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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."
Things like that do exist. In dash DVD players have to be hooked up so that they are disabled when the car is started in some states. However, every installation I've seen for one of those things has had a switch hidden somewhere instead of being hooked up to the ignition. Or, a switch in the middle to hide the fact that the safety feature is disabled. I can't speak for all states, but it's that way in several.
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.
Perhaps because DirecTV offers streaming audio in addition to it's television broadcast offerings?
If it ain't a Model M, it's a piece of crap.
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.
From the second paragraph in the article:
In the future, the antenna system will provide high-speed Internet access.
Also the net access potential is mentioned in the blurb.
Why not fork?
DirecTV has 36 channels of audio programming. It would be fairly trivial to extract only the audio stream from the broadcast once it's been decrypted and pipe it into your car's sound system.
About all it's missing is talk radio... but frankly you can tune into a cable news station and get pretty much the same thing. Yeah, you have commercials again, but I think that both Sirius and XM have commercials on their talk channels as well.
This isn't a satellite radio killer yet though... way too expensive.
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.
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.
Relax, it's illegal for you to have a TV that is visible to the driver.
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.
The moderators are your peers: people who contribute to the forums get a certain amount of mod points every few weeks. It's the readers who mod up and down posts, not anyone that works at Slashdot.
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.
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.
Directv has been available for years to people that spend on motorized antenna mounts that home in on the satellite signal and keep it tracked. And that mount is cheaper.
Move along people, ther's nothing more to see here.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
This isn't something that varies from state to state. Federal law prohibits the manufacture of cars with driver-visible television/video, and all states prohibit the operation of a vehicle while television is visible to the driver. If there are cars with "override" switches, then these switches were added after manufacture, after sale, by a third party.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Federal law covers automotive manufacturing and prohibits driver-visible TV. Additionally, the feds have "strongly encouraged" states to adopt rules similar to those suggested by the Federal Highway Transportation Safety Administration. One of those rules is the "no TV" rule. Most states have enacted law prohibiting the presence of viewable TV while the car is in motion. The few that didn't already had laws against "distracted driving" and merely issued more detailed enforcement guidelines. You're right, actually. Installing such a switch after purchase isn't illegal. Flipping that switch while driving, however, is illegal.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.