Posts Tagged ‘tv providers’

The Ins And Outs Of Satellite TV

Monday, July 27th, 2009
by Ron Goodman

People using satellite TV have a different experience than those that are using cable or terrestrial services. With satellite TV, you receive a much bigger array of services and channels, along with some channels that can be gained through subscription only.

Telstar was the first to successfully relay satellite television signal in 1962, from Europe over North America. Following the trend, in 1963, Syncom 2, a geosynchronous communication satellite, premiered around the world. In 1965, the first commercial satellite to make it to synchronous orbit debuted, called the Early Bird. Two years after, Orbita was formed by the Soviet Union. It worked by using Molniya satellites to rebroadcast television signals to ground-based downlink stations. Canada in 1972 offered geostationary Anik 1, becoming the first North American company to do so.

There are three broadcast standards commonly used today: PAL, SECAM, and NTSC. They allow the distribution of analog television through a satellite. What they do is they alter the frequency of the FM signal to baseband, which gives us the audio sub-carrier and video signal. QPSK is the name of this digitized signal.

Digital television – including signal transmitted via satellite- is based on a type of open standard such as MPEG and DVB-S. To scramble and access encryption, Videocypher, BISS, VideoGuard, Conax, PowerVu, Digicipher, Viacess, Nagravision, and Irdeto are used.

You have several different options if you are looking for satellite television, and the three main types are direct viewer reception, local TV affiliate reception, and headends reception distributed through terrestrial cables. The first type includes DBS (which stands for direct broadcast satellite) and TVRO (short for television receive only).

Satellite TV is often chosen over analog TV because of the advantages it offers, two of which include advanced clarity and resolution. Satellite TV uses Ku band signals plus the best digital equipment ” a huge leap from the C-band analog cables (already outdated).

With satellite TV, you are guaranteed broad coverage and a stronger reception. This is the kind of TV for anyone who lives in a rural area, or any other place where cable TV is restricted. Additionally, the number of options that are available to you through satellite TV includes more types of subscription opportunities. Opting for this type of service will ultimately give you the greatest variety of programming options.

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