ZAM 4

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ ZAM 4 / ZAM 4.adf / Articles / 39 / 39

Wrap

Text File | 1994-03-14 | 21KB | 393 lines

THE TRUTH ABOUT SATELLITE TV ------------------------------ You've seen the adverts, heard the benefits, now read the truth. According to Sky, "The face of Satellite TV has changed forever". Has it ? FIRST OF ALL... --------------- Let's just clear up a bit of confusion ! Sky do NOT own the satellites which provide the Sky channels. The satellites are owned by a company in Europe which consists of loads of shareholders. INFO ON THE ASTRA SATELLITES ---------------------------- ASTRA stands for something, but I can't remember it - it is in a different language anyway. ASTRA ground control use VERY fast comnputers to keep the three satellites in position. They ARE in geo-stationary orbit, which roughly means that they move with the world and stay over the same spot of the world as it spins. The satellites are always drifting slightly one way or the other (due to numerous things - magnetic fields, dust etc.) so the computers down in Europe have to keep checking that it doesn't drift too far. In the early days of Satellite TV, when the first Astra satellite went up (ASTRA 1A) they had a few problems and it did fly all over the shop once or twice (some early viewers may remember the picture going off). When ASTRA 1B and the recent ASTRA 1C went up, they had to start using the present computer system to control all three satellites. When the computer sees any of the satellites, which are all positioned very close together, drifting away from its 19.2 degrees space, it tells the satellite to fire a small puff of propellant. The satellite does this, and gets back into the place where it is supposed to be. You may have noticed the satellite doing this if you've watched a weak channel (a German channel, for instance) - the picture may go duller or grainy and a message may appear saying "PLEASE WAIT". Another example of a satellite going out of control was the Arabsat satellite which got a mind of its own. It wondered off and decided to fly towards some other satellites. Every other satellite in its path had to be moved so that Arabsat wouldn't hit them. Aha ! Here's the other problem. The satellite has a limited supply of fuel. The power for the transmission comes from the sun via solar panels, but the thrusters have to use fuel which is stored on the satellite. This fuel is expected to last for 12 years - if the computer uses it efficiently. After 12 years, unless ASTRA find a way to attach more fuel or a drive section to ASTRA 1A, it will run out and will have to be moved out of the way (probably with one last burst of fuel to send it into space). Plans and rumours have talked about "flying-bedsteads" - like a big grid with satellites attached to it which could be refuelled easier. INFO ---- * The satellite TV signal travels an amazing 72,000 kilometres before it appears on your screen. * When Astra 1D is launched, it will broadcast in a different format to 1A, 1B and 1C. Dish owners will need a frequency shifter to receive it. * Digital compression will be used in new satellites soon, which could mean hundreds of channels from each satellite, instead of just a few. CABLE OR SATELLITE TV - WHICH IS BEST ? --------------------------------------- You may be lucky (or unlucky ?) enough to have half of your street upturned for cable TV. If you already have Satell..... oh sod this... I'm going to say Sat TV from now on ! I've typed "Satellite" so many times already ! Right.. So, if you have Sat TV or you're planning on purchasing Sat TV you may be asking yourself which is the best - Sat TV or Cable ? Well, all you have to do is see the price difference. You may be able to get all the Sky channels and a few more on Cable, but you'll have to pay for them. In the USA, cable costs about 13 dollars for basic service (which is about 9 pounds) per month. That'll get you about 4 or 5 channels plus the wacky and wonderful Public Access channels (CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS IN THE U.K. !!!) It'll cost you more - perhaps another couple of dollars (a pound and a bit) per month to get ESPN (The Sport Network which gives EuroSport the Indy racing etc) and MTV. From then on it costs quite a bit more for all the PHWOOR ! Sex, sex and more sex channels and the movie channels like HBO etc. Basically, I can't really tell you which is the best - Cable or Sat TV, because the prices for Cable TV differ around the UK. Check with your cable supplier. If you don't want a big see-through black thing (oo-er!) on your wall, get cable. INFO FOR SQUARIEL OWNERS ------------------------ The Marco-Polo satellite (the old BSB squariel system) has been moved and has got a new name - "THOR". If you still own a squariel, try re-pointing it to 1 degree West. In my opinion, it