We all knew cables and satellites are the main paid TV services in United States. Dish Network and DirecTV are the major two players on the satellite TV side; while Time Warner, Comcast, Adelphia, Cable Vision, Charter Communication are some of the well known names on cables.

So how does satellite TV match up to cables? Is satellite TV better, or it’s the old school cables? Let’s check out some of the facts on satellite TV vs cable TV here.

Popularity

Although both Dish Network and DirecTV are growing their business fast, cable TV is still much popular than satellites at nowadays.

At the time of writing, DirecTV claims that they own up to 18 millions subscribers; while Dish Network 15 millions. On the other hand according to market survey, major cable TV provider Comcast cable TV take up over 20 million subscribers in many states; while Time Warner 10 millions, Adelphia 5 millions, Cable Vision 3 millions and Charter Communication 6 millions in United States.

Programming quality and variety

Cable uses TV cables; while satellite TV uses decoder and dish for the signal transmission. Cable programs normal come in analog or partly, digital signals – the picture quality are generally good, but not as good as satellite TV that offers 100% digital picture in their broadcast.

In most situation, cable TV offers up to 150 channels. In contrast, both main satellite TV providers (Dish and DirecTV) offer up to 255 programming choices. On top of that, DISH Network and DirecTV offer plenty of HDTV programming, which it’s hardly found on major conventional cables. What amazed me a lot is that Dish Network had just throw out another upgrading campaign that raises their HD channels to more than 30! (Compare to others who are less then 20).

Bundle services

Cable TV services normally come along with cable phone and cable broadband services – which is good for most new home buyers. With cable TV bundle package (Comcast for example), you’ll get entertainment, communication, and even high speed Internet services. The service provide much convenience to the users (imagine settling all your home bills with just one company) and also, they (the cable TV) are able to pull down the selling price (due to better mass selling), which in turns create a better value for cable user’s services.

Satellite TV on the other hand has less to offer. Satellite Internet was once offered along side with satellite TV deals. However the latency problem and constant disconnection during storms had fail satellite TV company in offering bundle services (satellite Internet) to their clients. Thus

Pricing

Satellite TV wins cables a lot when it comes to pricing.

Cable TV costs you $37.30 a month for 64 channels, plus $10.95 a month to add a few digital channels. Installation in one room is $39.95, plus $9.95 for each additional room. While Dish Network basic package starts at $19.99 and DirecTV package starts at $29.99, it is without doubt that satellite TV are much better bargains when compare with cable TV.

Conclusion

So Cable TV and satellite TV, who has the best? There is no absolute right answer.

Both services have their own weakness - Cable TV are a lot more expensive and poor programming quality/variety. Dish Network and DirecTV, on the other hand are just TV companies and cannot supply you good additional services (in general). Both services have their advantages – cable TV bundle services offer you great savings in overall home expenses; satellite TV offer better programming quality in a much cheaper price.

The best I can advise is that reviews both services carefully and decide the one that suits your needs the best.

Thousands of people search for "Satellite for PC" on the internet and these people are looking for a way to get satellite TV channels on their pc legally.

Having satellite on your PC can be great for entertainment purposes because you'll be able to enjoy the newest programs and movies for Free. The other advantage of satellite for PC is that there is no need for any other hardware other than your internet connection to watch TV.

Most people assume that extra hardware is needed to access satellite for PC but, in fact, this is a false assumption. There is also no need to pay a subscription fee and it will work anywhere in the world as all that is required is your internet.

A fast Internet connection is recommended (broadband) to operate satellite for pc but it is not essential as other connections will work just as well.

With special software, you can access more than 3000 channels that you would normally have to pay for on TV. These channels include Sports, Movies, Adult, News and Music programs.

Many people use satellite for PC without any problems because the software usually just requires a one-time installation and works with all versions of Windows include XP and, more recently, Vista.

Further to this, for less than $50, you can buy specially designed software which can locate satellite channels to your computer for free. This special software cost more than $200,000 and 3 years to develop but it is available for a fraction of that price because of high demand.

Does Internet TV really Work?

Many people are yet to come to terms with the new technology of quality PC Satellite TV. What they don't know is that this technology has been around for over a year.

