With the advent of Digital Television, Set Top Box (STB) has become the buzzword. The transmission of television signals has gone digital whereas most of the TV’s at home are still analog. So, an STB converts the digital signal to analog signal so as to enable a viewer to watch content on television. An STB is not merely a digital to analog signal convertor, but, it provides a host of services to enhance television viewing experience. For example, it provides an Electronic Program Guide to keep track all the content or a viewer can record/rewind/pause a program as per his needs.

In this article, Let us dive deep into the Set Top Box Hardware architecture.

Figure 1: various hardware components inside an STB

The STB consists, mainly of, following components.

• Antenna: The antenna is not essentially a part of a Set Top Box as it resides outside an STB, generally, outside the house of the television viewer. The antenna contains Low Noise Blocks (LNB) which receives the signal from the satellite with a frequency of approximately 12 GHz and performs a down conversion to a frequency range of 950 – 1450 Mhz. Then, the signal is passed on to the ‘Front End’ inside the set top box.
• Power Supply: Similar to every other device, even an STB needs a power supply to run itself. The power supply provides the voltage to run various peripherals inside an STB. In some cases, this power supply can be used to give power to mechanized antennas to align themselves in various directions to receive different signals.
• Front Panel: A front panel is a small micro controller based hardware peripheral inside the Set Top box which takes of the user input and interacts directly with the main CPU control (processor). It contains an IR receiver to listen to Remote Control input. Also, it is directly linked to some input buttons or keys visible on the outside frame of an STB.
• Front End: It is also known as NIM (Network Interface Module). Front End is the peripheral device which interacts with the antenna to receive the down converted signal and give it to “digital decoder” in the form of a Transport Stream. Basically, Front End contains two major components, namely, a Tuner and a Demodulator. The Tuner listens to the signal from the antenna and passes it on to demodulator for getting the Transport stream. Among the different types of NIMs are Satellite QPSK, Cable QAM, Terrestrial COFDM and 8-VSB, and telco ADSL.
• Digital Decoder: A Digital decoder receives the Transport Stream given by the demodulator inside the Front End and then, demultiplexes & decompresses the requested video by the user. It then, converts the digital stream to analog signal to be given to RF port. The task of the demultiplxer or a demux is to separate all the data streams packaged together by the HeadEnd in the specified format. The data contains audio, video and DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) specified data like SI/PSI tables. After the demuxing, decompression is done by the specified decoder in specified formats like MPEG-2 or MPEG-4. The specific data or information is given to CPU for processing for advanced features and memory storage and to be used in graphics.
• CPU (Processor): Just as in a regular PC, The processor inside the CPU takes care of interactions of all the hardware peripherals and software modules inside a Set Top Box. The processor takes care of managing the RTOS (Real Time Operating System). The processor also takes of the memory devices and other forms of digital Storage like hard disks or flash drives.
• Digital Storage: Digital Storage is another optional component inside a Set Top Box. It is needed for persistent storage for any kind of data including audio/video. It communicates with the processor and is controlled by the STB software modules and storage drivers. Genreally, it is a hard disk which acts as a digital storage media inside an STB.
• CA Module: The CA (Conditional Access) module can be called as the most important component of a Set Top Box. This module virtually forms the lifeline of all the leading Set Top Box solution providers. This peripheral called ICAM(Integrated Conditional Access Module) is placed before the Demultiplexer and is used for descrambling the encrypted signal and also, provides a smart card interface for various security features.
• Return Path: This is an optional component in an STB. A return path is used by an STB to communicate back with the HeadEnd and send data packets. The return path can be present in various forms like a PSTN line connection, a cable modem in case of Cable STBs or an Ethernet jack in IP Set Top box using ADSL broadband modems. For Example: A return path becomes a necessary component if a user needs to purchase PPV (Pay per view) events directly from the set top box using credit cards.
• Other Peripherals: There are other various optional peripherals present inside a Set Top Box. For example: an RS-232 port, a USB port, Wi-Fi enablers, Bluetooth devices. These peripherals are used inside a Set Top box for enhanced interactivity with the consumer and provide better user experience. Basically, These components or peripherals can be used for creating advanced features like File sharing and plugging in external devices.

Figure 2: An Example of a Set Top Box Hardware

As you must have understood the roles and responsibilities of various hardware modules inside an STB, Let’s move on to the next level, where we’ll go through the flow of data between these various hardware devices resulting in tuning to a particular channel.

