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Low Profile Satellite TV Antennas for Vehicles
Brian Mattis writes "CNN is reporting a new antenna system that allows SUV's, minivans and cars to receive DirecTV video and audio programming on the road. Future plans call for internet access as well. This could be a nail in the coffin of Sirius and XM radio."
In-Car-Internet + 802.11b = mobile open wifi ap's
Think of all the (commercial free) streaming audio channels that you could listen to instead of the crappy radio stations that exist right now.
this is great. very cool.
So, in addition to cell phones, people will also be watching 'Sex In the City' while driving? Yike.
Yes!! I can now live in my car!!
Internet, TV, Sleep
Please no. Cell phones are bad enough. All we need is some blonde in an SUV causing a 200 car pile up on I5 because she was watching Martha Stewart Living and talking on her cell phone while doing her make up at 80mph.
See my experience with XM for my reasons why XM isn't it.
From the article: "KVH's system will be marketed to current DirecTV subscribers, and sold through consumer electronics retailers. The antenna system will cost roughly $2,000 to $2,500, and the satellite programming will be less than $10 a month."
I can't see this as being an XM/Sirius Radio killer until the price for the gear lowers quite a bit. Folks in the market for digital radio aren't the same as digital TV+Radio+DirectTV subscription.
" KVH's system will be marketed to current DirecTV subscribers, and sold through consumer electronics retailers. The antenna system will cost roughly $2,000 to $2,500, and the satellite programming will be less than $10 a month."
I'm sorry. WHO will be paying that kind of money, to keep their kids quiet?
This reminds me of Jetblue - the airliner that has inflight DirecTV in every seat. Anyone else see DirecTV having a monopoly?
[sig]www.masterslate.org[/sig]
Wow, everything is so cheap nowdays. Well, no matter the cost, I must have it if you're going to get one.
Man Gets 70mpg in Homemade Car-Made from a Mainframe Computer
Now if they just add in car black boxes and a two way feature, you can have the local news programs doing up to the moment reports on drives who crash while watching the local news programs on drivers who crash while watching the local news programs on drivers who.....
Those ludites may have had a point.
I can just see the freeway pileup that would happen when the administrator of the first ever movile webserver gets slashdotted.
Isn't WiFi supposed to be the "mobile" internet access?
Support bacteria! It's the only culture most people seem to get.
This is nothing new, tracking dishes are available at any RV dealer. They only work on the interstate, when the turns and the position change are gradual. Go around a 90 degree turn and the dish can't track fast enough. They suck.
Got Sirius, not interested.
As far as what I want to listen to while I drive, Sirius has it all, except the Yankees.
2 NPR stations, BBC, World Radio Network, Public Radio International, C-SPAN (which carries the network's sunday morning talk shows), CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, and more.
When I want to hear music there are 60 commercial free stations. Then there are about 20 entertainment channels. And TechTV is coming!!
I couldn't be happier with it.
Um, how? I was under the impression that satellite radio offered audio-only programming.
First of all, most people who have TVs in vehicles have them for either a DVD player or a VCR. Sticking a movie in is going to keep the kids quiet for at least 90 minutes. Getting satellite TV only going to keep them quiet for 30 minutes at a time and encourage channel-surfing, which will drive the parents nuts.
Satellite radio offers the same audio channels and programming coast-to-coast; fewer (or zero) commercials, and entertainment you can enjoy without having to take your eyes off the road.
Don't get me wrong - I think satellite radio will crash and burn, but DirecTV for vehicles certainly won't be the death of it...
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
Gone are the days of fancy Boomerang antenna's on the backs of Limo's. Ah, the 80's
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
No more recording the Groove Salad stream to listen to in th car!
"This could be a nail in the coffin of Sirius and XM radio"
Just like car-mounted UHF/VHF antennae drove the final nail in the coffin of FM radio?
Apples and oranges.
.. real time traffic reports.
