What is "spot beam"
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Welcome to Satelliteguys! No it is not new. It is a certain antenna orientation that concentrates the satellite's transmission into a narrow beam which limits the area that the satellite transponder can be received in. The reason this is done is so that D* can reuse different transponders with different uplink facilities. It allows for more bandwidth per satellite.
James,
Is that why I have read some posts that talk about not being able to get their locals when they "travel". The locals for say Denver will not be picked up if the receiver is in Chicago?
Also, I see you have the Samsung SIR-S75. I have to think they are similar to my SIR-S70. Mine has started to act up. It refuses to turn off, either with the remote or on the front panel. Its a pain since I have to turn it off to watch my locals which I get via basic cable. I have to unplug it and reset it. BTW I was told when I bought it that it would pick up the cable stations. Wrong.
Is that why I have read some posts that talk about not being able to get their locals when they "travel". The locals for say Denver will not be picked up if the receiver is in Chicago?
Also, I see you have the Samsung SIR-S75. I have to think they are similar to my SIR-S70. Mine has started to act up. It refuses to turn off, either with the remote or on the front panel. Its a pain since I have to turn it off to watch my locals which I get via basic cable. I have to unplug it and reset it. BTW I was told when I bought it that it would pick up the cable stations. Wrong.
Neutron said:
Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't seem to find any menu or setup to do it. When the unit is powered up it does its own setup and runs through the channels, but doesn't pick up the cables.
If you know of a way to do it, I'm all ears.
alta said:
I'm downloading the manual for your model and will soon tell you how to do this assuming there is a way but I'm sure there is. To give you an idea of how a spot beam could greatly increase bandwidth I'll give you this example.
DirecTV will be launching one of 4 total KA band satellites with this first sat called Spaceway 1 which should be offering the top 30 local markets HD channels sometime around summer 2005. To give you an idea this satellite can either offer around 150 or so national HD channels such as ESPN HD that can be received everywhere but if they used spot beams that could offer over 500 local HD channels. Now this first sat will be used for both national and HD but for every national HD channel they use with this bird it will reduce their spot beamed bandwidth by around 1/5. So for every 5 national HD channel they offer they could instead offer 25 or so local HD channels.
Hope I didn't get too complex for ya and those are just estimates but you see how important spot beams are and they will be more important when it comes to offering HD locals. Also just so you know the plans DirecTV will offer the top 30 or so markets HD locals by summer 2005. They will also have bandwidth left over for more national HD channels. The second satellite will offer at least another 50 markets locals in HD plus any additional national HD bandwidth as needed. Now when the last two satellites are launched which should be around 2007 DirecTV will at that time be able to provide all markets locals in HDTV even if those markets currently don't have SD locals plus they would have over 150 national HD channel spots even if they aren't filled with channels at that time. That means they will have plenty of room for the future. So sadly to say some markets might have their HD locals before they even get their SD locals.
alta said:
The manual either doesn't have it, it sucks or very out of order on where they decide to put things.
I'm sorry Alta I am currently unable to look at my receiver and try to help you figure out how to get it to pick up your cable channels. I do not have cable so I have never had that problem. I do not have any problems with either of my Samsung receivers either. Have you tried calling D* customer service? Maybe someone on here will be able to answer your question...
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