 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2011) |
4DTV is a proprietary broadcasting standard and technology for digital cable broadcasting and C-band/Ku-band satellite dishes from Motorola, using General Instrument's DigiCipher II for encryption. It can tune in both analog VideoCipher II and digital DCII satellite channels.
4DTV technology was originally developed in 1997 (the same year that DigiCipher was developed) by General Instrument/NextLevel and Motorola, now a division of ARRIS. The 4DTV format is contemporary to the DVB-based digital television broadcast standard but its completion came before that of DVB and thus it is similar but incompatible with the DVB standard. The DigiCipher 2 encryption system is used in digital channels much like the VideoCipher and VideoCipher II systems were used for analog encrypted transmissions. By the time when analogue VideoCipher II channels are switched to digital, all of the remaining VCII-encrypted channels (excluding in the clear) are transitioned to DigiCipher II on all satellites that carries either in the clear or VideoCipher II/II+/RS-encrypted channels. On December 31, 2010, Motorola abandoned support for 4DTV after 13 years when it was developed. This made all of the receivers to redirect to AMC-18 (also known as W5/X4 on the 4DTV system) instead of its other satellites that carried analog/VCII channels.
On August 24, 2016, at 9:18 AM EST, Headend In The Sky (the provider for 4DTV/DigiCipher II programming) transitioned to DVB-S2 (MPEG-2/256 QAM), meaning that support for 4DTV ended on that date.
4DTV is designed for C-band/Ku-band based satellite dishes (both TVRO/direct-broadcast) in conjunction with the DigiCipher II system (for digital standard definition/high definition signals) and the VideoCipher II system (for analog signals). It is also used on Canada's Shaw Direct (previously known as Star Choice) until 2017 when standard definition broadcasting ended in favour of HDTV exclusively, making the receivers obsolete.
4DTV receivers were designed to receive analog NTSC (except the DSR-905) in the clear or VideoCipherII channels and feeds, as well as digital Digicipher 2 channels as a TVRO satellite system on both C and Ku band-powered satellite dishes.
Four models are available, either new or refurbished:
The HDD-200 is a peripheral for 4DTV, it is used to access high definition channels via the Mult-Media Access Port. This peripheral is no longer in production.
| |
In the United States, National Programming Service, LLC (NPS) was the primary provider of subscription programming to 4DTV and C band/Ku band users. They ceased operations as of December 26, 2010 after making a controversial attempt of converting all of their customers over to Dish Network which failed. The largest providers are now Satellite Receivers, Ltd. (SRL) and Skyvision who sell programming from the Headend In The Sky (HITS) service by Comcast and will continue to do so in 2011 and beyond. The HITS services use the Comcast Subscription Authorization Center (SAC) for the channels being broadcast on the AMC 18 satellite located at 105 degrees West (W5 or X4 tile on 4DTV). In Canada, Dr. Sat is now the primary provider for HITS subscription services offered on C-Band after Satellite Communications Source ceased operations.
Due to the removal of 4DTV/DigiCipher II channels on August 24, 2016, there are no more programming providers for the 4DTV in the United States and Canada. However, Shaw Direct still offers DigiCipher II programming in Canada, but not HITS programming.
The 4DTV makes use of first-generation digital master feeds on several satellites and hundreds of channels. Therefore, a high quality signal is received, compared to other programming options that are typically compressed and re-uplinked. Being a C-band system, the 4DTV has the advantage of signal stability, great satellite footprint and no rainfade. This is a problem with services such as Dish Network and DirecTV satellite providers since they re-uplink on Ku and Ka bands.
The master feeds for the many channels available can be scattered amongst multiple satellites. The actuator must slowly rotate the large dish into the desired satellite's signal path, and then a further short delay for signal acquisition and lock. This procedure makes rapid "channel surfing" impossible outside the HITS provided channels.
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadcast television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television; or satellite television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth, and received by a satellite dish antenna on the roof. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone services, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables. Analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation.
