This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since October 2010. It is written like an advertisement and needs to be rewritten from a neutral point of view. Tagged since December 2011. Its factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Tagged since May 2012.

Airtel digital TV is an Indian direct broadcast satellite service provider owned and operated by Bharti Airtel. Its satellite service, launched on 2008, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in India. It uses MPEG-4 digital compression with DVB-S2 technology, transmitting using the satellites INSAT-4CR 74°E and SES-7 108.2°E. Airtel Digital TV service was launched on 8 October 2008.^[2]

As of 29 may 2012, Airtel has total 301 Channels and Services including 15 HD channels.^[3]

Its primary competitors are cable television and other DTH service providers—Reliance Big TV, DD Direct+, Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, and Videocon D2H. It has a total subscriber base of 7.1 million as of 31 December 2011.^[4]

Technical information[link]

Airtel Digital TV's standard definition broadcasts are in MPEG-4 with Interactive Service (ITV) and 7-day EPG (electronic programme guide). Interactive Service (ITV) of Airtel Digital TV includes an add-on service that allows a user to shop, book movie tickets etc. A universal remote is included in the package that can, over IR frequencies, control both the TV and the DTH box. Like other DTH service providers, it also provides a Pay Per View interactive service that includes a catalogue of movies in Hindi, English and Regional languages.

Additional features[link]

Áirtel Digital TV Recorder[link]

A premium DVR Digital Video Recorder allows 150 hours of recording live TV on a 160 GB hard disk with MPEG 4 picture clarity. This product was discontinued after the launch of [HD] Recorder.

Airtel Digital TV [HD][link]

Airtel Digital TV HD provides channels in their native resolution of 1080i or 720p with 16:9 aspect ratio. The STB is compatible with 7.1 Channel Dolby Digital Plus surround sound as well and is in fact the first HD STB in India to be compliant with Dolby digital Plus.^{[citation needed]}.Released an newer UI(version 402)on 25 march which has a features like VOD(Video On Demand)and Recording facility using external HDD.

Airtel Digital TV [HD] Recorder[link]

On 4 May 2010, Airtel digital TV from bharti airtel announced the launch of its 3D ready High Definition Personal Video Recorder (HD Recorder).^[5] Retaining its pioneering Remote Recording feature, airtel digital TV's HD Recorder offers unique features of Automatic Favourites, Search and Genre and Category sort and is 3D ready. It is also the first STB in India to support compatibility for 1080p signals in future.

On 24 May 2011, Airtel announced that its digital TV HD and HD-DVR boxes are software-enabled to view standard definition (SD) content upscaled to 1080i HD.^[6] Picture Quality: Airtel Digital TV has DVD quality picture (We are not sure about HD yet though, but the picture quality is flawless, looks amazing on TVs no matter what size) There was no pixelation and the picture was perfect.

• Sound Quality: It has amazing sound, almost DVD quality there as well. No hiccups in audio, nice streaming.

• Remote: Universal Remote is provided with Airtel Digital TV, meaning that your TV and the STB will work with the same remote. So say goodbye to two remotes! Also, even though it is a universal remote, it is actually really light unlike Tata Sky and Big TV remotes.

• Set Top Box: The overall appearance of the Airtel STB is very sleek and stylish, it does not appear like a huge bulky box. Its really nice and compact.

• Dish: Airtel Digital TV has a bigger Dish than the existing companies, which makes sure that you don’t lose connectivity even in heavy rainfall.

• Channels: Airtel Digital TV has almost all the popular channels.

• Pricing: Airtel Digital TV has flexible pricing options, and a lot of packs to make sure you get what you want.

• Active Services: Airtel Digital TV has 8 active services which are very useful as well. It includes iMatinee through which you can book cinema tickets, iCity for knowing more about your city and its places, iNews for getting in touch with the latest news, iShop for shopping, iAstro for knowing your astrological predictions, iTravel for knowing more about travelling, iLearn and iNet.

