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Monday, March 31, 2008

Satellite TV Dealers

Satellite TV is nowadays a growing business with millions of subscribers worldwide. What used to be a luxury only for the rich and famous just a few years ago is no an affordable option for almost anyone. The growth rate of satellite TV has beaten cable TV in many countries and there are many satellite TV dealers providing these services. However, as with any other hot product, there are a lot of scammers as well.

Ordering Online

There are many satellite TV dealers who sell there products online as well. After you place your order with an online satellite TV dealer, you have to choose the number of satellite systems you want to receive. Online dealers usually offer up to 4 free systems often along with an incentive gift as well, such as a DVD player or a home theater system.

After you've completed your order, you will schedule the time when a professional installer will come to your house. The satellite system can be shipped to you in advance or be brought in by the installer. You usually don't have to decide on the programming right away. You can call a toll-free number after the installation and talk to a customer service representative to activate the programming you'd like.

Internet Scams

Unfortunately, as with any other product you purchase on the Internet, there is a risk to get scammed. Many of the online satellite TV dealers out there are actually scammers. They claim to offer the best satellite deals for a very small subscription fee with next-day installation and sometimes unlimited number of free satellite system as part of a promotion.

However, after you sign up you will discover hidden activation fees, installation dates permanently postponed, high shipping costs or enormous cancellation fees. There might be more scammers out there than actual satellite TV dealers, so beware not to fall into their traps.

Choosing the Right Satellite TV Dealer

In the United States there are two main satellite TV providers: Dish Network and DirecTV. They both have several reputable dealers assigned and you are recommended to order your systems from one of them.

- Here is a checklist of the minimum requirements a satellite TV dealer should meet: - Be in business for at least one year - Have a certified website, as well as provide a secure order page - Be authorized by a satellite provider's officials - Have no "hidden" costs (the cost charged on credit card should be shown clearly) - Provide a customer support service by phone, email or live chats - Have a 100% money-back guarantee and refund your money if the installation fails - Being able to provide testimonials from customers, user reviews or being recommended by an authority website is always a plus.

A satellite TV deal can be either an incredible bargain or a dreadful nightmare, depending on the satellite TV dealer you choose. Ordering your satellite systems from a reliable company can save you a lot of money and headaches, as well as provide you with the quality you are expecting.

Christopher Buckley is owner of one of the internet's largest Satellite TV resources. To find a satellite TV dealer, visit Satellite TV Blog

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Thursday, March 13, 2008

What To Know About Your Satellite TV Provider

Today, television is all about choices. There are hundreds of channels from which a person can choose, many of them geared toward specific interests such as history, sports, news, golf, cooking, and the list goes on. In the infancy of TV, this was certainly not the case, where there was one, maybe two channels to watch. But now, with the cable TV and satellite provider vying for customers, the options are vast.

Satellite TV comes into your home via communications satellites up in the atmosphere. You are required to have your own smaller satellite dish, aimed at the southern sky, and a receiver box (much like a cable box) connected to your TV. Satellite TV service first began in the early 1980's. These early systems were expensive, and required a rather large satellite dish. It wasn't until the 1990's when the systems became more manageable and affordable, and a popular option to cable TV, which had its own little monopoly going at the time. But that quickly began to change.

For a moment, it looked like satellite TV had an edge over cable TV. But, with the onslaught of digital cable, companies are neck and neck, and provide very equivalent services. The type of service you want is up to you. If you decide to go with a satellite TV provider, you will have the option of going with either the DISH Network, or DirecTV. Both offer a variety of packages and options (or programming tiers) that you can use to cater to your television viewing level and lifestyle.

When choosing a satellite TV provider, you will want to look at the channels they each offer, the prices for the different levels of programming, the equipment costs, and the contract specifics. More than likely, there will be little discrepancy in the channels offered by either provider. They both offer all of the basic channels, in addition to a large amount of movie, sports, and music channels. The prices for the programming packages will likely be equivalent as well. This is for your benefit in that the competition will help keep costs relatively reasonable for the customer.

With satellite TV, you will have to buy equipment. This includes a satellite dish, and one or more receivers, depending on how many rooms you want to be able to view the satellite channels in. Often, a satellite TV provider will offer freebies, such as a free dish or free two-room receiver for signing up, or even free channels for a limited time. Before you make a choice, look for sales and offers just like those. And now, satellite TV providers might even offer HDTV receivers at no cost as well. The incentives can be quite attractive.

You should be aware that there are certain drawbacks to satellite TV. Although you will find that your TV picture is often much clearer than with regular cable TV, a satellite TV signal is subject to interference in the atmosphere that can cause an outage of service temporarily. Such things as bad weather and sunspots will give you nothing but a blank screen. This is not something that can be fixed by a satellite TV provider, unfortunately. Another drawback is that you might not have access to your local stations, especially if you live in a smaller town or a remote area. In order to get those, you will then either have to subscribe to basic cable, or try to get an antenna to pick up local TV channels.

