About Digital Satellite Receiver

What Is Digital Satellite TV?Digital satellite TV is broadcast from a satellite located on orbit around the Earth. A homeowner who subscribes to the service must put a satellite dish outside that picks up the signal and delivers it into the home. Subscribers can receive all major national channels and premium channels, although local channels are sometimes difficult to receive.The satellites that send the digital signals are located about 22,200 miles (35,730 km) above the Earth. They move with the Earth, in order to constantly remain in the same position relative to the ground. This orbit is referred to as geosynchronous. The satellites receive the initial signal from a broadcast center on the Earth, and then send it back down to the subscribers' dishes. The digital satellite signal is then processed through the subscribers' in-home receivers, and sent into the television for viewing.The receiver is a key piece of equipment, because the code sent from the satellite is encrypted. Without encryption, anyone could buy a black market satellite dish, and hook it up to their television to receive free service. Video is first compressed and then is encrypted, a process that takes place at the initial broadcast point on the ground. When the signal is sent from the dish to the receiver, the receiver decompresses and interprets the signal. The receiver can only interpret the signal correctly if it has been programmed with the correct security codes by the service provider.Some manufacturers of computer equipment offer digital satellite TV cards that can be installed in computers. They claim that these cards can pick up and decrypt the signals from a satellite TV provider for no charge except the initial purchase price. These cards essentially pirate the signal, and are not recommended because of their legal implications.The major competitor for digital satellite TV is cable service. There are some advantages and disadvantages to digital satellite service that should be considered for someone seeking to subscribe. The major advantage is availability. Many rural areas do not have access to digital cable service, but have no problem with receiving the wide variety of stations available through digital satellite TV. The major disadvantage is weather related outages. Since the signal relies on a transmission coming from the sky, the service is vulnerable to outages and interruptions during bad weather.Much like digital cable, digital satellite TV receivers can have the ability to record programs. Many can also pause or rewind live television just like a digital video recorder (DVR) system does with digital cable. To receive the high definition (HD) channels through the receiver, the subscriber must have an HD television, just as with cable.

How To Work Digital Satellite ReceiverA digital signal receiver is, broadly speaking, any device that receives digital broadcast signals. With the right digital signal receiver, you can enjoy satellite TV, digital cable and satellite radio broadcasts.EncryptionJust like cable TV, satellite TV can only be availed through paid subscription. Since TV signals transmitted via satellite are indiscriminately broadcast on a large area, these signals need to be encrypted so that only subscribers are able to view the shows and programs on the hundreds of channels that are offered by a satellite TV service. Inside each digital satellite receiver is a chip that can unlock and decode the signal. The security measure that this chip performs is unique for each satellite TV service provider. Thus non-subscribers who may have their own satellite dishes and digital receivers are unable to watch the shows on their television sets, even though they may physically pick up the signal.CompressionA TV signal contains a huge amount of information. It would take enormous power and a very wide frequency range to transmit and broadcast video and audio data as it is viewed and heard by human audiences. Therefore, compression is necessary to make the whole process efficient. A digital satellite receiver takes this compressed digital TV signal and converts it into an analog format that a typical television set can output. With newer television sets that are designed to take in digital signals, conversion is no longer necessary.TuningTV signals are radio waves and radio waves are modulated in order to be able to carry information. Older and more common ways of modulating radio waves are amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM), and these are the two ways of tuning in on radio. For satellite television the modulation standard is known as Digital Video Broadcasting or DVB-S. The “S” stands for “satellite” and distinguishes this method from the modulation standard used by cable television, which is denoted as DVB-C. Satellite TV service providers use a technique called multiplexing to mix and cram together several channels into a single transmission. When this single transmission reaches the subscriber, the digital satellite receiver extracts individual channels and feeds it to the television set.