| FREESAT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS. |
| FREESAT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON FREESAT HD DIGITAL SET TOP BOX, FREESAT CHANNELS, FREESAT SATELLITE, FREESAT DIY PLUS A COMPREHENSIVE JARGON BUSTER ON THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF FREESAT AND MULTI-SAT. |
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| FREESAT FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS. FREESAT FROM SATELLITE FLAMES THE IMAGINATION TO ALL WHO MUCH PREFER A SELECTION OF DIFFERENT CHANNELS. THE BIG DIFFERENCE WITH FREESAT IN U.K. IS THAT IT WILL ROLL IN THE BEGINNING OF HIGH DEFINITION (HD) SATELLITE RECEIVERS WITH BUILT IN PVR'S AND EPG'S ALL IN ONE PERFECT LITTLE BOX WHICH WORKS AT THE STAB OF A BUTTON. THE OTHER HUGE BENEFIT OF FREESAT (not to be confused with Freesat from Sky) IS WE ARE ABOUT TO VENTURE INTO THE HD ERRA OF COLOURS AND BRILLIANT PICTURE QUALITY THE LIKES OF WHICH WE HAVE NEVER HAD BEFORE. ONE HAS ONLY TO LOOK AT THE BBC HD CHANNEL ALREADY BEING TRANSMITTED FROM SATELLITE TO KNOW WE ARE ALL IN FOR A BONANZA OF QUALITY AND PROGRAMMING YET TO BE DISCOVERED. TO SAY THE PICTURE QUALITY FROM THE BBC HD CHANNEL IS BRILLIANT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT, THE PICTURE IS STUNNING WITH QUALITY NEVER SEEN BEFORE AND AMAZINGLY EVEN BETTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE DVD OR VIDEO RECORDER. WITH THE BBC AND ITV RENOWNED FOR TOP QUALITY PROGRAMMES IT DOES NOT TAKE A GENIUS TO DECIDE, I WANT ONE OF THESE SYSTEMS. WITH THE DEMISE OF THE OLD STYLE TV SYSTEMS AND THE BIRTH OF FREEVIEW AND NOW FREESAT EUROPEAN TV HAS SUDDENLY LEAPT INTO MODERN THINKING, ALL WE NEED NOW IS FOR OTHER COUNTRIES TO FOLLOW SUIT AND WE CAN THEN SAY THE CROSS-BORDER BARRIERS ARE COMING DOWN. THE COST OF FREESAT OR MULTI-SAT SYSTEMS ARE BORNE ON FIRST PURCHASING THE EQUIPMENT, WHICH CAN BE BOUGHT FROM YOUR HIGH STREET RETAILERS OR VIA A PACKAGE DELIVERED AND ERECTED BY YOUR LOCAL FRIENDLY SATELLITE DISH INSTALLER. THE SIMPLE WAY TO WORK OUT THE COST IS BY USING EXISTING RECEIVERS AND SATELLITE DISHES AS A GUIDE, SOME CAN BE BOUGHT FOR ALL FREE-TO-AIR CHANNELS OVER MANY SATELLITES FOR AS LITTLE AS A COUPLE OF HUNDRED DOLLARS. THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE A TOP OF THE RANGE ALL SINGING AND ALL DANCING MOTORISED SATELLITE SYSTEM CAN BUY THE FULL EQUIPMENT FOR AROUND A THOUSAND DOLLARS. WE ARE INTERESTED IN FREESAT AND THE AVERAGE LIKELY COST ALLOWING FOR A LITTLE EXTRA FOR THE EPG, PVR, ETC POSSIBILITIES, THEN THE COST SHOULD BE APPROX. £200 AND THIS PRICE WILL PROBABLY BUY YOU A GOOD QUALITY FREESAT RECEIVER WITH NO ON GOING FEES AND NO MONTHLY ON GOING FEES WHICH WILL ATTRACT MANY NEW SATELLITE EQUIPMENT BUYERS. Aberdeen Website Design always bring you the latest and researched updates on FREESAT the new joint TV bouquet from the BBC and ITV. We at Aberdeen Website Design would advise everybody to make sure the receiver you buy for your free satellite channel line up is 100% FREESAT compatible. Public information although released last month has never been openly revealed until now; The BBC Research and Innovation experts have designed the architecture and system specification of the new FREESAT RECEIVER so that FREESAT data is effectively invisible to NON-FREESAT set-top -boxes. Selected manufacturers are being requested to supply; FREESAT TV's; FREESAT recorders; FREESAT set-top-boxes; ALL must pass the product conformance testing to carry the FREESAT LOGO. To be compatible with the BBC's HD stream, a set-top box must comply with the following: It must have an HDTV logo, to show that it has one of two digital connection types, HDMI or DVI, and supports HDCP, the specification used to protect digital content. It can be demonstrated to decode the BBC's MPEG-4 HD stream. It decodes both DVB-S and DVB-S2 transmissions. It can recognise both the current and future values of HD service type used in the UK and the rest of Europe. |
| What is FREESAT? | FREESAT is a joint commitment by the BBC & ITV to transmit starting in 2008 from satellite Free-To-Air (not to be confused with free-to-view as this could be scrambled). DO NOT get confused with Sky Freesat as the BBC/ITV venture has nothing to do with Freesat from Sky! |
| How Much? | The cost is a one of payment for equipment which includes; Satellite Dish ,LNB, coaxial cable, Satellite Box or Receiver, no monthly contract! |
