| Author |
Message |
Gary Davis
Guest
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 Posted:
Mon May 16, 2005 8:08 am Post subject:
NASA Digital C-band: First Look |
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I went to AMC-6 (the east-cost NASA satellite) and was able to tune in
their new digital channel without too much difficulty. My FTA
receiver didn't have "AMC6" in the database so I used PAS8 as the
satellite name, set the frequency to 4040, the symbol rate to 26665
(per NASA specifications), did a channel search, and only one channel,
named "Public," came up. Since I told the receiver to search for FTA
and scrambled channels alike, my guess is that the other NASA channels
aren't there yet.
This is a very rare instance of an analog and digital signal of the
same program being broadcast on the same satellite and same polarity,
so I was able to do an A/B comparison between the
AMC-6/tr 9 analog signal, and this new digital signal.
The digital signal was sparkle free, very low in video noise, and
looked almost as sharp as the analog; perhaps lacking a tiny bit of
contrast. The analog signal, in comparison, had sparkles on the
white-to-black transitions (and some bright colors) and more video
noise. (For these reasons, I've been watching NASA on DirecTV the
last few years).
Also, the audio volume on the digital was much louder - I'm sure NASA
viewers have noticed the very soft audio lately on most programs.
SO all-in-all, I call NASA Digital a winner. Here's hoping we get to
watch at least some of the programming on the other 3 feeds.
My only problem now is losing the DirecTV-TiVo as a way to record NASA
automatically. Instead, I'm looking at the Panasonic DMR-E500 HD/DVD
recorder which has a 400GB hard drive! It's already been discontinued
(too expensive for the U.S. market), so now they're selling online
from $799 all the way down to $550 (buy.com).
But I hear it has a terrible interface, especially for recording from
any kind of satellite.
--Gary
More details on NASA Digital:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/digital.html |
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Phil
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon May 16, 2005 10:51 pm Post subject:
Re: NASA Digital C-band: First Look |
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Gary,
For what is worth, I have had a Panasonic DMR-HS2 for a few years
and I am pretty much satisfied with it. I'll bet the interface is
pretty much similar and if so, it is no problem at all to use.
In fact it is so much easier to use than the timer setup on my
Dish Network receiver, that I find myself wishing the Dish' had
the same functionality. The thing I don't much care for in Panasonic
is that they chose the DVD-RAM format for the erasable medium for
use with their recorders. I have found them to be playable only
in Panasonic players and the media is more expensive than DVD-RW
style. Hope this was of interest.
Thanks for the report and comparison on NASA. Maybe that will calm
some of the concerns.
phil
gdavisloop@earthlink.net (Gary Davis) wrote in
news:42893a87.100239684@news.west.earthlink.net:
| Quote: | I went to AMC-6 (the east-cost NASA satellite) and was able to tune
in
their new digital channel without too much difficulty. My FTA
receiver didn't have "AMC6" in the database so I used PAS8 as the
satellite name, set the frequency to 4040, the symbol rate to 26665
(per NASA specifications), did a channel search, and only one
channel,
named "Public," came up. Since I told the receiver to search for
FTA
and scrambled channels alike, my guess is that the other NASA
channels
aren't there yet.
This is a very rare instance of an analog and digital signal of the
same program being broadcast on the same satellite and same
polarity,
so I was able to do an A/B comparison between the
AMC-6/tr 9 analog signal, and this new digital signal.
The digital signal was sparkle free, very low in video noise, and
looked almost as sharp as the analog; perhaps lacking a tiny bit of
contrast. The analog signal, in comparison, had sparkles on the
white-to-black transitions (and some bright colors) and more video
noise. (For these reasons, I've been watching NASA on DirecTV the
last few years).
Also, the audio volume on the digital was much louder - I'm sure
NASA
viewers have noticed the very soft audio lately on most programs.
SO all-in-all, I call NASA Digital a winner. Here's hoping we get
to
watch at least some of the programming on the other 3 feeds.
My only problem now is losing the DirecTV-TiVo as a way to record
NASA
automatically. Instead, I'm looking at the Panasonic DMR-E500
HD/DVD
recorder which has a 400GB hard drive! It's already been
discontinued
(too expensive for the U.S. market), so now they're selling online
from $799 all the way down to $550 (buy.com).
But I hear it has a terrible interface, especially for recording
from
any kind of satellite.
--Gary |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Sat May 21, 2005 12:08 am Post subject:
Re: NASA Digital C-band: First Look |
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I still maintain NASA is supplying these digital feeds with highly
compressed video compared to the pure analog days. Some of the
resolution looks worse than streaming internet video. It also looks
like some of their stuff is shot with cheap consumer digicams.
Cole Smith
Gary Davis wrote:
| Quote: | SO all-in-all, I call NASA Digital a winner. Here's hoping we get to
watch at least some of the programming on the other 3 feeds.
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