DVB, short for Digital Video Broadcasting, is a suite of internationally accepted, open standards for digital television maintained by the DVB Project, an industry consortium with more
than 270 members, and published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), European Committee for Electro technical Standardization
(CENELEC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The conditional access system (DVB-CA) defines a common scrambling algorithm (DVB-CSA) and a common interface (DVB-CI) for accessing scrambled content . DVB system providers develop their
proprietary conditional access systems within these specifications. DVB transports include metadata called service information (DVB-SI) that links the various elementary streams into
coherent programs and provides human-readable descriptions for electronic program guides.
DVB is also developing a Content Protection and Copy Management system for protecting content after it has been received (DVB-CPCM), which is intended to allow flexible use of recorded
content on a home network or beyond, while preventing unconstrained sharing on the Internet.
From a British point of view, the Astra 2 system broadcasting sky digital is the primary focus and discussed separately within this site. It has all the subscription channels of the Sky
package, and a number of free UK channels. Sky subscribers will normally not look beyond Astra 2, however there are many other channels available throughout Europe and these should not be
overlooked.
From the stand point of people living within continental Europe, there are two main satellite positions, Astra1 (different from Astra 2) and HotBird. Each of these have between 100 and 200
channels; with a mixture of European and Middle Eastern content; with an edge for HotBird in terms of number. Many of these broadcast in native European languages but also carry distinct
English language programming, although the channel names may be the same the content and program line up can be different per country.
Scandinavian viewers are divided between two satellites, Thor (mainly Norwegian and Danish) and Sirius (mainly Swedish). Each is dominated by a competing company; it is however very common
for Scandinavian viewers to have seutps directed at both these satellites. These two are mainly for subscription channels; there are very few open free to air channels on either of
them.
Spanish viewers will find some options on Astra, some on HotBird, and yet others on the special Spanish satellite, Hispasat, which is located far away in the west (about 50 degrees west of
Astra). It is pretty much impossible to receive both Astra and Hispasat on one fixed dish, although some expensive specialist equipments do exist.
Middle Eastern viewers will find some fare on HotBird, which has about twenty open Arabic channels; Astra1 has a handful; but also ArabSat between Astra1 and Astra 2 which adds a dozen or
two channels; or TurkSat further east with Turkish fare.
When it comes to choosing a receiver here are a few points to consider.
The channels you want to receive
If you only want to watch the Free to air ( FTA ) channels available then there are plenty of models to suit your needs. FTA machines are cheaper than the more high spec machines but will
generally contain the DiSEcQ protocol in their software which means that they can still be motorised or used with multiple LNB's. It's important to check that they have the right
connections for your TV / VCR setup as some models have SCART connections only.
The disadvantage of FTA machines is that should some of the channels you watch become encrypted then there is no provision in the machine to de scramble them, unless you use a patched
emulation software which would invalidate any warranty.
Embedded Receivers
The term embedded relates to the receiver having a de-scrambler embedded onto the printed circuit board of machine. There are many formats of encryption used by the different broadcasters
across Europe - Viaccess, Irdeto, Conax, etc and these formats can be found embedded on various makes and models of receivers. The sky digital receiver known as a digibox is a proprietary
example of an NDS embedded receiver.
PC Cards and USB Receivers
These devices link to the satellite dish in the traditional manner, however instead of displaying the media on a Television the broadcasts are displayed on your PC, the advantage of these
devices over set top boxes for some people is that they can be used to access one-way data services such as the skydsl broadband internet via satellite.
Conditional Access Modules ( CAM's )
A CAM is a de scrambler unit used to unscramble a Digital broadcast and is inserted into a receiver's Common Interface slot (CI)
Common Interface Machines
Receivers are generally quoted as containing a number of Common Interface slots (CI), this enables them to cope with different encryption methods used
by the broadcasters across Europe. The relevant CAM is purchased for the encryption method of the channels you wish to view, then it simply slots inside the CI slot in the machine. Some
receivers contain 2 CI slots and have an embedded scrambling format also.
The market for digital satellite set top boxes continues to expand on a worldwide basis due to increases in satellite pay-TV subscribers. Other factors include increasing set boxes per
household in North America, swapping out boxes due to conditional access changes in Europe, new service launches in Asia, and the continued demand for digital FTA satellite receivers (Free
to Air satellite receivers).
Large Dishes C Band or KuBand
Often users of our site come looking for information and end up purchasing equipment for use abroad, they have done most things correctly, they have looked at the footprints from the
various broadcasters, they have purchased LNB's and dishes, installed them and aligned them, however during alignment or connection of the receiver they find they are getting a
fraction of the expected signal strength - in the course of business and support we have helped many customers in choosing and obtaining equipment - because we mainly deal with mail order
the large dishes needed abroad in some areas of Europe for reception of satellite broadcasts from the UK we don't normally supply large dishes, although we can do so on
request.
More interestingly is that we pride ourselves in giving good quality support to the extent of asking customers for digital photo's if necessary, we have found recently a worrying trend in dishes being bought cheaply from the Middle East, China or the USA, - this alone is not the problem - there are many good suppliers of large cheap dishes globally but the trend is that cheap C Band prime focus mesh antenna's are being purchased.
The problem is without going into too much detail down to the reflective characteristics of the mesh dishes - the wavelength of the signals broadcast in C band is much longer than Ku Band, so the Ku Band signals associated with most European broadcasts pass straight through the holes in the mesh - basically if you are buying a large antenna if it's being advertised as a C Band antenna and is mesh then providing the holes in the mesh are less than 0.5cm in diameter then you'll be ok, if they are bigger than this then the dish isn't suitable, if your buying a solid antenna then it should present no problem. We'll update this information in due course and incorporate into our faq's and features. In a nutshell for Europe if you have found a supplier which gives a choice then basically you need Ku Band equipment. We have introduced dishes of size 1.8m and 2.4m, larger dishes than this are available but shipping costs are prohibitive.
DV3
Strangely enough we got asked, what was the difference between DVB and DV3, sorry but it's not DV3 - this is just a misinterpretation it's DVB - and stands for digital
video broadcasting. The way the logo is printed can cause this confusion.
You can find these products for sale within our site, but if you need more information or are unsure which equipment is suitable for your needs please contact us and we will gladly assist.