Dish Network and DirecTV

Dish Network and DirecTV are minidish digital Ku Band satellite programming service providers known as DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) providers. They use MPEG compression to provide many channels that are highly compressed and low quality. The dish is small and fixed since these providers use a very limited number of high power satellites in space. Because the satellites are Ku band and very high power, the receiving dish can be small. Because the programming is compressed down so much, many channels can be offered on a single satellite.

One significant downside to DBS minidish providers is they have limited space for HDTV transmissions, and the HDTV is also highly compressed, resulting in quality well below the capabilities of modern HDTV entertainment systems. To achieve true HDTV high quality the consumer should consider a satellite system that uses Motorola 4DTV Satellite Technology. 4DTV HD quality is far superior to anything offered by DBS minidish or cable television companies.

The minidish DBS systems use encrypted broadcasts so that only paying subscribers can view the programming. Dish Network uses a system of encrypting the MPEG broadcast called Nagravision while DirecTV uses the News Data system encryption technology. Encrypting the transmissions is known as "scrambling" in the satellite television world. Scrambling prevents "signal theft" or satellite television piracy.

Dish Network and DirecTV utilize the Ku-Band of the satellite radio spectrum. The Digital Ku-Band Mini Dish Frequencies and Channels are broken down by satellite, transponder, and SID. Within these are other variances such as polarity and frequency, allowing for a maximum number of digital channels to be available on a single satellite in space. This reduces overall cost to the provider and allows for the fixed non-motorized consumer minidish to be possible.

Dish Network Installation and DirecTV Installation is a relatively simple process involving mounting the fixed dish where it can receive satellite signals from the necessary high powered satellites in space where there is an unobstructed view to, typically, the southern sky.

When Dish Network first launched their satellite television service, they used an 18" dish similar to DirecTV round dish. In fact, the dishes and LNB's where interchangeable. Early on both Dish Network and DirecTV only transmitted either odd or even transponders. Each transponder carries as many as 20 individual channels. Modern Dish Pro equipment (when the LNB has either DP or DPP on the side) is not compatible with DirecTV.