It's a shame, really.

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coinmaster32

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Sep 25, 2010
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I've been c-band free for 2 years now. I used to love my old 4DTV system, although it seemed I was working on it more than watching it, but using 20 year old parts can cause that.

I remember the wild feeds in both Analog and Digital.

Surprisingly, C-Band could've been really big, had it had more support. I did all I could, I spent countless hours on the phone with manufactures, programming providers, and the like.

What killed 4DTV was a lack of care. Everyone viewed it as a dinosaur, just fading into nothing. Subs to 4DTV went down every year, and the last I heard, only 25-30,000 people were subscribed to it.

What killed it off was not that the dish was huge, that was actually a benefit, when the "pizza dish" went out, C-Band still shined through. I remember waking up one morning and it was 10 below, and there was ice and a good 6" of snow on my dish, and it was still working great.

What killed it off was HD, or the lack of it.

HD started becoming popular in the mid 2000s, around 2003-5. There were a few more providers back then as well, including the infamous NPS.

Of course, Motorola purchasing 4DTV did not really help things much, but never the less...

You see, everyone wanted HD, and when Directv and Dish both had HD, everyone looked at 4DTV and saw it had none, whatsoever.

So subs slowly started dropping, and got worse each year. Black Friday sales came out, making the HDTV alot cheaper. Sets got cheaper and cheaper, and slowly, America went from SD to HD.

4DTV...did not.

You see, another satellite company, although KU, and Canadian, HAD the equipment to not only record SD, but to record HD as well, and that was a company called Star Choice.

SC used DC2 to deliver HD programming to it's HD DVR's.

Could 4DTV be in HD? Certainly, but it was a classic case of "too little, too late".

By the time the head honchos of the several companies I talked to started looking into the possibility of HD, it was too late, and by that time, 4DTV was nothing more than an afterthought.

I know now that 4DTV is now called HITS, and uses a single orbital location.

If people would of cared, and support was shown, 4DTV/HITS would've been huge.

A company could of been launched, or contracts made with China, to produce a 6 foot fixed dish, and Motorola could of made the HD-DVR's.

The equipment, provided on a non-contract basis, would rival Ku due to its ability to provide signal in times of storms, snow, winds, etc.

The people of today hate contracts, and the non-existence of a contract would of made prices lower as well.

Would 4DTV/HITS of been as big as Directv or Dish? Most likely not, due to the fact that Ku dishes fit in more areas and some HOA's disallow a C-Band dish.

I can tell you though, it would've been big, with at least 1 million subscribers.

As I look at the latest channel offerings, it appears that 4DTV/HITS lost a few channels, which is not much of a suprise.

I don't see 4DTV/HITS being around 10 years from now, sadly.
 
Honestly with netflix and hulu around Im surprised there is even bell or dishnet? sure there are lots of people without highspeed/pretty much unlimited data usage. But in town there are still lots of people paying their $100/m for basic cable/satellite.

I canceled my sat sub about 2 years ago because for $20/m I have netflix and hulu and get more quality content then I ever did for $100/m (I also get 6 ota atsc channels)

I still use my cband dish on a daily basis but its for wildfeeds etc, I actually almost never watch tv on it, its more of the hobby of writing software/drivers I enjoy.UDL

btw. HITS is only on one satellite? Im positive I see DGII HITS on quite a few satellites up there, maybe its the same content though I dont know. I know I regularly find ZK stuff out there, its posted on Ricks site too.

UDL
 
TV via internet is only good if you have internet. Many people live in remote locations where internet can only be obtained via satellite, and that is no good for streaming due to bandwidth caps.

Satellite is the only viable option for marine use as well.
 
Oh I understand that, here in Canada 28million of 34million have high speed, almost all that there is really no cap, within reason. Ive used a 1TB one month, no issues. So there is still 6million without highspeed that their only option is OTA (if they cant get high speed, they probably dont have any OTA in the area) and satellite.

Im not saying there isnt a market, Im just saying for number of subscribers bell/starchoice/shaw/telus/etc have I cant believe its as high as it is with so much better options out there.

