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Satellite TV From a Moving Car
An anonymous reader sent us an article about an in-car digital satellite television system. that can stay trained on the satellite even while moving. Of course, Most amusing is all the comments about how TV in cars is for passengers, because as we know, the drivers are too busy talking on their cell phones.
Where to mount my Tivo....wait.. will it work with my Tivo? I might miss something on tv while I am talking on my cell phone.
Kinda reminds me of those DVD players that pop out of the head unit. My friend wants to get one of those so he can watch movies while driving. Kinda scares me to say the least. I think this is somewhat overdoing it. Cars are transportation, not audio/visual entertainment. As if there arent enough distractions already...
...how well do those work under viaducts, in tunnels, in cities behind big buildings, in high mountains, in forests and mostly everywhere where large part of the sky is obscured.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
...then I guess you can do it in an SUV. I'm always amazed by the system that JetBlue uses, which must be similar to this one - JetBlue has DirecTV onboard, and their antenna system tracks the satellite during most manoeuvers. Only when the plane goes into a really steep bank during final approach will the sat go out for a few seconds.
"It's like you don't even have them. You can baby-sit and drive at the same time"
Isn't it great that we don't have to pay attention to our children anymore in the car just like we don't pay attention to them at home. Why would we need to when the TV/computer/video game is there to "baby-sit" them? We can plug them in at any time...they don't talk to us about any of their inane, childish ideas. We can blissfully act like we are still freewheeling non-parents going off on some big adventure than like the haggard parents we really are who have been forced to "care" for these inferior beings.
I have three of those annoying little brats, ages 3,5, and 7. I know how blissful a moment to yourself is, and how seductive it is to plug them in and tune them out.
But you really need to remember that they will be getting their values/ambitions from whatever is raising them. I think most people would not want to think that they are basically raising their children to be ignorant, negative consumers, but they need to watch the shows their children watch, and pay close attention to the advertising that comes along with those "children's" shows.
As fast as the world goes today, being in the car for a while might be one of the few times that a family can actually talk to each other for an extended period of time. Listen to those children, don't tune them out.
</rant>
Personally, I think having kids in the car is far more distracting than cell phones. And from experience, I've been hit by a woman driving on the shoulder fighting with her kids, but I've never been hit by someone talking on their cell phone.
Plus, think of the benefits of banning children from cars. Its healthier for them (It will cut way back on the number of children killed in car accidents), Parents will have a hard time getting kids to movies and nice restaurants where they can annoy me, and it will improve the resale value of the cars since there will be far fewer juice stains on the back seats.
Everybody wins.
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
Will be pretty sweet when you can hack this, and send signals of your band performing live to the big media mogul who just happens to be travelling through town... of course you may need to bounce it off a few satellites on the way... it all seems too easy!
Can't these people pay attention and not do anything else while driving. I now have to get a new laptop for the car. Jeeeezzz.
Fight Spammers!
We've had this in South Korea (SkyLife) for over a year....yawn. Once again, you guys assume it doesn't count if it's not in your backyard.
Gives you something to watch while sitting in the routine 10 kilometer jam.
My understanding is that the "260 antenna elements that help draw in the signal" is basically a small fairly cheap phased array antenna system. You know, like on an Aegis cruiser. So with the proper emitter and a Beowulf like cluster of TracVisions ........
Of course, Most amusing is all the comments about how TV in cars is for passengers, because as we know, the drivers are too busy talking on their cell phones.
Seriously, what's the deal with giving away the best part of the article without a spoiler warning?
With hundreds of channels of entertainment, from the Disney Channel to HBO, to keep them occupied, they're silent. "It's like you don't even have them. You can baby-sit and drive at the same time,'' Montag said.
Am I the only America left that thinks this is gross? I pulled up next to a Lincoln Navigator, the other day, that had TWO flat panel screens in it and they were both on watching TV. Now, this seems like a great idea to keep the kids nice and quite, but how does a kid see the world while on a road trip? If I am going to haul the kids and wife off to a National or State Park, they are to be looking out the windows and not watching DVD movie or some Cartoon. I can't imagine how this is good for America's kids. Should we just surrender to the terrorists now since the future generations will have a attention span to short to track Al-Qaeda down?
Linux O Muerte!
Yes, cell phones can be a distraction, but are they any more of a distraction than the many, many things people do in their cars? I watch people read the paper across the steering wheel, I watch them put on makeup, I watch them eat entire meals, I even watch them search around the backseat of their cars - All while driving. If you take a hard look at what a lot of people do in their cars, cell phones are by far the least of the problem.
