planetDVB FTA DVB Satellite info About the WinTV-Nexus-s, FTA, and DVB

Note: This article was written to answer a person's question about what the WinTV-Nexus-s is.
The specsheet on the card is available from Hauppauge. The technology is being refered to, goes by such names as Free-To-Air (FTA) and Direct Video Broadcasting (DVB). The two terms are actually completely different, but are used on many websites and eBay to mean the same thing.

History
Basically, Back 15 to 20 years ago people used really large satellite dishes that were usually 8 to 12 feet in diameter. These are refered as C band. Later another satellite technology appeared that's refered to as Ku band. The difference between the two is that C band operates typically from about 3.4 to 4.8 GHz and using relatively low power. Ku band on the other hand operates typically from about 10.7 to 12.75 GHz and using relatively high power. A good page on frequencies and such is at the MLESAT Web Site."  ¶ 3:30 PM