Live web cams
So this thing automagically aims the antenna at where the DTV sat is supposed to be? Last time I had DTV service if the antenna was a couple degrees off you didn't get a signal. I think the XM and Sirius satellites have a bit more of a broad signal pattern... Not to mention DTV sucks ass anyway.
It sounds bad, in that it might cause accidents, but it may in effect encourage carpooling. If folks had a wide array of entertainment options on their trips, this may actually encourage more responsible commuting.
---
When you come to a fork in the road, take it! --Yogi Berra--
I have read where Sirius is planning on streaming video along with their current music. This way they won't be left in the cold.
In california, I commute via Light Rail (Train). Now if you put one of these on train, and make it data enabled, everyone will be able to connect to the internet.
That could a good for the environment, as more people will like to travel on trains with internet connectivity.....
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
This could be a nail in the coffin of Sirius and XM radio.
Except that XM Radio has a nice thing in their music that DirectTV lacks in theirs.....really good programming. The stations and variety on XM are amazing. Fred and Ethel RULE. Throw in a little jazz, blues, all the classical, comedy and the 80s channels and you have a stunning group of stations. I traveled cross country in my truck with it 2 months ago and didn't hear the same song twice nor did I listen to a single CD.
BTW, Heidi Selexa, one of the DJs from the 80s channel is great!
I'm a Skylife satellite subscriber, here in South Korea, and the company has recently offered their service [site not in English] for those that wish to receive TV and music programming in the cars/vans, etc. Costs/fees work out to approx. US$500.00 per year.
I've seen the installs, and while I'd like to have one myself, the external receiver unit is rather large at this time, and I'll wait for something less bulky. With the amount of time spent sitting in traffic here, this would be a welcome break. It's about the size of a 12" tire/wheel, and looks a bit out of place sitting on the roof or trunk of the average car.
Give me a break with the stupid directv shit. The only thing it's good for it the amount of NFL games you get. It's music selection sucks. XM is the way to go.
OPTIMIST !!!
It is more likely that this will encourage people to purchase even bigger vehicles that they can load up with more and more crap to entertain themselves with. At least this is going to the marketing standpoint of most automotive companies. I don't see this being a standard feature in Honda's new hybrid car, but I do expect that it will show up in many luxuary SUV's and full size sedans.
for 10$ a month getting tv programming to thier cars, when it costs 100$+ a month for that same tv programming to thier house.
i know the equipment for the car has to factor into that lower rate, but still... i would feel cheated if i was a customer paying for thier service to my house.
It's not uncommon for U.S. Navy ships to use these. The crew chips in and buys the dish and subscription. They scrounge up a junked tracking system from some obsolete system that's been thrown away Put them together and they have T.V. at sea. A big moral builder. Particularly during the play-offs.
...allows SUV's, minivans and cars to receive DirecTV...
Am I the only one who found this enumeration a bit odd? I mean, why not just say "vehicle"?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Has anyone posting about the death of satellite radio actually listened to it? As a subscriber of XM, and a very happy one at that, I thought I'd chime in.
Advantages of satellite radio over DirecTV (and/or Dish Network) radio stations.
- Satellite radio can afford more bandwidth just to the music than DirecTV, resulting in a better reception.
- Satellite radio doesn't use a directional dish. I'm in an office building and pick up XM at work just fine.
- XM has DJs. You can call in and request stuff. It's personalized, and they actually know music. It's not a playlist of 200 songs on random.
- Audio stations on satellite TV are provided by a third party. They're generic, just a rotating plyalist.
I'm not convinced those that knock satellite radio have ever heard the depth of the musical library that is available to the listeners. No way is satellite TV going to put in the time or effort to develop that kind of library or personalize it for those that are listening.
DirecTV in the car isn't going to kill satellite radio. Anyone who has listened to stations on XM and the music stations on DirecTV or Dish Network will tell you that.
