Grady’s, now that’s a blast from the past!. I think I purchased from them but can‘t remember that far back. Hell I can’t remember what I did yesterday so I am glad you mentioned them.
cost of Ku-Band (1998)
- Thread starter JosephHolloway1998
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In 1998, satellite didn't offer local broadcast channels in most markets so I'm not sure what your point is.
Cable was a not-too-expensive option back then.
What my point is that C-Band viewers had to use a TV Antenna for local stations, but I'm not sure If the Videocipher/Digicipher II receivers had the antenna check of the receiver like the TVRO General Instrument 4DTV receivers did?
You're assuming that some percentage of these viewers didn't subscribe to cable TV and that's not a valid assumption. Among my friends with BUDs back then, both of them subscribed to cable.
Well other than the Digicipher II receivers available at the time (both 4DTV and Star Choice (now Shaw Direct) used DCII), the 4DTV receivers had an TV antenna check/coax cable on the receiver as well as "TO TV" for the VHF rabbit ears, BUD viewers had to pay extra for cable. Plus, they weren't obligated to carry low-powered stations (several WB & UPN affiliates in lesser-known markets were low-powered). Yet, the picture quality on a 4DTV is superior to that of cable (the TV antenna/coax cable works well with DSS receivers as well).
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Availability of a OTA tuner didn't stop many from using cable boxes or their TV's tuners instead.
You could probably count on two hands the number of US broadcast TV stations that were available on C-band. That's why the receivers featured an NTSC tuner.
In 1998 there was no "obligation" for satellite providers to carry broadcast stations. In 1999, SHVIA laid down the rules for DBS carrying local-into-local channels. The requirement of "must carry" didn't arrive until later in the DBS world and AFAIK, was never applied to C-band.
Picture quality of broadcast channels wasn't appreciably different between the NTSC tuner on the satellite receiver or using a cable TV box. 4DTV wasn't part of local channel reception so your raising of the issue of 4DTV is a red herring in that context.
Quite a few bought into C-band to get access to content that they couldn't get from their cable service. The primary attraction was often access to sports programming (especially pay-per-views) and the kinds of programming that you would otherwise have to visit a tavern or casino to see. The motivation for them wasn't necessarily to replace cable but to supplement it. That supplementation status remains today though the subscription programming options have effectively gone away.
He has ideas in his head, and wants to believe what ever he has concocted is the way that it was.
I am not sure why, but he refuses to listen to people that were actually ALIVE in 1998 and knew what was going on at the time.
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I disagree with you. Picture quality was poor on cable. Maybe yours was better but please don't tell everyone that quality was different because you said so.
Most cable systems were using CATV channels for OTA in 1998 (many didn't stop it until the 2010s due to gubmint lifeline requirements) and as such, the signal should have been more or less a pass-through. QAM didn't come into prominence until the 21st century giving cable operators an easy avenue to squeeze multiple channels on a single tuner frequency.
For those using cable boxes, there may have been noticeable damage done by the connections but the signal itself should have been pretty clean if the cabling was sound. It was all NTSC after all.
What makes many of the JosephHolloway1998 threads intriguing (and at the same time, completely irrelevant) is the need to conduct them fully in the context of the state-of-the-art in 1998.
All I usually saw was quite poor as well.
I suppose it largely depended on the outside plant of a given system. How well it was or was not maintained.
Cable TV never has ran by here, however, I have friends in town that subscribed back in the day, and the PQ was ALWAYS subpar.
My TV antenna pictures were always better, and of course, my C-Band pictures were night and day.
Even after I went to DBS, the PQ from DirecTV or Dish Network was always better.
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Yes, but the DBS services (Primestar, DirecTV/USSB (DSS), Dish Network) were the "death knell" for the analog C-Band Satellite systems.
And that's a bad thing how? Putting such a high entry price on being able to receive TV services isn't in anyone's best interest.
Imagine entire neighborhoods with BUDs in every yard.
What would apartment and tiny house dwellers do?
How many BUD-outfitted RVs have you seen?
Apartment and Tiny House dwellers would put the BUD Outside with the coaxial cable attached to the receiver (Videocipher II/4DTV) and there aren't that many BUD-outfitted RVs, most of them had Winegard or DirecTV dishes up top.
Tiny homes and apartments usually don't have enough "outside" to mount a BUD and even if they did, the C&Cs usually prohibited BUDs (and sometimes smaller dishes) explicitly (remembering that this was pre-OTARD).
C-band had perhaps fallen from favor as a residential solution for primary TV viewing by 1998 so new installations largely disappeared in favor of other technologies that brought TV services with less cost and complexity.
Continuing with the last conversation, with the OTA TV Antenna and coaxial cable attached to it, and plugged into the "ANTENNA"/"ANT IN" input through the back of the 4DTV receiver as well as the Rabbit Ears Antenna with coax cable connector on the "TO TV" output you will get the local channels in better picture quality (than cable TV), and when you press "TV" on the 4DTV remove (I believe) it will take you to the ATSC/NTSC Tuner. The type of coaxial cable that was popular with TV Antennas was RG6.
Sorry, incorrect and false information!
No 4DTV IRD had an internal NTSC/ATSC tuner. The TV button only enabled the terrestial antenna or cable TV connection to pass-through to the TV's tuner. This is no different than directly connecting a terrestrial antenna or cable TV direct to the TV's antenna f-fitting. Just a convenience function.
No 4DTV IRD had an internal NTSC/ATSC tuner. The TV button only enabled the terrestial antenna or cable TV connection to pass-through to the TV's tuner. This is no different than directly connecting a terrestrial antenna or cable TV direct to the TV's antenna f-fitting. Just a convenience function.
Well how much would the C-Band dishes cost in Canada? (which is mainly ExpressVu and StarChoice territory), standard installation would cost $3000 in the US, with a do-it-yourself installation kit ranging from $800-$1500.
Well speaking of the OTA TV Antenna's, either you had to go by an Antenna farm or go by your satellite retailer (4DTV (Videocipher/Digicipher II), Primestar, DirecTV/USSB (DSS), Dish Network, ExpressVu (Dish Network Canada), StarChoice (Canada) etc...).
the 4DTV receivers that were commonly used were DSR-905 (could only receive DCII programming), DSR-920 (US model) and DSR-921 (Canadian receiver) which also receives StarChoice programming (as StarChoice had an identical IPG to that of 4DTV).
Well speaking of the along C-Band systems, C-Band along with FTA Ku-Band (Alphastar) was basically an all-analog matter until the advent of 4DTV (despite it costing too much around $749-800).
