1. TELE-satellite
International
t
The World’s Larges
zine
Dig ital TV Trade Maga
since 1981
Alexander Wiese
Publisher
.com
alex@TELE-satellite
y
HQ in Munich, German
Dear Readers,
More and more receivers operate with an Internet connection long that I easily lose the overview. And that’s the problem: I should
and offer users an enormous assortment of TV channels that are be able to choose a TV channel based on its name alone. But this
available via the worldwide Internet. It could be streaming channels is simply not enough information. There are many channels that
such as with a regular TV broadcaster or video files that would first have selected very peculiar names. How am I supposed to know,
need to be downloaded. The choices are becoming more and more for example, that Press TV isn’t a journalism channel but rather a
limitless. The selection of the transmission path is actually a way to news channel from Iran? And how many Tele5 and TV 5 channels
limit these choices. are there that appear in a channel list after as scan? Which one
should I choose?
Of all the different technical variants, terrestrial TV transmissions
in most regions offer the least amount of TV channels. A step up As a user I think receivers should provide another bit of information
in the number of available channels would be cable TV and even for each channel that would help me make a decision. And that
better would be TV via satellite. But far larger are the number of TV would be the picture quality which would be expressed in the bitrate.
channels that can be received via the Internet, but there’s no way to Ever since I’ve had an HD television, I’ve wanted to be able to use
actually confirm how many there really are. All too often one Web/ it exactly for that purpose, and that is to watch TV channels in high
IP-TV provider starts up service while another stops service making technical quality. For that reason my current criteria out of all the
it difficult to count the number of channels. channels that are available is to search for only those channels that
carry the two letters ‘HD’. That reduces the choices significantly but
If you take a closer look at the TV channels that you can receive it’s not cut and dry. Quite a few SD channels also broadcast in good
with the different methods, an interesting picture begins to develop. technical quality.
With terrestrial TV the number of available channels might be small,
but they’d mostly be channels that viewers would want to see. Not What’s missing for me is an indication of the bitrate for each
only that, these channels would naturally offer programming of local channel in the receiver’s channel list. Then I would be able to sort
interest. the channels based on bitrate and would only surf between the first
100 channels. For those TV channels that don’t put any value on the
The channels available via cable TV fulfill similar criteria; they are quality of their picture, I in return wouldn’t put any value on those
also mostly channels liked by the viewers attached to the cable channels. Exceptions prove the rule.
network. The plight of the cable TV viewer, that usually doesn’t have
any other way of receiving TV, is that they are typically exploited by So this is my wish for the scan function of a receiver: the bitrate
the cable provider in that they fill up their channel space with far too should also be measured during a scan and sorting based on bitrate
many useless channels such as shopping channels. should also be possible. That’s what I’d like to see.
The satellite viewer has the best selection but they often have to do
without channels that deal with local news and events. The selection
of channels is so large that choosing a channel to watch becomes
a tiresome task. Even more gigantic is the choice with Web/IP-TV;
here there’s absolutely no organization at all.
On what criteria should you base your decision on? The list of
channels that every receiver presents after a scan has become so Alexander Wiese
Editor-in-Chief TELE-satellite International
TELE
satellite
Address
TELE-satellite International, PO Box 1234, 85766 Munich-Ufg, GERMANY/EUROPE
Editor-in-Chief
Alexander Wiese, alex@TELE-satellite.com
Published by
TELE-satellite Medien GmbH, Aschheimer Weg 19, 85774 Unterfoehring, GERMANY/EUROPE
Design
Németi Barna Attila
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Copyright © 2012 by TELE-satellite ISSN 1435-7003
TELE-satellite was established in 1981 and today is the oldest, largest and most-read digital tv trade
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