| An LNB? | An LNB is the centre part of your Satellite Dish that gathers the incoming signal from the Dish to send to your Satellite Receiver then your TV. |
| Is it DIY? | For those who are able you can read how it's done, but for those unsure installers will do it for you, and perhaps as a package. |
| Channels? | Early reports say at least 80 (eighty)channels with at least 8 (eight) of them being in High Definition (HD). You can expect hundreds more! |
| HD? | HD or High Definition are five times better than existing TV pictures, at present the BBC HD (will be in the FREESAT line up ) is on satellite, and the picture quality can only be described as stunning! |
| Receiver? | The HD satellite Receiver or Box could have, as well as HD, an EPG or an PVR or MULTI LINGUAL or FREEVIEW or MULTI-SAT! |
| EPG? | EPG or Electronic programme guide will give you times and schedules at the touch of a button to what's on, on FREESAT. |
| PVR? | PVR or Personal Video Recorder, which means the Receiver or Box will have inside it a hard drive which can store hours and hours of all types of programming, for example; normal recording on a 250Gbs hard disk will allow two solid days viewing, HD recording and viewing on a 250Gbs hard disk will allow you over 30 hours because of the jaw dropping quality. |
| Languages? | Different languages can be transmitted on many existing free-to-air satellite receivers so this may well be an option by choice! |
| Freeview? | Not to be confused with FREESAT as Freeview is terrestrial. |
| Multi-Sat? | This means it's possible to pick up thousands of channels for free with a motor added to the equipment list above, our blog will give you answers! |
| Where? | All main high street stores will carry satellite equipment of all kinds with a massive choice on the best gear to buy. |
| Regions? | You will NOT lose your local news, in fact it will be enhanced as anybody in U.K. and beyond can pick up their local news and every other region in U.K. for example you could listen and watch BBC Scotland and switch over at half time and watch BBC London region, or Scottish TV and switch over and select out of loads of regions Thames ITV, absolutely brilliant for channel hoppers. |
| Complex? | The FREESAT box will be very easy to use and control as this was one of the concerns when it was first planned. |
| Lifespan? | The lifespan of the FREESAT Receiver or Box should be excellent as there are no moving parts. The external equipment parts will last as long as existing satellite dish's. |
| ADR? | Astra digital radio, Analogue audio carriers are used for compressed digital radio. |
| Asius? | Astra Service Information Update Service, this provides the automatic download of all providers who broadcast from Astra. |
| Bandwidth? | Broad or Narrow band, The speed of data transmission depends on the available bandwidth of the channel being transmitted. |
| Bit? | A single digital unit of information, for example: Bit Error Rate, The fraction of a sequence of message bits that are in an error. A bit error rate of 10-6 means that there are an average of one error per million bits. |
| Eb/No(dB)? | A measure for the signal to noise ratio of a digital signal. |
| Footprint? | With respect to satellite TV, the Footprint is the area covered from space to earth, imagine the beam similar to a torch beam spread, for example. |
| Mpeg? | MPEG, stands for Moving Picture Expert Group, the organisation responsible for the development of the MPEG Standard. |
| OSD? | On screen display. |
| Pan? | Horizontal shift of a picture on the display. |
| Pid? | The packet identification number, either decimal or hexadecimal which assigns the video and audio to a certain programme. |
| QPSK? | Quadratur Phase Shift Keying is a type of modulation for the transfer of digital signals from satellites. |
| SID? | Service identification allows the identification of a certain service within a transport stream. |
| Transponder? | Channel/ converter of a satellite. In analogue stream a television programme and several audio channels can be transferred per transponder. |
| This small selection of answers are brought to you from Domain-Holdings. and further questions can be answered in our blog which is open for all and covers the FREESAT stories and news releases. We can always be contacted at: freesatnews@googlemail.com | |