For a good example of the musical depth on XM, go to fred.xmradio.com and checkout the 2002 Fred Essentials. Listeners voted on the 2002 top classic alternative songs of all-time. They're "playlist" is over 5000 thanks too all of the listener input.
I've had XM since November of 2001.
Five years from now. Handheld recievers with retinal scanning. Go to the mall and watch Farscape.
Twenty years from now, cranial mounted recievers with occipital lobe scanning. Be propelled to a consumer reciever center and watch Farscape.
In the future, you won't have to be at home to be a moron.
So, depending on the size of this wonder, and any power requirements, I might actually be able to realize a unit that I can take with me in places other than my car.
I like to have a handheld TV at sports events to watch replays and analysis as it's broadcast, especially since I often get stuck with crappy endzone seating (no, I won't pay for better). So once the price on this comes down a bit, it shouldn't be too hard to wire it up some of my existing gear and make a unit.
All that's needed are my Sony Glasstrons, my DirecTV boards (repackaged in slim form), this antenna, and a power supply that can last 3 hours. I can't wait! Don't worry, once I build the thing I'll blog it up and submit it, and CmdrTaco won't post it. But you'll get to see it eventually.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
It's just way too much of a distraction, even if it's just in the backseat to placate your screaming little brats with Disney's latest brainrot!
A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with. - Tennessee Williams
You get a 0 out of 3! Time for re-education...
Wah!
Where do I send the cheque??? It promises to "put an end to back-seat bickering among grumpy siblings during long family car trips". I don't care how it works or how much it costs I want it...
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed (SK)
All my previous sigs now look like this one, I wish they were permanetly recorded when used.
Am I the only one who found this enumeration a bit odd? I mean, why not just say "vehicle"?
Vans: Vans are probably close enough to minivans that the submitter didn't think it necessary to bother mentioning them.
Trucks: It may be harder to mount such an antenna on top of a pickup truck.
Buses: Buses are commercial vehicles and need a "public performance" license for the copyrighted shows.
Mopeds: Don't even think about it.
Will I retire or break 10K?
(same rant, circa 1940)
0 1 - just my two bits
doesn't need to come from this. they have over 320k subscribers and continue to bleed cash. 12 months to live, i'm willing to bet.
that will decrease auto related fatalities. /sarcasm
...this is really cool except for the price! 2500 clams?!? say WHUT? huh?
I've had TV in my vehicles (all vans or RV's) since the early 80's, it's cool. Think I'll pass on phased array tv until it doesn't phase my wallet as much. I have a crank up and crank down swivel antenna now on our RV, works ok. If over the air don't work, pop in a tape. If that don't work, I got 4 other radios to choose from, 3 of them transceivers. If that don't work for "entertainments" I'll park and chase the ole lady around.
heh
A company named Winegard already makes products like this. Check out their mobile dish units.
cheers
Intercarve Networks, LLC
First I have to deal with idiots dialing their cell phone, no someone watching the playboy channel?
Tracking sattelite dishes have been very popular on boats. The only problem is the expense -- lately, they're down to about $3000, but until the last couple of years they cost several times that. Maybe this will pave the way for cheap marine units, and cheap internet access for boats.
There's nothing like programming from a quiet cove in British Columbia -- but I still have to go into a marina to pick up my email.
What I want is a low-profile radio telescope for my car, so I can search for signs of intelligent life while commuting to work. (God knows it's tough to find intelligent life on the freeway ....)
-kgj
Approx. US$#500.00 will get you equipment, installed, and service, for one year. Available now. I use Skylife at home now, and when they include Internet, I'm down w/the mobile receiver.
As usual in the US, the [communications] consumer is being taken for a ride.
YOUR PHONE CALLS YOU WHEN DRIVING. No really.
Since last year one is only allowed to make phone calls when driving if one has a handsfree set installed.