is a shame that British Satellite Broadcasting got taken over...ahem, I mean merged into SKY. The squariel system was a lot better that the Astra one. A small, square, flat dish the size of a portable TV - or a 60 cm round thing with a big prong ? I know which one I would have rather had. Sorry Squariel users - it's like the battle between Beta and VHS - VHS finally won. Now Astra have won. Both systems - VHS and Astra - were VERY slightly inferior than their competition. SKY MULTI-CHANNELS ------------------ Sky TV and Astra are chummy - incredibly chummy. Pals, that's what they are. This is because, with one swift "merging" move, SKY TV demolished the competition (BSB) and all BSB viewers. Astra suddenly saw their revenue sky-rocket as BSB viewers ditched their Squariels and got an Astra dish. More channels appeared on Astra as Sky started to get more subscribers and a bigger audience. Without this audience, there would not be the amount of channels that there are today. On September 1st on 1993, Sky TV "launched" the Sky Multi Channels Package. I use the word "launched very carefully - CMT Europe appeared and was scrambled, Discovery was scrambled, as did Bravo, UK Gold, Nickelodeon and UK Living. But, the people who started the whole idea didn't scramble. SKY TV had flashy new graphics and a breathy female continuity announcer, but was it scrambled ? No. It wasn't scrambled FULLY until a week after. But, hey... did anyone notice that tiny message saying "Sky News will not be encrypted for a time". Why ? Have they realised that maybe a blanket subscription service might not work ? To have the full bucket of channels, you have to pay a huge 20 quid a month. That may not seem much to some, but it amounts to 239.76 a year. Quite a bit of dosh. A fiver a week, about 64 pence a day. But wait, everyone (in the UK) has to pay another 83 quid a year for the BBC. I personally think that the BBC is a bag a shite and it should be VOLUTARY payments (like SKY) NOT MANDATORY. But that's just my opinion... anyway, 239.76 + 83.00 = 328.79. For that you can get 2 years worth of road tax ! Oh, but wait... Let's just have a peek at the news..... Oooooo. The BBC government is forcing the BBC licence fee up... It'll cost 100 quid by 1994. So that means that the total will rise to a whacking 339.76 a year. Quite a lot of money, I think you'll agree. Read the bit below if you want info on cutting down this bill. Fly to the Costa Del Sol or watch 20 channels for a year ? Hmmm.... SAVING YOUR PENNIES ------------------- As the COOKIE MONSTER said in VI-1, most of the channels are not on ALL of the time. However, your may like to watch SKY Sports and the multi-channels - that'll cost 12 quid a month - 143.88 a year. If you don't want to shell out that much, you could pay 7 quid for just the multi-channels and watch Sky Sports down at your local pub with your mates. Ah, well... That might change, read the "Sky Barstools" bit below. Why subscribe to movies ? Go down to your local video rental place - the videos come out a year before they're on satellite and you can watch them at any time - AND IT'S A LOT BLOODY CHEAPER! You could also set up a group-share thing where you get a few mates to contribute towards the scrambling charges, then let them tape what they want from the movie channels. All they have to do is contribute VHS tapes and a few quid a month for subscription charges. As long as you don't make a profit out of it - THIS IS IMPORTANT - DO NOT MAKE ANY PROFIT OR YOU COULD BE PROSECUTED. According to Copyright laws, anything off the TV can be kept for 2 months (of course, most people ignore this) then it must be blanked. As the movie channels always repeat the films, you can keep them a bit longer. Make sure that you charge a VERY small amount for recording the programme and also make sure that your friend does not give it to anyone else ! This way, nobody is breaking the law. It works because the programme is RECEIVABLE legally. Your friend just has a recorded version of a RECEIVABLE and LEGAL broadcast. IF YOU DO ANYTHING LIKE THIS, MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT BREAK ANY LAWS OF COPYRIGHT APPLICABLE IN YOUR COUNTRY. I NEITHER CONDONE, CONDEMN OR PURSUADE ANYONE TO TAKE THIS ACTION UNLESS THEY ARE FULLY AWARE OF THE COPYRIGHT LAWS !! Sorry about that, but I'm just being careful! Another, easier way of doing things is (if your friends all have a satellite system but are not paying for a subscription channel) to get your friends to chip in each month for the subscription charge, and then let each person have the card on a different night. If Fred wants to watch Terminator 2 but it's not on until it's tommorow, he can always wait until it's repeated or record it or have it for a night if nobody else wants it. If a card holder lives close to a friend, he can always lay a short VHF or RGB