About FTA Receivers

A free-to-air receiver will receive unencrypted broadcasts from satellites. It allows the owner to receive television programming without subscribing to a cable or satellite service. FTA receivers vary greatly in their specific operation but share many common features.

Installation Menu

The installation menu of an FTA receiver primarily allows the user to configure the receiver's interaction with the low noise block-downconverter, which is the receiving unit on the user's satellite dish. The installation menu also controls the FTA receiver's interaction with other devices such as motors and switches on the satellite dish.

Blind Scan

A blind scan is the ability of an FTA receiver to detect a satellite broadcast without the transponder information for the transmitting satellite. This is in contrast to a satellite scan, which detects specific transponders input by the user. A blind scan allows the FTA receiver to detect active transponders within its area and tune to the channels on that transponder.

Channel Edit

Channel editing allows the user to sort through the received channels by name, satellite and transponder. Third-party software can add additional sorting criteria such as the station identification number. Channel editing allows the user to number the channels and save this format to an FTA receiver.

User Settings

Additional user settings on an FTA receiver include the aspect ratio, language, timing settings and the display type. Common display types for television sets are PAL and NTSC, with PAL having a higher resolution than NTSC. FTA receivers support output in various formats including HDMI, SCART and S-Video.