There are a lot of places people dont need to be talking on their cell phones - Movie Theaters comes to mind as a prime example. Because of this I believe its become quite the trend to frown upon seeing anyone on a cell phone any time. The reality is they do have a place and they are here to stay - get used to it.
These are pretty common on RV's these days. I full time in a 1987 Bluebird Wanderlodge bus (both mobile office and home).
We installed a Tracstar SV360 9 months ago, one of the low-profile ones. This is supposed to be one of the better units.
They work ok... yes, signal skips under bridges.
I5 in southern Oregon is pretty much useless with mountain and tall trees next to the highway.
DirecTV requires you to point "toward Texas" for the bird, so northern states are much worse. And these dishes tend to be smaller, so clounds can hurt you too. Seattle is not a good place for this... steep angle to aim and clouds consipire against you.
I use the in-motion dish for "instant on" more than watching while cruising. It is nice to pull over at a rest area and be able to turn on the news for a few minutes.... since the in-motion always has signal lock, no need to wait to align like the lesser dishes.
When camping in wooded areas, you pretty much decide what your priority is. Nice woodeed spot or clear TV reception? Low tech is often better for camping. 100' of coax and a regular dish on a tripod is much better for camping... as you can always carry the dish out into a clear area. So having a fancy expensive in-motion system isn't always the best... it depends on your needs.
I want to know if Im cruizing along at 80mph will it still work. I saw this in popsci I think a long time ago and it had a top speed of 45mph. I didnt see them even address this at all. Im not going to slow down so I can watch tv.
http://www.wickedtoast.com
I don't know where the submitter of the article lives, but in New York it's illegal for a TV to be placed in a vechile within view of the driver. Then again it's also illegal for a driver here to use a cell phone that's not hands free, and we know how well people obey that law.
Ah well, this is kinda a neat idea regardless. I mean, satellite TV for vechiles is not exactly a new idea, though before now they've been traditionally reserved for RV's and such, but this may be the first practical application for smaller cars.
-Through the server, over the router, off the firewall... Nothing but 'Net!
With hundreds of channels of entertainment, from the Disney Channel to HBO, to keep them occupied, they're silent. "It's like you don't even have them. You can baby-sit and drive at the same time,'' Montag said.
I have my own kids -- four of them now. I grew up in a family of five kids, two parents. So I know full well what it's like to have them arguing, complaining, fighting, and griping all through a long car trip.
But I still maintain that drugging them into submission with non-stop video signals is not the best solution. It's easy enough to get into that habit at home -- sit the kids in front of the TV after school until dinner, then after dinner until bedtime. They're entertained, you have peace and quiet. Then when they get older, you wonder why they're thirty pounds overweight before they've hit puberty and never do their homework at night.
TV, either in the car or at home, should be a privilege. Give it to them when they've earned it, and turn it off when it's done. I prefer a DVD player to satellite TV, because (1) there's no commercials, (2) I can control what they do and don't watch, and (3) when the show's over, it's over--there's nothing "coming up next" unless I say there is.
Our kids would be overjoyed to have satellite TV in the car for our periodic 3-hour drives to my in-laws. Instead we give them toys, books, children's music, and Magna-Doodle drawing boards. Works just as well, the noise is minimal, and their brains actually continue to develop instead of just rotting away inside their skulls.
PBS is the most problem channel for 'on the road'! If you are a full time RVer or trucker, you can get Distant Network service that allows you special options.
I guess the big problem is sports. People with RV's would go to sports games and have tailgate parties in the parking lot of the stadium during regional blackouts!
You have to sign a special waiver to get the local network feeds when mobile. DirecTV does directional broadcast of 'local channels' only to the regions they are required. Once you drive out of your region, you can't get your local channels.
They let you get around this by getting ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX from both New York and Los Angeles. Problem is that you can't get UPN / WB / PBS when you are outside your "home area". When you full time in a RV (no house, just live in your RV) - this is a pain - as your home area is just where you get your mail sent, not really where you are!
PBS is the most problem. They really want those local pledge drives, so they won't let you have the "national PBS feed" unless your "home area" is in a place where there is no local PBS channel on DirecTV. So 90% of the locations you can't get the national PBS feed if you have the Distant Network package.
Is an invention of the 18th century. Until that time the rich simply forked their children over to governnesses, teachers, etc and forgot about them until their kids challenged them for their holdings.
Everyone else either worked as many offspring as they could sire in the fields, sold them off as indentured servants, or, if they didn't need or want more, comitted post-natal abortion.
The idea that one actually had some involvement with their kids is historically kind of new. The idea of "childhood" itself is even newer; it used to only last until you were old enough to do meaningful work. The fact that it now lasts until the mid-20s or the end of college is a very new phenomenon and probably as unhealthy as selling them off as servants when they turned 10.