Discovery could turn DMAX in to a general entertainment channel - something like Discovery Family Channel in America http://www.discoveryfamilychannel.com/
That is indeed very true, timo_w2s, but how far south and east will that region go before even 1.4m dishes start to have problems, for example?
The border with Spain and France is in a bit of a null where the signal drops off fairly quickly from southern France where an 80cm might be OK.
But central Spain is in the side lobe for the UK spot so dishes around 1.2-1.8m work well.
By the time you get to the southern parts of Portugal, Spain and Gibraltar the second null takes effect and it's quite severe. Even those with dishes over 2m have not managed to get signals in some areas.
Then as you head towards the Canaries the signal improves again and there are reports of reception possible on 2m+ dishes.
Don't forget in areas like Spain people are used to large dishes and no one bats an eye lid at a 1.8m dish. While a dish over 1m may seem huge over here because we are so used to strong signals, in other countries that have been traditionally on the edges of footprints that would be considered quite small.
By using DVB-S2 you'll have just rendered a whole load of SD STB's useless, for which there's still a proportion in use. This idea was only a bit of wild thinking which may never happen! By this time tomorrow we will certainly know what 11.428H has migrated to footprint-wise. I am aware that FEC changes are on the cards for the UK spot TA TP's, this no doubt later down the road once all these migrations are finished.
I wonder if there'll be a special celebrationary toast of fine Cava or Champagne in Eutelsat HQ in France tomorrow, in celebration of the achievements of this bird? She's ran well past her sell-by date and kept going to the very end.
I see I didn't realise that there may be quite that many freesat SD boxes out there, I know sky sd boxes are still numerous but not freesat. Could the space of the home tp be divided into two virtual tps?
That could allow the home tp a small area for just necessary data in DVB-S, but also allow a secondary DVB-S2 tp running with a low FEC to give some channels a slot on freesat that couldn't be tuned in on Sky at all.
I understand that they will of course just want a straight forward migration at the moment though with parameters as is though.
A celebration to mark the successful end of a satellite eh that's different! Only two transponders to go!
I guess SES will also be celebrating then, as they have finished their satellite replacement program at 28°East and they are renting space to Eutelsat which must be making them money!
I see I didn't realise that there may be quite that many freesat SD boxes out there, I know sky sd boxes are still numerous but not freesat. Could the space of the home tp be divided into two virtual tps?
That could allow the home tp a small area for just necessary data in DVB-S, but also allow a secondary DVB-S2 tp running with a low FEC to give some channels a slot on freesat that couldn't be tuned in on Sky at all.
I understand that they will of course just want a straight forward migration at the moment though with parameters as is though.
A celebration to mark the successful end of a satellite eh that's different! Only two transponders to go!
I guess SES will also be celebrating then, as they have finished their satellite replacement program at 28°East and they are renting space to Eutelsat which must be making them money!
I suspect Eutelsat will be renting the space segment from SES 'at cost' as part of the whole frequency rights fiasco, based at least on a 10yr term.
It looks like someone at king of Sat or someone contributing or both have jumped the gun slightly on part of one of the last Eutelsat28A transponders moving to 2E! They are still wrongly using the C numbering scheme for transponders that were on Eutelsat 28A too which is odd!
I suspect Eutelsat will be renting the space segment from SES 'at cost' as part of the whole frequency rights fiasco, based at least on a 10yr term.
For the A band only I presume as the other band areas were apparently on a commercial basis so implying a small profit. Either way I guess its negligible profit anyway, else broadcasters couldn't afford to rent the transponders from Eutelsat and would all switch to Astra only transponders like a flash.
There is one thing though with paying cost for the band space, SES will get a net discount on the running cost of the 3 new birds anyway, so will in one sense find it better than if they were running the birds entirely themselves.
The border with Spain and France is in a bit of a null where the signal drops off fairly quickly from southern France where an 80cm might be OK.
But central Spain is in the side lobe for the UK spot so dishes around 1.2-1.8m work well.
By the time you get to the southern parts of Portugal, Spain and Gibraltar the second null takes effect and it's quite severe. Even those with dishes over 2m have not managed to get signals in some areas.
Then as you head towards the Canaries the signal improves again and there are reports of reception possible on 2m+ dishes.
Don't forget in areas like Spain people are used to large dishes and no one bats an eye lid at a 1.8m dish. While a dish over 1m may seem huge over here because we are so used to strong signals, in other countries that have been traditionally on the edges of footprints that would be considered quite small.
Thank you for that helpful response, timo_w2s, and for putting things into context. We might indeed be seeing larger dish sizes in due course but we'll have to wait and see.
I've seen pictures of what I think are very large dishes in the Canary Islands and it gives every impression that they're into professional radio astronomy!