Figure 3: Flow control between various STB hardware components

Basically, the tuner receives the modulated digital transmission from the antenna and passes it on to the demodulator. This demodulator takes into account the type of demodulation (For example: QPSK ) and FEC (Forward Error Correction), in turn, giving out a Transport Stream. A Transport Stream is a digital stream of bytes known as data packets. According to DVB standards, a Transport Stream is of the size of 188 bytes. This Transport Stream goes to the demux to separate out the content in the form of Audio / Video PES (Packetized Elementary Stream) and Data Packets known as Sections as per DVB standards. PES. PES is a mechanism to carry A/V elementary streams in packet format inside an MPEG-2 transport stream. Sections are the data packets containing information regarding the A/V content and other metadata. Once the Demux does its job, A/V is given to MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoder which gives the output to the RF port to display the video on television. The data packets are given to the processor used by the STB software to enable the viewing experience. This data can be persistent or kept in RAM as per needs and performance reasons. Any kind of user request, be it tuning or a purchase goes through CPU. In between, the most important functionality of descrambling is performed by a descrambler embedded inside the ICAM part of the chipset. In some variants of an STB, a descrambler can be a part of a decoder or it can exist independently. The descrambler takes care of decrypting the encrypted Transport Stream using the Control Word technique. Generally, these descramblers and Control Word algorithms are closely guarded secrets with CA solution providers to prevent the hackers from decrypting the signal. These are developed in conjunction with chipset vendors in a very secured environment.

Moving on further, let’s discuss some of the memory types used inside a Set Top Box. Set Top Box contains various memory types for different role plays.

• DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) is used to store all the software needs and volatile working area like static variables.
• Video DRAM is used in an STB for storing the decoded video image that is being output to television or video recorder.
• NVRAM (Non Volatile Random Access Memory) is needed for persistent memory needs for the Set Top Box. Generally, STB configurations are written into NVRAM to keep the settings persistent during power cycles and provide consistent user experience. There are two types of NVRAMs used inside a Set Top Box, namely, EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Progammable Read Only Memory) and FLASH. EEPROM is phasing out slowly as it is very expensive to perform frequent read and writes where as FLASH uses batch mode for read & write enhancing the life of NVRAM. Also, Flash can be used for storing parts of code segment for software performance reasons.
• ROM / OTP (Read only Memory / One Time Programmable): As the name suggests, this is the memory which is written on to once in a lifetime of Set Top Box. Basically, it contains some crucial software pieces like Boot Loader and other security related code. The boot loader enables the Set Top Box to check the integrity of the software and let the STB work only if it contains authentic software. This is one of the key memory areas which protect the STB from hackers to write illegal software into the box.

As mentioned earlier, the most important part in a Set Top Box design is ICAM or conditional access module. Basically, this module is responsible for viewer’s access to content available on air. It maintains all the transactions and performs validations to check the entitlement of the viewer to selected programme. ICAM module consists of ECM (Entitlement Control Message)& EMM(Entitlement management message) acquisition and management, descrambler and smart card interface. ECM & EMM’s are the way of communication used by broadcaster to an STB. Smart card Interface provides access to secured information like passwords, Parental Lock information, Purchase Information and all other kinds of transactional details. The most important part is the descrambler which uses the secure ‘Control Word (CW)’ to descramble the video. CW is the key to enable the video to be decoded. The input Transport Stream is given to Descrambler as an input which has a specific parity. Depending on this parity, a respective Control Word is generated and used to descramble the video. The descrambling is done in hardware due to performance and security reasons. Doing it in hardware does not expose the CW beyond the silicon and it does it much faster without even stopping the input Transport Stream.

In a nutshell, Set Top Box hardware architecture is very similar to architectures of any recorders and replay devices like DVD players. But the significance lies in its security model and the enhanced interactivity of the viewer enabling him to perform various actions during live video and also, pay only for the content he/she watches.

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With this article, one can definitely learn that even the simplest of mistakes can be the cause of whole company crumbling down. Although, Twitter does not seem to get affected much on the business side but yes, it definitely puts a question mark on Twitter’s Security Policy.