Yet another downside to satellite TV is that a provider will require you to sign a lengthy agreement, sometimes as much as two years, especially if you want to take advantage of the incentives they offer. You can get out of it, but for a very hefty fee. This differs from cable in that you can cancel your cable TV service at any time with no extra penalties.

If you want to use satellite TV, or you have to due to living in a remote area without access to cable TV, you will want to make sure you choose the right satellite TV provider for you. The best way to do that is by visiting their websites, and by asking people that you know who use satellite TV. Satellite TV is still an affordable option, with many choices available to the customer. And a satellite TV provider will likely offer many incentives to get you to sign on the dotted line.

Learn the essential information for picking the right satellite tv provider at Satellite TV Provider

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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The Future Of Dish Network And Satellite TV

If you have Dish Network or thinking about getting it or another satellite TV service, it?s good to know what the future holds for satellite TV. So, here?s a glimpse into the future.

This article may be considered science fiction, just like Arthur C. Clark once had a scientific vision about 3 satellites orbiting the earth in geostationary orbits to make global communications possible. Everything in this article is merely a scientific vision and an extrapolation of current technologies into the future.

What would be the future of Satellite TV? That may seem to be a difficult question, but extrapolating what we know about the past into the future and some educated guesses, we may very well end up with a reasonable picture of what the future of satellite TV looks like. The future of satellite TV will be guided by these properties:

1. Receive and Transmit
2. Equipment Size and Costs
3. Satellite Capacity and Coverage
4. Antenna Size
5. New Technologies

1 Receive and Transmit

What would be possible if you could not only receive, but also transmit? And in the same bandwidth as you receive? That would change the whole world. It is possible now to use the satellite for Internet purposes, but in a very simple and inefficient way. You receive via satellite, but transmit via phone. Upload capacity is completely limited by the dial up connection.

The idea of being able to transmit to a satellite from your home is new and will probably one day be reality. At the moment companies can use satellites to connect offices all over the country via satellite. Bandwidth is limited, or very expensive. Another problem for home use is the size of the satellite dish. At least 4 foot for small bandwidth and up to 10 feet or even more for higher bandwidths. In point 3 this bandwidth issue is explained in more detail.

2 Equipment Size and Costs

Your Dish Network or Satellite TV equipment at home may seem small, but it is small because all it has to do is receive. Transmitting requires different equipment. Not so much in the house, but on the roof at the antenna there is need for a relative big transmitter. Also these are still pretty expensive and for domestic use just not affordable.

In the future this will change. Equipment will get smaller, and cheaper. Eventually when satellites are able to relay much more data than now (see point 3), having 10.000.000 transmitters on the ground won't be a problem.

3 Satellite Capacity and Coverage

This will always be the bottle neck of satellites; how much data can they relay and how small an area can they cover. A satellite has multiple dishes and each dish can cover a part of the earth; small parts like just one state or big parts like the whole continental United States.

In the future satellites will be able to relay much more data, and cover much smaller areas. Especially the smaller coverage areas will be important. Having full capacity available for just a small area means higher bandwidth available for a small amount of people. Especially in urban areas it will be great to have a satellite cover just one neighborhood.

4 Antenna Size

This is a very important issue. Small antennas of 18 inches already exist and are used by satellite TV providers such as Dish Network, but these can receive only. The opening angle of an antenna like this is too big to get enough signal power to reach the satellite. In the future however, antennas will get better and eventually small antennas can be used to transmit to the satellite.

5 New Technologies

This will be the really interesting part. New technologies may open up possibilities that are never heard of before.

Imagine watching a movie in 3D, you sitting on your couch but watching a show as if you are in the audience when the TV show was recorded. You're not really having a TV at home anymore, but a 3D entertainment room. (for those of you who like StarTrek, a not so strange idea). Normal Satellite TV will still be available of course.

In the future Satellite TV will open up so many possibilities that it is hard to imagine what our lives will be like in 30, or even just 20 years from now. To give an idea of how fast things are going. 50 years ago, there was nothing in space that was made by humans. Now there are even satellite graveyards (specific orbits where obsolete satellites are "parked"). The possibilities of satellite TV technology are growing faster every year. What took 10 years to develop 30 years ago is now done in 2 years.

Dish Network and Satellite TV is one of the driving forces for satellite technologies because the need to please million of subscribers is much stronger than the need to please the relative limited needs of communications for commercial purposes. The future of satellite TV is so bright, that a supernova would pale in comparison!


I am first and foremost an observer of life. I enjoy analyzing and exploring all aspects of life on planet Earth, and expressing my personal perspective on the nitty gritty of it all. As a result of my observations, I have become a freelance writer. http://www.dish-network-satellite-tv.ws/

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Types of Satellite TV Systems - TVRO and DBS

You may think that there is only one type of satellite TV system...but you're incorrect. There is, in fact, two different formats of satellite TV: TeleVision Receive Only (TVRO) and Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS). Each satellite TV system is built differently and functions in its own fashion. Dish Network, for example, is a DBS system. However, not all satellite TV systems are DBS.

Below is a break down of each system. Read through it and gain a better understanding of the TVRO and DBS satellite TV systems.

