Edward’s New Satellite TV

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Edward sent me something new today, his new Satellite TV. He did it by himself. What impressed me a lot is:

  • The total cost is only 880 RMB or 106 USD.
  • He mentioned interesting technical details about satellite.
  • He also mentioned the legal risk he takes to install a satellite TV receiving in China. I covered it in this article: Satellite Dishes Still Forbidden in China.
  • He can receive 100 channels from 2 satellites now.

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© Edward Wang. Used with permission.

Read on for more details in his blog.

27 thoughts on “Edward’s New Satellite TV”

  1. Mr. Wang,

    It is very sad to learn that Shanghai being the metropolitan of China still has unrealistic ruling in place despite the strong demand of information from people where the information received by the people is totally hurtless to the authority.

    I don’t know whether the law against people owning small pet is still in place?

    Stephen

  2. unbelieveable! how you guys make it?

    this kind of act is between “allowed” and “not allowed”, it’s in grey area, so many people do it but very quietly.

  3. Exactly right, restricting freedom of information is negative and unrealistic in current Internet age. To appease this conflict, the authorities should enact a law for information classification. As Stephen said that not all information is toally hurtless to the authorities.

    Edward

  4. satellite tv is nice, not condsidering the issue of whether it’s allowed or prohibited in China, setting up a satellite tv system is already illegal because you are basically stealing contents from the satellite without permission. But then again, who cares, it’s constantly feeding the area so why not use it. :).

  5. Satellite TV DIY? That’s interesting. Usually, it costs 3000RMB to setup a statellite TV from vendor.

  6. I think the point is not whether to legalize the satellite TV, it should be a discussion of whether to open the international media to China.

    China has now powerful enough to play a role in the international stage, what she did and what she said carries certain weight. To limit the people to receive the feed back from the rest of the world would not be a wish idea as people of China don’t know how to support their government in the event of dilemma, furthermore, there is not any matter can embarass her in the international stage anymore.

    In view of the proliferation of the internet, these information can be reached by the people of China anyway, at the end, it is the authority who lose the revenue for failing to legalize and control the satellite TV, where the business is a multi-billion operation in the west.

    Stephen

  7. For some of you who don’t know it yet, China is going to have its own DBS (Direct Broadcasting Satellite) system by the end of next year or early 2006. So it will change the current law and allow the individuals to receive TV from their satellite receivers. It will be interesting to see how the authorities let people to receive programing from only certain satellites but not others.

  9. Stephen, you wrote :

    “furthermore, there is not any matter can embarass her in the international stage anymore”.

    By that, do you mean that the chinese government has nothing hidden for its own people or others ??

  10. DIY Satellite TV

    I have setup satellite TV receiver suite in my apartment successfully. 3 days was spent on this interesting engineering. Over 100 new channels from 2 satellites were added into channel list including CNN, BBC and my favoritest program -…

  11. DIY Satellite TV

    I have setup satellite TV receiver suite in my apartment successfully. 3 days was spent on this interesting engineering. Over 100 new channels from 2 satellites were added into channel list including CNN, BBC and my favoritest program -…

  14. “He can receive 100 channels from 2 satellites now”

    Is it true that receiving TV signals from 2 satellites? I only see one LNB. Maybe he has another antenna.

    But 880RMB is one very reasonable price. One problem is DIRECTV operators often change coding/decodeing system, and you have to update it by hand.

  15. Carsten,

    The feeling from my side is yes!

    China used to shy away from “human right” and US and Europe always like to use this the same to surpass China. In the recent years, China has confronted the human right issue in the international stage and received few recognition. It is reported European Union members may back down and start to sell arms to China.

    Anyother example is China has open up the media to the world to certain extend, like the recent coal mining accident, China report the news to the world without any restriction so the western media cannot allege China lack of freedom of news media.

    I am sure there a lot unfair stories have not been told or concealed by the local official, but the openness of Beijing Government really give us a fresh look.

    Stephen

  17. Stephen, have you been outside of China yet ?

    On a scale from 0 to 10 I will only give the chinese openness a 2.

    So, still a long way to go, and remember that all chinese journalists have to be member, or having approved thier scripts by the “big brother” party.

    No free journalism here, you’re still ONLY allowed to hear and see what is suitable for you !

  18. Carsten,

    The world has been a little different while you would in China.

    After the invasion of Iraq, US has the same problem of human right in his hand, should US bring up the same subject in the international stage against China, she’ll sling mud the same back to the face of uncle Sam, so Taiwan and Tibet issue can not longer embaress her.

    Besides that, China does not have anything to hide from the rest of the world…………..may be SARS?

    Stephen

  19. Trivial:

    I introduced that I have 2 dishes in apartment. You can check it out on my weblog.

    Actually TIVO enthusiasts have worked out at least one kind of smartcard which can decrypt signal by inside CPU automatically, it works in most time. Don’t worry about it much. In Chinese old saying: Dao Gao Yi Chi, Mo Gao Yi Zhang. :)

  20. Carsten,

    As a matter of curious, you as an expatriate living in Shanghai, can you subscribe foreign newspaper either through internet or by mail without hash from the authority, or is there a restriction on internet that certain web you cannot surf from China. Not too long ago, I heard the BBC is banned in China on contrary report of human right in China.

    My stay in Shanghai is not long enough to observe whether the surppress on news media is still in place, appreciate your comment.

    Stephen

  21. Hi Stephen, sorry for the delay in this question, I just found your request for my comment ;-(

    It has been better recently, but one thing is certain, if you try something with http://www.amnesty.xxxxxx you will NOT get through !

    Amnesty is because the last years death sentence toll of China ain’t the cream on top of the softice, according to the top-guys here.

    Anyway, if we really WANT to have such informations, then we get them.

    So what they stop in the direct available lines, we just use the modem to call the banned sites from outside countries’ phone servers, no problem at all.

    By the way Stephen, when do US stop the death sentence, because then other countries will have more problems to follow that easy way ??

    I believe that the death sentence is just carried out for economic reasons for the country in question. (And China has no money ???!!! LOL)

    To punish people – living the rest of the life in a chinese jail I guess is certainly a MUCH harder punishment than a death sentence !!!!

  22. carsten, capital punishment is a social dilemma and I don’t have a conclusion yet.

    Should someone commits a crime so serious or so often and the society does not think rehabilitation is an option and putting the offender back to the society would eventually endanger the rest of the people, then putting the offender away for good would be the only solution.

    In the old days, public execution would considered the most appropriated way of settlement and it can also deter others from imitating.

    In the recent decades, the politicians can feel the church power with new set of morality and condemn death penalty as cruel and inhumane. As the result many countries abolished death penalty and replaced with life time imprisonment.

    Imprison someone carries a weight on the society, in US it cost about US$150 per inmate per day. In China the cost may be cheaper as the inmates are asked to work to earn their living.

    Death penalty still carries out by some States in US but execution has been fewer as to avoid public outcry, estimate there are 5000 death role inmates in US and some has awaited over 20 years for the impending execution.

    China has no relation with Vatican, so the church moral cannot apply to China nor her politicans, so Chinese government is just doing the justice at her most convenient way.

    Stephen

  25. Call us for the latest information about install your satellite tv in Shanghai. 8621-2970.4179 (you can enquiry in English)

  27. I am in Shenzhen and would like to pick up US TV – many channels are required for sports

    ABC / NBC / CBS / ESPN / TNT / and others.

    Is that possible with a satellite here in China? I know how to get one here in Shenzhen but you may be a better option. Anybody has any ideas please let me know, Thanks

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