What is an FTA Receiver?

An FTA receiver is a satellite receiver which is equipped to receive unencrypted FTA (Free to Air) satellite transmissions.

An FTA satellite receiver is able to decode the MPEG-2 data compression protocol used in most Free to Air satellite transmissions.

An FTA receiver will not be able to un-encrypt Dish Network or DirecTV satellite programming.

FTA Receiver Types

Most FTA receivers are stand-alone hardware boxes which look very much like Dish Networks or DirecTV receivers.

Some PC-based FTA satellite receivers also exist. These devices enable you to watch FTA satellite on your computer.

Features to Look for in an FTA Receiver

No one can tell you exactly what you want in a FTA satellite receiver, but here are some of the features to look for:

Does the receiver have an Electronic Program Guide (EPG)?
Does the receiver allow you to zoom into a picture?
Does the receiver support picture-in-picture?
Does the receiver have a built-in PVR (Personal Video Recorder)?
Does the receiver have dual tuners to enable viewing and recording of two different channels?
Does the receiver have a PIG/PIP interface?
Does the receiver have S-Video output?
Does the receiver have Dolby SPDIF output?
Does the receiver have Blind Search Power Scan to find all channels transmitted by a satellite?
Does the receiver have an On Screen Display (OSD)?
Does the OSD allow you to move, delete, and rename channels?

FTA Satellite Receiver Vendors

Quality manufacturers of FTA satellite receivers include Viewsat, Pansat, Coolsat, Fortec, BlackBird, UltraStar, Ariza, MultiStar, Digiwave, and Twinhan.