I hate it, but it makes sense. Yet they have to stop al those @#$%^&'s from calling when cycling around town on their their bikes:
'Wait a minute, gotta switch to my right hand. What? Yeah... Yep. I'm turning left, wha'
C R A S H!!!
giel.y contains 2 shift/reduce conflicts
ClearChannel, Fox, Premier, and every other major radio distribution channel on speed dial. Heck maybe even Pacifica. If this goes down, I could see syndicated radio programs (I wont mention any by name because it will just turn into a dumn flame war, it always does) making their way onto DirecTV audio channels. Perhaps even in a way that they are only available to "mobile" subscribers who pay a premium for that service.
Actually... TechTV on Sirius is kinda aborted...
What Sirius wanted TechTV for TechLive, it's 9-hour all day tech news and tech stock coverage program. Well, one market crash later that idea didn't look so smart, and TechLive is now the name of a 30-minute primetime magazine show.
With the dramatic shift in programming diet, and the fact that TechTV doesn't own the radio rights to content it doesn't produce, I think all you can really expect is to find the audio half of Call for Help and The Screen Savers on a talk station eventually.
...those of us who don't have a back seat.
Bloody discrimination!
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
aside from the channels randomly going in and out, the ones that come through are most all thoroughly boring, unless your thing is sports ... several channels of sports.
... showing a bunch of network TV with the aspect ratio wrong, since they've stretched it sideways to fill those screens. At least the sound's not on.
Jet Blue is so TV-identified that they have a bunch of large flatscreens above the checkin counters in their JFK terminal
At least when we run out of oil we can park our jets and SUVs and watch TV. In Germany after midnight there's a channel with nothing but the view from the front of a car driving; another channel with the same from a train. Somebody better sign up the American rights.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Maybe I'm missing something here, but from advertisements I've seen I was led to believe that Direct TV now requires the user to hook up every box to a land line telephone line. My guess was that they were doing this to thwart the .001% of people who might locate a second box at a second location (like a relative's house) on a different dish and share the connection. So if I have a nice flat K-band dish for my car and receiver, what the hell good does it do me if I have to have the receiver hooked up to a landline?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
OK, so let's see. DirecTV costs approximately $30 a month for a package that will get you the 36 (or so) audio channels that they have. Not counting any hardware costs. XM costs $10 a month for 101 audio channels, with a much better variety than DirecTV or Dish's package, as far as I've seen.
XM has numerous pieces of hardware out on the market, both headunits and addon receivers. XM's hardware is already included in many vehicles from the factory. DirecTV has nothing in the way of dedicated audio hardware for vehicles, and very little in the way of selection or integration for their video hardware.
XM has land based repeaters, so that you can get a signal when your LOS to the satellite is blocked (for instance, within most cities). DirecTV has nothing of the sort.
And most importantly, GM owns Hughes, which owns DirecTV, and has a huge stake in XM. I really don't think DirecTV is going to go after XM's business.
-Todd
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."
--what you want(more or less) exists, check the freqs and specs out
c r3 main.html
http://www.icomamerica.com/receivers/handheld/i
if you are rich and buy two, please send me one....
right now all I got like this is an old b/w watchman I picked up for 8$ used. works OK, but this icom unit, well, you get what ya pay for
XM has had most of its nails in from the beginning. Many companies have been succesful in monopolizing on something they could easily be the only to give away. But, XM fails to realize two things.
1) The majority of customers don't see enough worth in the difference between their product and regular AM/FM radio to be a good option.
2) Building off a public network like radio doesn't work all that well when the current model has been carved into our brains.
Once internet access is more common in vehicals, its only a matter of time before internet transmitted radio with location specific spliced advertisements is the norm. I welcome the change.
Question
http://www.ironfroggy.com/
Imagine if they come out with a net version of GTA... now imagine that you're playing it while driving... and everyone driving around you is playing too... reality... net... life... death... is this real or is it a game... what's the difference?
Need the antenna always face south? If they come up with an antenna that need not be directional, why not introduce one for the home market, as well?
