HD on FTA Satellite
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I've heard some of the main networks are in HD via FTA. Examples I've read of people receiving are NBC, ABC, and CBS. As for WB or UPN, I haven't heard of those being received in HD. Of course you would need a $700 set-top receiver to receive these channels because normal FTA receivers can only decode those of 480 interlaced resolution and not HD resolution. They also cannot decode the type of color encoding that many HD channels carry which is done in a 4:2:2 color ratio. Normal FTA receivers can only decode video with a color encoding on a 4:2:0 ratio. You can purchase receivers for the computer that have HD capability, but they don't have any blindscan features. That means the computer receivers will not automatically program in all of the satellite information. You have to manually enter in the specifications for each channel (symbol rate, transponder number, polarity, etc.). From what I've heard, the $700.00 set-top receiver that has HD capability doesn't have blind scanning either. For more information, make a post on the FTA forums and some of the guys will be able to help you out more there.
Yes there are, PBS which is on KU as wel as Outdoor Channel 2 HD which is on C band.
To view you need a PC FTA Card.
I have played with PBS HD before and it looked great.
To view you need a PC FTA Card.
I have played with PBS HD before and it looked great.
There are usually several HD feeds you can find too. As these come and go you'll definately need a STB w/ blind scanning capability.
I currently run a setup with a 36inch dish on a motor with a Fortec STB driving it and doing the blind scanning. Whenever I find a feed that the Fortec can't display, I split screen the TV, I'll have the Fortec on the left and the HTPC's desktop on the right. Grab the wireless mouse/keyboard and punch in the feed information into TSReader. I usually look at the feed to see what kind of video resolution it is and the bit rate of the video. Then I click play in TSReader to stream it to VLC. It sounds like a lot of work but its actually very simple to do.
There are sometimes some high bit rate HD feeds(25Mbps+), you'll never see that bitrate via pizza dishes or OTA.
I currently run a setup with a 36inch dish on a motor with a Fortec STB driving it and doing the blind scanning. Whenever I find a feed that the Fortec can't display, I split screen the TV, I'll have the Fortec on the left and the HTPC's desktop on the right. Grab the wireless mouse/keyboard and punch in the feed information into TSReader. I usually look at the feed to see what kind of video resolution it is and the bit rate of the video. Then I click play in TSReader to stream it to VLC. It sounds like a lot of work but its actually very simple to do.
There are sometimes some high bit rate HD feeds(25Mbps+), you'll never see that bitrate via pizza dishes or OTA.
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