Datasheet

240
Common information
Glossary
Astra
Satellite system operated by the Société
Européenne des Satellites (Luxembourg).
The Astra family (1A-G) comprises 7 sa-
tellites in the orbit position 19.2° East for
the transmission of radio and television
channels. Foreign and virtually all Ger-
man-speaking programs can be received
with a Sat antenna, which must have a
diameter of 60 cm.
B
andwidth
Colloquial term for data (transmission)
rate, indicating the volume of data which
can be transmitted in 1 second on a link.
B
AT/Bouquet
Bouquet Association Table. Presentation
of a group of different TV stations for
bundling into a multiplex, or into an offe-
ring for the TV user.
B
roadcast
B
roadcast means the simultaneous trans-
mission of content to any given, unlimited
number of receivers.
C
A
Conditional Access System. Controls sub-
scriber access to specific programs, ser-
vice offerings, etc., e.g. Irdeto, Viaccess,
Nagra, Cryptoworks, Conax.
C
A Module
Conditional Access Module. A module
which is inserted into the receiver to en-
able decoding of encrypted signals with
an activated additional card.
C
-Band
F
requency 3.7GHz – 4.2 GHz.
C
ommon Interface
CI. Interface of the receiving device for a
CA module.
C
onditional Access
Access to an offering which is linked to a
condition (e.g. a subscription). Due to
content encryption, only authorized users
have access to the program content.
D
ata Transmission Rate
Volume of data which can be transmitted
on a link within a specific period of time,
normally specified in bits per second
(bit/s). The data rate determines the
image quality of digital TV programs. Data
rates of 5 to 6 Mbit/s correspond to the
image quality delivered by analog TV.
D
ecoder
Electronic device which reconstructs pre-
sentable images from video material sto-
red in data-reduced form.
D
igital Compression
Mathematical algorithms are used and ir-
relevant image information is filtered out
in order to reduce the data volume of di-
gital signals.
D
iSEqC
Digital Satellite Equipment Control. A me-
thod used to control the switchover bet-
ween different satellites, e.g. Astra and
Eutelsat. Can also be used to control mul-
tiple subscriber systems.
D
olby Digital, AC-3
M
ulti-channel audio format which trans-
mits six discrete channels. Frequently ab-
breviated to DD.
D
VB
Digital Video Broadcasting. Transmission
standard for digital televisions via cable,
satellite or terrestrial systems.
E
PG
The Electronic Program Guide is a combi-
ned user interface and program guide for
set-top boxes. Various functions can be
activated via remote control using a num-
ber of buttons. It also provides back-
ground information on all programs for the
current day and the following day.
E
utelsat
T
his European satellite operator owns an
entire fleet of satellites in space. They
transmit numerous foreign programs. The
Hotbird satellites which are important for
Germany are located at 13° East.
F
EC
F
orward Error Correction. Redundancy in-
formation is added to digital signals. The
aim is to identify and correct typical faults
which occur on the transmission link.
F
ootprint
The geographical area into which the sa-
tellite transmits. Within this footprint, the sa-
tellite can be received without problems,
provided the specified size of the satellite
dish is observed.
F
ree-To-Air (FTA)
Digital receiver without a Conditional Ac-
cess Module for the reception of free radio
and television programs.
F
ree TV
T
elevision programs which can be recei-
ved by the viewer with no monthly charge,
under private or public law (but with GEZ
[Central License Fee Collection Office]
fee).
H
DTV
H
igh Definition Television. TV with a reso-
lution up to five times greater than that of
conventional TV (SDTV), with a widescreen
aspect ratio of 16:9. This enables repro-
duction of video with significantly greater
detail, increased sharpness and brighter
colors. The European system operates
using 1,080 lines x 1,920 pixels, while the
American/Japanese system operates
using 720 lines x 1,280 pixels.
L
NB
L
ow Noise Block Converter. The LNB is the
receiver head at the focal point of a para-
bolic antenna. It amplifies and converts the
satellite signals, which can then be further
processed by the satellite receiver.
M
PEG
Motion Picture Experts Group. MPEG-1
(data rate 1.5 Mbit/s) MPEG-2 (data rate
100 Mbit/s) and MPEG-4. Compresses the
audio and video signals into digital quality
above the level of analog television. The
improved MPEG-4 standard enables pro-
cessing of the increased data volume of
HDTV signals. The conventional digital te-
levision signal (SDTV) is and for the time
being remains compressed in the MPEG-
2 standard.
O
SD
O
SD stands for On-Screen Display. This
refers to additional information on the
screen (e.g. programming data, settings
menus).
P
VR
P
ersonal Video Recording. Hard-disk-
based video recorder with storage capa-
city and additional service functions such
as EPG, deferred television, skipping of
commercial breaks. Point-to-point trans-
mission of data to a specific recipient.
Q
AM and QPSK
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying is a modu-
lation method for digital television pro-
grams received via satellite. Cable
networks have different requirements for
the transmission of digital signals. A diffe-
rent modulation method, quadrature am-
plitude modulation, is required for this
purpose. In QAM, digital signals are pre-
sented by a combination of four phases
and four amplitudes. The data are map-
ped in the resulting matrix.
R
eceiver
A receiver receives a digital TV transmis-
sion, further processes and amplifies the
signal, and can control a display screen.
R
F Modulator
The RF modulator of the satellite receiver
converts audio and video signals into an
antenna signal. This enables the connec-
tion of older television sets with no Scart
connection facility via the normal antenna
cable and the antenna input on the televi-
sion set.
R
S-232C Interface
The operating system of a receiver can be
updated by the service engineer via the
RS-232C interface, with no need to open
the device. A null modem cable and the
corresponding software are required for
this purpose. Station listings can also be
transmitted via the data interface.
S
DTV
S
tandard Definition Television. Conventio-
nal television with low image resolution ac-
cording to the PAL or NTSC standards.
S
et-Top Box
A receiving device for digital TV.
S
imulcast
Parallel transmission of a transmitter, in
both analog and digital form.
S
imulcrypt
Transmission of a signal with several diffe-
rent types of encryption simultaneously.
S
martcard
T
he card, which looks like a phonecard or
cash card, contains a chip which provides
the CA module with the owner's identifica-
tion, along with information on available
programs.
T
ransponder
A
combined transmitter and responder.
Electronic device which receives and au-
tomatically forwards a signal. TV satellites
receive a signal and then broadcast it wit-
hin a large transmission area.
T
riple Play
T
erm for the offering of telephony, Internet
and TV via a single "path". Telephony or
cable companies offer this via their infra-
structure.
U
SB
S
tands for “Universal Serial Bus“, a stan-
dard for connecting ancillary devices such
as a mouse, keyboard or scanner to the
PC.
U
niversal LNB
Receiving unit on the satellite antenna
which receives both the 11 GHz range and
the 12 GHz range, which is used for digi-
tal transmissions. The universal LNB is re-
quired to operate the d-box. Switchover is
performed via the 22kHz signal.