplace. Our policy to ensure we offer only the best products for the customer!

Towards the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 NFusion made in Korea became more and more popular daily, in the beginning of 2008 NFusion sales have become so overwhelming from old to new customers that it has actually become a joint number one seller with viewsat and gaining more and more ground it is set to over take and become our number one seller as an authorized dealer/distributor of NFusion we also honor the one year warranty of Nfusion directly with the customer with a replacement for bad units, Viewsat has also changed their policy as not allowing viewsat dealers to replace a defective unit, instead they insist now that all defective units are shipped back and we wait for a repaired unit to give back to the customer and if they cant repair then they send a brand new unit! Nfusion's replacement policy is another bonus and shows that they stand behind their product which is already taking up 50% of our current sales with the other 50% being everything else we offer in FTA receivers of which the majority of the remainding 50% is Viewsat! Nfusion has become our number seller currently!

Buckle up and hang in there and enjoy the ride as the dynamics of marketshare in FTA can change very dramatically overnight!

1000's OF FREE TV CHANNELS ?

A very popular question we get in email and on the phones is about what channels you can get, legally and for free.  Click HERE to see a list of channels available if you live in the USA or Canada.  All of these channels are available with an FTA receiver and a 76cm or 90cm dish and rotor. if you want to receive some incredible (and free with no monthly bills) satellite TV.

What is XTV ?

Currently, the Card Reader is useful for the Intelsat Americas 5 at 97.0°W.

Note: A subscription card must be purchased for the card reader to function. Subscription cards are available now for 14 months of Free-XTV adult channel when activated. you do however need a Receiver like the Coolsat 4000 Pro with a subscribed card and a 33 Inch dish to view these channels.

What is a DISeQc switch and why would i need one?

A DISeQc switch is used to tie two or more dishes it looks like a cable splitter (see peoducts section for image) it allows you to put up to four different satellite dishes pointed to different satellites and allow only one cable to go back into your house to the receiver! When setting up your dvb receiver in the install menu you can let the receiver know you have a switch and which port each dish is connected to on the DiSEqC switch! When purchasing a receiver the manufacturer provide a free cheap diseqc switch, which is very poor quality, these switches are cheap and usually good enough most of the time, most common channel problems occur with cheap switches or conflict issues when running more than one receiver. It is worthwhile upgrading the free switch with either a weatherproof switch and its is very highly recommended to upgrade to an EMP 4 x 1 Diseqc switch the only weatherproof high quality diseqc that actually gives a warranty of 4 years and is made in czechoslovakia in Europe.

What other Alternatives do i have to connect my receiver to more than one satellite

You can get a 33 inch dish and a motor and this way the as you change channels from one satellite to another the dish moves to the correct satellite, most newbies start with a regular 18 inch dish pointed to only one satellite and then go from there as this is the easiest way to start, this hobby is very very addictive and as people get comfortable with one dish and their Free to Air DVB receiver they then decide what to do next , usually one dish pointed to a good satellite gives them enough channels and some people never feel the need to be pointed to more satellites!

What channels can i get? what satellites can I point to?

http://www.saveandeplay.com/channels.asp

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to email by Clicking here