TVRO - TeleVision Receive Only TVRO was the first satellite system available for home viewing of satellite TV. It required a relatively big dish of 3 to 6 feet in diameter and worked in C-Band. Frequencies of around 4 G Hertz are called C-Band and require bigger dishes because the wave length of these frequencies is longer than in Ku-Band which requires a much smaller dish of about 18 inches. Ku-Band is at 12 to 14 G Hertz. TVRO systems also need a movable dish because it needs to get all the channels of many satellites. C-Band satellites have much less channels available than Ku-Band satellites and therefore more satellites are needed to provide enough channels. Possibilities that exist with TVRO systems is that you can also receive free channels and independent feeds from for instance news companies. You could for instance receive the unedited material that is broadcasted from a news crew somewhere in the coverage area of the satellite. They transmit their materials to their headquarters using a C-Band satellite. Many of these types of feeds are not scrambled and are available to everyone with the proper equipment.

TVRO systems are often referred to as Big Dish TV, C-Band Satellite TV and BUD (Big Ugly Dish).

DBS - Direct Broadcast Satellite Satellite TV via DBS is done in the Ku-Band. These satellites work on higher frequencies and can transmit higher power signals. This means that much smaller dishes can be used to receive the signal. A small dish of 18 inches is already enough to receive all satellite TV by Satellite TV. This makes it possible to have satellite TV from an apartment on the 10th floor, if you have a clear line of sight to the south. This is the system used by Dish Network and other satellite TV providers.

DBS is for everyone. The satellite dish is so small that it is not an obstacle like with for instance the TVRO dishes of 3 to 6 feet. Once installed the dish needs no maintenance since it is aimed at just one satellite. Some dishes actually have 2 or more feeds which makes it possible to receive the signals from more than 1 satellite. There are no free channels available on DBS satellites as these are often owned and used by the satellite TV provider it self, such as Dish Network, while TVRO satellites often are used by those who rent space on the satellite for a limited time. TVRO systems are meant for, for instance, transport of unedited materials between continents, but also within one continent.

DBS is meant for everyone with a simple, low cost installation of the system. Often the installation is for free as it really is very easy to do. The only thing that is needed is a bit of knowledge of where to find the satellite and the tools that make this even easier. A qualified installer will find the satellite and point it to maximum reception within minutes.

For more free and helpful information on Satellite TV, how to find the best deal, and how to set it up, visit http://www.dish-network-satellite-tv.ws/

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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Direct TV Satellite TV? What You Should Know Before You Order

Launched in 1994 by General Motors, Direct TV is the largest satellite TV provider in the world, with 14.5 million subscribers and 15 satellites.

Direct TV is ranked #2 in customer satisfaction among satellite TV and cable companies by J.D. Power and Associates.

Direct TV Satellite TV System

To receive Direct TV programming you need a Direct TV satellite TV system to capture the satellite signal and transmit it to your TV.

Thanks to the competition between Direct TV dealers, you can now get a free Direct TV satellite TV system when you subscribe to their service.

Here's what you get when you order Direct TV satellite TV service

* A free direct TV satellite TV dish.
* Up to four free receivers and universal remotes.
* Free professional installation in up to four rooms of your home.
* Direct TV HD (high definition) satellite TV receivers (optional).
* Free bonus gifts such as a free DVD player and home theater system.

Direct TV Satellite TV Service

Here's what you get with Direct TV service:

* More than 225 program channels to choose from.
* All-digital picture and sound.
* Up to 500 commercial-free movies per month.
* DVR (digital video recording) so you can record your favorite programs.
* Up to 60 pay-per-view programs per day.
* Your local channels with digital picture and sound.
* Thirty-one commercial-free music channels with digital sound.
* Toll-free, 24/7 customer service.

Direct TV Satellite TV Programming

Direct TV programming packages, which include your local channels, start at $41.99 per month.

Here are the Direct TV programming packages currently available:

* Total Choice?135 program channels (includes 31 music channels) for $41.99 per month.

* Total Choice Plus?155 program channels (includes 31 music channels) for $45.99 per month.

* Total Choice Premier?215 program channels (includes 31 music channels), $93.99 per month.
In addition to the above programming packages you can also get sports packages, international packages, and HD (high definition) packages.

Note: To see all the Direct TV programming packages, current special offers, and free bonuses, click on the links at the bottom of this article.

Ordering Direct TV Satellite TV Service

After you decide on which system and which program package you want, you can place your order online, or you can call a toll-free number to order through a Direct TV representative.

The representative will take your order, schedule your installation, and answer any questions you may have. Installation time is usually one to five days after you order.

At the scheduled installation time a certified Direct TV installer will install your system, test it to make sure it works, then show you how to use all the functions and controls.

Operating the Direct TV satellite system may seem a little tricky at first, so I suggest you ask all the questions you need to while your installer is there, so you'll feel comfortable with your new system. Visit http://www.TheSatelliteTVGuide.com for more details on free satellite TV systems and service, ordering information, plus the latest special offers and free bonuses from DIRECTV.

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