Twitter is a micro blogging service and is hugely popular, so much so, that almost all the celebrities, From Barack Obama to Indian Movie Stars are hooked on to it. Everyone is typing out 140 characters of their personal or official information on twitter and is providing links to websites containing information.

The Hacker collected all the confidential information of twitter including project plans, financial projections, credit card information, call logs of twitter employees, people appearing for interviews et cetera. Now, this information is a like a gold mine for anyone.

The best part is that this attack on twitter has put even well established services like GMail, Hotmail, iTunes, AT & T softwares also in the line of fire. The twitter attack took place only after this hacker hacked the gmail account of one of twitter’s employee using “forgot password” option.

After reading this article, everyone should again think about password recovery policies, password formations and repeatitions, question the so called “secret question” for password recovery. This attack signifies that every piece of software/application/web service is vulnerable if the security aspect of itself is not in place.

This attack definitely started with Identity theft. and this leaves a lot more gap between the study and implementation of Identity Management concepts.

Read this article here The Anatomy Of The Twitter Attack

…

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Television is not a new concept. We are watching television for more than three decades. But, as everyone knows, technology is ever evolving which is leading towards the exponential changes in the world of television. With the advent of Digital TV, people got more choices to select the medium of their television viewing experience. Every one is going beyond terrestrial broadcast to get the best quality and enhanced television viewing experience.

There are three kinds of digital television broadcast systems existing today including Satellite TV, Digital Cable TV and IP TV (Internet Protocol Television) being the latest entrant in the world of television content broadcasting.

Internet Protocol Television (known widely as IP TV), being the newest arrival on the block, threatens the other two mediums by promising to give a tough competition. IP TV is a mechanism of viewing the regular television channels over IP. Similar to Satellite TV and Cable TV, the signal is encrypted using vendor specific security mechanisms and can only be decrypted by a receiver (STB). The video is sent in the form of IP packets over the existing broadband infrastructure and is assembled at the viewers’ end with the help of a Set Top Box. This becomes advantageous as existing broadband distribution infrastructure can be used to deliver television signals enabling the user to enjoy television over the same broadband connection used for surfing the internet. This is beneficial for broadcasters as they can offer “Triple Play” service of voice, data and television over the same network using the same infrastructure. “Triple Play” service refers to three different services of VoIP, Internet and IP-TV bundled together and offered over the same network. With IP TV, one can be assured of better video quality and stereophonic sound much like in case of DTH & Digital Cable TV. Even the customer specific services of Video on Demand (VOD) become a reality. Also, this enables broadcasters to have two way communications with the viewers as opposed to in case of DTH and Cable TV. IP –TV, still being in its stage of infancy, is not very stable. Due to high bandwidth requirement (approximately 5 Gbps, even ADSL2+ technology can support only up to 25 Mbps), hundreds of channels cannot be broadcasted simultaneously. Every channel change request by the user goes to the content server resulting in a delay for changing a channel. Currently, IP-TV is in roll out phase with broadcasters being BSNL, MTNL, Airtel and Reliance only in selected cities of India.

IP – TV has it own advantages but now, lets move on to Satellite TV (popularly known as DTH). In DTH, signal is received using a dish antenna installed at the user premises. The specifications of dish antenna may vary for each broadcaster with some broadcaster using bigger dish or varying the number of LNBs(Low Noise Blocks). This dish antenna receives the signal in encrypted form from the satellite and is installed with in direct line of sight of the satellite. Also, a Set Top Box (STB) is placed inside the viewer’s home. From this antenna, RG-6 coaxial cable connects the STB for signal transmission. This STB works only after a particular signal quality & strength is achieved which is fine tuned by using signal meter while installing the dish antenna. As in the case of Cable TV, STB receiver is used to decrypt the signal and enable the viewer to watch TV. In case of DTH, the content is direct controlled by the broadcaster and enables the viewer to pay and view the channels/bouquets as per his requirements. Similarly, the advantages of DVD quality signal and stereo sound are implicitly available to the viewer. The major advantage comes in the form of signal being available 24/7 as there is no intermediate operator between the broadcaster and the viewer unlike IP TV or Digital Cable TV. Various DTH broadcasters in India are Tata Sky, Bharti Airel, Sun Direct, DD Direct, Reliance Big TV, and Dish TV.

