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Digital television set-top box
Digital television set-top box

A set-top box (STB) or set-top unit (STU) is a device that connects to a television and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen. An information appliance ( IA) is an Appliance specializing in information a personal device designed to perform a specific activity such as playing music photography Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic In the fields of communications, Signal processing, and in Electrical engineering more generally a signal is any time-varying or spatial-varying quantity A display device is an Output device for presentation of Information for Visual or Tactile reception acquired stored or transmitted

Contents

History

Before the All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962 required US television receivers be able to tune the entire VHF and UHF range (which in North America was NTSC-M channels 2 through 83 on 54 to 890 MHz), a set-top box known as a UHF converter would be installed at the receiver to shift a portion of the UHF-TV spectrum onto low-VHF channels for viewing. The All-Channel Receiver Act ( ACRA) ( commonly known as the All-Channels Act was passed by the United States Congress in 1961 to allow the Federal Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Very high frequency (VHF is the Radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. NTSC ( National Television System Committee) is the Analog television system used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico Channel 2 or Channel Two can refer to ABS-CBN 's flagship station is DWWX-TV channel 2 in Metro Manila, Philippines. The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. As some 1960s-era twelve-channel TV sets remained in use for many years, and Canada and Mexico were slower than the US to require UHF tuners to be factory-installed in new TV's, a market for these converters continued to exist for much of the 1970s. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970.

Cable television represented a possible alternative to deployment of UHF converters as broadcasts could be frequency-shifted to VHF channels at the cable head-end instead of the final viewing location. Unfortunately, cable brought a new problem; most cable systems could not accommodate the full 54-890 MHz VHF/UHF frequency range and the twelve channels of VHF space were quickly exhausted on most systems. Adding any additional channels therefore needed to be done by inserting the extra signals into cable systems on non-standard frequencies, typically either below VHF channel 7 (midband) or directly above VHF channel 13 (superband). Channel 13 refers to several Television stations DZTV-TV, the flagship station of the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation in Metro

These frequencies corresponded to non-television services (such as two-way radio) over-the-air and were therefore not on standard TV receivers. Before cable-ready TV sets became common in the late 1980s, a set-top box known as a cable converter box was needed to receive the additional analog cable TV channels and convert them to frequencies that could be seen on a regular TV. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. A Cable converter box or television converter box is a set-top electronic tuning device that transposes/converts any of the available channels from An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature (variable of the signal is a representation of some other The term television channel generally refers to either a Television station or its cable / satellite counterpart (both outlined below These boxes often provided a wired or wireless remote control which could be used to shift one selected channel to a low-VHF frequency (most often channels 3 or 2) for viewing. Channel 3 can mean Channel 3 (UK, the formal name for the broadcasting licences under which the British ITV Network and associated companies are Channel 2 or Channel Two can refer to ABS-CBN 's flagship station is DWWX-TV channel 2 in Metro Manila, Philippines. Block conversion of the entire affected frequency band onto UHF, while less common, was used by some models to provide full VCR compatibility and the ability to drive multiple TV sets, albeit with a somewhat non-standard channel numbering scheme. A low-noise block converter ( LNB, for low-noise block, or sometimes LNC, for low-noise converter) is the (receiving or Downlink PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS IS A GENERAL ARTICLE ABOUT VCRs/VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDERS

Newer television receivers greatly reduced the need for external set-top boxes, although cable converter boxes continue to be used to descramble premium cable channels and to receive digital cable channels, along with using interactive services like video on demand, pay per view, and home shopping through television. Digital cable is a type of Cable television distribution using Digital Video compression. Video on demand ( VOD) or Audio video on demand ( AVOD) systems allow users to select and watch/listen Pay-per-view (often abbreviated PPV) is the system in which Television viewers can purchase events to be seen on TV and pay for the private telecast of that event Home Shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing / home Shopping channels industry which includes such billion dollar companies as HSN, QVC, Satellite and microwave-based services also require specific external receiver hardware, so the use of set-top boxes of various formats never completely disappeared.

Digital television

Special digital set-top boxes are available for receiving digital television broadcasts on TV sets that do not have a built in digital tuner. A digital system uses discrete (discontinuous values usually but not always Symbolized Numerically (hence called "digital" to represent information for Digital television (DTV is the sending and receiving of moving images and sound by discrete ( digital) signals in contrast to the analog signals used by For the band see Broadcast (band Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or Video signals which transmit In the case of direct broadcast satellite (mini-dish) systems such as SES Astra, Dish Network, or DirecTV, the set-top box is an integrated receiver/decoder (or IRD). Direct broadcast satellite (DBS is a term used to refer to Satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception also referred to more broadly as direct-to-home A satellite dish is a type of Parabolic antenna that receives or transmits electromagnetic signals to and from another location typically a satellite SES Astra SA, is a corporate Subsidiary of SES, based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg, that owns and operates the Astra Not be confused with Indian Service Dish TV DISH Network is a Direct broadcast satellite (DBS service that provides Satellite television DirecTV (trademarked as "DIREC' TV' " is a Direct broadcast satellite (DBS service based in El Segundo California, USA, that was founded An integrated receiver / Decoder ( IRD) is an electronic device used to pick-up a radio-frequency signal and convert Digital

