If sat signals are digital, why do you need hd recievers?

Question

why are hd recievers needed? meaning are there different types of digital signals?

Answer 1

Good question!  

Yes, there are different kinds of satellite signals and not all are digital!  In fact, we have to make sure we have the proper type of satellite receiver on hand before we can capture a feed.  Yes, it takes an HD receiver to reconstruct the HD signal.

A satellite receiver needs to recover and reconstruct the original signal.  In the case of HD, it needs to be able to properly format and output an HD signal and recognize feeds that are in non HD formats and adjust to them.  In the case of a home receiver, they will also convert an output to analog for older sets.

I hope this helps.  Please return and select a Best Answer from all of those submitted.

Answer 2

because the hd broadcasts are a much higher bandwidth

digital and HD are not the same thing

normal digitial still encodes at 480p

hd digital encodes and 720p or 1080i

you need the hd receiver because its processors allow it to decode the higher bandwidth 720/1080

(and is why hd receivers are always so much hotter than normal ones)

Answer 3

Satellites use a different compression algorithm than the digital standard adopted in the US. The US digital standard is based on MPEG2. The satellite companies use MPEG4, therefore a receiver is necessary to convert between these two algorithms. Also, current satellite receivers (non-HD) output in the older analog transmission format to the TV. They do not require subscribers to update to an HDTV or use converter boxes on their existing analog TVs.  HD satellite receivers output in the newer digital format recognized and supported by HDTVs.