XPost: rec.video.satellite.tvro, rec.answers 
 From: drlev@hotmail.com 
  
 Archive-name: Satellite-TV/TVRO/part8 
 Posting-Frequency: 15 Days 
 Disclaimer: Approval for *.answers is based on form, not content. 
  
  
 PART EIGHT - What is the Future for TVRO? 
  
 It seems as though consumer TVRO is at a critical crossroads. In the 
 mid-1990's, the 
 TVRO scene made (for better or for worse) the often uncertain transition 
 into 
 digital 
 satellite reception. This was also the same time period that direct 
 broadcast 
 satellite 
 (DBS) was introduced and became wildly popular. Your "average Joe" couch 
 potato 
 TV viewer saw DBS as the answer to "getting hundreds of channels" with 
 equipment 
 costs lower than those of TVRO, simpler installation, and better picture 
 quality than 
 that of cable television. Not to mention, it is "digital", so it HAS to be 
 good, right? 
  
 DBS may prove to be a worse adversary to big dish satellite usage than cable 
 television 
 ever was. Although those who know better know the technological cons of DBS, 
 such 
 as the perils of the overuse of digital compression, no choice of 
 programming 
 providers, 
 digital artifacting, rain fade and proprietary technologies, this has little 
 or no meaning to 
 "average Joe" couch potato TV viewer. He (or she, of course! "Jo" for her..) 
 only cares 
 that he gets ESPN, Discovery Channel, CNN, and other popular cable/satellite 
 networks with easy channel surfing. Experimentation, wild feeds, different 
 modes of 
 broadcasting, and programming found nowhere else are foreign concepts to 
 "Joe". 
 DBS, by being smaller and newer than TVRO, along with "being digital" as a 
 popular 
 marketing catch-phrase, works hard to present the image that TVRO is simply 
 "old, 
 outdated satellite TV". This narrow-minded stereotypical TV viewer is 
 becoming 
 the 
 majority and therefore speaks the loudest with his dollars. Cable television 
 is an already 
 entrenched force in influencing what you watch, and the two American DBS 
 companies are not too far behind. Worse, the DBS companies are buddying up 
 with 
 some of the fewer remaining TVRO/C-Band subscription programming suppliers 
 to 
 try 
 to force TVRO viewers to switch to DBS, often using outrageous technological 
 and 
 financial claims, not to mention outright lies. 
  
 It isn't that large strides haven't been made by the U.S. Government to 
 encourage 
 choice in the source of one's television (and audio) programming, it is 
 simply 
 that big 
 dish satellite has become the unfortunate victim of unfounded notions of 
 being 
 an 
 outdated technology simply one the premise that if it isn't new, it must be 
 outdated. 
 One could argue, using an automotive comparison, that this is like saying 
 that 
 a 2001 
 Volkswagen Beetle or Chrysler PT Cruiser are "better cars" than a 1966 Ford 
 Mustang or a 1972 Chevrolet Nova simply because they are more modern. Like 
 the 
 TVRO versus DBS debate, this type of oversimplistic comparison does not 
 allow 
 for 
 true analysis of what each is and is not. TVRO is also the victim of being a 
 more 
 involved and complicated to use product than the mass-produced, smaller DBS 
 systems such as DirecTV and DISH Network. 
  
 Basically, TVRO is becoming more and more for just those with technical and 
 experimental persuasions, not unlike the early days of TVRO. Someday, 
 traditional 
 subscription programming will either disappear from TVRO or simply become 
 more 
 and more expensive like it already is with cable TV programming. More and 
 more 
 equipment is also becoming necessary to get what is still out there, such as 
 4DTV 
 receivers or sidecars, DVB/MPEG-2 free-to-air receivers and the like. In the 
 future, 
 an investment in even more equipment, such as expensive commercial DVB/MPEG- 
 2 
 receivers with QPSK, 8PSK, and 16QAM modulation and 4:2:2 screen ratio will 
 be 
 needed just to maintain the level of programming choice TVRO viewers are 
 used 
 to. 
 Although these changes in technology don't discourage diehard TVRO 
 enthusiasts, it 
 has the unfortunate effect of making TVRO an increasingly less attractive 
 consumer 
 product. 
  
 Luckily, diehard TVRO viewers are a hardy lot and a mostly intelligent group 
 overall. 
 TVRO viewers know the technical advantages of TVRO and the superior choice 
 that 
 they have over cable and DBS. TVRO home theater aficionados couldn't imagine 
 settling for the inferior technical quality of cable or DBS in their home 
 theater setups. 
 Most TVRO owners have been in it for the long haul since the beginning and 
 view 
 their systems as an investment; and with the right information instead of 
 the 
 anti-TVRO 
 misinformation and lies, their investment in TVRO will still be viable into 
 the 21st 
 century. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)