Frequency drift estimation for low cost outdoor unit frequency conversions and system diagnostics

1. A system for processing a television programming signal, comprising:

an oscillator for converting a television programming signal centered at a first frequency to a shifted signal centered at an intermediate frequency;

an analog to digital converter, for converting the shifted signal to a digital data stream;

a digital signal processor (DSP), communicatively coupled to the analog to digital, converter, the DSP having a drift estimator for estimating a frequency drift of the oscillator from the shifted signal and controlling the oscillator to correct for the estimated frequency drift; and

a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), coupled to the DSP, the DAC including an output having the television programming signal coupled to a remotely disposed receiver via a single wire interface.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein in the system further comprises a direct broadcast satellite signal communications system.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein an output of the drift estimator is coupled to the oscillator to control the frequency drift of the oscillator.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the output of the DAC having the television programming signal is set to a desired frequency band on the single wire interface.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein a first output of the DSP determines the intermediate frequency.

6. A system comprising:

an oscillator for converting at least one first signal having television programming to at least one second signal at a different frequency;

an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, for receiving the at least one second signal, wherein the A/D converter directly samples the at least one second signal;

a digital signal (DSP), communicatively coupled to the A/D converter, wherein an output of the DSP determines a compensatory frequency shift to offset a frequency drift of the oscillator from the sampled at least one second signal; and

a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), coupled to the DSP, the DAC including an output having the television programming signal coupled to a remotely disposed receiver via a single wire interface.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the A/D converter samples the at least one second signal at a rate greater than the Nyquist rate for the at least one second signal.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the output of the DAC having the television programming signal is set to a desired frequency band on the single wire interface.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein state information from at least one of the A/D converter, the DSP, and the DAC provide a diagnostic output for the system.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the diagnostic output comprises at least one of fault recognition, fault reporting, performance monitoring, installation aiding, and installation verification for the system.

11. The system of claim 6 , wherein the DSP determines the different frequency.

12. The system of claim 6 , wherein the A/D converter samples the at least one second signal at a speed greater than 1 gigasample per second.

13. A system comprising:

means for converting at least one first signal having television programming to at least one second signal at a different frequency;

means for digitally sampling the at least one second signal, communicatively coupled to the converting means;

means for processing the digitally sampled at least one second signal, communicatively coupled to the digital sampling means, wherein an output of the processing means determines a compensatory frequency shift to offset a frequency drift of the converting means using the digitally sampled at least one second signal; and

a digital-to-analog converting means, coupled to the means for processing, the digital-to-analog converting means for providing an output having the television programming signal to a remotely disposed receiver via a single wire interface.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the digital sampling means samples the at least one second signal at a rate greater than the Nyquist rate for the at least one second signal.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the DSP further processes the shifted signal to generate the television programming.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the drift estimator comprises a matched filter for filtering the shifted signal.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the drift estimator estimates the frequency drift of the oscillator at least in part by detecting a bandwidth edge of the filtered shifted signal.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the filtered shifted signal is received from an individual transponder.

19. A method of processing a first signal centered at a first frequency having television programming, comprising:

converting the first signal to a second signal having the television programming centered on a second frequency according to a frequency source;

generating a digital data stream from the second signal;

estimating a frequency drift of the frequency source using the generated digital data stream;

controlling the frequency source to correct for the estimated frequency drift;

generating an analog signal from the digital data stream; and

providing the analog signal to a remotely disposed receiver via single wire interface.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein:

the method further comprises generating a signal comprising the television programming using a digital signal processor that estimates the frequency drift and controls the frequency source.

21. The system of claim 19 , wherein estimating the frequency drift comprises match filtering the second signal.

22. The system of claim 21 , wherein estimating the frequency drift further comprises detecting a bandwidth edge of the match filtered second signal.

23. The system of claim 21 , wherein estimating the frequency drift comprises detecting match filtered second signal from an individual transponder.