FTA List of channels

[dunnsept]

Just looking for input. I know from what I went through and from people on the forum ask, that sometimes combining information about what channels are on which sats and where those sats are and what they are called, there must be a better/different way of creating a list of info.

What sort of interface would you guys like to see for FTA channels & sats? I know what I wind up doing is looking at a combination of lyngsat and thelist and then switching over to either skyvision's or NPS' sat chart to find out what the crazy thing is called in the 4dtv.

It can get really confusing when the names of the sats have changed.

anyway, I wasted.. I mean.. I spent... I mean I worked really hard on work-related stuff all afternoon and did not spend any time playing around with ways to combine the information.

One thought I had was a sort of Sat Arc (like skyvisions) in Flash. Then when you mouse over the Sat on the arc, you'd get a sort of magnified view of it that would show something like
"AMC9 83West
4dtv: W9
C and Ku" (or something like that)

then if you clicked on it, either redirect over to thelist/lyngsat for feed info, or pull from the database I worked on for Sadoun (which, if I do say so myself, is a nice way to be able to sort channels: hint hint, plug for Sadoun)

anyway.. any input? thoughts? think I'm nuts? (most do)

 

[AcWxRadar]

Just looking for input. I know from what I went through and from people on the forum ask, that sometimes combining information about what channels are on which sats and where those sats are and what they are called, there must be a better/different way of creating a list of info.

What sort of interface would you guys like to see for FTA channels & sats? I know what I wind up doing is looking at a combination of lyngsat and thelist and then switching over to either skyvision's or NPS' sat chart to find out what the crazy thing is called in the 4dtv.

It can get really confusing when the names of the sats have changed.

anyway, I wasted.. I mean.. I spent... I mean I worked really hard on work-related stuff all afternoon and did not spend any time playing around with ways to combine the information.

One thought I had was a sort of Sat Arc (like skyvisions) in Flash. Then when you mouse over the Sat on the arc, you'd get a sort of magnified view of it that would show something like
"AMC9 83West
4dtv: W9
C and Ku" (or something like that)

then if you clicked on it, either redirect over to thelist/lyngsat for feed info, or pull from the database I worked on for Sadoun (which, if I do say so myself, is a nice way to be able to sort channels: hint hint, plug for Sadoun)

anyway.. any input? thoughts? think I'm nuts? (most do)

\

Dunnsept,

I have been pondering your idea for a while now. It is a very interesting notion.

I will tell you what I do like... And that is the format that is laid out in Channel Master. If there was a program that could extract or import the FTA channels and sort them into groupings like Channel Master displays, it would be really sweet.

Combine something like Channel Master with something like NASA J-Track 3D and you really will have something. Better yet, if you enter your latitude and longitude coordinates first, then the arc displays all satellites visible above the horizon for that specific location and you can click on any one (or select all) and display a list of the FTA channels available.

RADAR

 

[dunnsept]

Radar: I kinda thought of the same thing.
I would have to make some assumptions about elevation and what the horizon was, OR I thought I'd just make an arc and cover say 55 through 139 for now and call it good.
there's already tons of great info out there, and it's not that I think I can do better, I just thought it would be nice to have a sort of catch-all interface with general info and then links to more info.

I also thought of doing a flash interface where you could kinda "spin" around and see different sats from different points.
hmmm.. that gives me an idea...

 

[gillham]

Radar: I kinda thought of the same thing.
I would have to make some assumptions about elevation and what the horizon was, OR I thought I'd just make an arc and cover say 55 through 139 for now and call it good.

Calculating what's visible isn't too bad. My code might be off a bit outside of North America, but it works pretty well for me.

Satellite Finder

This works in Firefox & Safari, but is really designed for an iPhone. If you have an iPhone and create a bookmark on your home screen it will run in a mode without the Mobile Safari UI on the screen.

EDIT: If you just click "calculate" it will use a default lat/long from the Bay Area as a demo.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Radar: I kinda thought of the same thing.
I would have to make some assumptions about elevation and what the horizon was, OR I thought I'd just make an arc and cover say 55 through 139 for now and call it good.
there's already tons of great info out there, and it's not that I think I can do better, I just thought it would be nice to have a sort of catch-all interface with general info and then links to more info.

I also thought of doing a flash interface where you could kinda "spin" around and see different sats from different points.
hmmm.. that gives me an idea...

I am with you there! It sounds really good to me! If you could pull in data from other sources (like Lyngsat and SatcoDX) and NASA and Google Earth and a few others, you could really make a nice program. I am all for it!

RADAR

 

[dunnsept]

Calculating what's visible isn't too bad. My code might be off a bit outside of North America, but it works pretty well for me.

Satellite Finder

This works in Firefox & Safari, but is really designed for an iPhone. If you have an iPhone and create a bookmark on your home screen it will run in a mode without the Mobile Safari UI on the screen.

EDIT: If you just click "calculate" it will use a default lat/long from the Bay Area as a demo.

sweet, will it work on a touch?

if I just look at NA for my location, just basing it off elevation, I'd get something like 20 to 148

if you haven't seen the first go-round, check out Free To Air FTA Satellite Channels from USA, Europe, Middle East, Asia Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish TV Television Galaxy 25 97W for the data I have currently.. Sadoun compiled it from the web, I slapped the "filters" on it
but what I'm trying to think of is that for many starting out, they'll go "ok.. that looks cool on Galaxy 28, what the heck is that on my 4dtv?"

just thinking/typing out loud..

hmmmm. wonder if I could roll any of this into a topic for my thesis ;-)

 

[gillham]

sweet, will it work on a touch?

if I just look at NA for my location, just basing it off elevation, I'd get something like 20 to 148

It should work the same on an iPod Touch. I don't think it has been tested on one yet, so let me know if you try it.

 

[dunnsept]

sure.. I think it's all charged up.. I'll test it out and let you know