In the United Kingdom, digital set-top boxes (often referred to as digiboxes, after Sky Digital's trademark for their unit) are usually for digital terrestrial television through services such as Freeview, a service operated by the Freeview Consortium, or through digital satellite with BSkyB and also with digital cable. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Viewing cardjpg|thumb|right|200px|A Sky Digital Viewing Card]]The Digibox is a device marketed by British Sky Broadcasting in the UK and Republic Sky Digital is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting 's digital Satellite television service transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28 Digital Terrestrial Television ( DTTV or DTT) is an implementation of digital technology to provide a greater number of channels and/or better quality of picture and Freeview is an operator of free Digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom, using the DVB-T standard British Sky Broadcasting ( BSkyB — Sky Television and BSB) is a company that operates Sky Digital, a subscription television service in the They are used to access television as well as audio and interactive services through the "Red Button" promoted by broadcasters such as the BBC with BBCi or Sky with Sky Active. Interactive television (generally known as iTV describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with Television content as they view it Red Button is a button on the remote control for certain digital television Set top boxes in the UK, Australia, Flanders and Malaysia Sky Digital is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting 's digital Satellite television service transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28 Sky Active is the brand name for interactive features on Sky Digital and is available in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Current Freeview set-top boxes and digital televisions are not capable of decoding the protocol DVB-T2 that terrestrial High-definition will use in 2009, so viewers will need to purchase an HD receiver when the time comes. DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of

In Australia set-top boxes are the principal means of receiving digital terrestrial broadcasts as comparably few television sets have in-built digital tuners. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The Foxtel set-top boxes (including the Foxtel iQ unit) are also used to receive subscription television from Foxtel. Foxtel is an Australian Pay television company formed through a joint venture between Telstra, News Corporation and Consolidated Media Foxtel is an Australian Pay television company formed through a joint venture between Telstra, News Corporation and Consolidated Media Foxtel is an Australian Pay television company formed through a joint venture between Telstra, News Corporation and Consolidated Media For HDTV receiving they are using Beyonwiz manufactured media centers which came to market at March of 2007. High-definition television (HDTV is a Digital television Broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems (standard-definition Beyonwiz Co Ltd (pronounced be-yon-wiz, ˈbeːyonːwiz is a manufacturer of products such as Set-top boxes (STBs and Personal video recorders (PVRs

In the United States, deployment of a very basic coupon-eligible converter box is supported through a $40 federal subsidy to encourage viewers of over-the-air television to adopt ATSC standards ahead of the planned DTV transition and shutdown of full-power analog broadcasts (by Feburary 17, 2009). The United States of America —commonly referred to as the These boxes are not as readily available in Canada and Mexico, where broadcasters are not yet required to transition to digital television, although ATSC-capable tuners are appearing in some new TV's and other television-related products such as computer video capture cards and DVD recorders in those nations. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Video capture is the process of converting an Analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player—to digital form A DVD recorder (also known as a DVDR mainly outside of the UK and Ireland is an Optical disc recorder that records video onto blank writeable DVD media

Globally, some boxes also have a built-in digital video recorder (or DVR) which often utilises the electronic programme guide scheduling data and records content to an internal hard drive. A digital video recorder ( DVR) or personal video recorder ( PVR) is a device that records video in a digital format to a Disk drive or other A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device

Many TV signal sources

The signal source might be an ethernet cable , a satellite dish, a coaxial cable (see cable television), a telephone line (including DSL connections), Broadband over Power Line, or even an ordinary VHF or UHF antenna. Ethernet is a family of frame -based Computer networking technologies for Local area networks (LANs A satellite dish is a type of Parabolic antenna that receives or transmits electromagnetic signals to and from another location typically a satellite Coaxial cable is a cable consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by a tubular insulating layer typically made from a flexible material with a high Dielectric constant, all Basic principle A traditional landline telephone system also known as "plain old telephone service" (POTS, commonly handles both signaling and audio information Power line communication ( PLC) also known as power line carrier, mains communication, power line telecom ( PLT) or power line Very high frequency (VHF is the Radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. An antenna is a Transducer designed to transmit or Receive electromagnetic waves In other words antennas convert electromagnetic waves into Content, in this context, could mean any or all of video, audio, Internet webpages, interactive games, or other possibilities. Video is the technology of electronically capturing, Recording, processing storing transmitting and reconstructing a sequence of Still images Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks A web page or webpage is a resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a Web browser. A personal computer Game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a Video game played on a Personal computer, rather

IPTV

In IPTV networks, the set-top box is a small computer providing two-way communications on an IP network, and decoding the video streaming media. IPTV ( Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a Digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure which The Internet Protocol ( IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a Packet-switched Internetwork using the Internet Protocol A computer network is a group of interconnected Computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics Streaming multimedia is Multimedia that is constantly received by and normally presented to an end-user while it is being delivered by a streaming provider (the IP set-top boxes have a built in home network interface which can be Ethernet or one of the existing wire home networking technologies such as HomePNA. A home network is a residential Local area network, and is used to connect multiple devices within the home Ethernet is a family of frame -based Computer networking technologies for Local area networks (LANs The HomePNA Alliance (formerly the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance also known as HPNA) is an incorporated non-profit industry association of companies that develops and