cable between each house. But beware, THIS IS DISTRIBUTION VIA CABLE. You may have to comply with certain wireless and telegraphy laws. THE PARAGRAPHS ABOVE ARE JUST IDEAS AND I DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU UNDERTAKE ANY SORT OF VIDEO DISTRIBUTION WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING THAT YOU ARE COMPLYING WITH ALL APPLICABLE LAWS OF COPYRIGHT. AT NO TIME MUST ANYONE DISTRIBUTE ANY OBSCENE MATERIAL. SKY BARSTOOLS ------------- Pubs are now being charged a extreemly high rate for public viewing of Sky television. Before the multi-channels, most pubs just bought a card and bunged it in the receiver. Now Sky have told pubs that they must pay a different charge because they show Sky's programmes to a public audience. Pubs, clubs, bars etc are all moaning about this. Most pub owners are buying cards as a private user and bunging them in the "public" TV, therefore paying normal rates. There are rumours that Sky are sending people around to check that pubs that haven't registered under the public-viewing system aren't showing Sky programmes to all and sundry. If, according to rumour, these Sky people do find that the pub is showing the big match to a packed pub and haven't paid properly, they can just make a quick phone-call to Sky HQ and "switch-off" the card. This will no doubt result in the Sky man getting his head kicked in by the locals. I must therefore say - SKY TV ... you are the biggest bunch of barstools I have ever encountered. You are starting to get a monopoly in the satellite TV industry and you are taking advantage - stop it now. Before long there will be hackers who will be able to get around the dozens of different algorithms in your cards, and people who may even be able to find the transmission frequencies of the Astra satellite and then mess up your scrambling system. @4 WHY ARE SKY SCRAMBLING EVERYTHING ANYWAY ? ------------------------------------------ While I was researching for this article (well, I call it research!), I found that nearly every single German channel is unscrambled. Why ? Because they're a very rich country AND because there are more than double the amount of dish owners. There are also a lot of pirate decoders for the British channels. Germany is flooded with pirate decoders for British channels. So, just to make every British satellite viewer sick, lets look at the difference :- GERMAN CHANNELS | SCRAMBLED ? | ENGLISH CHANNELS | SCRAMBLED ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ARD NO SKY ONE YEP SAT 1 NO UK LIVING YEP PRO 7 NO SKY SPORTS YEP 3 SAT NO SKY MOVIES PLUS YEP RTL 2 NO THE MOVIE CHANNEL YEP N-TV NO ^NICKELODEON YEP MDR NO * and ^ TV ASIA YEP DSF NO ^NICK AT NIGHT YEP (EARLY `94) RTL NO +DISCOVERY YEP N 3 NO +CMTV YEP VOX NO UK GOLD YEP ZDF NO >THE ADULT CHANNEL YEP WDR NO *SKY MOVIES GOLD YEP BR NO -CHILDRENS CHANNEL YEP 1 PLUS NO -FAMILY CHANNEL YEP RTL 4 YEP QVC YEP TELECLUB + YEP VIDEO HITS 1 YEP (EARLY '94) PREMIERE YEP >BRAVO YEP FILMNET YEP =CARTOON NETWORK NO - NOT IN S-M-C SKY NEWS SOON WILL BE MTV MIGHT BE EUROSPORT NO - NOT IN S-M-C CNN NO - NOT IN S-M-C =TNT NO - NOT IN S-M-C ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NUMBER OF SEPERATE ASTRA TRANSPONDERS USED :- GERMAN : 19 with 4 scrambled ENGLISH : 18 (Including 2 for MTV) with 14 scrambled or due to be scrambled. KEY * BROADCASTS ON THE SAME CHANNEL * TV Asia 6AM until 6PM then Sky * (Times are weekdays - these * Movies Gold then TV Asia again from * times may change at weekends) * Midnight. Different card needed for * * each service. - BROADCASTS ON THE SAME CHANNEL - Childrens Channel 6AM until 5PM then - (Times are weekdays - these - Family Channel. - times may change at weekends) - ^ BROADCASTS ON THE SAME CHANNEL ^ Nickelodeon 6AM until 7PM then TV ^ (Times are weekdays - these ^ Asia continues from Sky Movies Gold ^ times may change at weekends) ^ frequency until 6AM. TV Asia will give way to Nick At Nite in early 1994 which will broadcast in the 7PM-6AM slot. + BROADCASTS ON THE SAME CHANNEL + Country Music Television Europe + (Times are weekdays - these + from midnight until 4PM when + times may change at weekends) + Discovery takes over. CMTE is available 24 hours a day (as is Discovery) on most cable services. = BROADCASTS ON THE SAME CHANNEL = Cartoon Network from erm.... I = (Times are weekdays - these = think 6AM to 7PM. Then TNT (Turner = times may change at weekends) = Network Television) broadcasts classic US movies thru the night. > BROADCASTS ON THE SAME CHANNEL > Bravo broadcasts from mid-day to > (Times are weekdays - these > mid-night and shows a variety of > times may change at weekends) > TV shows like Robin Hood etc. The Adult Channel has moved onto this transponder (Transponder 42), it begins at midnight and runs for as long as the videos last ?! It won't broadcast in the day. Different card needed