As one of the first to offer satellite TV in the US, the Dish Network has also been among the pioneers in offering HDTV programming. Dish provides satellite television and audio service over the US and is under the supervision of parent company, EchoStar Communications Corporation. Dish was launched in 1996 and is based in Englewood, Colorado.
Dish’s HD roots
Dish Network initially used an 18-inch satellite dish when it launched its HDTV service. Dish is now using a 20-inch satellite dubbed Dish 500, which enables subscribers to receive satellite locations at around the same time. The company is also using larges dishes (SuperDish and Dish 1000) to improve the reception of HD-broadcasts from three satellite locations.
The Dish 1000 gets signals from satellites at 110°W, 119°W, and 129°W, while the two SuperDish’s gets feeds from119°W, 110°W, and 105°W and 119°W, 110°W, and 121°W.
SuperDish and Dish 1000 have become more important over the past year, as the company is steadily increasing the number of programs available in HD. Dish is hopeful that it can improve its offerings for national and local US television network stations and international programming.
Dish’s satellite receivers
Already decided to subscribe to the Dish Network? Why not go the full route and get a Dish Network satellite receiver to make sure everything is seamless.
The Dish DVR will give viewers more power how to watch their HD-shows. Live shows can be replayed, paused, and recorded in this powerful DVR and will make sure that customers will not miss any of their favourite shows.
Control is what makes the DVR useful especially for HDTV viewers. Given its different features, this will be fixture in HDTV setups everywhere.
Capabilities
• Rewind and pause recorded and live programming • A live program can be recorded while watching a pre-recorded show • Record and save favorite shows digitally, whether it be sporting events and movies • Dolby(r) Digital 5.1 surround sound is supported when available
DVR and HD Receiver for 1 or 2 Televisions: The ViP622 makes images appear almost three-dimensional as these are recorded with deep and vivid colors. The ViP622 is the high-end satellite receiver of the Dish Network.
This product boasts of unmatched picture quality and power. Live high definition programming can be paused, replayed and recorded in this powerful DVR. The ViP622 features the capabilities of HD and DVR and also a multi-room function.
Specifications:
• Watch and record HD-shows on two TVs independently – TV1: Record and view high definition or normal definition programming – TV2: Record and view standard definition or down-converted high definition shows
• Watch off-air digital/HD local shows
• Four resolutions for TV1 display: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i
• 480i TV2 display resolution
• Dolby(r) Digital 5.1 surround sound capable when available
• Easy to access and read On-Screen Caller ID with history
• Records as long as 200 hours of standard definition programming and as much as 30 hours of high definition shows
• Features On-screen Electronic Program Guide (EPG) with accessible menu for program listings and data for as long as 9 days
• DISH home Interactive TV with direct access to weather, breaking news, sports, games
• Customer service can be called with the push of a button
• Dual satellite tuners enable you to choose from two viewing options
o Single Mode: Picture-In-Picture (PIP), which can be seen in any TV o Dual Mode: View different shows on 2 televisions
DVR Standard Receiver for 2 Televisions:
The DISH Player-DVR 625 features two tuners to enable connecting of two televisions. Different shows can be recorded at the same time and the viewer can watch a third recorded show. Different shows can be viewed separately on two televisions
• Record and watch programming on two TVs independently
• Easy to access and read On-Screen Caller ID with history2
• Record as long 100 hours of standard definition programming
• Features On-screen Electronic Program Guide (EPG) with accessible menu for program listings and data for as long as 9 days
• Two satellite tuners allow you to select from two viewing options
Single Mode: Picture-In-Picture (PIP), which can be seen in any TV o Dual Mode: View different shows on 2 televisions
By: Julia Solomon
Posts Tagged ‘Satellite Tv’
Getting A Dish Hdtv Satellite Receiver
December 27th, 2009Comcast Brings Cable TV Back From the Brink
December 20th, 2009Back when satellite TV first came out, the cable TV industry was faced with a real challenge coming from the fact that its subscribers who had been content with the eighty or so channels that most cable TV companies at the time could provide suddenly had the opportunity to switch over to satellite TV and get about three times as many channels. Since then, the cable TV industry has been struggling to catch up, but apparently Comcast took the emergence of satellite TV as a challenge to rise to. Now, after lots of hard work and technological innovations, Comcast has risen to the point where it can serve as a realistic alternative to satellite TV. In fact, Comcast is superior to satellite TV in many ways. There are a number of improvements that Comcast made on the older cable TV technology and business model that it used to rely on. The first improvement that it made was the conversion of all of its programming to digital TV format. With digital TV, the TV programming is essentially converted into computer data before its transmitted over the cable to the homes of cable TV subscribers. Once all of that data makes it to those homes, it’s reassembled into a TV picture and sound by sophisticated digital receiver equipment. This technology offers a number of advantages. The most obvious advantage of digital TV is that the digital signal is very easy to cleanse of any interference that creeps into the signal during transmission. Interference like this of course is minimal when data is transmitted over a cable, but there’s still enough to give a slightly fuzzy appearance to TV programming transmitted using the old fashioned analog signal. The ability to clean out interference results in a crystal clear picture that’s very apparent in digital TV. Another advantage of digital TV is that it allows a variety of information about each program to be transmitted along with that program. This meta-information typically includes a description of the program and content ratings. An on screen program guide can then present this information to the viewer so that he or she what the program is about, and it can be used by parental control software to grant or deny access to the program to children who are watching TV without adult supervision. Comcast is able to offer both of those features thanks to digital TV technology. Although digital TV technology forms the basis for Comcast’s service, it doesn’t stop there. For example, another type of technology that Comcast is heavily invested in is HDTV. HDTV is kind of like the next step in digital TV, with a much more detailed and higher resolution picture, Dolby Digital 5. 1 Surround Sound, and the same wide screen format of a commercial movie theater’s screen. Comcast offers an ever expanding line up of HDTV channels and programming. Video on demand is another type of technology that Comcast is committed to. With video on demand, the viewer has access to a variety of different video clips that he or she can choose to access at will. Comcast uses this technology in its pay per view service and in extra features that can be added to a subscription. Perhaps most importantly, Comcast has addressed the most prominent of those initial differences between cable TV and satellite TV: selection of channels. Comcast now offers over two hundred and seventy five channels, which officially makes it the rival of anything that satellite TV services can dish out. With all of these features, Comcast has proven that cable TV will be a viable TV technology in the years and decades to come.