A few thousand dollars vs a few hundred...who's going to win that battle?
I just bought an XM radio system...the Delphi SKYFi system with the portable boombox dock. I must say, it is the best $129.99 + $99.99 I have ever spent. $9.99/month is not much to ask for all the channels you get...especially because I'm a techno/dance freak and the hick town I live in has barely seen a paved road since the days of Henry Ford, let alone music that can be made with something other than a jaw harp and a banjo.
What kind of monthly charges are going to be incurred by someone with one of these new in-car dish systems? I spend enough money on my service at home, let alone pay more to have it in my car. Hell, an extra receiver in your home costs about $10.00 more a month.
Furthermore, if you are in your vehicle so long that you need the entertainment of television over radio, you probably have no business being distracted that much in the first place while on the road...everyone knows lengthy driving is one of the most mentally exhausting things a person can do...you honestly want to make it worse by watching TV at the same time? And don't tell me that you will just be "listening" to it...that's a flat out lie. If that's all you really wanted to do, you'd stick with a radio.
What happened to the days of practical inventions...these days we just seem to be getting off-the-wall, frivolous money-wasters that are worth less than the paper some talentless hack looking to make a dollar scrawls them out on.
In conclusion, this idea seems about as constructive for the modern driver as the drive up liquor store...and will probably be just as dangerous.
END OF RANT
It's been about four years since I first saw news of Boeing using phased array technology to put this stuff on commercial airliners for about $4 million a pop. Now it looks like the same thing has been shrunk to the size of a CD player and made available for less than one thousandth the cost. Can we expect this to shrink to a size and cost that will make it reasonable for my tablet in four more years?
Also, one of the neat things about phased array approaches is that they are very frequency agile. Since the 802.11 world has now got FCC approval to pursue phased array designs to boost range to four miles,perhaps we can end up with a single system that would use 802.11 when available and satellite otherwise.
I have XM radio and consider it a must for all the talk channels, BBC, old radio, comedy, etc. I don't listen to the music channels at home because the sound quality is noticably worse than CD... of course in the Mustang going 90 it doesn't matter much. The XM radio has really made road tripping better. The subscriptions are too expensive... I would feel fine with $2-3/month, but $9.99 makes me thing about cancelling it every month.
... you drive under an overpass, bridge, trees, etc. The last thing you want while playing Quake 3 from your back seat is major packet loss. Sattelite radio systems have the advantage of having terrestrial repeaters in major cities so this isn't as much of a problem for them.
With a projected cost of $2-2.5k for the hardware, I doubt this will knock off sat radio for those who only want audio. A Sirius or XM rcvr is a couple hundred bucks, and the monthly sub is $10-12, similar to this. Since I would think sat radio is going to find more of a market with truck drivers and sales types, who mostly travel alone, (So nobody in the back seat to watch video), audio-only will predominate.
-- Don't call me "Sir," I increase entropy for a living!
A lot of people have mentioned that DVD-players come with a display-kill setup which will kill the video when driving (although it's easy to disable). Another thing that might be worth mentioning is that a lot of the screens I've seen for DVD, TV, etc in a vehicle are ceiling-mounted and tilted so that only the back and passenger seats can see it properly. There might still be a peripheral-vision distraction though, but it looked like the driver could not at least directly view the screen.
My 2nd box only costs me $4.99 a month, how is this different?
Putting moderation advice in your
I have Dish Network...their audio programming sucks balls. On top of that, its worthless for me to have a TV and satellite reciever in the car if i'm the only one driving it.
"Some fight for law. Some fight for justice. What will you fight for? One day, you will see."
This thing is gonna be a godsend for truckers.
The Japanese to English translator works pretty well. Or at least significantly better than this. What is it about Korean that makes it so hard for translation software to decypher?
When I started working for the company I work for, 8 years ago, a person approached me, and mentioned "I work for a company that designed a DirecTV dish that automatically tracks the satellite while you're moving. You mount it on your RV or camper, and it just follows along."