Satellite TV or DTH seems very promising and is quite a but successful in getting hold of market share but Cable TV is still on top claiming the highest numbers of subscribers to itself. Cable TV was one of the very early systems deployed worldwide against the traditional terrestrial system. It started with the analog systems in place. The signals from the various satellites were received at the Multi System Operator (MSO) end with the use of multiple high end dish antennas. These signals were then multiplexed at MSO end and then, transmitted to homes using coaxial cables. These signals were amplified by placing signal amplifiers at strategic points in the cable network. The whole network was managed by distributors authorized by MSO according to the area divisions. But as the signals were analog and were transmitted in a clear format, a lot of noise used to get added over the network before it reached the end user. Also, Signals were stolen by placing hooks on the wire adding to a lot of noise. This made life miserable for those who paid these MSO’s on a regular basis for the services. Now, that the Digital Cable TV is in place with broadcasters, Cable TV viewing experience is much different from what it used to be in case of Analog Cable TV as mentioned earlier. With Digital Cable TV, the user needs to install a Set Top Box (STB) at home and has a luxury of choosing channels/bouquets as per his requirements. The major advantage comes in the form of crystal clear Video and stereo audio. The signal distribution model still remains the same. But the signal is now encrypted and can only be decrypted by STB. So, even if someone tries to form a signal leakage point, it is of no use as the signal is nothing but a noise without subscription from MSO. The leading Cable TV broadcasters in India are Den Networks, Hathway & DigiCable.

As we discussed about the three different mediums of Television viewing, the major difference lies in the broadcast medium. All the three mediums need altogether different kinds of headend systems. These headend systems ensure that the signal is encrypted correctly and control the complete broadcast. These headend systems track the users for their viewing needs. The architecture of these headends varies completely from each other and the implementation is very much specific to technology solution providers like NDS & Nagravision.

As a viewer, we need to keep the following points in mind before subscribing to one particular medium of television viewing.

Uninterrupted Signal : This is first and foremost need for television viewing. Every system is useless if we do not have continuous signal available. The signal availability depends on the medium of broadcast. Generally, the least signal interruption occurs in case of Satellite TV as the signal is received directly from the Satellite to the viewer’s home. Where as in case of Cable TV, the intermediate area operators’ set up faults or failures can cause disruption in signals which is quite possible given the power supply scenario is most parts of India. IP TV network also suffers due to ongoing construction works in the neighborhoods resulting in coaxial cable disruptions and thus, switching off the whole Triple Play Network. But in case of Satellite TV signal, nature plays an important role. Signal outage occurs in case of DTH due to heavy rains, storms etc. So, If you live in an area prone to heavy rainfalls or storms, Satellite TV is not for you.

Customer Service: One major deciding factor should be the customer service provided by the broadcaster. As we need to use different services, easy access to these services is a must.

STB Software reliability: As everyone is aware, all the receivers (STBs) work using a software, this software needs to be reliable. Make sure that you have done enough review of a product before subscribing to it.

Signal Quality: As the three broadcast mediums are different, Signal quality also might vary. Although, the quality of audio/video does not differ drastically, but still the noise can get added to Cable and IP TV broadcast mediums in particular areas making signals problematic.

Network Infrastructure: As I mentioned earlier, this is most important consideration for IP TV requirements. Technically, IP TV requires a huge bandwidth to make TV viewing experience seamless which is still a deterrent in India. This will deteriorate more once the HDTV channels come into focus. Although broadcasters are claiming to offer high speed internet services, it is still seen that required speed is not available in most parts of India.

Services Offered: All the three broadcast mediums being different, the services offered by the broadcasters vary very widely. IP TV is much more suitable to the needs if you require Video on Demand much frequently. Also, Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) flexibilities and accuracy should be a consideration.

Cost: In the end, cost will definitely be a deciding factor. All the three different mediums cause the cost to vary to extremes. Cable TV is still the cheapest option as the existing network infrastructure is being used to deliver the signals. Satellite TV costs are higher due to installation and packaging of channels varying with each service provider. IP TV seems to be cost effective only if “Triple Play” services to be used.

In a nutshell, the digital television industry is in its nascent stage in India with IP TV just being born. It takes a lot of infrastructure support to provide seamless digital and interactive television experience. Digital Cable TV and DTH have stabilized over a period of time. It will take some more time for IP TV in the coming years to prove its edge over the other two mediums. The Digital Television broadcasting technology is still evolving and it will get complex with the advent of Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) and High Definition content. And as every field of life has it, only the fittest will survive.

