All About Satellite TV » communications satellites

The Low-Down on Satellite Television

admin — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 10:34:52 +0000

Satellite TV is delivered by communications satellites, as opposed to conventional terrestrial and cable television. In many areas of the world satellite television services supplement older terrestrial signals, providing a wider range of channels and services, including subscription-only services.

Standards

Analogue television is usually sent (scrambled or unscrambled) in PAL, NTSC, or SECAM television satellite broadcast standards. Digital television, including that transmitted via satellites, is generally based upon open standards such as MPEG and DVB-S. Some of the encryption/scrambling methods include BISS, Conax, CryptoWorks, DigiCipher, DreamCrypt, Irdeto, MediaGuard, NagraVision, PowerVu, SHL, Sidsa, Viaccess, Videocipher, VideoGuard and XCrypt.

Satellite Television – A Look At Some Of The Available Services

Canada
In Canada, the two legal DBS services available are Bell Canada’s ExpressVu and StarChoice. Hundreds of thousands (up to a million by some estimates) of Canadians access or have accessed American services – usually these services have to be billed to an American address and are paid for in U.S. dollars.

United States
DirecTV, the first high-powered DBS system, went online in 1994 and was the first North American DBS service; it is now owned by News Corporation.
In 1996, EchoStar’s Dish Network went online in the United States and has gone on to similar success as DirecTV’s primary competitor.
The majority of ethnic-language broadcasts to North America are carried on Ku band free-to-air; the largest concentration of ethnic programming is on Intelsat Americas 5 at 97° W. GlobeCast World TV offers a mix of free and pay-TV ethnic channels in the internationally-standard DVB-S format, as do others. Home2US Communications Inc. also offers ethnic programming, the platform is on AMC-4 at 101° W, with several ethnic channels as well as free and pay-TV. Several U.S.-English language network affiliates (representing CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, Fox, WB, i and UPN) are available as free-to-air broadcasts, as are the three U.S.-Spanish language networks (Univisión, Telefutura and Telemundo). The number of free-to-air specialty channels is otherwise rather limited…..

Continental Western Europe
In Europe, DBS satellite services are found mainly on Astra satellites and Hotbird (operated by Eutelsat), with Sky Italia, Canal Digitaal and UPC being the main providers in Italy, Western Europe and Central Europe.
BSkyB (known as Sky) also serves Northern Europe and many channels can be received as far away as Cyprus.

United Kingdom
Other than the satellite companies mentioned above, there is Sky Digital – a closed network requiring the companies licensed set top boxes

Knowing Your Satellite TV Systems

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 05:57:42 +0000

Even if you watch your satellite television 5 hours a day, I bet you can’t tell what a satellite TV system really is.

Satellite television is TV broadcast delivered by way of orbiting communications satellites located 22,300 miles above the earth’s surface. Satellite TV system, like other communications relayed by satellite, starts with a transmitting satellite antenna located at an uplink facility. Uplink satellite dishes are directed toward the satellite that its signals will be transmitted to, and are very large, as much as 9 to 12 meters (30 to 40 feet) in diameter.

There are mainly two types of satellite TV systems: TVRO and DBS. TVRO system, aka Television Receive Only, is the first satellite system available for home satellite viewing system. While the DBS system, Direct Broadcast Satellite is available later. These two satellite systems work in different band (C-band and Ku-band) and their working system specifications are quite a different.

Television Receive Only (TVRO) systems

TVRO systems in United States are often referred as Big Dish TV, C-Band Satellite TV or BUD (Big Ugly Dish). It was the first satellite TV system being commercialized and brought into the U.S. families.

Viewing TVRO broadcast requires a big and movable dish – which is why it is well known as big dish TV. The TVRO dish’s diameter ranged from 3 to 6 feet. It works in C-Band with frequencies of around 4 GHz. As news companies normally transmit their materials to their headquarters using a C-Band satellite; and as many of these types of feeds are not scrambled, chances to unedited news are great. Besides with TVRO systems, you can also receive free channels and independent feeds from for instance news companies.

Ever wonder why do we need such a big dish to receive TVRO signals? It’s because of TVRO’s wave length of these frequencies is longer than in Ku-Band which requires a much smaller dish of about 18 inches. Ku-Band, which is used by DBS, is at 12 to 14 G Hertz.

Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) system

Satellite TV services were popular only after Direct Broadcast Satellite system is introduced. DBS is meant for everyone with a simple, low cost installation of the system. Small dish, maintenance-free, and stable signals receptions — all these makes the satellite TV system a good commercial product.

Satellite broadcast via DBS system is done in the Ku-Band. These satellites work on higher frequencies and can transmit higher power signals. This is why smaller dishes can be used to receive satellite signal for DBS systems.

As you might know, a small TV dish of 18 inches is already good enough to receive all satellite TV signals by Satellite companies. This makes it possible to have satellite TV from an apartment on the 10th floor, if you have a clear line of sight to the south. Once installed the dish needs no maintenance since it is aimed at just one satellite. Some dishes actually have 2 or more feeds, which makes it possible to receive the signals from more than 1 satellite.

Unfortunately, there are no free channels available on DBS satellites broadcast. DBS broadcasting are often owned and used by the satellite TV provider (for example, Dish Network and DirecTV) it self. Often the installation is for free as it really is very easy to do. The only thing that is needed is a bit of knowledge of where to find the satellite thus a qualified installer will find the satellite and point it to maximum reception within minutes.

Currently in United States, Dish Network and DirecTV are the major DBS systems provides. As satellite TV services are the latecomer in home TV broadcasting services, they are now fighting hard to win the market segments with extremely low prices. Free satellite TV systems, free DVR systems, free DVD players, free shipping, free installations, free HD upgrades, free home protection plans they give free things as much as possible! All you need to be to qualify the deals condition is you must commit on the satellite TV deals for one year and you must be a first-time customer. With extremely low start up cost, online satellite TV retailers are now offering some very lucrative offers. To review more about these online satellite TV retailers: http://www.satellitetvissue.com/FreeSatelliteTV/SatelliteTVDealers.htm and if you would like to compare Dish Network and DirecTV, this page is suggested: http://www.satellitetvissue.com/DirecTVvsDISH%20Network.htm

About The Author

Teddy LC.– experienced writter on consumer products reviews. Check out his latest satellite TV related website and get recommendations on DirecTV or Dish Network deals.

satellitetvissue.com

Written By: Teddy LC

Important Steps in Installing a Satellite Dish

admin — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:52:45 +0000

Important Steps in Installing a Satellite Dish
With the recent breakthroughs in the communication world, DSL connection has already become a household term. It has already been launched in various areas across the world; however, obtaining a high-speed access to the Internet via satellite is a technology that is still unavailable to many television users because of lack of facilities. At present, the solution to this limitation can now be achieved through the satellite dish network. Whether you live in an area with DSL access or not, you can now utilize DSL technology to the extreme.
If you intend to use satellite dish for your homes or offices, you must receive transmitted signals through a clear view of the southern hemisphere. You must ensure that your chosen location is free from any obstruction like trees, buildings and other structures that can alter your signal and in effect, cause poor reception. If your site is free from any obstruction, it is not necessary to locate the co-ordinates until later when you decide to install the dish system. When you live within these areas, you can install your dish on a galvanized pole that is cemented in the ground or by positioning it no further than 100 ft. from your area.
To give you a better idea regarding this, here are some steps to install a satellite dish successfully and get it authorized:
First, you must know the satellite service in your location. Say, if you live in Europe, you can choose between AFN and Direct to Sailor (DTS). The former has a greater number of channels available but doesnt have worldwide service while the latter has worldwide coverage but has fewer program channels.

Next, you must find the technical information on the satellite that will be used in the whole process. Then, you have to search for the look angle this is the direction in which the satellite dish has to be pointed to get the signal.

Finally, set up the system all together by assembling and pointing the satellite dish, connecting and programming the decoder. After selecting the proper location, you have to distinguish where to mount the dish. To get the best reception possible, it is advisable that you mount the dish outside your home or office such as in surfaces like roofs, decks, chimneys, etc. Most areas will be pre-wired with the correct RG-6 coaxial cable used in both satellite TV and cable services. You must also pre-install external outlets in each room where the televisions are situated. Take note that you must always install RG-6 cable and not any other type of cable.
In addition, you can also place a satellite receiver at the vicinity of the cable outlet in your home or office depending on the number of televisions connected to the satellite system. The said receivers are like a smaller version of a VCR that actually processes the signal from the satellite dish to your TV for sharp, stunning, digital quality pictures.
If the location that you have chosen is questionable and you are planning to install the satellite dish yourself, you might need a compass and position yourself towards the southern hemisphere. You will first need to know the correct azimuth the horizontal direction of your dish and the direction of the communications satellites in orbit and your elevation co-ordinance. You have to expect these elements to differ by geographical location.
Furthermore, major satellite TV providers namely: DirecTV and Dish Network have satellite dish pointing basics on their sites that are established by your zip code. And if you intend to make use of terrestrial DSL, the variant via satellite will perfectly suit you. With it, you will benefit both by saving your charges and valuable time. While you pay the low fees for the channels you receive, you can also find service providers that provide you with hundreds of dollars of satellite TV equipment including dish, receivers, etc. for free.
chris Joseph is the founder of http://www.satellite-tv-choice.com and informational web site that teaches you all about getting a free satellite tv