Ambiguities in the definition

With the advent of flat panel televisions set-top boxes are now deeper in profile than the tops of most modern TV sets. Flat panel displays encompass a growing number of technologies enabling video displays that are lighter and much thinner than traditional television and video displays that use Cathode Because of this set-top boxes are often placed beneath televisions and the term set-top box has become something of a misnomer. A misnomer is a term which suggests an interpretation that is known to be untrue

A set-top box does not necessarily contain a tuner of its own. A tuner is a circuit module or free-standing equipment which detects Radio-frequency (RF signals usually of low Amplitude and amplifies them A box connected to a television (or VCR) set's SCART connector is fed with the baseband television signal from the set's tuner, and can ask the television to display the returned processed signal instead. PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS IS A GENERAL ARTICLE ABOUT VCRs/VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDERS SCART (from Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) In Signal processing, baseband is an adjective that describes signals and systems whose range of Frequencies is measured from zero to a maximum bandwidth

This SCART feature had been used for connection to analogue decoding equipment by Pay TV operators in Europe, and in the past was used for connection to teletext equipment before the decoders became built-in. Teletext (or "broadcast Teletext" is a Television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early The outgoing signal could be of the same nature as the incoming signal, or RGB component video, or even an "insert" over the original signal, thanks to the "fast switching" feature of SCART. This article is about analog component video for the processing of color components in digital video see Digital video, Chroma subsampling and YCbCr

In case of analogue pay-TV, this approach avoided the need for a second remote control. A remote control is an electronic device used for the remote operation of a Machine. The use of digital television signals in more modern pay-TV schemes requires that decoding take place before the digital-to-analogue conversion step, rendering the video outputs of an analogue SCART connector no longer suitable for interconnection to decryption hardware. Digital television (DTV is the sending and receiving of moving images and sound by discrete ( digital) signals in contrast to the analog signals used by Standards such as DVB's Common Interface and ATSC's CableCARD therefore use a PCMCIA-like card inserted as part of the digital signal path as their alternative to a tuner-equipped set-top box. For the chemical compound see Divinylbenzene. Digital Video Broadcasting ( DVB) is a suite of internationally accepted The Common Interface is an extensible digital Interconnect found in the Digital TV market CableCARD is a plug-in card approximately the size of a credit card that allows consumers in the United States to view and record Digital cable television channels on Digital

Software quality

As complexity of the set-top box increases, the software quality practices of the industry become obvious and many systems have bugs, which may force the user to disconnect the box physically for 30 seconds and then restart it. [1]

See also

Related Technologies:

References

  1. ^ The Chimera of Software Quality. An ATSC tuner, often called an ATSC receiver or HDTV tuner, allows reception of ATSC Digital television (DTV signals broadcast A cable modem is a type of Modem that provides access to a data signal sent over the Cable television infrastructure In Telecommunications, RS-232 (Recommended Standard 232 is a standard for serial binary data signals connecting between a DTE ( Data Terminal Equipment Bluetooth is a wireless protocol utilizing short-range communications technology facilitating data transmission over short distances from fixed and/or mobile devices creating wireless Wi-Fi (ˈwaɪfaɪ is the trade name for the popular wireless technology used A digital television adapter, (DTA or digital-to-analog converter (box is a device that receives by means of an antenna, a Digital television (DTV transmission Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification ( DOCSIS) is an international standard developed by CableLabs and contributing companies that include ARRIS For the chemical compound see Divinylbenzene. Digital Video Broadcasting ( DVB) is a suite of internationally accepted Free-to-air (FTA Television (TV and Radio broadcasts are sent unencrypted and may be received via any suitable receiver Free-to-view Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB is a Japanese standard for Digital television (DTV and Digital radio used by the country's radio Interactive television (generally known as iTV describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with Television content as they view it IPTV ( Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a Digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure which In North American Digital video, a QAM tuner is a device present in some Digital televisions and similar devices which enables direct reception of Phase-shift keying (PSK is a Digital Modulation scheme that conveys data by changing or modulating the phase of a reference signal A satellite dish is a type of Parabolic antenna that receives or transmits electromagnetic signals to and from another location typically a satellite In Digital communications, symbol rate, also known as baud or modulation rate is the number of symbol changes (signalling events made to the transmission medium per second A Cable converter box or television converter box is a set-top electronic tuning device that transposes/converts any of the available channels from A digital media receiver (DMR or digital media adapter is a home entertainment device that can connect to a home network to retrieve digital media files (such as Music, An HDD media player is a device that plays Videos Music and Photos from a Hard drive that the user installs themselves (mostly IDE hard drives 080322 computer. org

External links

Dictionary

set-top box

-noun

  1. a device that connects some source of signal to a television set, often decrypting a digitally encrypted signal from a communications satellite or cable network
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