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Anyway, So I thought to get back with one of my favorite topics : Gaming.

Recently, I read about XBox Live new development kicked off by Microsoft, called, Project Natal. It is all about a different gaming style or I should call it as an attempt to the next generation gaming experience. Now, Nintendo has already started in that direction with the launch of Wii. And how can Microsoft be far behind in copying the idea. So, here comes the annoucement of Project Natal, a “controller free gaming and entertainment experience”.

With this, a gamer will be able to use his whole body for a rich gaming session just like in Nintendo Wii, except that there will not be any device tagged to the gamer’s body. The Xbox live sensor device will be able to capture the complete body movements of the gamer and translate them in action in the gaming scenario. The game will move according to user bodily reactions. Even to make the experience much better, there will be microphones embedded so as to enable to gamer to interact with the characters in the game. So, it seems like you can actually become “Templer” in “Kill Zone” (some future XBox version) and fire in whichever direction by just pointing your fingers. The sensors should also be able to recognize your facial expressions to understand you feelings and who knows, might be, “Lara Croft” falls in love with you.

As per the claims mentioned on Wikipedia, technical demos of the basic games are done and Microsoft is keen to invest more towards this technology.

I seriously doubt, not about the evolution of rich gaming experience, but about Microsoft’s credibility in producing such high end gaming experience. For Microsoft, sticking to Windows OS and making it stable should be a better and safer option.

Anyway, Lets wait and watch. Meanwhile, just have a look what Microsoft has to say about Project Natal here …

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• No related posts.

My brother, Shantanu Goel and I, have started another blog called http://www.safercode.com which is an aim to tell people about some tips and tricks to make your code safer, secure and faster.

You’ll find quite a few interesting discussions and concepts about code optimization, securing coding, safety and reverse engineering on this website. The aim of this website is to cover those apects of programming and security which are not taught in schools and technical institutes.

Also, This site aims to bring all the information together on one page which is spread out or too vague or is not available on the internet.

The site supports RSS feeds also for the people who wish to be the regular readers.

Please do visit the site and leave your comments if you liked the posts there.

Regards,
Amit Goel

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Tbg gur guvat abj. “

What is this all about? is it all gibberish ? hey, i am just playing around being stupid. Just copy paste the above text in www.rot13.com and see what is written above and below?

” Vg vf whfg n cynva fhofgvghgvba pvcure. Vg ebgngrf rirel punenpgre ol 13 cynprf naq rapelcgf gur vasbezngvba. Vg vf whfg hfrq sbe cynva sha naq fvzcyr fghss naq fubhyq arire or nccyvrq ba erny frphevgl vffhrf. Vg vf n irel cbchyne pvcure bayvar hfrq va sbehzf, tnzrf rgp. “

Why I wrote a post like this? I am in a mood of fun. Most of the people know about this. In case you did not know, a good learning for you then.

For more details, check out the rot13 entry at wikipedia

Enjoy… I am just playing around..

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To cut the long story short, If we target such softwares, we actually don’t need to crack the license keys. In turn, what we can apply is the simple reverse engineering philosophy of reading the assembly and modifying it. This works with quite a few softwares. For example: Source Insight is a very popular IDE used for coding in C/C++/Java like languages and it widely used in the world. Its license is also very costly which is about INR 10,000 or approximately $200. Now, if you go wish to use this software, then you need to buy the license otherwise it won’t work after 30 days. Changing the system clock etc are outdated techniques which are no longer valid. Moreover, changing system clocks might affect the functioning of other softwares installed on your machine.

So, For softwares like Source Insight, you can try out few basic things. Disassemble the binary of the targeted software, for example: Source Insight binary is “insight3.exe”. Once disassembled, you need to look for pop up like “trial screens/license key input screen” etc. How does this occurs? Software itself might be checking for some date of installation reading from somewhere. In most of the cases, it is registry files but then, it can vary. So, Attach a debugger (Ollydbg/IDAPro) to this software and try to trace the call looking for date of installation. Once you find it, replace it with calls of NOP instruction. Yes, this is one of the most useful redundant instructions assembly language provide. Once you suppress this call, software thinks that it is a fresh installation. After that, just suppress the function call which displays the “trial version” popup. After this, just reset the installation date by again putting NOP instructions in place of function call of date replacement. There are lot of tools available to make changes to the binary like “HexEdit” etc. Once you do this, Source Insight will never ask you for a license as it thinks itself as a fresh installation every time.

