BEST AND WORST OF TVRO 2001 as submitted by rec.video.satellite.tvro and BUDHEADS mailing list subscribers From: Eric Best wildfeed: Backhaul of the Playboy Lingerie Show (for netcast) on T4. Cold shower stuff. EK ======== From: "Dave Gerstner" My vote goes to Mike Kohl and Global Communications for selling that shipment of Chaparral Monterey 140's at an unheard-of price. Dave Gerstner ======== From Robert Smathers (roberts@nmia.com) BEST NEWSFEEDS of 2001 - the September 11th attacks. Yes, a tragic day in America history, but it was a bonanza for satellite feeds. I enjoyed around-the-clock feeds of the New York City locals who were using satellite to distribute feeds to cable companies. I also got to see SNG feeds and network raw feeds as well as access to news networks that I do not subscribe to. It was good to be able to be my own news director; one moment checking out the Pentagon scene to see what was going on and the next moment checking out how recovery at the World Trade Center was coming along. Even to this day there is still a full time feed of Ground Zero for home dish owners to monitor how recovery efforts are going. BEST TECHNOLOGICAL SATELLITE DELIVERY INNOVATION OF 2001 - DirecTV-4s satellite with frequency reuse and spot beams. Yes, DirecTV is having problems initially deploying the new lineups, but it is a very well thought idea to increase channels provided by several-fold without needing to license new orbital slots and downlink frequency bands to accomplish the same thing WORST TECHNOLOGICAL SATELLITE INNOVATION OF 2001 - HDTV - Another year has gone by and not much has happened on the HDTV front. The only bright spot was ABC adding a few more hours a week of HDTV programming. BEST POTENTIAL MERGER of 2001 - DISH Network and DSS - I call it potential as I can see benefits to me either way. If they merge, I can purchase my MLB PPV package and put my money towards a company I respect. If I wanted more than just 2-3 cable channels I subscribe to on C-band, I'd be going with DISH Network; Charlie is a non-nonsense guy who passionately cares about the consumer and tries to do the best job he can to be accomodating to the consumer while not violating contracts he has to carry cable channels. If they don't merge, maybe MLB could find a way to offer Charlie the baseball package and then DISH and DSS could fight for my dollar. BEST WILDFEED MOVE of 2001 - Digitialization of Paramount and WB feeds - with just 2 fixed dishes, I can access most satellite wildfeeds that I care about. The only "drawback" may be the expensive commercial receiver I had to buy but it's a good purchase in the long run as that is the way digital video transmission is progressing (from Main Profile to Studio Profile video formats). WORST EVENT THAT WENT AWAY in 2001 - the XFL. I enjoyed this brand of football where play was edgier and players were playing for the love of the game (unlike the NFL). Too bad football fans are stuck on a NFL mentality and couldn't appreciate the XFL for what it was.