cband-stmnt.html

A brief statement:

Only small dish dealers who do not sell big dishes will tell you that the big dish is totally dead. Mainly because they are not experienced with big dishes, which leaves me to say that they lack the knowledge of the real satellite dealer. Of course they are dealers, but small dish dealers have been popping out of the woodwork, most of which actually have no electronics knowledge or experience.

Of course my opinion is the worst ones are hired by telemarketers or created by fulfillment groups. Your installer could have been bagging groceries a couple of weeks ago.

Is this what you want for a satellite dealer?

Shop Around, The Experienced and Knowledgeable dealers can answer your questions,

the others just make it up as they go.

The best way to know is to check it out for yourself. If you are comfortable with a dealer who does not do big dishes, that's cool, and go for it. There are a lot of fine 'small dish only' dealers out there. If you want to have full information, then you'll have to go to a dealer who does big dishes. You may still choose a small dish, but you will be more informed. And when I mean informed, he should have something offering some kind of programming packages and models of current receivers that are available. (That shouldn't be too hard)

But now for the good and bad about a big dish.

Advantages

1. Programming: Although the small dish does provide some channels that are not available on a C-Band system, the same goes for the small dish too. And these are only a few between the two. The best thing about C-Band is being able to pick and choose what you want to subscribe to. And your not paying for the free stuff like Home Shopping and Religion like you do on the small dish. Plus you get additional free feeds for news and miscellaneous programming.

2. Better picture: Digital vs. Analog. Analog pictures are truly better, at least compared to current small dish digital. The hype of a digital picture is only for marketing purposes, not reality. Lets face it. The digital compression technology is good, but it has not achieved perfection yet. Eventually the compression system will be improved to handle the vast flow of information, and it will be better than analog. But when that happens, then you'll have to invest into a new small dish system with the new improved technology. In a digital picture, if you pay attention, you'll see delays, and digital scanning flaws. The bummer about it all is that some programs are recorded digitally, and it shows even on analog systems.

3. 4DTV: The next evolution of C-band. This is a digital receiver designed for the big dish market. With digital compression, it means that more channels can be placed within a single transponder. Basically it's a 6 to 1 ratio on C-band. The small dishes have achieved a 10 or 12 to 1 ratio, but that is because of the marketing to increase capacity. But if the technology works better at 6 to1, then they are taking away from the quality of the picture. In C-band, the ratio has not been improved because of the many transponders available. Lets look at some numbers. There are 17 American C-Band satellites up there (and more scheduled for launch), with 24 channels each (this is not including the Ku-band satellites that are available also). 17 x 24 equals 408 channels. Multiplied by 6 (6 to 1 compression ratio) equals 2448 potential channels. Wow! And IF somehow that they filled up those channels, they could just up the compression ratio a tad and gain more. But when that happens, there will be all new technologies out there.

4. Free channels: I already mentioned that there are some free channels, and on 4DTV, there are some more. Including two sets of digital music systems, which are those used on the small dishes. But they are not free on the small dish- nothing is.

5. Same or more channels: If you are subscribing to channels on C-band, and you have 4DTV, you'll get even more. Many networks are running several additional feeds of channels on 4DTV. An example is Discovery Channel. There is only 2 Discovery channels on regular C-band (East and West), but there are 6 more channels on 4DTV like Discovery Wings, Kids, Science, Health, Civilization and Home and Leisure. Plus if you add Ku-band then there is also Discovery Suite and People. Same type of thing with HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Cinemax, Encore, VH-1, and more. Some of which are not available yet on the small dish. And this has increased since I wrote this original copy 2 years ago.

6. Less or no signal loss during rainstorms: The Ku-band signal is susceptible to rain outages because a raindrop is about the same size in frequency as the Ku-signal. C-Band doesn't have this problem.

Disadvantages

1. Larger cost: Yep, it costs more to buy. It's like 8 times the cost of a small dish. So it's not for everyone. It's not suggested for the basic TV viewer. It's a channel surfers dream.

2. Higher maintenance costs: The individual parts cost about the same price of a whole small dish system. Although electronics are more dependable than they used to be, they still have failures. In comparison to cost, the small dish is a VCR, because like a VCR, you can replace a basic receiver for 100 bucks.

3. No multiple receivers for independent channels viewing between TVs: The small dish, when used with additional parts and receivers can enjoy full use of subscribed channels between receivers. You can't have full use on C-band because the main receiver controls which satellite and most often the polarity that is being received.

4. Wind problems: Big dishes catch allot of wind. This can make the dish "jerk" slightly off the satellite. If you live in a constantly windy area, this can be annoying. It's less noticeable on 6 to 8 foot dishes, but I prefer to have a 10 foot dish.

5. Big: Big dishes require some space, as well as a clear view of the entire satellite belt (referred to as the "Clarke Belt"). Although I like the looks of some large dishes, some refer to them as "BUG". (Big Ugly Dish)

6. Missing some channels: Some of the channels leaving the analog side have not returned in the digital format.

Ok, so now that you know the good, the bad and the ugly, you can click on the following links for more information on Big Dishes such as channel availability, programming packages or "ala-carte, and system pricing.

Home - 4DTV - Programming - Systems