Satellite TV: At your backseat!

"PC Mag" has a nice review of the KVH TracVision A5 which brings satellite TV to your backseat!

JetBlue planes offer satellite TV; customers love it. KVH TracVision A5 puts DirecTV in your car; your kids will love it. A 5-inch-high dome mounts atop your SUV or van. Inside the dome is a flattened satellite dish on a motorized, self-aligning turntable. When it works, it's terrific: nearly 100 channels and just $4.99 a month on top of your existing DirecTV bill. But when driving in the suburban Northeast, we found a glitch every few minutes, ranging from a 1-second picture freeze (going under bridges) to complete signal loss (caused by trees overhead and tall buildings). Discounting the bridge hiccups, the longest uninterrupted signal was about 15 minutes.

Service is best in the Southern and Western U.S. (closer to the satellite), KVH says. But regardless of which DirecTV package you have at home, location-based programming agreements lock out most premium sports packages, premium movie networks, and major metro area local stations.

A future dish incorporating a GPS sensor could resolve that. But be prepared to add $500 to $1,000 to the cost if your car doesn't have video displays.

Foursprung, Satellite TV, In-car

Source: PC Mag

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