A set-top box (STB) or set-top unit (STU) is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the source signal into content in a form that then be displayed on the television screen or other display device. They are used in cable television, satellite television, and over-the-air television systems, as well as other uses.
S/PDIF is a type of digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment to output audio over reasonably short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fibre optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theatres and other digital high-fidelity systems.
The Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting is a Japanese standard for digital television (DTV) and digital radio used by the country's radio and television networks. ISDB replaced NTSC-J analog television system and the previously used MUSE Hi-vision analogue HDTV system in Japan, and will be replacing NTSC, PAL-M and PAL-N in South America and the Philippines. Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) services using ISDB-T started in Japan in December 2003 and in Brazil in December 2007 as a trial. Since then, many countries have adopted ISDB over other digital broadcasting standards.
A broadcast flag is a set of status bits sent in the data stream of a digital television program that indicates whether or not the data stream can be recorded, or if there are any restrictions on recorded content. Possible restrictions include the inability to save an unencrypted digital program to a hard disk or other non-volatile storage, inability to make secondary copies of recorded content, forceful reduction of quality when recording, and inability to skip over commercials.
Conditional access or conditional access system is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to the content. The term is commonly used in relation to digital television systems.
Globally Executable MHP (GEM) is a DVB specification of a Java based middleware for TV broadcast receivers, IPTV terminals and Blu-ray players. GEM is an ETSI standard and an ITU "Recommendation. GEM defines a set of common functionalities which are independent from the signaling and protocols of a specific transmission network and enables to write interoperable Java applications for TV. GEM is not intended to be directly implemented, but rather forms the basis for broader specifications targeting a particular network infrastructure or class of device. GEM defines profiles for different device classes (targets) – these define the set of available features of GEM for this device class. Currently GEM defines targets for broadcast, packaged media (Blu-Ray) and IPTV. Combinations of these targets can be combined into a hybrid GEM platform, which enables to build devices with multiple network interfaces, such as a combined broadcast/IPTV set-top box.
ISDB-T International, ISDB-Tb or SBTVD, short for Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital, is a technical standard for digital television broadcast used in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Botswana, Chile, Honduras, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Philippines, Bolivia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Uruguay, based on the Japanese ISDB-T standard. ISDB-T International launched into commercial operation on December 2, 2007, in São Paulo, Brazil, as SBTVD.
Broadcast Markup Language, or BML, is an XML-based standard developed by Japan's Association of Radio Industries and Businesses as a data broadcasting specification for digital television broadcasting. It is a data-transmission service allowing text to be displayed on a 1seg TV screen.
The Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG) is a working group of content providers, television broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers, information technology companies, interested individuals and consumer activists. The group was formed specifically for the purpose of evaluating the suitability of the broadcast flag for preventing unauthorized redistribution and to determine whether there was substantial support for the broadcast flag. The group completed its mission with the release of the BPDG Report.
The Brazilian Association of Technical Standards, usually rendered in Portuguese as Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas (ABNT) is a private non-profit organization and the normative body which is responsible for technical standards in Brazil, and intends to promote technological development in the country. Brazilian national standards published by the association are named Norma Brasileira Regulamentadora and abbreviated NBR.
Ginga is the middleware specification for the Nipo-Brazilian Digital TV System. Ginga is also ITU-T Recommendation for IPTV Services. It is also considered in ITU-T recommendations for Cable Broadcast services and for Terrestrial Broadcast services by ITU-R BT.1889, ITU-R BT.1699 and ITU-R BT.1722. Ginga was developed based on a set of standardized technologies but mainly on innovations developed by Brazilian researchers. Its current reference implementation was released under the GPL license.
ABNT NBR 15601 is the technical standard published by ABNT, the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards, that is responsible for addressing the aspects regarding transmission on the Brazilian Digital Terrestrial Television Standards, also known as SBTVD or ISDB-T version B.
The audio and video compression aspects of the Brazilian Digital Terrestrial Television Standards are described in the three documents published by ABNT, the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards, the ABNT NBR 15602-1:2007 - Digital terrestrial television - Video coding, audio coding and multiplexing - Part 1: Video coding; ABNT NBR 15602-2:2007 - Digital terrestrial television - Video coding, audio coding and multiplexing - Part 2: Audio coding; and ABNT NBR 15602-3:2007 - Digital terrestrial television - Video coding, audio coding and multiplexing - Part 3: Multiplexing signals.
The ABNT NBR 15603 is the technical document of the SBTVD standards that describes in detail aspects regarding Multiplexing and service information (SI). The document is divided in 3 separate parts that covers: SI for digital broadcasting systems ; Data structure and definition of SI basic Information ; and Syntax and definition of SI extended information.
The ABNT NBR 15604 is the document that describes in detail the mandatory and optional functions and features of receivers for the SBTVD. It's essential for the correct implementation by manufacturers of either fixed, mobile or portable receivers aimed at the Brazilian Digital TV market.
ABNT NBR 15606 refers to a collection of technical standards that govern the transmission of digital terrestrial television in Brazil.
The standard ABNT NBR 15607-1:2008 - Digital terrestrial television – Interactivity channel establishes the ways in which a receiver device can send information back to the broadcaster through different communication mechanisms. The transmission of common broadcasting content will be done through the air through the main programming feed, while a more customized use of content can be sent through the interactive channel.
The standard ABNT NBR 15608 describes in further detail the parts of the digital television system that need clarifying, setting directives for implementation in a combination of mandatory and optional features. It can be seen as a refinement of the original specification documents focused on system implementation.