UDL
 
Honestly with netflix and hulu around Im surprised there is even bell or dishnet? sure there are lots of people without highspeed/pretty much unlimited data usage. But in town there are still lots of people paying their $100/m for basic cable/satellite.

I canceled my sat sub about 2 years ago because for $20/m I have netflix and hulu and get more quality content then I ever did for $100/m (I also get 6 ota atsc channels)

I still use my cband dish on a daily basis but its for wildfeeds etc, I actually almost never watch tv on it, its more of the hobby of writing software/drivers I enjoy.UDL

btw. HITS is only on one satellite? Im positive I see DGII HITS on quite a few satellites up there, maybe its the same content though I dont know. I know I regularly find ZK stuff out there, its posted on Ricks site too.

UDL
HITS has stuff on 3 sats (I think) but only some of the X4(AMC18) programming is compatible/available for the 4DTV/410 H2H users.I think some of the programming on the other sats would work on a 4D but H2H was designed for use with the 410 receiver which,I believe, can only work one one sat.The programming being made available to the 4D,after the Motorola shutdown,was just a happy? development.;)
 
I get 1 local channel. FTA is slowly fading. Live feeds and free TV is slowly becoming the thing of the past. Pay TV is the future I guess. And it's expensive. I'm sure that's to cover stuff like the History channel, where there are 5 shows that are shown over and over again, 2 to 3 times a day sometimes. Every time I turn to it there's Pawn Stars and I have already seen it 10 times this week already. But it's in the higher tiers so even if they get $1.00 per month from each subscriber, that's how many millions/mo? Heck, put the show on auto pilot and lets play some golf.

And now onto Roku. So many shows that were seen regularly on channels like nick at night are no longer shown and require a purchase per episode. Take the Twilight Zone for instance. I use to see it all the time for free but now you have to purchase it.

I guess TV is changing and not for the better necessarily.

I might be exaggerating a little, and might not be right so just remember that this is just my ignorant opinion.
 
TV is changing

It's all to squeeze every last dollar out of the consumers pocket. Or as it was put to me once: "whatever the market will bear".
They'll have their fingers in your pocket up until the market collapses. Then we'll probably see some 'providers' wanting to register in the 'too big to fail' club and want a bail out.
TV is changing. When first launched, Discovery, TLC and History were just what their titles implied. Today they are nothing but a copy of the OTA FOX networks 'reality TV'.
I guess TV is changing and not for the better necessarily.
The so called "News" is nothing more than sensationalized opinion. Little news worth reporting.
It's too bad but that's what the masses are willing to pay for.
Delete if this doesn't belong here - with my apologies.
 
http://www.sbca.com/high-speed-news/1998/nov13-98.htm
SATELLITE TV SUBSCRIBER History

SATELLITE TV SURPASSES 10 MILLION SUBSCRIBER MARK
-- Industry Leaders Celebrate 400 Percent Increase in U.S. Satellite Subscribers in Four Years--
ALEXANDRIA, VA, November 13, 1998 --

Marking a major milestone in the continued rapid growth of the satellite TV subscriber base, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (SBCA) announced that there are now 10 million home dish owners in the United States. The announcement comes on the heels of 10 months of strong satellite sales, with the Direct-to-Home industry adding more than 1.6 million subscribers thus far in 1998.

The current record number of 10,044,000 satellite TV subscribers reflects the growing popularity of home dish ownership, which continues to attract thousands of new subscribers daily. The breakdown of U.S. satellite homes is as follows: 4,165,000 subscribers to the DIRECTV/U.S. Satellite Broadcasting service; 1,709,000 subscribers to the EchoStar DISH Network; 2,207,000 PRIMESTAR customers; and approximately 1,963,000 large-dish C-Band system owners.

"Reaching 10 million subscribing households is an enormous milestone for the satellite television industry," said SBCA Chairman Stanley E. Hubbard, president and CEO of U.S. Satellite Broadcasting. "U.S. Satellite Broadcasting is proud to be a contributor to the most successful launch of any consumer electronics product in history by providing consumers nationwide the ultimate in premium movie choice, quality and value."

