C-band HD channels

[Remington]

Is it possible to sub some HD channels on C-band? I found Discovery I think... is that all? Any movie channels?

I guess you can get some feeds and PBS on FTA right?

( I'll move soon to the country where I can install my BUD)

 

[wtkflhn]

Well, Right now we are limited to HBO east and west, Showtime (west only) and Starz east and west. You get these chanels free provided you already subscribe to their digital services. As you mentioned, there is the Discovery Theatre and Wealth HD. I think Discovery is about $30 a year, Wealth HD is free. And finally there's Nebraska Public tv on T5 whch is also free.

Not much to bother with, if you ask me. At least so far.


Don H.

 

[tdti1]

If your a boxing fan like myself, HBO and Showtime make it all worth while

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Has anyone been able to get any of these with a Mini-C 1.2 or 1.8 setup? Are the birds/transponders hot enough to do it?

 

[iammike]

Has anyone been able to get any of these with a Mini-C 1.2 or 1.8 setup? Are the birds/transponders hot enough to do it?

I've not heard of anyone using a 1.2 for a c-band subscription. The 1.8 would be very, very marginal. I'm using a spun aluminum dish in the 7.5 foot range and I've been thinking about getting something bigger. I sub to all the HD available on 4dtv, and just about everything else too. My signal quality on HBO HD and Starz HD is usually around 50 or 60. Discovery and Showtime tend to be a little higher. 40 is right about the cut off point for getting a watchable picture, so I don't have much room for error and have had problems at times. If you're thinking of purchasing a dish for a subscription, I wouldn't go any smaller than 8 feet.

 

[JerryK]

I've heard people say that HD on big dishes is superior. is it 1080p?

 

[tdti1]

No it is just not as compressed as much.

 

[iammike]

I've heard people say that HD on big dishes is superior. is it 1080p?

You get the original master feeds from HBO, Starz, Showtime, and Discovery instead of the over-compressed crap the pizza dishes put out.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

FWIW, I talked to my experts today after thinking about this. They do a large majority of the commercial work in the state and I figured I'd ask them about it.

Their response:

GAL 13 is one of the hotter C-Band Birds @ 40 Watts. We do have a few customers using a 1.8 meter to use VCII Decoders but they suffer on bad days. TV stations use 3.8 meter minimum.

The following three will need at least a 2.4 to 3.0 to get solid signals most of the time.

Gal 10 20 Watts
AMC 10 20 Watts
AMC 11 20 Watts

I've heard people say that HD on big dishes is superior. is it 1080p?

Well, actually, with the telecine flags in place on HBO, SHO and STARZ, it actually could be considered 1080p, but there's much more to it than that.