# IA5 #989 Fashion TV



## lionanimal (Sep 7, 2006)

Well I've been on FTA / Globecast for less than a week. I was expecting Globecast to send me a 90 cm dish. when the 75 cm eliptical dish arrived, I thought I might have a few difficulties being so far north in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Al-Jazerra - English, Euronews and MHz Worldview come in fine. Prior to actually gaining access to IA-5 I thought they would be my main interests.

Wow...surfed around IA-5 and discovered Fashion TV on number 989. Am having occassional pixelezation issues. Am wondering if a) I'm stuck with it since I'm so far North, b) Get a better receiver than Globecast or c) Get a 90 cm dish, d) Get a FTA receiver that can accept an inserted integrated hard-drive storage. Am currently running S-Video and RCA audio from Globecast receiver to a Toshiba HDD/DVD-R recorder.

Any advice from experienced folks would be appreciated. I am aware of a separate discussion thread within DBStalk.com, FTA about a different person who is as far north as I am. He is in northwest Montana.

By the way, does anyone have any rumors about what Globecast might place on IA-5 when they rent out the space of the 2 or 3 test patterns on certain channels that never cease?


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

:welcome_s 
Thanks for stopping by. I'm not certain what to tell you. When I just checked the signal quality for MHz Worldview vs. GNF Music vs. Fashion TV, MHZ was the weakest and the other two were about the same. All three transponders are vertical polarity, so that can't be the issue either.

Seattle is near the edge of IA5's Ku-band signal, but so maybe the transponder footprints aren't identical. (We'll have to start calling that satellite Galaxy 25 as of Thursday; see http://www.intelsat.com/network/satellite/new-names.asp.) So I'm left with the generic advice to improve signal strength:

* Make sure the dish is pointed for maximum signal quality
* Make sure the LNBF is skewed correctly
* Get a more sensitive LNBF
* Get a larger dish
* Get a receiver that works better with weak signals

If you got a GlobeCast receiver to subscribe to one of their channels, then know that any third-party receiver won't be able to view the channels that are scrambled. To build a FTA DVR, you might want to get a PC-based DVB-S card, and then you'll be able to save and copy anything you want for personal use. Except those subscription channels.


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## lionanimal (Sep 7, 2006)

thank you Michael.


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## kstuart (Apr 25, 2002)

FTV channel has frequent pixelation because they film in situations that has *flash photography*. Digital video is dependant on one frame being similar to the previous frame, so you only have to transmit the few differences. When a flash is used, almost every pixel changes, and so momentarily, the bitrate is insufficient and you get pixelation.
This might not be what you are seeing, but I see that pixelation due to flash very frequently on FTV - more often than on any other channel.


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## lionanimal (Sep 7, 2006)

Thank you kstuart. Yes, flash photography causes pixelation, even on OTA HD. I see that during basdketball games sometime (to a much lesser degree than on FAshionTV telestar five # 989). thank you for your reply.


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