The first thing that you are supposed to know before getting yourself a satellite receiver or dish network receiver is that these receivers are mostly leased by their service providers. Companies like Dish and DirecTV have made their equipment for leasing and not purchasing. In the beginning, both the companies used to sell these products like remote and dish but now you will have to lease them.
These companies will give new customers this equipment at a reduced cost or for free. And those customers who want an upgrade can purchase themselves a multi-switch and the cable but they won’t have to pay hundreds of dollars for the DVR receiver because these items will be leased. There are a few things you are restricted from when you have a leased receiver or stuff.
1. You can’t open it to modify or repair.
This way you won’t be able to change the internal hard drive and any part of the device even if it stops working. But you should be glad that both Dish and DirecTV allow you to attach external drives.
2. You won’t be able to resell it
You must have noticed that there are a lot of online advertisements for the receiver at a very lower price than the actual. These receivers are most probably leased. The drawback of purchasing a leased receiver is the company will not activate any receiver that is not leased in your name.
Moreover, it is tough to find any owned receiver, so the only chance is it is the least one that is of no use. But the best part about having these receivers on lease is they are cheap and can be replaced with only a few amounts of the fee.
Can I Buy My Own Dish Network Receiver?
Purchase Your Own Dish Network Receiver
If you want to purchase a satellite TV setup or your personal dish network receiver without using a service then you can do that as well. There is a legal way to watch free of cost satellite TV by using your dish network receiver. There is a service Free To Air FTA satellite television which can provide you with thousands of channels from around the globe. It can broadcast live television at no cost at all. All that you might require is a satellite dish, a Tv set, and a proper receiver that can receive the signals.
But using a satellite dish with an FTA receiver can be a little selective. To avail of this facility, you must be in an area where there is a clear sightline to all the satellites. This facility won’t be available for houses in mountains or forests. Tall buildings can also obstruct or disturb the signals of FTA. That is why it gets very difficult to decide the location of your satellite while you’re using the FTA service. Moreover, you also must keep in mind that a satellite dish will be expensive if you are not purchasing it on lease. However, you can avail of most of the features that are available on cable providers. For example, you can record with an FTA receiver as well.
Record With An FTA Receiver
Most of the service providers will allow you to record videos automatically so that you can watch them later whenever you want. But if you want this feature while using an FTA satellite system then you need to purchase a receiver that has an inbuilt option for recording. This type of FTA receiver is also known as an integrated personal video recorder. Make sure that you also attach a hard drive with the receiver so that the recorded material can be stored.
What To Watch With FTA Receiver
If you have completely switched to free Satellite TV service then you can avail of different channels. With an FTA receiver, you can watch news networks, sports, and different general interest programs. It also allows you to watch different foreign language shows and also globally available TV shows. But there is a drawback that you will not be able to watch shows that need a subscription because this is a free satellite TV service and requires no payment.
Hopefully, this blog was helpful enough for you to know more about satellite dishes and owning it.
Thanks for your post it was helpful . It sounds promising in the direction I want to go. I have paid $80 a month for so many years that it feels like at some point the service and equipment should be paid off and not have a bill . $960 per year times 20 years is $19,200 for $150 worth of equipment and access that is almost free for them to broadcast.
It would be nice to know if the avail channels would be same as basic cable like discovery , history, etc. Or just 2 through 13 like a antenna gets ? It’s really wrong that we are all bombarded with these frequency signals but are not allowed to access them without paying $80 – $200 per month and Internet was created for people far away from each other could easily and freely share ideas quick not for the phone companies to get rich from . Who gave them the right to sell access to something we are all part of as Internet users .