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See that black screen? That's all you'll get if you connect the cable from your satellite dish straight into your TV. Unlike cable TV (properly called "terrestrial cable") your average TV just can't decode what it's seeing, and the result is, it doesn't work at all.

Today's televisions have a mandate to be "cable-ready." This means that in addition to an ATSC tuner to get regular antenna TV, the TV must also have a QAM tuner to receive cable channels. QAM is the technology used by cable companies because it's more effective at putting multiple channels in the relatively limited space available on a single coaxial cable. It can be "clear" meaning free of any scrambling, or "encrypted" meaning you would need a box from your cable company to decode it.

Why doesn't this work with satellite TV?

Satellite TV doesn't use QAM for several reasons. QAM isn't designed as a broadcast technology. Even if you did broadcast a QAM signal it wouldn't do very well. It's designed to travel over cables where the signal can get from point to point with relatively little loss. The DBS technology used by satellite is about as different from QAM as you can get — it's a true digital technology designed to work at very low power and still provide a great signal with fairly high error rates. DBS comes in several different "flavors" and is all encrypted, which is why you need your satellite provider's box to decode it.

In order to make it so a satellite signal could work with your cable-ready TV, you would need one of two things to happen. Either your TV would need a built-in satellite tuner, or you would need an incredibly expensive translation box (called a headend) to translate from DBS to QAM (and that would need a built-in satellite tuner.) It's just not worth it.

So what's the next best thing?

For DIRECTV, you can use the DIRECTV app for Fire OS, Apple TV, Android TV, and Roku OS. It's free and while it will not give you every channel in your package, it does work surprisingly well. DISH announced similar technology in 2014 but didn't follow through with it.

In general, you're still better off using a physical client box. Today, unlike in the past, you can use hardware like DIRECTV Gemini which will give you both streaming and satellite functionality. DISH has similar function with its Joey 4 when used with the Hopper Plus addon. I do tend to think that full client functionality will one day make it to pretty much all smart TVs. However, it still won't be through a coaxial cable. It will probably be internet delivered.

Get what you need from Solid Signal

Solid Signal is your home for DIRECTV, DISH, and all sorts of home theater products! Shop our great selection to find everything you need. Need help activating hardware? Have a question? No problem, we're here for it! Call us at 888-233-7563. You'll get an expert in our Michigan corporate offices. We don't use overseas call centers. That does mean we're only available during East Coast business hours, that's true. But it also means you get real, trained technicians. Our people know their stuff. Call us and find out! If it's after hours, fill out the form below. We'll get right back to you!


The post Why can't you plug the cable from your satellite into a "cable ready" TV? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.

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