Talk:Free to Air Satellite Receivers
Contents
Dish Network Satellite Fleet
Orbital Locations Vary
Since EchoStar frequently moves satellites among its many orbiting slots this list is not immediately accurate.
Refer to Lyngsat.com for detailed satellite information.
Notes:
(1) EchoStar IV at 77° W is not licensed to serve customers in the United States. EchoStar has placed the satellite in this Mexican controlled orbital slot to serve future DBS customers in Mexico.
(2) Customers use SuperDISH 121 to receive this non-DBS, medium-powered signal. Satellite is jointly owned by EchoStar and Intelsat. The Ku band is owned by EchoStar. Ka band payload owned by EchoStar and not currently in use. C band payload owned by Intelsat and is known as Galaxy 23.
(3) Rainbow 1 was launched by Cablevision/Rainbow DBS and used for the Voom DBS service at 61.5° W until the satellite and transponder licenses were sold to EchoStar in 2005. March 2006 saw DISH Network rename it to EchoStar 12. It is co-located with EchoStar III at 61.5° W.
(4) Customers use SuperDISH 105 to receive this signal. Non-DBS, medium-power AMC-15 is owned by SES Americom and replaced AMC-2 at the 105° W orbital location. EchoStar leases the entire bandwidth of the AMC-15 satellite.
(5) Customers use the 26-centimeter DISH 500+ or DISH 1000+ to receive this non-DBS, medium-powered signal. Anik F3 is leased by EchoStar from Telesat Canada to serve CONUS customers. It broadcasts on non-DBS FSS frequencies using circular polarity (the only satellite serving the United States in this mode). It permanently replaces AMC-16 which was temporarily placed at 118.75° W due to delays in Anik F3 production. AMC-16 moved back to 85° W when Anik F3 was fully operational.
Dish Birds and Transponders
LNB / for a twin LNB
DP-Twin-1 119 Even, Odd 110 Even, Odd
Satellite 110 on Transponder 21 Satellite 119 on Transponder 21
EchoStar 6,8 (110W)
EchoStar 7 (119W)
What is Free-To-Air TV?
What is Free-To-Air TV?
Asia and the Pacific Rim were the first places in which MPEG-2 free-to-air reception was used on a large scale. The difference between those markets and America was that prior to the mid 90s, it took literally very huge antennas to get even a few dozen channels...making TV reception of many channels an impossible dream. MPEG-2 technology was a breakthrough that allowed great reductions in per-channel transmission costs. Mass consumers in those regions never had the chance to spend lots of money on more costly analog equipment. Their first exposure to satellite TV was more often than not in a digital format. No 15 to 20 year learning curve of various stages of analog receivers prior to going to digital, like we did here.
So the Asia-Pacific market was a test bed on how to get it right, with costs coming down due to companies from the Far East trying to compete for the huge mainland Chinese market. Then Europe, now North America.
Hyundai was the first receiver brought into the U.S., with its early versions of the HSS-100 series of receivers. Wholesale cost was around $700, it had a memory limited to 99 bouquets, or groups of channels, and the graphics only worked in the PAL video format. Viewing on our NTSC format required a direct connection to a VCR or monitor and some programming tricks to "make" an NTSC picture. We have come a long ways in the last three years, with many significant improvements in design of receivers, and great increases in memory capacity.
MPEG-2 is a worldwide satellite transmission standard for digital broadcasting. It is the wave of the future, because of the simple economics that can allow 8 or even 10 video signals to occupy the same space as one channel of analog transmission. Just as some analog signals can be scrambled for subscription use, digital channels can be transmitted either scrambled or in-the-clear. In-The-Clear is known in the digital TV world as FTA or Free-To-Air. Since it is a worldwide standard, there are more MPEG-2/DVB (digital video broadcasting) channels available in places such as Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, than presently found in the American market. National public broadcasters in other parts of the world have adopted MPEG-2 as a cost-effective way to distribute their signals on limited budgets.
Spread of free MPEG-2 signals into North America has been previously hampered by the dominance of the Digicipher 2 video standard made by the former General Instrument (now Motorola Broadband) group. Receivers such as 4DTV and other versions of the Digicipher 2 actually have the letters MPEG-2 stamped on them, but are not compatible with the rest of the world. The difference comes in the way that signals are layered together, especially in the encryption process. It has given the Digicipher 2 a protected monopoly in America . Scientific-Atlanta's PowerVu system is more closely related to MPEG-2, and it has a lion's share of digital channels in the rest of the world. It helps that the worldwide PanAmSat satellite system works closely with Scientific-Atlanta in promoting this digital alternative. What is unique is that when signals are NOT addressably encoded, the PowerVu system can be viewed in-the-clear (or Free-to-Air) on most consumer MPEG-2 digital receivers. Several DBS systems in North America use the MPEG-2 platform, and when they choose NOT to encode channels, signals are also available in the same manner. These include Echostar's DISH Network , Canada 's Bell ExpressVu, Mexico 's SKY MEXICO , and the former Sky Vista and AlphaStar...once on Telstar 5 but now out of business.
This unusual mix of compatible free-to-air systems has presented the opportunity for a great number of channels to become available to North American viewers. There are always a few channels in the transition between in-the-clear and subscription transmission mode. The ultimate goal in many cases is for a subscription service, but some channels have been in-the-clear for months and even years before reverting to scrambling. When a channel goes into that mode, arrangements are usually available with one of the small dish DBS services to sell a subsidized priced receiver when making a long-term commitment to a subscription. We shall concentrate on the channels that continue to transmit in a free mode.
A great number of the channels available free-to-air in MPEG-2 is those from other countries. Such availability is contingent upon somebody paying the bill for satellite transmission across the ocean, and then re-transmitting to the North American market. In some cases, the North American signal is made available on one of the small-dish systems such as DirecTV or DISH Network for a monthly fee, but the incoming feed from overseas is left in the clear. The reason is primarily economic, with the logic that very few people will go to the trouble of installing a large C-band antenna in this day and age to view one free channel, when they can have it delivered by alternative methods for what some might consider to be a reasonable fee. Problem is that this "free" reception sometimes gets too popular, and the bean counters at DISH Network decide to encode the incoming international feeds, thus forcing all to subscribe. This happened recently with Polish services, then Russian, and who knows what next. A great number of Arabic channels are presently in the clear...a few are incoming feeds for DISH Network, and several others are sponsored and paid for by different governments in Arabic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The latter wish to make their signals available around the world to expatriates as well as the rest of the world as a window into their culture. These governments pay to keep these signals available free of charge to individual viewers with satellite equipment. Such benevolence goes against the U.S. model of commercialism and paying for TV, but it helps explain why some languages are readily available here and others are not. Somebody has to pay to get it on satellite, and if a country or a language does not have either a sponsor or an adequate number of paying customers, then it will likely not be available to our market.
EchoStar 7 (119W) and EchoStar 6,8 (110W) settings
EchoStar 7 (119W)
Transponder - 12268 Transponder Freq - 11250 LNB Type - OCS-DP 22Khz - Off DiSEqC Number - LNB1 Legacy SW - None Motorized - None
EchoStar 6,8 (110W)
Transponder - 12224 Transponder Freq - 11250 LNB Type - OCS-DP 22Khz - Off DiSEqC Number - LNB2 Legacy SW - None Motorized - None
first releases for the following...
Sonicview SV-1000
Sonicview SV-1000PVR
Sonicview SV-4000
Sonicview SV-HD8000
Viewsat Xtreme
Viewsat Platinum/Lite
Viewsat Ultra
Viewsat 9000HD