At that point, the price was $3k.
Old News.
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
They just canceled my account, they're going broke! :)
Stuff like this will put alot more nails in alot more coffins then 2 satilite radio companies. When people are driving, they need to be DRIVING, With their eyes on the road, not watching the damned TV. And people will, and people will die because of it. The thing with Cellphones is that they only take your mind and an ear to use, but do not require you to stop watching the road less your dialing and don't know where the hell the numbers on the keypad are. What is going to happen here is the same damned thing that happenes at home. Some people will be watching the TV, and something really interesting will come on, and you will be not watching it and doing something else, and everyone will start laughing or something and you Look Over. The only difference is here, your in control of something moving very fast. That's not the problem though, if the fucking idiot who had a TV put in that they could see dies and so does their family, that's not a problem, there are too many people out there anyways. The problem is when he does this surrounded by other people and OTHER people suffer from that fuckers mistake.
(Score:0, Interesting)
I know the very basics of a phased-array antenna: you've got a bunch of little antennas, and you combine their signals by matching the phase delay from the feed line for each one.
But how do you aim them in the case of a mobile unit like this? The only other phased-array DBS antenna I've seen requires you to point the whole thing.
Also, DirecWay uses linear polarization (vs. circular polarization for DBS). How is that handled? (ie, you've got to deal with not only azimuth and elevation, but also skew angle.)
How many people are going to pay $2500? How many want to watch TV in their cars?? How many people want only 50 DirecTV muzak stations without DJ's and dedicated stuff that XM and Sirius provide???
Jumping the gun a bit, nostradamus.
If you don't want to pay the monthly fees, why not get an MP3 player? The CDR MP3 players aren't much more expensive than a good CD head unit, and you can fit 10 hours of 128K MP3s (which sound just as good as a CD in a moving car, and much better than FM) on a CD-R. A few CDs would tide you over for even the longest road trip. And whenever you get bored with your current selections, just hit KaZaa^W^W err...legally purchase more music and make some new ones. The only think you might not like is the lack of talk radio, but personally, I consider that a huge plus. (Have you ever tried to find a radio station that plays music 24/7 in Central FL? There must be some sort of state law that says radio stations can only play idiotic blathering "talk shows" between 8AM and noon, and those lame "My Sex Life Sucks So I'll Call The Radio Station And Whine About It" shows after midnight. ;-D )
My JVC was the best $300 I ever spent. I haven't had to listen to an annoying radio ad or loudmouthed DJ for months.
DennyK
They make a DataScope which is a monocular witha digital range finder and compass built in. Its sort of like the device luke was using when he got hit over the head. I've wanted one to help line of the pringles cans
In a few years, I can hack from my limo (babes in the back), using encrypted links, no one can find me, no one can stop me, I can get in anywhere...
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH....
Oh, wait...
Sorry, thought I was posting to Phrack...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
I first saw this some 15 years ago in a NASA TechBriefs article. It's been 15 years in the making before someone could propose making a commercially viable product.
After a brief conversation with a Radio Guru in my workplace it was concluded that this is going to be very expensive and with the existing infrastructure of cellular and land-line already inplace, not likely to be adapted as a general use product.
It might be useful for streaming data one way, but it won't do well with two way communications because of the economics of having all your users in dense areas. Even with one way data streaming it's a bit pricey. A better cellular network would kill this in a heartbeat
Christ, enough with the incompetent moderating. Please, let's take the points away from these uptight, trigger-happy douchebags already.
So long, michael. Don't let the door hit you...
could now turn into a high speed chase?
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
..driving while watching TV is dangerous.
For those who absolutely feel the need to be able to melt your brain during this one time of the day where you previously couldn't. Thanks in advance for ridding yourselves from the gene pool.
You fool! You've given cheese to a lactose intolerant volcano god! Do you know what that means?
