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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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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When you come to a fork in the road, take it! --Yogi Berra--
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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
Gee..and we thought rubbernecking was already bad enough on the side of the highway we're presently driving on at the time, now people can slow down to watch car crashes that happened elsewhere
$cat
Approx. US$#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.
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
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..."
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