Programming is one of two compelling reasons to sign up for wireless TV from outer space. The other is to seize that long-awaited opportunity to thumb your nose at the cable TV conglomerates.
Even if this meant paying more than our local cable service charges ($30 per month), my family and I jumped at the chance and had DirecTV installed in our home.
For three months we received programming via satellite. The sound and picture quality were far superior to that of cable, and channels were more plentiful. Plus, at any hour we could opt to call and order instant access pay-per-view movies.
But as you might have guessed, actually getting this programming–and making all the decisions about how to get it–wasn’t easy. Unlike cable programming, satellite television signals travel through space. And because a dish must face its satellite(s) and have an unobstructed path to a particular southern azimuth, apartment dwellers without access to an outside southern exposure can pretty much forget TV via satellite.
Even homeowners with a southern view must be sure that it is not blocked by trees, mountains, buildings and the like.
As is the rule whenever the electronics industry introduces a new product, a format war is raging in satellite television. Dishes (antennas that catch the satellite signals) range from 18 to 36 inches in diameter, and only the largest models can be rented rather than purchased.
The smaller dishes are sold in packages that include a VCR-sized receiver (a computer that decodes the signals). These packages cost between $500 and $1,000.
Any 18-inch dish carrying the Digital Satellite System, or DSS, logo is designed to catch programming from either DSS parent company DirecTV (the “biggie” in the industry, with about 1.5 million viewers) or from U.S. Satellite Broadcasting (USSB).
You can also buy non-DSS dishes designed to catch programming such as AlphaStar Digital Television or EchoStar Communications. Or you can get PrimeStar, DirecTVs biggest rival, which features free use of its dishes and receivers as part of its service.
PrimeStar’s dish measures 36 inches across, twice the diameter of the dish required to receive a DirecTV signal.
Once you decide whether to rent or own a satellite dish, and which company you want providing your programming, you have another decision to make: how you will receive local programming, which satellite television does not include.
You can still receive network programming, but it’s not likely to come from your hometown: The NBC signal may come from Atlanta, the CBS signal from Buffalo. DirecTV charges an additional $5 for broadcasting the five major networks.
The only other way to get your community’s versions of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS is to use a traditional rooftop antenna or keep a basic package of cable service.
There’s one other risk involved in purchasing satellite-television receiving equipment at a time when the market for it is relatively unproven: Just as the cable box provided by your cable company is programmed to decode only that company’s signal, a satellite company’s equipment can only decode its own programming. So unless you use PrimeStar (rather than actually purchasing your own dish), you could be stuck with useless equipment should your service provider go belly-up.
Despite the pitfalls, satellite TV can be a worthy choice.
The most popular DirecTV package, Total Choice, runs about $30 monthly. It offers 76 channels, 31 of them with music only. And because the signal is digital, you get CD-quality sound, with choices that vary from rock to classical.
Total Choice also includes about 55 channels reserved for pay-per-view sports, special events and movies (starting at $3 for each event selected).
I also sampled the 22 prime entertainment channels available through USSB (which is available independently of DirecTV). USSB provides additional entertainment and movies via multichannel versions of the major cable movie networks–five varieties of HBO, for instance. So with USSB you get as many as 800 films a month.
Sure, that means a lot of repetition, but if you really wanted to, you could watch a different movie every hour of every day without seeing the same flick twice. The package costs $35 per month.
For sports fanatics there are eight packages, including the NFL Sunday Ticket ($159), which delivers 200 football games per season, 13 on most Sundays.
Right now, DirecTV’s rivals provide fewer channels. PrimeStar, owned by a consortium of cable companies, advertises rates of $33 per month for 63 channels, up to $55 for 95 channels. Prices include the rental cost of in-home equipment, but installation can run as high as $200 (compared with $150 to have most DSS units installed).
Then there are the new kids on the block. AlphaStar Digital Television, which offers an introductory package of 90 channels for $30, sells its own receiver, the StarTrack 1000, and a 30-inch dish for $699.
EchoStar Communications markets two receivers priced at $599 and $749, each of which connects to a more compact 18-inch dish. Both units provide access to program packages that start at $20 for 40 channels.
Bob Gerson, editor of the trade magazine TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics), says that so far DirecTV shows the most staying power of all the satellite options, largely because it already has a huge subscriber pool.
And the smaller DSS format on which DirecTV is based has the backing of many big-name electronics makers.
Until recently, dish-receiver combinations were offered only by Sony and Thomson Consumer Electronics, which sells GE, RCA and ProScan brands. Now seven additional companies are making DSS dish and decoder packages, including Daiwoo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo and Toshiba.
I tried Sony’s $799 SAT-B1 receiver and the newest model from Thomson, RCA’s DS4430RA, which also retails for $799.
As with all DSS receivers, their fundamental features are pretty uniform. That’s because DirecTV, as owner of the DSS brand name, requires antenna and receiver suppliers to build in such functions as a cap on pay-per-view expenditures and a parental lockout of adult-rated movies.
Beyond such basics, the performance differences are minor.
After shopping for a receiver, pay a lot of attention to installation. If it turns out that your neighbor has had a bad experience with the local dish installer, try a different installer. They vary in expertise, so it pays to investigate.
