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.