Television receive-only (TVRO) is a term used chiefly in North America, South America to refer to the reception of satellite television from FSS-type satellites, generally on C-band analog; free-to-air and unconnected to a commercial DBS provider. TVRO was the main means of consumer satellite reception in the United States and Canada until the mid-1990s with the arrival of direct-broadcast satellite television services such as PrimeStar, USSB, Bell Satellite TV, DirecTV, Dish Network, Sky TV that transmit Ku signals. While these services are at least theoretically based on open standards, the majority of services are encrypted and require proprietary decoder hardware. TVRO systems relied on feeds being transmitted unencrypted and using open standards, which heavily contrasts to DBS systems in the region.
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
DigiCipher 2, or simply DCII, is a proprietary standard format of digital signal transmission and it doubles as an encryption standard with MPEG-2/MPEG-4 signal video compression used on many communications satellite television and audio signals. The DCII standard was originally developed in 1997 by General Instrument, which then became the Home and Network Mobility division of Motorola, then bought by Google in Aug 2011, and lastly became the Home portion of the division to Arris.
Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (DVB-C) is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digital audio/digital video stream, using a QAM modulation with channel coding. The standard was first published by the ETSI in 1994, and subsequently became the most widely used transmission system for digital cable television in Europe, Asia and South America. It is deployed worldwide in systems ranging from the larger cable television networks (CATV) down to smaller satellite master antenna TV (SMATV) systems.
Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services.
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previous analog-based cable by the mid 2010s. During the late 2000s, broadcast television converted to the digital HDTV standard, which was incompatible with existing analog cable systems.
In the context of broadcasting, backhaul refers to uncut program content that is transmitted point-to-point to an individual television station or radio station, broadcast network or other receiving entity where it will be integrated into a finished TV show or radio show. The term is independent of the medium being used to send the backhaul, but communications satellite transmission is very common. When the medium is satellite, it is called a wildfeed.
A cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. A headend facility may be staffed or unstaffed and is typically surrounded by some type of security fencing. The building is typically sturdy and purpose-built to provide security, cooling, and easy access for the electronic equipment used to receive and re-transmit video over the local cable infrastructure. One can also find head ends in power-line communication (PLC) substations and Internet communications networks.
Broadcasttelevision systems are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals.
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription, other ongoing cost, or one-off fee. In the traditional sense, this is carried on terrestrial radio signals and received with an antenna.
Pirate decryption is the decryption, or decoding, of pay TV or pay radio signals without permission from the original broadcaster. The term "pirate" is used in the sense of copyright infringement. The MPAA and other groups which lobby in favour of intellectual property regulations have labelled such decryption as "signal theft" even though there is no direct tangible loss on the part of the original broadcaster, arguing that losing out on a potential chance to profit from a consumer's subscription fees counts as a loss of actual profit.
VideoCipher is a brand name of analog scrambling and de-scrambling equipment for cable and satellite television invented primarily to enforce Television receive-only (TVRO) satellite equipment to only receive TV programming on a subscription basis.
The PBS Satellite Service consists of feeds relayed from PBS by satellite to public television stations throughout the United States. The service was launched in September 1978. The service provides a mixed variety of programming selected from PBS's regular network services. In the X/XP years a satellite feed was multicast by some PBS member stations on an over-the-air DTV subchannel along with their regular programming, or during overnight hours on their main channel to provide a second opportunity for viewers to watch or record primetime programming.
Television encryption, often referred to as scrambling, is encryption used to control access to pay television services, usually cable, satellite, or Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services.
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commonly referred to as a satellite dish and a low-noise block downconverter.
A free-to-air or FTA Receiver is a satellite television receiver designed to receive unencrypted broadcasts. Modern decoders are typically compliant with the MPEG-2/DVB-S and more recently the MPEG-4/DVB-S2 standard for digital television, while older FTA receivers relied on analog satellite transmissions which have declined rapidly in recent years.
Addressability is the ability of a digital device to individually respond to a message sent to many similar devices. Examples include pagers, mobile phones and set-top boxes for pay TV. Computer networks are also addressable via the MAC address on Ethernet network cards, and similar networking protocols like Bluetooth. This allows data to be sent in cases where it is impractical to control exactly where or to which devices the message is physically sent.
A cable converter box or television converter box is an electronic tuning device that transposes/converts channels from a cable television service to an analog RF signal on a single channel, usually VHF channel 3 or 4, or to a different output for digital televisions such as HDMI.