Now, This leads us to think that why a company like source dynamics keeps such a weak licensing system? Either this is their marketing strategy or mere stupidity. I still give benefit of doubt to the former.

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• Hacking Keyboards using Electro Magnetic Radiations (2)

Can you just imagine, Everything you type on your keyboard sitting alone in your room on a highly secured PC is still captured by someone else sitting in another room 20 metres away. The technology being experiemented out is compromising the Electro Magnetic Radiations emitted out by a PS/2 , USB or a LAPTOP keyboard. These EMR (electro magnetic radiations) are captured by a receiver and the whole spectrum is analyzed to get the key presses. So, If you are typing an email or a password or your banking account details, some one can still sniff them out without using any spywares or keyloggers.

Although Electro magnetic eavesdropping is not a new stuff and people keep on doing it. But This is some startling finding I could never ever thought of.

The two researchers have outline four separate attack methods, some that work at a distance of as much as 65 feet from the target. And you thought, Even disconnecting the PC from internet makes it secure..

Watch out the following two videos demonstrating the hack.

And the second one…

Get the actual paper here…

“COMPROMISING ELECTROMAGNETIC EMANATIONS OF WIRED KEYBOARDS” by Martin Vuagnoux and Sylvain Pasin.

The paper is still under review and not much details are available about it.

…

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This War intensifies with Tata Sky annoucing its PVR Set Top Box to be launched Soon. Check out Tata Sky Website for details. With this, you’ll be able to pause, rewind, record Live TV.

I won’t talk much about it right now and will wait for its official launch

Till then, keep thinking whether to buy Airtel OR wait for this launch

…

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Please make sure to read the complete post if you are planning to buy one or shift to another broadcaster.

First things first. I’ll explain the basics of satellite TV so that many of you can understand the logic behind all this hooplah. Satellite TV or DTH (Direct To Home) is not a new concept. Many of the other countries are already into this for donkey years. US being the leading brat among everyone as usual. DirecTV has been there for long enough with best of technology to offer. Satellite TV offers you to watch everything directly on to your TV sets beamed from the Satellites. That means, no more hassles of cable operators. If you are from India, you must have faced irrational charges, cable operator strikes, power outages, not getting your favourite channels, channels shifting their channel number positions, bullying of cable operator staff bullying, monopolized area distribution. And the list of problems goes on. Satellite TV puts an end to all the woes of the customers. Because, in DTH, your cable operator is a satellite now which never goes down on a strike.

In Satellite TV, the signal is beamed directly from a satellite which the broadcaster has hired. The signal is received directly by the small dish antenna installed at your house or premises. Broadcaster provides a Set Top Box which connects to this dish antenna directly with a cable and in turn, this Set Top Box connects to your TV. Bang!!! Watch the channel you wish. The best part is that you pay for only those channels you wish to watch. For example, you don’t need to pay for Sports channels if you don’t like sports. Or why to pay for Fashion TV if there is no more “Midnight Hot” being allowed in India.

The major advantages of Satellite TV are:

1) Digital Signal: It means that the signal you see is crystal clear and no more visible noise on the screen. Its like watching a DVD. In short, the picture quality is near perfect.

2) Digital Audio: For the first time, you’ll get the stereophonic sound. So, if you got a home theatre, its the best time to connect it to your Set Top Box. You’ll get the Dolby effects.

3) Electronic Program Guide (EPG) : You’ll be able to see the program schedule or listing for all the channels. EPG is one crucial feature where all the broadcasters fight. This is one application where you can book programs for reminders/recording. Set up your favourite channel list. Block your children from watching adult content (no adult content is being broadcasted in India ). See advertisments. Search programs. And the list of features goes on varying for every broadcaster or service provider.

4) Payment Modules: you pay only what you watch. Payment is in advance. and you can pay for the whole year in one shot too. (Pay for the whole lifetime if you know it ). Payment is just damn easy with various sources like internet, mobile phones, vendors, banking etc.

5) Conditional Access: This is most important feature of Satellite TV. But this is just technical and doesn’t matter for the end user. If you have seen a smart card containing a small chip inside you Set Top box, that’s what I am referring to. This protects the signal you are watching being hacked. If this card is hacked, its the braodcaster who looses money, you don;t need to bother about .