for eer....ahem..service. NOT IN S-M-C - This channel doesn't form part of the multi-channel package and will PROBABLY never be scrambled. I think we can see that Germany is getting a better deal from satellite companies. There are a few major differences between the German channels and the English ones. Here is a list :- -German channels don't usually do test transmissions - they just appear ! -German channels tend to be regional terrestrial channels (like Central, YTV) -Every one, apart from the movies, is unscrambled. -The foreign channels rarely "split" into several different channels. TNT and Cartoon Network ----------------------- TNT and the Cartoon Network are American channels. How can TNT expect to get viewers if they have to change the card each time they want to watch it ? Aha... I think it'll cost. Probably another fiver or so. LATE NEWS --------- Ed's extra note - Late news - Cartoon Network broadcasts in 4 languages, although not all cartoons have all languages included. Spokesman for TNT and Cartoon Network said that they were not going to scramble and were not associated with BSkyB in any way. Scrambling could be an option at later date. English soundtrack in stereo, other languages in mono on Audio channels. MTV - Rumours say that Astra transmission will be scrambled early 1994, possibly January. MTV presenter Ray Cokes said that, "Nobody has told be anything about this, so I really don't know". It appears that MTV is still deciding. Sky News - BSkyB are using this to sell other channels as I said. BSkyB seem to be perfecting the "immediate switch on" system. Operated for Eubank - Benn fight. Viewers to just Sky Multi-Channels phone usual 0506 ...... number and Sky computers allow card number 07xxxxxxxx.xx to unlock Sky channel wanted once credit details confirmed. MTV now transmitting on EutelSat. MTV joins other english language channels - EuroSport, EuroNews and SuperChannel. MTV estimates that it now reaches over 56,000,000 homes throughout europe. MTV may use one of their transponders (they presently broadcast on transponder 15 of Astra 1A and transponder 22 of Astra 1B) to broadcast their new more "British orientated" music channel - VH1. Astra channels now almost fully allocated. Astra 1D due to launch Summer/Autumn next year, but this is usually delayed. To receive Astra 1D programmes, viewer may need new decoder and extra LNB on dish (small "collecting" box). The new satellite will have more transponders - more channels. EutelSat celebrate 10th birthday. EutelSat F1 launched 1983, still working to an extent. The Ariane rocket carrying a new EutelSat dropped out of the sky and was destroyed during a launch earlier this year. It is not known what happened as yet. Channel 47 (Transponder 47 - Astra 1C) has a test card from BskyB. This has been called "Sky Sports 2", whether it is or not remains to be seen. The Societe European De Satellite (or something like that !), who own Astra are showing a promo film on Transponder 24 (Astra 1B) during the day. THE END ------- Well, I hope you enjoyed this rather long article. It was written on September 2nd 1993 and all info is correct at this time but some updated information has been included aswell. Rupert Murdoch (who owns Sky) today attended a lunch to launch the 6 new channels that are now available on Astra (Bravo, Discovery, CMTE, UK Living, Nickelodeon and The Family Channel). The Childrens Channel has now moved over to channel 35 on Astra 1C. It couldn't continue on transponder 24 of Astra 1B because Japanese Satellite Television broadcasts in the Family Channel slot. Also, with nearly every English-speaking channel being scrambled, it is taking a long time for the decoder to unscramble the picture. You may have noticed that the multi-channel system confuses your decoder a lot. You switch channels, the card sees the same code and gets a bit confused. Existing movie and "updated" Sky Sports viewers have noticed that they didn't need to get a new card, because Sky are just switching off all the non-payers - easy huh ? It can now take about 5 or 6 seconds for the card to work. Sky Sports, Sky ovies Plus and The Movie Channel have very different codes which means that a new card has to be issued if the viewer wants 1, 2 or all 3 of them. If you switch between Sky Sports and The Movie Channel, the card will know that you've swapped channels because of the different code - but the multi-channel system uses the same type of coding, so you have to wait until Sky decide that your card is valid. It now takes a MINIMUM of 3 seconds to descramble ANY multi-channel. Faster decoders ARE appearing, but these will be a bit more expensive ! Bye ! Stay safe and be happy ! P.S. PRESS THAT REPLY BUTTON IF YOU ARE PISSED OFF WITH THE BLACK+WHITE VERTICAL SCRAMBLING LINE ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF THE SCREEN ! I AM !!!