How do satellite dishes get you local channels?

[WinkOsmosis]

I don't understand the local channel thing that you can pay for with satellite. How can a satellite transmit local channels to every locality?

 

[Kalvin00]

Huh? I think the DirecTV main office thing gets all the local channels, beams them to the satellite, and back down. Is that what you asked?

 

[jfall]

There are sats for local channels.. the card is programmed with your area code so you get the proper local channels

 

[Soybomb]

They setup an antenna at a location where they can receieve the signals, haul it back to their office (they asked if we already had fiber entering the premises), and then bounce it to the satellite and back to you. We had one of the satellite companies call a few months ago to get some colocation pricing since they wanted to offer local channels in our area.

 

[prvteye2003]

actually, when I was first set up with dish network, I had all the local channels they offered for all the cities. Not sure how that happened so I'm not sure if the theories talked about here would work.

 

[CFster]

Actually, all of the local stations beam their signal to a satellite. That's how the cable companies get them too.

But to answer your question, your program card in your satellite reciever is programmed to recieve just YOUR local stations. The satellite doesn't pick and choose what household to send a signal to - it just broadcasts them all, all the time.

I uh...knew a guy with a hacked card - he could recieve ALL the local stations.

 

[guyver01]

Originally posted by: CFster
I uh...knew a guy with a hacked card - he could recieve ALL the local stations.

how is that possible... don't you need a channel map?

you'd pull in like 200 different channel 2's... and they'd all be on Channel 2.

a channel map would say ok... freq 205.3 Mhz maps to channel 2.

 

[ScottMac]

Direct TV's newer sats have "Spot Beaming" capability: they can multiply the number of "local channels" by sending Midwest locals only to the Midwest, West to the West, etc... over the same transponders.

DirecTV gets their local feed over a direct connection to the broadcasters. This is done on landlines; satellite bandwidth is too sparse and too expensive for a perpetual feed from all the local stations. All the lines converge to DTV's sat uplink facillity, then up to the birds.

I get better "regular" signals from DTV than I do from a local antenna (no ghosting, no fuzz ... just clean, sharp & crisp).

It's also a good way to show latency: you tune the main screen to the satellite, then put up a PIP window with the terrestrial signal ...

DTV is a wunnerful thing. I expect that Dish is also very good.

FWIW

Scott

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: CFster
Actually, all of the local stations beam their signal to a satellite. That's how the cable companies get them too.

But to answer your question, your program card in your satellite reciever is programmed to recieve just YOUR local stations. The satellite doesn't pick and choose what household to send a signal to - it just broadcasts them all, all the time.

I uh...knew a guy with a hacked card - he could recieve ALL the local stations.

We used an antenna when I worked for the cable tv company, they still do too. I'll try to get my friend to post some pics of the headend sometime, its pretty spiffy as far as they go.

Fwiw: It was dish that was talking about colocating at our office to provide local channels. Not only do they inquire about pricing but also about what sort of reception you get for local stations, elevation of your building compared to surroundings, etc.

 

[cyclistca]

I have Bell Expressview in Canada. I get all the local channels of the major Candian networks from all across Canada.

 

[Shockwave]

They capture the local channels in the local area they wish to offer service for. Then landline it up to the satellite uplinks, then beam it right back down to you. Your reciever doesnt pick up the local channels from the local station, it gets everything from the satellite.
Soybomb was 100% correct in how it is done.

I could tell you equipment and bandwidth, but that may be propreitary info so I dunno if I can....
I could also post a network graph, its pretty interesting to see how its done. Its like that take the longest possible route to get the local channels. From the local area, across the country to the uplink, up to space, then right back down to the originating area.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Originally posted by: ScottMac
Direct TV's newer sats have "Spot Beaming" capability: they can multiply the number of "local channels" by sending Midwest locals only to the Midwest, West to the West, etc... over the same transponders.

DirecTV gets their local feed over a direct connection to the broadcasters. This is done on landlines; satellite bandwidth is too sparse and too expensive for a perpetual feed from all the local stations. All the lines converge to DTV's sat uplink facillity, then up to the birds.

I get better "regular" signals from DTV than I do from a local antenna (no ghosting, no fuzz ... just clean, sharp & crisp).

It's also a good way to show latency: you tune the main screen to the satellite, then put up a PIP window with the terrestrial signal ...

DTV is a wunnerful thing. I expect that Dish is also very good.

FWIW

Scott

I thought "spot beaming" turned out to be a myth? Thats why hacked cards can get local stations from everywhere.

 

[piku]

I'm pretty sure it just works by the local channels sending their signal to DirecTV, which then just adds them as normal channels. I too had a friend who had a hacked card and was able to get every channel. Basically an entire channel block was set aside (I think it was the 700's, or maybe 600's, I forget) and you would just flip through and each channel was a different local channel. For actual customers you would only be able to access the 5 or so channels that you have the right to watch, but with the card you can just flip through like a hundred different local stations, most of which are showing the exact same thing.

 

[ElFenix]

having a hacked card was nice because you could pretty much find the simpsons playing for about 6 hours straight. or if you missed something, just watch a west coast station in a couple of hours.