SolveYourProblem HDTV Article Series
Buying a High Definition Television (HDTV)

Getting HDTV Programming Via Satellite

One of the ways that HDTV programming can be obtained is via satellite. Receiving HDTV through the use of a satellite feed has both its good and bad points. The first HDTV satellite launched was by DirecTV and was soon followed by Dish Network. By subscribing to either one of these service providers HDTV is available practically anywhere in the United States, even if you live in a remote area. That’s good news for those interested in getting their fill of HDTV programming. DirecTV offers to its customer some satellite only broadcasts. An example of this would be the NFL Sunday Ticket.

But there is a down side to all of this. When it comes to satellites, bandwidth is at a premium and each individual satellite has its work cut out for it- all local channels, often totaling in the hundreds, must be broadcast separately, not together. Due to these two negative aspects of satellite, consumers require an over-the-air antenna add-on in order to receive their HDTV signals. Being well aware of this fact, providers of satellite HDTV try to come up with ways to encourage their customers to want to invest in the service. Many offer a variety of HDTV channels broadcast nationally, examples being the East and West coast feeds of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. The only problem with this option is that these feeds are only available in a legal sense in certain rural, suburban and metropolitan areas.

Changes are in the works to greatly improve upon the satellite style of television broadcasting. A new product called MPEG-4 AVC has just made its appearance and it is sure to make inroads in the industry. What MPEG-4 AVC is basically a “video compression technology” that allows for twice as much HD video in the same amount of bandwidth as is currently available in the HD compression standard (or MPEG-2). The insurgence of the MPEG-4 makes it possible for the bandwidth available on satellite television to be greatly increased. Another development that also guarantees more success in this area is the fact that new satellites have been deployed into space within the past few months. To give two examples, Dish Network has recently obtained a satellite from the VOOM service that is no longer around and in April 2005 DirecTV launched the first of a proposed four satellites.

Satellite subscribers will reap many benefits from the introduction of MPEG-4. DirecTV has plans in the works to make 1,500 local HDTV stations as well as 150 national HD networks a reality by the year 2007. What this means for customers is that everyone everywhere would have access to every national HDTV network and every local HDTV channels that are available. Dish Network has not made any MPEG-4 plans public as of yet but representatives for the company have promised their customers that good things are in the works.

The satellite service provided by both DirecTV and Dish Network presently employs the use of satellite dishes and set-top boxes but with the advent of MPEG-4 these will not be compatible and will have to be replaced. It is unclear at this point whether both companies’ subscribers will have to pay a fee for the upgrade or whether the new equipment will be provided to them free of charge. DirecTV began to introduce their new MPEG-4 services and hardware for HDTV via satellite during the fall of 2005. The first twelve markets to be privy to DirecTV’s MPEG-4 service included New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Tampa. Dish Network has not as of present, released any information to the media about its plans in regards to MPEG-4 services in HDTV programming.

If you are interested in subscribing to the satellite service provided by either the Dish Network or DirecTV, your first step should be to get in touch with your local satellite installer and request an HD-capable installation. Some companies will extend deals or value packages such as free installation for HDTV to new customers while some will go even further and will provide HD-capable receivers free of charge. If you are already a satellite customer you need to ascertain if the satellite dish you currently have installed is capable of receiving HD signals. If it is not then a change is in order. After you have worked through the above situations it will then be necessary to obtain an HD receiver in order to decipher the satellite’s HDTV signals.

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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007

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