spirit update....

[drfreeman]

A special message from Michael Buckingham,
SPIRIT Television's General Manager:

** UPDATED **

Like a lot of people, you've probably noticed that SPIRIT Television and a couple of other channels haven't been available through the Sky Angel home satellite service recently.

We wanted to let you know two things. First, SPIRIT Television is still on the air through other broadcast stations and cable carriers, as well as through our online feed here.

Secondly, we're eagerly awaiting word -- perhaps as early as some time this week -- that we'll be able to return to Sky Angel soon! Of course, we're being told that there are no guarantees in life, but we wanted to bring you this update so that you could have something specific to pray about on our behalf.

 

[mattb]

I know Michael, he's a good man, I really hate to see Spirit being affected like it is, considering its a fairly new channel.

I really hope Skyangel is able to workout a deal with E* or whatever to get the missing channels back uplinked. There are plenty of empty transponders now on 61.5 from all the SD LIL moves so they should be able to find room for 3 channels. But as we all know, Skyangel and Echostar has always had a love hate relationship so we'll just have to wait and see, my prayers are spirit can return soon, Spirit and TV U are one of the main reasons I personally have skyangel, I signed up as a lifer in 2001 when TVU was added and was pleased when Spirit was brought on board.

I also like 3ABN so I would love to see it return.

 

[laseradam]

I just wish that someone (Sky angel, Spirit, 3ABN ) would come out and let us know the real problem. Even my wife says " How do you fix a satellite?) If it is broken, and has not been fixed by commands sent from the ground over the past 4 weeks let us know so we can switch to FTA.

How could a digital transponder transmit some channel but not others? Don't all the channels carried on one transponder go into one big digital stream and then are separated but the receiver.

 

[Mr Tony]

No. Analog is one channel per transponder but digital is sent up via “packets”. These packets have “PIDS” which say “OK…video pid 33 audio pid 34 pcr pid 8190 is A channel and video pid 65 audio pid 64 pcr pid 8190 is B channel”. That’s how digital deciphers it (via the PIDS). All digital channels have pids

The issue is 3 of the “pids” are transmitting 0’s to the uplink (0 for all 3 pids) so there is no signal going up. Since Sky Angel is packed already, there is no room for error

Dish should move Sky Angel to a different transponder and use that for something else (they can put 7 or 8 video channels on there with no issue…just not 12)

 

[jegrant]

I have found, I think, one or two cable companies that carry Spirit. What broadcast stations carry it? This is the first mention I've heard of that.

 

[laseradam]

So do you think the problem is at the satellite, at dish networks uplink station or somewhere else. What I don't understand is how a digital transponder could fail in such a way so that 3 out of 12 video stations get blocked. If the satellite is transmitting all zeros for those three stations doesn't that take the same bandwidth.

 

[jbmiller]

put those 3 great channels in place of those secular channels.
john

 

[Mr Tony]

So do you think the problem is at the satellite, at dish networks uplink station or somewhere else.

all signs point ot the uplink to the satellite transponder

What I don't understand is how a digital transponder could fail in such a way so that 3 out of 12 video stations get blocked. If the satellite is transmitting all zeros for those three stations doesn't that take the same bandwidth.

I noted above. Each digital channel gets sent up via "PIDS" which distinguishes the different channels on one transponder. It tells the satellite "these pids are for A channel and these different PIDS are for B channel". Also, it tells it to be scrambled, what type of audio to send, etc. 3 of the channels are showing 0000 for PIDS.

 

[mwgiii]

In English, Dish is still uplinking the 3 channels but with nothing on them.

 

[MellowYBird]

I agree with jbmiller-

"put those 3 great channels in place of those secular channels."

~MYB~

 

[rcwilcox]

put those 3 great channels in place of those secular channels.
john

That is one opinion. I for one never watch those 3 but do watch the Hallmark Channels. I also have top 120 so I personally would not miss FOX News or HGTV but I have friends with SA only who would miss them. I guess you can't make everybody happy besides, who says if you took the 3 secular channels off these other channels would work anyway?

 

[Pepper]

or at least alternate which three are unavailable.

 

[ShaneLinder]

We do not have cable TV in our home. We have a FTA dish pointed at AMC4, Sky angel and a TV attena that gets about 10 local channels (half in Spanish).

I believe Spirit TV is owned and run by Sky Angel like KTV and TVU. Does anyone know if that is true? I would prefer to see Sky Angel to make their own movie channel instead of having Hallmark. We have put parental controls on our TV and a few programs on Hallmark are blocked out on most days.