Eh... I've had XM for about a year and have nothing but the highest praise for the company. I travel quite a lot, so I liked the idea of not losing radio stations as I drove.
XM is great. I've only lost signal one time... in the tunnel from Cincinnati to Kentucky. The programming on the dance channels is beyond excellent, and ever request I've made has been played within half an hour.
I don't know what more you could ask for...
It's enough trouble to keep the $500.00 radio in the Jeep from getting stolen (much less my Jeep itself!). How am I gonna keep this $2000.00 unit from getting lifted the first time I leave my SUV in the parking garage overnight?
Further, what will going through the automatic car wash do to this unit? Scrape it right off? Clean up the signal a little?
Wake me when they build the unit into the car or inside the car.
"A real friend says to you in the jail the morning after, "Hell yeah, that was fun! Let's do it again!""
The preceding comment has been reviewed and declared to be compliant with HIPPA Phase II regulations.
I'm surprised nobody has noted the potential this has for folks with space and location restrictions. There's an untapped market of potentially tens of thousands of apartment renters out there who can't, or won't, mount even a smallish dish but who would be happy to have satellite TV.
The only way to get a dish in my old apartment, for example, was to mount it on a tripod in my living room. No thanks. With this thing you could just suction-cup it to a window and you're in 'bidness.
$2500 is too steep by a factor of five, but if successful I'm sure it'd come down in price.
AMCGLTD.COM. Where cats, science fictio
Literate Americans spell the word thusly: disgusting.
Now, you try. Don't forget to stay in school and say "ugh" to drugs.
I already have major problems with people using cell phones while driving, now they will be watching Springer at highway speeds. Now there will be whole new excuses for irratic driving and subsequent accidents.
Cop: "What happened here?"
Driver: "I'm sorry officer, I was watching Jerry Springer when a fight broke out and got emotional"
Just a plain ole STUPID idea.
My good sig is in the laundry
known as "shotgun"
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Now i can play unreal tournament while i am driveing on the turnpike
Once again, JPawloski plagiarizes a post. The parent post is a copy of this post. Note that the linked post was made about two hours before the parent.
If you want to moderate the comment, please mod the parent post down and the original post up.
I own an RV, but have held off from buying "in motion sattelite tv" because the price is rediculous ($3000 - $5000 for hardware). The setup uses a nearly full-size direcTV dish but puts it under a radome and has to actively track GPS coords and direction of travel to keep the signal. (Lots of complex circuitry and moving parts to wear out)
This thing looks like it would REALLY make it affordable for RV owners, assuming it's:
1) Not Vaporware
2) Decent Quality
As to having one in a car, I suppose if you're tired of buying video games and DVDs to keep the kids quiet, it's not such a bad idea.
Also, before you write off XM, is DirecTV planning on deploying ground-based "terrestrial repeaters" as XM has?
Pardon my lack of knowledge of phased-array antenna technology, but does such a system now eliminate the requirement of a clear-facing southern view to get DirecTV access?
There are lots of people I know in lots of places (i.e. apartments) where they'd _love_ to get DirecTV and dump the cable monopoly, but simply can't because either their apartment faces the wrong direction, the landlord won't let them put a dish on the room, the building has a contract with another cable company, etc, etc.
I'm lucky because my apartment faces south-west, so I'm the envy among my TV-watching friends in that I can actually get DirecTV in Manhattan, but there are plenty of folks who aren't so lucky.
So does this mean more access to DirecTV?
nlh
Ferrari and other exotic car rentals in New York
First off, it seems like nothing more than even more "sounds all the same" corporate broadcasting than what's already available on my FM dial. How many more "new rock alternative" or classic rock stations do I need? Not to mention that the DJ inevitably are all fuckheads too; talking over every song. So IMO, the $9.99 or whatever for XM is not worth it.
