How does DTH work

DTH stands for 'Direct-to-Home' Satellite Broadcast TV. The term DTH TV in India is more popular than Satellite TV. The rest of the world calls it Satellite Television. We hope to answer the widely asked questions "How does Satellite TV work?" or "How does DTH work?", we aim to be your DTH Wiki.

One of the advantages of DTH is that there is no need of any cables from the outside for Satellite Digital TV reception. Direct-to-Home DTH signal from Geosynchronous Satellite received by DTH Satellite Dish brings the TV picture. Only a short cable from your DTH Satellite Dish to the Set Top Box or STB which decodes the compressed satellite TV signals and shows the picture on TV. The DTH connection cost is the same all over India, even in the most rural and remotest parts of India.

Indian DTH transmissions are from Geosynchronous Satellites Insat-4C, NSS-6, Insat-4B, Singapore Tel ST-2, Insat-4A placed almost 36,000Km above the equator in a fixed position relative to the earth (explained in detail on our page 'DTH Tech. Basics'). Signals from these satellites are received by the small dish installed at the customers premises.

One of the first considerations to get DTH Satellite Digital TV reception for your flat or house is to be able to mount the small DTH Dish Antenna in the satellite direction for digital TV reception without any obstructions. DTH without Dish is not possible. The installation of DTH Dish Antenna or DTH Satellite Dish on your roof is best left to DTH Dish Antenna Installers. A DTH Dish Antenna or Satellite Dish installation is a skilled job and to fix DTH Satellite Dish you need an expert Satellite Dish Installer.

If in a flat, your balcony must facing towards the south. The sketch below shows the rough position of the geostationary DTH Satellites over the equator. The DTH Dish direction for a dish installation in your house or flat depends on your geographical location and the Satellite direction. The satellite direction, for example DishTV Satellite NSS-6 is at longitude 95 degrees East and over the equator. The sketch below shows the direction for installing Satellite Dishes to point to geostationary DTH satellites supplying DTH TV signals to India, UAE and Oman, especially for the cities of Delhi, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat. Once you know your city's latitude and longitude a rough estimate of the satellite dish direction for visible satellites can be obtained. You just have to make sure that you have a place to install your DTH dish from where you have a clear vision of the sky where the satellite is. People, especially in flats have restrictions on installing satellite dishes at the roof of a multi storied building. If you chose your flat with a balcony facing South-East and with a clear vision to the South-Eastern Sky, then you will have no problem in installing a Satellite Dish on your balcony. The final direction and tuning of the satellites will be done by the experts of the DTH company.

People living in India will have no problem of getting DTH connections from DTH Service Providers in India like Airtel Digital TV on Insat-4C Satellite, BigTV of Reliance, DD Direct+, DishTV on NSS-6 Satellite, SunDirect on Insat-4B, VideoconD2H on Singapore Tel ST-2 Satellite, and TataSky on Insat-4A. In India the Satellite Dish on roof top need not be larger than 60 centimeters or 2 feet. For people in the Arabian Gulf, the footprints of these satellites are not that strong, so you need to install larger dishes of 1.2 Meters and more. There are reports of people getting DishTV, TataSky and VideoconD2H in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, etc.