Written By: Chris Joseph

Getting To Know The Satellite TV System

admin — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:26:37 +0000

We are living in the information age, with access to anything at our fingertips via the Internet and our televisions. With cable television and satellite TV systems, we have access to hundreds of channels that are address just about every interest: sports, music, cooking, home decorating, children’s shows, movies, cars, history, and many more. Satellite TV systems in recent years have stolen some of cable TV’s thunder in their ability to offer more channels, for a better price, and often with better reception than standard cable TV. But, cable TV is striking back, and has leveled the playing field in recent years. Since its inception, satellite TV has provided a viable option to the television consumer.

Satellite TV is brought into the home via communications satellites high in the atmosphere, as opposed to cable TV, which brings its service into the home via underground cables. Home satellite TV service began in the 1980′s with the introduction of systems that received the same signals used for cable TV distribution. Early satellite TV systems were quite expensive, and the satellite dishes were often as large as 12 feet in diameter.

DBS, or direct broadcast satellite, is known commonly as “mini-dish systems”, and is what is available to consumers today. DBS requires special equipment for the home (a satellite dish and a receiver box) that is encrypted by the specific service provider chosen by the customer. The satellite equipment uses a special card to decode the signal in order to allow viewing access to the paying customer. The card is used to permit only the customer paying for that specific service to view the premium channels (if subscribed to), as well as the free channels available to everyone.

In the infancy of satellite TV systems, all channels for free an open for public consumption, including what we know today as premium channels, such as HBO. This was highly appealing and gave satellite TV systems a huge opportunity for growth. However, when HBO decided to encrypt their signal in 1986, other cable services followed suit, and satellite sales plummeted. There was simply too much expensive equipment to purchase in addition to paying monthly fees for TV channels. Thus cable TV moved in.

Satellite TV saw a resurgence in the 1990′s when the mini-dish systems became an affordable and reliable alternative to cable TV. Cable TV costs were climbing due to lack of competition, and consumers took advantage of the new choice they were offered. DirecTV was the first high-capacity home satellite TV system, and it was made available in 1994. Several other services, like Dish Network and Primestar followed soon after, creating competition among satellite TV service providers, as well as competition with the cable TV industry. So much competition was good news for consumers. Prices came down, and incentives were offered to lure customers from one service provider to another.

Cable TV has since leveled the playing field with the introduction of digital cable, offering even more reliable reception, more reasonable costs, just as many channels, and such perks as no contract obligations.

Satellite TV systems do have their drawbacks for the consumer. Though the high-quality picture is a definite bonus, the reception is highly subject to atmospheric interference, such as bad weather and sunspots. This can knock out service for hours at a time, and can be very frustrating. In addition, if you subscribe to a satellite TV system because you live in a remote location, and cable TV is not available to you, you might not have access to local TV channels. This might require using an antenna to try to get local network broadcasts. Further, the lure that satellite TV once had, that being the quantity of additional channels available over cable TV, is a thing of the past. Digital cable has opened more options to consumers, offering them just as many, and sometimes more, channels as a satellite TV system.

A satellite TV system is an affordable and often reliable alternative to cable TV. Sometimes satellite TV is the only alternative, due to location. Satellite TV offers the same extras as cable TV, with DVR (Digital Video Recorder) capabilities, pay-per-view channels, and music choice channels. And because of the competition among the satellite TV service providers themselves, the equipment prices are often greatly reduced, and sometimes even free of charge. A satellite TV system can be a viable alternative to cable TV.

About the author:
Learn the essential information for picking the right satellite system at Satellite TV System

Written By: Mark Woodcock