6) Interactive Applications: All the broadcasters offer interactive content. Whether it is booking for tickets or watching details of a product or watching highlights of a match or quizzing live, everything is controlled by these applications. You can watch a movie of your choice. You can get some recipies of dishes etc. This is one important point where you can differentiate between broadcasters.

There are many more things which can be done but I won’t mention it here as ti will take another couple of years for those features or things to appear in Indian market. Visit DirecTV for all the latest stuff happening in Satellite TV market where you’ll get to know what all is being done.

Now, Let’s take a closer look at all the DTH players in the Indian market.

Indian market has six DTH players till today with one more in the off’ing. They are DD Direct, Sun Direct, Dish TV, Tata Sky, Reliance Big TV, Airtel Digital TV. One more is supposed to join the bandwagon soon is Videocon.

1) DD-Direct: This is government owned DTH system. It broadcasts only free to air channels. It is being used mainly as CAS. It is popular in remote areas and villages of India.

2) Sun-Direct: It is popular in South India mainly for the reasons of broadcasting all south indian channels at cheap price. It has got a lousy EPG which looks like operating on some hardware driven GUI. Its customer service is very bad.

Okay, I didn’t talk much about the above mentioned two DTH players as they are not worth it. They are the basic and are alreays out of the race. Let’s move on to the stalwarts.

3) Dish TV: First broadcaster in India. They started slow in their operations but picked up only after the launch of Tata Sky. The software looks good but is buggy. Channel Surfing is not quite fast. Although the EPG looks good but not very intuitive. It supports all the above mentioned features. Currently, it offers the maximum numbers of channels and is cost effective. The low lights are that it is not very user friendly, buggy software resulting in crashes often, bas customer care department and very few interactive applications. Also, the channel tuning is quite slow. Currently, Dish TV has the maximum number of subscribers.but the future doesn’t look so bright.Just FYI, it runs on MPEG-2.

4) Tata Sky: The player who turned around the market. Coming from the biggest of fathers, Tatas and Sky (UK), it started big. The software is very good and is very user friendly or easy to use. It has a very good customer service but it doesn’t have a toll free number to call. Users need to make STD calls to reach customer care or dial 1860 which is premium usage number. The EPG is very intuitive and easy to use.The channel surfing in Tata Sky is quite fast. But it does not have PiG (Picture in Guide). It does offer a range of interactive applications. But doesn’t provide all the channels. I mean it has a limited number of channels which is its biggest drawback. The Showcase or movie channels offered are not too good. It also runs on MPEG-2 systems. It has EPG in two languages: Hindi and English.

5) Big TV: It was launched just couple of months ago with much fanfare. But the software is too bad. Even the basic quality has not been checked on the EPG. It does have a Picture in Guide and many interactive applications but the software crashes too often. The EPG is not at all intuitive and is very confusing. Even the Remote control keys are confusing with just symbols being depicted. The customer care is also not good. They are offering quite a good number of channels but the packaging is again confusing. They do offer all the features mentioned above but the software quality seems to put everyone off. Channel Surfing takes a lot of time. The only cool feature is the animations or the feel of EPG. Looks of the EPG are so bad that even a kid can find the mistakes. The EPG is symbol oriented which leads to user spending a lot of time to find the functionality. It runs on MPEG-4 systems. But, in short, I am writing off Big TV.

6) Airtel Digital TV: The latest entrant in the battle of Satellite TV space. They just launched two days ago. The software quality of Airtel is amazing. The EPG is quite user friendly. The look and feel is good and relates to the youth of today. The features offered by Airtel are not exceptional except that they have very good interactive applications running. The unique offering by Airtel is its universal remote which works both for STB and TV. The software performance of Airtel Digital TV is quite good again. Channel surfing is quite fast where it tunes only to the channel you wish to and skips the tuning if you are surfing. They have provided Airtel Live as they provide in their cell phone services. They also have a PiG(Picture in Guide) and support for Hindi and English language. The software is stable and making its mark or quality. I cannot comment on customer service much as its just two days after the launch. The only bad part is that I am not able to get it till now even after it was lunached two days ago. It runs on MPEG-4 systems.

