Live tv inside train?

[VTTrain]

This is a purely hypothetical question because I imagine there is little demand for such a service and so it would almost certainly not be financially viable, but is there anything from a technical standpoint that would prevent the provision of at seat and/or in sleeper room satellite tv like many airlines do for IFE?

The biggest challenge I can think of is maintaining a reliable signal.  That’s much easier to do from 36,000 feet in the sky.  Tunnels and terrain would block a signal.   

 

[railiner]

This is a purely hypothetical question because I imagine there is little demand for such a service and so it would almost certainly not be financially viable, but is there anything from a technical standpoint that would prevent the provision of at seat and/or in sleeper room satellite tv like many airlines do for IFE?

The airliner's have pretty much unobstructed 'view' of the satellites....train's do not....buildings, hillside's, tunnel's, lots of thing's can interrupt coverage, not to mention frequent turns...

 

[erick]

One my hobbies when traveling is recording TV video and data in cities I stay in. As such, I typically travel with a USB TV tuner, a mini-TV, and an assortment of small antennas. This includes on the train, though I seldom use any of this stuff on a moving train, because, as stated, trying to tune in TV signals in a moving vehicle is mostly futile and not really something I would recommend the average person attempt.

With that said, there are some situations where reception of a normal TV signal (i.e. not a signal specifically designed for mobile devices) in a moving vehicle can be surprisingly decent. By that, I mean a signal that only occasionally experiences breakups and is generally watchable for maybe 10-15 minutes or more. In general, such reception is possible in flat areas with limited trees/obstructions and a powerful TV tower close by. Stations that broadcast on UHF are also much more likely to come in under these conditions than ones on VHF (note that digital TV signals aren't necessarily broadcast on the channel number you tune your TV to - for instance, a station that you tune on channel 6, which is VHF, may actually broadcast on a UHF channel; channel 6 is just a "virtual channel" in this case).

Off the top of my head, I can remember being on the southbound City of New Orleans and being able to watch nearly all of the 10 PM news from WCIA as we cruised through the Champaign/Urbana area. I have also been on the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited and managed to get roughly 10 minutes of watchable signal while passing through the Cleveland and Toledo areas. At least one of the Fargo TV stations should be viewable on the Empire Builder route between Fargo and Buxton, ND or so, too. I've never tried to pick up anything on the train there, but I have been successful in a car (not driving) going 75 mph on parallel I-29.

For reference, the antenna I've used for all of this is the simple portable telescoping one that Hauppauge includes with their TV tuners and also sells individually. If you have an electrical outlet close by, which you do on a train, a slightly larger amplified antenna may be marginally better, but not really worthwhile, in my opinion, since this whole endeavor is very much a novelty rather than something you should expect to work reliably or flawlessly.

You good sir have pretty much done what I attempted. When in a city I usually scan and the signal is somewhat ok. So then you're constantly having to re scan for channels right? I also bought the Hauppauge tv tuner but I paid the 25 bucks for the pansky antenna, but can you just tune to a channel or gotta scan it first? Thanks a lot bro I'm kind of the same way too lol love experimenting with tech stuff and seeing whatcomes from it

 

[erick]

This is a purely hypothetical question because I imagine there is little demand for such a service and so it would almost certainly not be financially viable, but is there anything from a technical standpoint that would prevent the provision of at seat and/or in sleeper room satellite tv like many airlines do for IFE?

lmao bro if this was all just based on demand And being financially viable amtrak as a whole would've shut down since the 70s xD we have to survive from government subsidies and with a negative turn in ridership I doubt they'll want to keep pouring money here anyway no it's not hypothetical it's actual because I want to try it with a ubs tv tuner and was wondering if anyone has tried it before, that's it.

 

[cpotisch]

This is a purely hypothetical question because I imagine there is little demand for such a service and so it would almost certainly not be financially viable, but is there anything from a technical standpoint that would prevent the provision of at seat and/or in sleeper room satellite tv like many airlines do for IFE?

lmao bro if this was all just based on demand And being financially viable amtrak as a whole would've shut down since the 70s xD we have to survive from government subsidies and with a negative turn in ridership I doubt they'll want to keep pouring money here anyway no it's not hypothetical it's actual because I want to try it with a ubs tv tuner and was wondering if anyone has tried it before, that's it.

a) Please use periods because that was maybe five sentences merged into one.

b) Using a personal USB TV tuner is very different from any kind of installed satellite system.

b) I’m not saying that rspenmoll’s idea would necessarily work, but your logic that “Amtrak isn’t financially viable, so it’s pointless to think about costs or demand for new services or amenities” makes no sense. That’s like saying that if someone has diabetes, there is no point in them ever thinking about what to eat or what not to eat, because they already have diabetes. It just doesn’t connect.

 

[mwmnp]

You good sir have pretty much done what I attempted. When in a city I usually scan and the signal is somewhat ok. So then you're constantly having to re scan for channels right? I also bought the Hauppauge tv tuner but I paid the 25 bucks for the pansky antenna, but can you just tune to a channel or gotta scan it first? Thanks a lot bro I'm kind of the same way too lol love experimenting with tech stuff and seeing whatcomes from it

Yeah, you need to rescan a lot. You can manually tune though, too, as long as you have the right software and know what physical channel the station you are looking for broadcasts on. For watching and recording with my Hauppauge tuner, I usually use NextPVR. For signal analysis, I use TSReader, which does manual tuning by default. You can also watch or record through TSReader, but the free version of the program limits you to just one minute.