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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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..."
Well, in California it is already the case that I can watch TV while driving; I just need to be stuck behind a monster SUV (which are about a third of all the cars), with it's TV on (which is about an eighth of all monster SUV's). Since I can't see around the huge damn things, I have to look through them, and I therefore am occasionally watching some TV (usually through almost totally tinted windows though, which makes it even harder to see what might be coming up ahead.)
Note - this only applies in heavy, slow traffic, though. Otherwise, I'm staying well behind those mutha's, or whipping around in front of 'em.
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