All the above mentioned DTH players support or provide almost all the features mentioned above. Its just marketing gimmicks they are running on as the customer does not know what to buy. So, how will you decide what to buy. Following are the points to ponder if you are planning to buy one.

DO:
1) Consider the quality of the customer service provided by the broadcaster. This is one thing you’ll need atleast once a month especially, if you wish to change your channels packages often. I rate this as most important because, if the customer service is not good, you might end up missing you favourite programs. So, consider the past experience and brand name of the broadcaster in other areas.

2) Consider the channel packaging done by the broadcaster. Some one might be offering you all the channels free for six months but then, how will they make money. Once the free period is over, you might end up paying more for the same number of channels. This can happen because of the channel packaging. If you most favourite channels lie in different packages, you’ll end up paying for all other channels you never ever tune to.

3) Consider the software quality of the Set Top Box. Set Top Box works with a software running inside it and as you know, a bad software can crash anytime. I am sure you would not like you Set Top Box getting rebooted every half an hour or rebooted during a climax of a movie or during the last over of an India - Pakistan match.

4) Consider the performance of the Set Top Box.
     a) If you channel change takes long time, just don’t buy that vendor’s services. TV is for channel surfing. Imagine you plight, if every channel changes takes more than 1.5 seconds for tuning (In simple words, gets visible on screen). Check how fast you can zap through channels. To test this, Press channel Up key very fast about ten times, and if the tenth channel tunes after more than 5 seconds, it’s not worth buying.
     b) Check for other features of the Software. Like Reminders should work as expected. How many channels can be added to you favourite list? How easy is it to set reminders, favourites, browse channels, see the programme schedule, languages offered if you require multi-lingual system etc?
     c) Check for accuracy of data in programming schedule. I am sure you won’t like “Shrek” being referred as “Toy Story” in your EPG.
     d) Check for the number of days of programming schedule being offered. This helps in planing your TV viewing hours way ahead.

5) Consider the Payment System. If you are buying a system for your parents who don’t know internet or mobile phone usages, check for the payment options available. Always go for the broadcaster who has the biggest network of vendors and service centers. This makes it easy for your parents to walk-in easily at one shop and pay for the bills. Ofcourse, it implicitly assumes that lasrgest network might not be best in customer service. So, your experience will be good for your judgement.

6) Consider Interactive applications: This applies only if you are looking for more than channel surfing. Interactive applications open up a whole new world of TV Viewing experience. You can interact with TV programmes or other things in real time. If you love to see movies, check for the spcialized movie channels or gaming applications, repeat telecasts or highlights. Defnitely, i am assuming that you would have considered the preference for software performance as interactive applications are completely software oriented and bugs in applications can make your life misrable. Do look for the variety of applications.

7) Consider the hidden costs. Basically, do read the fine print or inquire about hidden costs. Advertisements never mention hidden costs or maintainance charges.

Consider the look and Feel. Ofcourse, this differs with liking of person to person. Please read the above given analysis to get an insight of various brodcasters.

DON’T:
1) Get bothered by MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 details. MPEG-4 is considered better than MPEG-2 because of availability of more bandwidth. This means, more channels from the same transponder or more data being sent. Ofcourse, MPEG-4 is better but as an end user, it doesn’t affect you much. The early players in this domian are already in process of shifting to MPEG-4. So, this should not be the criteria for buying a connection.

2) Get bothered by multiple channels per screen. Multiple Channels (8/12 channels per screen) are nothing but mosaic descriptors. This should be your least consideration. How many times will you see 12 programs on one screen ending up confusing yourselves. This feature is given to find quickly about the programmes on various channels in visual format. More number of channels per screen doesn’t help much.

3) Get bothered by the number of features being published by broadcasters. These are just mrketing gimmicks. All the broadcasters in Indian market today are offering almost same features. Just that they are marketing it under different names. In short, Every broadcaster will provide the features of EPG, Reminders, Favourite Lists, Multiple channels per screen, Picture in Guide, Parental Control, Broadcaster specific channels generally for movies, Channel Banner/Mini Guide, etc etc.

In a nutshell, I’ll suggest you to look at the performance of the Set Top Box and don’t go by marketing gimmicks as the Sprite advert says “Dikhawe pe mat jao, apni akal lagao”.

Please don’t consider this post as biased. I am giving a very neutral picture of all the broadcasters.

And here I leave you with the Airtel Digital TV Launch commercial

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