"The fact that viewers in nearly one in 10 television households in the U.S. are now watching some form of satellite television is a testament to the stunning level of consumer acceptance that we have achieved in a short period of time," said Eddy Hartenstein, president of DIRECTV. "We have dramatically and permanently changed the television landscape as consumers continue to embrace this technology and switch away from cable in record numbers."

FAST FACT: The first small satellite dish service launched in 1994. The number of home satellite dish owners in the United States has increased by more than 400 percent in the past four years.


cband pay TV died because of lack of organization if we had have paid $1< a month to a fund to represent(lawyers) us it would still be strong today imo
would not be cheap as it was not back 20 years ago equipment wise.

ps cband had HD lots of it
 
It depends...

I personally watch my C Band channels almost 99% of the time. I do have a Dishnetwrk subscr but wouldn't. Have it at all if it wasn't for my wife. She wants one remote and the EPG. But really all we watch on it is the local news in the evening and FOxnews once in awhile.

i sold my DSR922 at the height of the frenzy and bought a MicroHD to pair up with my old OpenBox S9.

we have several HD digital over the air channels free that I could be watching, but I'm hooked on:

I watch the East coast time zone feeds and Puerto Rico Mux or REELZ or THISTV or MOVIES! Or METV or the ION Mux almost exclusively. My wife reads....
 
I disconnected all my obsolete DCII equipment years ago and moved on. The occasional limited ZK,FP channels that may pop up from time to time I get in HD anyway now and I have little interest in watching the SD versions of them.

I still have 5 active C band dishes that give me more TV than ever with my FTA receivers.
 
Not much left from SRL, I noticed Skyvision still needs to update there site. Wonder how much longer SRL will have programming for?
 
As long as SRL can make a buck and Comcast cooperates they will still have the programming. As far as OTA goes I live in an area where there are 30 plus stations, but the digital dropout is so bad its like ku on a rainy day. So for me C band lives. I can watch anything that is available OTA (In Fact I get the same feeds my local broadcasters do) except local news. I feel sorry for those who cant plant a BUD because of local restrictions (That is truly what killed 4DTV).
 
Fta Cband will shine on for along time. i watch my cband tv channels daily as i cut the cord from my cable company.
i cant see paying a $100 plus a month to watch the same program over and over.we also have netfliks, american and canadian versions.
i would love to try to get ota channels but for some reason when ive hooked up my hd antenna to my 2006 samsung tv, it doesnt scan anything in.
i did how ever hook up my cable coax to my tv after i stopped subscribing and did a scan. to my surprise i got alot of music audio channels and about 6 good tv stations that scanned in.
 
Well i tried again but not one channel scanned in. maybe its the tv as its older or the antenna im using or perhaps even all the trees around the house. thanks for the help none the less.
 
What killed it off was HD, or the lack of it.

Not true. The HDD-200 has been available for a long time and I have watched HD with it. It wasn't the best way to get HD but you could get DC2 HD. But, not anymore. There's a lot of reasons why 4DTV lost out but it doesn't really matter now. Today, I watch most of my TV with a combo of FTA, OTA, and Netflix. OTA is a disappointment here - 720p on one channel and 1080i on one channel with 480i on 4 channels. The 480i sucks.
 
Well i tried again but not one channel scanned in.
maybe its the tv as its older or the antenna im using or perhaps even all the trees around the house.
If a TV is told (somewhere deep in one of its menus) to scan cable channels, it won't see OTA.
But as you say, maybe the input coax is shorted or broken.
Real shame. Any OTA is better than none.

Edit : and you can't hook up both through a splitter.
I think this OTA problem is worth troubleshooting.
Maybe you just have the wrong coa:mad:?). ;)
 
If the tv is that old it may not have an atsc tuner. When we made the switch here in the states the fcc was supplying vouchers for a credit on a convertor box because older TV's weren't compatible. The analog to digital converters are still available if you need one. Channel master makes a good one (CM 7000). It wont give you an HD picture but it does have an svideo connection and it works well with an antenna rotor because it allows you to update channels without rescanning everything.
 
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