I think H&G TV and FOXNews are a great additions and will help keep subscribers and some subscribers that have had both Sky Angel and cable or DISH may drop their other secular programming and stay with just Sky Angel. The 24 hour news channel was a very good addition for those of us without cable or other secular programming.

TVU is about the only channel we don't use but I understand it has some decent ratings from teenagers and college-age adults.

 

[mattb]

I believe Spirit TV is owned and run by Sky Angel like KTV and TVU. Does anyone know if that is true?

TVU is about the only channel we don't use but I understand it has some decent ratings from teenagers and college-age adults.

Spirit is ran by the same folks that run TVU Music Television, Spirit Communcations, based out of Columbus Ohio.

 

[jegrant]

The ratings for Hallmark movies do not indicate the same thing as movie theater ratings do. They are "TV" ratings, which is a different system. There are a few links explaining this:
http://www.skyangel.com/About/Index.asp?IdS=000FEF-40FCBD0&Reference=hallmark&~
http://www.skyangel.com/Support/Index.asp?IdS=00305B-5CFFEF0&Reference=112&~=
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=36001

 

[andrews777]

Spirit is ran by the same folks that run TVU Music Television, Spirit Communcations, based out of Columbus Ohio.

That is true. Though it makes me wonder why they have TVU and not Spirit. Surely both use the same uplink facility.

Brad

 

[mattb]

That is true. Though it makes me wonder why they have TVU and not Spirit. Surely both use the same uplink facility.

Brad

Spirit and TVU are both uplinked directly from Columbus Ohio to a C-Band Satellite (think 12 ft satellite dish)

Echostar (who handles the uplinks to 61.5 for skyangel) downlinks them at the Echostar facilities where they also downlink (receive) the rest of dish networks and skyangels programming on very large satellite dishes and then reencodes them to be uplinked to 61.5 DBS satellite. TVU's on Transponder 25 which is why its not affected, Spirit is on Transponder 32 which is giving problems and is why Spirit is not up. While yes both are downlinked off the same 10 ft satellite dish on c-band, Echostar (who handles uplink for skyangel to 61.5) has to re-encode them to send them up in the format used by DishNetwork/Skyangel etc.

Hopefully what I said makes some sense.

 

[ShaneLinder]

703 Currently KTV will become KTV / Spirit TV

KTV by day and Spirit by night? My kids love KTV. They are only 3 and 5. The night programming now is almost the same as TVU so giving Spirit 7pm to 7am or 8 pm to 8am would be a great idea.

 

[mattb]

Received this email from Spirit today! Thought I would pass it along:



"We're pleased to announce that SPIRIT Television is returning TONIGHT
to Sky Angel's direct-to-home satellite service!

Through a unique "channel sharing" arrangement, you can now watch all
of your favorite Christian music videos seven nights a week on Sky
Angel's KTV channel. SPIRIT Television will air every night on KTV
(channel 9703) starting at 9 PM ET (6 PM PT), running through 7 AM ET
(4 AM PT) each morning.

Like a lot of people, you've probably been aware that SPIRIT
Television and a certain other channels haven't been available on Sky
Angel recently. Last week, Sky Angel updated subscribers with new
information about the technical and contractural reasons for this.
That update is available at Sky Angel's website:
http://skyangel.com/outage.

We're grateful to Sky Angel for enabling SPIRIT to return during the
nighttime hours on KTV. Pray with us that God opens doors to restore
SPIRIT's programming to fulltime availability on Sky Angel in the
future, and remember that you can watch SPIRIT anytime 24/7 through
our online feed at http://spirit-television.com.

While you're there, please consider helping SPIRIT by making a
donation to keep us on the air. Perhaps understandably, a number of
our viewers canceled their financial support for SPIRIT during our
absence from Sky Angel. Nonetheless, our operating expenses have
remained the same over these past seven weeks. Please consider making
a special onetime or ongoing gift this week to help sustain SPIRIT
during this time. Simply visit the SUPPORT page of
http://spirit-television.com to make your secure donation. We
appreciate your important support!

Again, we hope you'll welcome SPIRIT back to Sky Angel, beginning
tonight at 9 PM on KTV (channel 9703). You'll be able to catch new
music from Building 429, Third Day, and Yolanda Adams. Plus, we've
added videos from some BRAND NEW ARTISTS like Circleslide, The
Turning, Need To Breathe, and Sean Simmonds!"