I ran into a fellow car audio/video enthusiast this afternoon...he mentioned that Sirius is going to be adding Cable TV to to thier services (piped in via the same antenna as the radio). Anyone hear anything on this???

 

Unlikely. Sirius doesn't even have enough bandwidth to handle its primary service (i.e. audio) without seriously sacrificing fidelity. In the amount of bandwidth allocated to Sirius (15MHz - less than a single broadcast TV station!) one could only get perhaps 3 digital SD feeds, and so even one video broadcast would take out 1/3 of Sirius' audio capacity.

 

Yupp on the dot.

 

That's why i ask questions on these forums, always someone out there with a little more technological insight

 

it would be like tv for cell phones, you can do it but the pictue sucks, eats all the bandwith and would probably be pretty choppy. Now 5 years from now, I am sure you will be able to get HD tv piped to your car.

 

Well I think the technology and the capability is already out there. I am more than sure it can be done with perfect picture quality as if you were watching a DVD....the thing is...MONEY!!! that's what it basically comes down to....Anything now days can be done, it just takes investment and maybe it'll be too expensive for Sirius to do this at this time.
Anyone care to input on this?

 

Sirius just can't do it in the limited amount of bandwidth it has license to use from the FCC. If you want HDTV in your car, put an ATSC tuner in it.

"When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail..."

 

Cable TV uses a frequency bandwith of over 125 mhz for standard 36 channel programming. Each analog channel takes roughly 6mhz of spectrum. Look at how large a Direct TV dish is. The dish needs to be this large to reflect the broad spectrum range to offer channels (voice and video). This is the size of the antenna you would need to wear on your back to get TV on a mobile TV. Now maybe - just maybe - 1 channel via a data download. But not realtime network or CATV.

 

You guys know Way too much about Satellite... I'm impressed..

 

It's public knowledge that Sirius intends to start offering streaming video (in a new generation of receivers built for it). But calling that "Cable TV" is an exaggeration ... more like 2 or 3 channels of small-screen fare, I think.

As for HDTV in the car ... my understanding is that the US HDTV standard was never designed to work too well in motion, and I haven't bumped into an in-car unit yet with HDTV, just analog. But I haven't tried it, I'd be curious if it could work OK after all when the cr is rolling.

 

Thanks for the input. Imagine driving the TL around with a 18" dish on the roof, lol.

 

haha you looking to get cable TV in your car

 

that would be awsome...you can surf the internet in ur car if u have a car pc. its called wardriving. just to let u foos no

 

Not Cable...but the basic channels (major networks) would be nice....

 

Thanks

 

I've discussed this with the Sirius rep- who very well could have been blowing smoke up my ass given bandwith issues- but he said that they had experimented with it- had a working trial but the cost/benefit wasn't there for them to pursue.

 

Before you get all worked you, they are in negotiations with Disney and Nickelodian. They are planning to offer childrens programming only...

They are going to present it at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2007, then start to offer it the the public in Q1 2007.

 

Now if they could only start some talks with Playboy or Spice.