The now affordable PC TV softwares were developed after painstaking 3 year research. Finally and after much refining, a final-best-buy TV for PC program was released. The research itself cost over $250,000 and the program initially retailed for $350.

Compare Internet TV with Cable and Satellite TV

Cable Digital TV can be quite costly to initially get the trenches done in your backyard and then payment of monthly subscriptions which amount to over $100 per month. Normal Satellite TV also requires you to install a satellite dish receiver and a unscrambler unit.

These two satellite TV methods are quite expensive, immobile and can only be accessed at home. The new revolutionary digital TV on your laptop means you can watch international TV channels through the internet and are therefore more portable services.

Dish Network Internet TV goes Mobile

It is possible to watch football on your laptop while on the highway. One of the cheap PC-satellite TV Soft wares is PC 2007 Elite Edition. Once downloaded, it gives you instant access to over 3000 channels. This includes some of the most popular satellite TV from DirecTV & Dish Network channels like Euro sports, national geographic, ESPN, CNN, Music digital satellite channels on PC among many others.

Interestingly, you can also access international channels in over 70 countries including the most watched TV channels as below,that cannot be accessed from the other USA news channels. Some of the TV channels that you receive from your PC include TV channels from countries like: Albania , Algeria , Andorra , Argentina , Australia , Austria , Belarus , Belgium , Bolivia , Bosnia , Brazil , Canada , Chile , China , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Czech Rep , Denmark , Dominic. Rep , Egypt , Estonia , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Hungary , Iceland , India , Indonesia , Iran , Iraq , Israel , Italy , Jamaica , Japan , Jordan , Kurdistan , Kuwait , Laia , Lebanon , Luxemburg , Macedonia , Malaysia , Malta , Mexico , Mongolia , Netherlands , New Zealand , Nicaragua , Nigeria , Oman , Panama , Peru , Philippines , Poland , Portugal , Puerto Rico , Qatar , Romania , Russian Fed , Saudi Arabia , Serbia , South Africa , South Korea , Spain , Sri Lanka , Sweden , Switzerland , Taiwan , Thailand , Turkey , United Kingdom , Ukraine , USA , Vatican City , Venezuela , Vietnam , among others.

All in all you will have access to both North American and other countries TV stations which you otherwise would never have seen. Its better sometimes to hear what else is happening elsewhere and told as it is by the people on the ground. That is exactly what sat tv on computer gives to you. Home videos are also streamed on the internet and the PC software makes you able to access them. These are never available in the conventional TV channels.

Nice viewing

Technology has moved on so quickly that we are now able to watch satellite TV on computer and also tune into satellite radio stations as well. This was quite unthought of but it has become a reality. With a simple piece of hardware called a PCTV card fixed onto your computer, you can watch TV channels quickly with ease. There are basically two kinds of PCTV cards in the market and they vary in the way they are installed onto your PC. One requires you to install it on your motherboard and the other can be connected directly to the USB port of your computer so that you can watch world satellite TV channels on your computer instantly.

The cards make use of your computer resources such as the RAM, processor and so on to receive free to air satellite TV feeds. They are then decoded into viewable TV channels so that you may watch satellite TV on computer. There are other functions that come with PCTV cards so be sure to find out before you purchase. Some include allowing for recording of TV channels, or multi-window viewing to watch several programs at the same time.

Did I mention that other than a PCTV card, your computer does need to fulfil several requirements? Minimum requirements such as a Pentium 2, Windows 98/ME/2000/XP are required before the PCTV card can run properly. The picture resolution and sound quality are already good, but if you wish to really boost and optimize your viewing experience, invest in a top-notch video graphics card and a tip-top sound card when you watch digital satellite TV on your PC.

Using such cards allow you to immediately tune into more than one or two thousand satellite TV channels. The selection is huge as you can see and you have the option of watching most TV channels you can think of such as documentaries, national and international news channels, sports channels, kids’ programs, movies, music MTVs and so on. It is quite the perfect choice for families.

Okay, we have given enough attention and coverage on PCTV cards. They used to be the only darlings of TV viewers to watch good satellite TV channels on PCs until recently when PC satellite TV software came on board the TV entertainment scene. These software can do what PCTV cards can do plus giving extra benefits. The ease of installation makes it simple enough even for the non-tech savvy folks to install the program on their computers. Not to mention, the price of such software makes it very attractive as compared to PCTV cards that probably can set you back by hundreds of dollars. But the ultimate winning angle of using PC satellite TV software to watch LIVE satellite TV on our PCs is the wide selection of more than 3000 worldwide stations you get to watch.