But what really gets me is the fact that it doesn't even work everywhere! It seems to have a lot of holes in my area. (Bremerton, WA) I rode around with a friend who had XM in his car; it didn't work coming up the street where I live, it doesn't work at all in the Western part of the county, it didn't work in many places on a drive to Seattle, etc. Simply put, when I think "satellite radio," I expect a service that works everywhere a satellite can see (with the usual exceptions like tunnels, etc.).
Apparently Sirius is supposed to have much better coverage; they use three elliptical orbit satellites as opposed to one geosynchronous sat. The idea being your antenna gets a better signal due to the fact that the signal source is closer, and not so much on the horizon. But whatever the technical stats are, my real question is whether they can pull off good programming.
It seems like they're going a long way with commercial free programming, and they carry NPR. In fact, if they had KEXP (Experience Music Project's station), there is no question that I'd subscribe to Sirius.
...or rather, for apartment use. When you live in a "community" that has rules restricting your ability to mount anything on the walls or roof, and you don't want to put anything down at ground level because someone might walk by and steal it, it's rather hard to get set up for satellite tv, unless you want to do the sackcrete-box-and-pole route, which isn't always sturdy, can still be a pain to set up, etc.
An omnidirectional flat antenna wouldn't attract nearly as much attention, is easier to place, and I suspect that you could probably stick it in a window if you didn't have a balcony or anything outside with line-of-sight to the satellites.
Get off my launchpad!
This is a consumer multi-phased array dish. A flat dish that doesn't need aimed. Navy uses them but they're massive, this is tiny by comparison. You're looking at a very happy RV/Bus market where the $2000 cost isn't bad. In five years the price will drop down so that it can be used on a house rooftop at the same price of a nice dual-lnbf dish.
No more placing 2 dishes on a roof to get signals from 2 different satellite orbits, just one flat tile that blends in with your fiberglass shingle roof.
Got Replay, Not Interested
Seriously folks, has anyone looked at how big these antennas are? Read on for my contribution to the FUD:
If you had a Hummer and wanted to go camping, I could see this as a solution to the TV-addicted society.
Also, if I were a thief, the stupid EXTERIOR antenna (which covers an entire roof-rack) would be equivalent to a big "BREAK HERE" sign.
If I were a cop, I would sit in a helicopter and start TV-profiling for drivers that needed a ticket to lighten their wallet. As an added bonus, my coworkers could watch Dr. Phil while writing the tickets.
If there is any hope, it would require HDTV OTA, good signal coverage, and an internal antenna. The minute you lose view of the southern-sky, the DirecTV signal dies (tunnel, anyone?). The line-of-sight isn't an issue on a boat (unless you are circumnavigating the world). The company's original target market is the boating community, not autos. The technology is cool, but the application of it is dubious. These things have a better chance if they are made for a golf cart.
... I assume these antennae need to be fitted externally?
at $2k a pop, I foresee a lot of "rip-offs" to anyone who doesn't garage their car behind a stout lock..
in front of me if I am trying to use 802.11b
to download music from his car. He will swerve, brake,
slow down and speed up with me on his ass the whole time
not knowing that he has that rare pink floyde track I want.
-J
Gotta go buy one of those for the Buick!
Michael Loves Me!
I can see it now.... the SUV with the new 'Sled-after-rollover' feature, since that antenna adds enough surface area to the roof. Once more thing that a normal person has to watch out for - 4-inch thick flying saucers that communicate with outer space.
I've done a little research, and I think I've figured out the aiming:
The phase delay from each micro-antenna must be electronically adjustable. By carefully tuning the delay from each element, you can effectively aim the antenna.
This makes sense if you imagine the wave fronts as they intersect with the antenna. By carefully choosing what "points in time" are added up from each element, you can put together the wave fronts coming from the direction of your choice.
I still haven't figured out the polarization issue, but I imagine that they effectively have two antennas at right angles to each other, and that by doing some trignometric calculations on the two signals, they can figure out the original cross-polarized signals.