Thank you for that helpful response, timo_w2s, and for putting things into context. We might indeed be seeing larger dish sizes in due course but we'll have to wait and see.
I've seen pictures of what I think are very large dishes in the Canary Islands and it gives every impression that they're into professional radio astronomy!
2.4m Channel Master dishes are common in Tenerife, don't think that they cut the mustard now, certainly not for 24/7 reception. In fact even with 3mtr+dishes and associated satellite wobble then some are only guaranteed reception on various craft at certain times of the day.
2.4m Channel Master dishes are common in Tenerife, don't think that they cut the mustard now, certainly not for 24/7 reception. In fact even with 3mtr+dishes and associated satellite wobble then some are only guaranteed reception on various craft at certain times of the day.
Wouldn't dishes that big have alignment issues in trying to receive from 4 birds at once? Even though they are all very close by!
On screen message on Quest (167) earlier stating that the channel is moving EPG numbers on Sky to 144. So it's moving to where DMAX currently is...
Possibly Discovery shuffling their channel numbers around now entertainment and lifestyle are combined, not unlike UKTV did a little while back punting Good Food up to 133 and Really to 155...
Had to wait for the Astra changeover. Test list tidied up!
Week 26 is now available. Please post your observations here.
The thread will be changed still on a weekly basis, on Thursday this week
Week 27 will be posted around 2 July and will run for approx 1 week. Sky & Satellite Weekly News Thread week 26 can be found Here
Comments
The border with Spain and France is in a bit of a null where the signal drops off fairly quickly from southern France where an 80cm might be OK.
But central Spain is in the side lobe for the UK spot so dishes around 1.2-1.8m work well.
By the time you get to the southern parts of Portugal, Spain and Gibraltar the second null takes effect and it's quite severe. Even those with dishes over 2m have not managed to get signals in some areas.
Then as you head towards the Canaries the signal improves again and there are reports of reception possible on 2m+ dishes.
Don't forget in areas like Spain people are used to large dishes and no one bats an eye lid at a 1.8m dish. While a dish over 1m may seem huge over here because we are so used to strong signals, in other countries that have been traditionally on the edges of footprints that would be considered quite small.
I see I didn't realise that there may be quite that many freesat SD boxes out there, I know sky sd boxes are still numerous but not freesat. Could the space of the home tp be divided into two virtual tps?
That could allow the home tp a small area for just necessary data in DVB-S, but also allow a secondary DVB-S2 tp running with a low FEC to give some channels a slot on freesat that couldn't be tuned in on Sky at all.
I understand that they will of course just want a straight forward migration at the moment though with parameters as is though.
A celebration to mark the successful end of a satellite eh that's different! Only two transponders to go!
I guess SES will also be celebrating then, as they have finished their satellite replacement program at 28°East and they are renting space to Eutelsat which must be making them money!
I suspect Eutelsat will be renting the space segment from SES 'at cost' as part of the whole frequency rights fiasco, based at least on a 10yr term.
For the A band only I presume as the other band areas were apparently on a commercial basis so implying a small profit. Either way I guess its negligible profit anyway, else broadcasters couldn't afford to rent the transponders from Eutelsat and would all switch to Astra only transponders like a flash.
There is one thing though with paying cost for the band space, SES will get a net discount on the running cost of the 3 new birds anyway, so will in one sense find it better than if they were running the birds entirely themselves.
Thank you for that helpful response, timo_w2s, and for putting things into context. We might indeed be seeing larger dish sizes in due course but we'll have to wait and see.
I've seen pictures of what I think are very large dishes in the Canary Islands and it gives every impression that they're into professional radio astronomy!
2.4m Channel Master dishes are common in Tenerife, don't think that they cut the mustard now, certainly not for 24/7 reception. In fact even with 3mtr+dishes and associated satellite wobble then some are only guaranteed reception on various craft at certain times of the day.
Wouldn't dishes that big have alignment issues in trying to receive from 4 birds at once? Even though they are all very close by!
That's the issue some people are now finding, especially with the 'wobble' effect.
I guess you need a motorised dish with auto tracking to keep a signal lock then? Expensive!
Not long to wait now till Eutelsat28A bites the dust, so to speak! 2hours is it?
Possibly Discovery shuffling their channel numbers around now entertainment and lifestyle are combined, not unlike UKTV did a little while back punting Good Food up to 133 and Really to 155...
Changeover complete as of 0536hrs this morning. Levels and quality much higher than before, especially on the Freesat Home TP.
Ah well it's all over Eutelsat28A has no transponders and I guess they will be moving her elsewhere very soon.
Indeed... Bon voyage E28A/Eurobird 1
Week 26 is now available. Please post your observations here.
The thread will be changed still on a weekly basis, on Thursday this week
Week 27 will be posted around 2 July and will run for approx 1 week. Sky & Satellite Weekly News Thread week 26 can be found
Here