Consider the 2 options and it becomes quite apparently that PC satellite TV software is gaining much momentum in our homes today. Why not pop by my satellite TV blog and find out more about this amazing technology to watch satellite TV on computer.

A decent amount of people worldwide have taken up possession of flat panel televisions. One would almost think it was a newborn baby in these people's possession with the care and attention these televisions receive over time. Perhaps that's because a plasma or LCD television can, indeed, set one back a few thousand dollars.

Other than the intense difference in your home theater quality, in some circles, one of these TV gems represents a kind of status symbol. With that kind of financial investment this would warrant a special kind of maintenance and care. Like with anything you take care of, it should give you a quality performance for years to come. So, let's take a look at the length of time one receives such performance from their flat panel TV. In order to do this, we will be dissecting each type of high performance television.

Flat Panel Televisions:

Originally the word "lifespan" was used to prose this topic but that was wrong in a sense. A television is measured as a "Half-Life", the time before the television's screen dims from one half of the original brightness. Every television from Flat panels to CRTs loose brightness over time and this cannot be helped.

Should you, as a prospective buyer or owner, worry about the lifespan of your television? Not really, but some people do commonly fear their extravagant televisions will burn out long before the classic yet reliable picture tube sets of yesteryear.

Consumer Reports, an independent nonprofit organization, published a report last year, which explains flat panel sets are just as reliable as CRT TVs in their first year. Most won't be fearful about long-term reliability because they would more than likely be looking for a new TV long before their flat panel fades to black.

The LCD Screen:

The winner in the debate between longevity of LCD and plasma televisions is the LCD. The LCD panel alone holds a virtually limitless lifespan because of this the screen's LCD light source.

The light bulb of a the LCD is what produces pictures, and just as with any other light bulb, the light will dim over a period of time after repeated use. Hence both the bulb and the LCD screen life are equivalent to one another, the proposed life span ranges from 30,000 to 60,000 hours. Some manufacturers estimate a larger sum of 80,000 hours. Replacing these bulbs will easily increase your television's lifespan. Watching an average of about six hours a day will give you just about 28 years before the LCD's brightness begins to dim to half it's original level.

The Plasma Television:

Plasma is somewhat inferior to it's LCD counterpart in the case of a lifespan. The common mistake is that a plasma television will last almost 10 years, this as stated already, is not true.

Plasma televisions use gases where the LCD uses bulbs for lighting. Like anything else, plasma gases will decay overtime. This process is a slow and gradual one with ranges from 20,000 to 30,000 hours along with the manufacturer estimation of 60.000. All of these estimates are figured under optimal conditions. Currently there is no form of replacement for plasma gases. This makes the average six hour a day of television equate to 14 years before the plasma's brightness begins to fade to one half of the original level of brightness.

To put these life spans in terms of relative experience - the cathode ray tube or CRT televisions, which we have been most accustomed to, have one of the longest life spans of up to more than 80,000 hours.

A Few Tips:

Some tips to extending or securing the longevity of your flat panel television: -Always adjust the Contrast and Brightness levels. A flat panel is preset for conditions of a showroom and may need to be set to a level for your living room or where ever you have decided to place it.

-Know your brand of televisions. Not all flat panels are made the same. Research on the net and word on the street; look for a brand that has been around more than others. See our articles on selecting a flat panel TV.

-When not in use, shut it down. Pull the plug from the outlet even. Standby mode is still a strain. This kind of care will not only help your television but your power bill as well.

-For the plasma sets that are in idle mode, never leave static images on for long. The gases make the plasma sets susceptible to burn. Few things are more aggravating than seeing a phantom image of the logo for your favorite show burned forever into the screen of your plasma.

-Keep the television set in cool, well-ventilated areas. This eases the heavy work of the inner system of the television.

-Never mount your television above your fireplace. For the same reasons as stated above however if you feel you must do so, first test the heat of the air above with your hand. If this area feels hotter than the rest of the room choose another location.