Prevue Guide Forums

what happens to the picture when it goes out like this? as you can see TNT used to be an old movies channel before TCM and adult swim Came out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DreiMShm ... re=related

Ahh, the good old days of analog satellite TV....

I watched this video and I know what happened. The satellite receiver at the cable company's head end went off of frequency. When that happens, the video becomes scrambled and the audio changes frequency. On all satellite channels, there is a certain frequency that is used to send Morse Code of the satellite channel's FCC ID number and the phone number of the company uplinking the channel. Usually this frequency is about 1 MHz above the 2 audio channels (one for stereo left, the other for stereo right). So during a sunspot situation (mainly in March and in September) the satellite frequencies are interfered with and will go off its normal frequency. Also, this can happen if a piece of satellite equipment malfunctions within the head-end. On some channels these audio feeds, like A&E and Showtime, would acutally give a radio-like commercial for ordering their programming or advise that their channel is scrambled.

Nowadays, with Digital Satellite Receivers (4DTV, for example), you will now just get a blank screen and a message saying the channel is unavailable at this time.

I hope that answers the question for you...

Steven

nwgatwcfan wrote:Ahh, the good old days of analog satellite TV....

I watched this video and I know what happened. The satellite receiver at the cable company's head end went off of frequency. When that happens, the video becomes scrambled and the audio changes frequency. On all satellite channels, there is a certain frequency that is used to send Morse Code of the satellite channel's FCC ID number and the phone number of the company uplinking the channel. Usually this frequency is about 1 MHz above the 2 audio channels (one for stereo left, the other for stereo right). So during a sunspot situation (mainly in March and in September) the satellite frequencies are interfered with and will go off its normal frequency. Also, this can happen if a piece of satellite equipment malfunctions within the head-end. On some channels these audio feeds, like A&E and Showtime, would acutally give a radio-like commercial for ordering their programming or advise that their channel is scrambled.

Nowadays, with Digital Satellite Receivers (4DTV, for example), you will now just get a blank screen and a message saying the channel is unavailable at this time.

I hope that answers the question for you...

Steven

thanks. that explains why back in 2007 i had comcast and half the basic channels (the Old analog versions of the channels. not HD) Started Skipping Digitally like a CD or DVD. the picture started scrambling and the audio was skipping on channels like Fox News,CNN,TNT,A&E,Lifetime,Nick,Cartoon Network Etc. the rest were blank screens from the higher digital cable channels. was that the same result?

kwest93 wrote:
thanks. that explains why back in 2007 i had comcast and half the basic channels (the Old analog versions of the channels. not HD) Started Skipping Digitally like a CD or DVD. the picture started scrambling and the audio was skipping on channels like Fox News,CNN,TNT,A&E,Lifetime,Nick,Cartoon Network Etc. the rest were blank screens from the higher digital cable channels. was that the same result?

Yes. That would be the reason. Also, I believe that is what might have happened to the Prevue Guide in the Saddest Prevue Guide video. Notice the date of the crash happening. It just so happens it is in mid-March, which is the worst time of the year for satellite sunspots. The "Continental Cablevision ceropithecoids" may have tried to adjust the audio feed during a sunspot, and that might explain why later on that the frequency stayed off track.

Steven

nwgatwcfan wrote:

kwest93 wrote:
thanks. that explains why back in 2007 i had comcast and half the basic channels (the Old analog versions of the channels. not HD) Started Skipping Digitally like a CD or DVD. the picture started scrambling and the audio was skipping on channels like Fox News,CNN,TNT,A&E,Lifetime,Nick,Cartoon Network Etc. the rest were blank screens from the higher digital cable channels. was that the same result?

Yes. That would be the reason. Also, I believe that is what might have happened to the Prevue Guide in the Saddest Prevue Guide video. Notice the date of the crash happening. It just so happens it is in mid-March, which is the worst time of the year for satellite sunspots. The "Continental Cablevision ceropithecoids" may have tried to adjust the audio feed during a sunspot, and that might explain why later on that the frequency stayed off track.

Steven

oh yeah it sounded like a FM radio that went off the station a frequency. because its analog?

I have a cable company in the Philippines which is also using analog (since digital will be started in 2015). During summer, some of our cable channels are scrambled like a DVD or CD player scratch like TNT did in the U.S. FOX, Star World, Star Movies, and Sahara Samay Bihar/Jharkhand had sun outages only on May. Last September 2011, ABS-CBN (including Studio 23, ANC, Velvet, Lifestyle Network, Hero and Knowledge Channel), Channel NewsAsia, Bloomberg and some channel had sun outages.

Matthew Joseph wrote:I have a cable company in the Philippines which is also using analog (since digital will be started in 2015). During summer, some of our cable channels are scrambled like a DVD or CD player scratch like TNT did in the U.S. FOX, Star World, Star Movies, and Sahara Samay Bihar/Jharkhand had sun outages only on May. Last September 2011, ABS-CBN (including Studio 23, ANC, Velvet, Lifestyle Network, Hero and Knowledge Channel), Channel NewsAsia, Bloomberg and some channel had sun outages.

The outages will vary with what part of the world you are in due to the sun's angle aligning with the communications satellites in your area.

nwgatwcfan wrote:

Matthew Joseph wrote:I have a cable company in the Philippines which is also using analog (since digital will be started in 2015). During summer, some of our cable channels are scrambled like a DVD or CD player scratch like TNT did in the U.S. FOX, Star World, Star Movies, and Sahara Samay Bihar/Jharkhand had sun outages only on May. Last September 2011, ABS-CBN (including Studio 23, ANC, Velvet, Lifestyle Network, Hero and Knowledge Channel), Channel NewsAsia, Bloomberg and some channel had sun outages.

The outages will vary with what part of the world you are in due to the sun's angle aligning with the communications satellites in your area.

here's KERA 13 PBS in North Texas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9gP3xkW-Z8

and one random TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCZhENz0AjE

kwest93 wrote:
here's KERA 13 PBS in North Texas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9gP3xkW-Z8

and one random TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCZhENz0AjE

Both of these videos were from local TV stations and on Cable TV. It's possible that the digital TV signals are being interferred with (rain fade, electromagnetic interference at the Head end, etc.). On these two, I doubt the Satellite sunspots on these, more of a cable system issue with equipment pulling in the digital ATSC signal.

Steven

Here is the best way to tell if it is sunspots on satellite. Keep track of the times and the channels that go out at the same time. Usually only one satellite will go out at any one given period, (since each satellite has quite a bit of distance between them - there will be a delay of about 10 minutes until the next satellite is reached by the sun's energy). Then go to lyngsat.com and compare which satellite each channel corresponds to. You will find that the channels that go out at the same time will be on the same satellite. Other channels will go out at different times throughout the day (pending on how far west the satellite is in the sky), but the common thread will be that the channels on the same satellite will go out at the same time.

Steven