Mobile vehicle solution[link]

Airtel Digital TV on Oct. 2010 launched a new way for people to enjoy live TV on the move, in form of in-bus entertainment.A multi TV screen Mobile Vehicle DTH solution with installation of its connections in RSTC Super Luxury Volvo buses plying on Delhi – Jaipur Highway^[7] Airtel Digital TV also Lunched HD DVR with 3D

Channel list[link]

The following is the list of channels provided by Airtel Digital TV as of 29 May 2012.^[8]

Interactive services[link]

• iKidsworld
• iExam
• iDarshan
• iRadio
• iFasal
• iEnglish

Mosaic iTV services[link]

• iDD [DD Sahyadri/DD Kashir/DD Pujabi/DD Bangla]
• iDD-South [DD Podhigai/DD Chandana/DD Malayalam/DD Saptagiri]

Widget services[link]

• Top Game
• Smart Kids
• HD Upgrade
• Recharge
• Time
• Top Movie

Games[link]

• Aladdin
• Cricket Fever
• Band Baja Barati
• Agent vinod
• Road Racer
• Agneepath

Total channels and services – 301[link]

• Standard Definition(SD) TV Channels : 256
• High Definition(HD) TV Channels : 15
• Help & Promo Channels : 5
• Pay Per View Channels : 3
• Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) Channels : 2
• Widgets Services : 6
• Interactive Services : 6
• Mosaic Services: 2
• Games : 6

Reviews and recognition[link]

• Rated as the best DTH service in India in a review by Living Digital Magazine on 2 December 2008.^{[citation needed]}

• Tagged as "the most tech savvy operator" and recommended as the most technically advanced service by Times of India in a DTH review^[9] dated 14 August 2011.

• Airtel Digital TV [HD] Recorder was rated as the best HD DVR in India over Tata Sky+ HD in an independent comparison^[10] carried out by Techwek.com. Airtel's HD DVR was rated 9/10 overall in the review.

See also[link]

• DD Direct+
• Dish TV
• Reliance Big TV
• Sun Direct
• TATA Sky
• Videocon D2H
• Bharti Airtel

AIRTEL DIGITAL TV REVIEW - PACKAGE / PRICE== References ==

External links[link]

• Official website
• Scan Transponders of Airtel Digital TV

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of audio and video by digitally processed and multiplexed signal, in contrast to the totally analog and channel separated signals used by analog TV. It is an innovative service that represents a significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s.^[1] Many countries are replacing broadcast analog television with digital television to allow other uses of the television radio spectrum. Several regions of the world are in different stages of adaptation and are implementing different broadcasting standards. There are four different digital television terrestrial broadcasting standards (DTTB) and they are: Advanced Television System Commitee (ATSC) is a system that utilizes 8 level vestigial sideband (8 VSB) for terestrial broadcasting. This standard has been adopted in the United States and in other countries. Digital Video Broadcasting-Terestrial (DVB-T) is that utilizes coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (C-OFDM) modulation and supports hierarchical transmition. This standard has been adapted in Europe. Terestrial Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB-T) is a system designed to provide good reception to fix receivers and also portable or mobile receivers. It utilizes OFDM and two-dimensional interleaving. It supports hierarchical transmition of up to three layers and utilizes MPEG-2 video and advanced audio coding. This standard has been adopted in Japan. Digital Terestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB) adopts time-domain synchronous(TDS)- OFDM technology utilizing a pseudo random signal frame to serve as the guard interval (GI) of the OFDM block and the traning symbol. The DTMB standard has been adopted in the People's Republic of China (PRC), including Hong Kong and Macau.^[2]

Technical information[link]

Formats and bandwidth[link]

Digital television supports many different picture formats defined by the broadcast television systems which are a combination of size, aspect ratio (width to height ratio).

With digital terrestrial television (DTV) broadcasting, the range of formats can be broadly divided into two categories: high definition television (HDTV) for the transmission of high-definition video and standard-definition television (SDTV). These terms by themselves are not very precise, and many subtle intermediate cases exist.

One of several different HDTV formats that can be transmitted over DTV is: 1280 × 720 pixels in progressive scan mode (abbreviated 720p) or 1920 × 1080 pixels in interlaced video mode (1080i). Each of these utilizes a 16:9 aspect ratio. (Some televisions are capable of receiving an HD resolution of 1920 × 1080 at a 60 Hz progressive scan frame rate — known as 1080p.) HDTV cannot be transmitted over current analog television channels because of channel capacity issues.

Standard definition TV (SDTV), by comparison, may use one of several different formats taking the form of various aspect ratios depending on the technology used in the country of broadcast. For 4:3 aspect-ratio broadcasts, the 640 × 480 format is used in NTSC countries, while 720 × 576 is used in PAL countries. For 16:9 broadcasts, the 704 × 480 format is used in NTSC countries, while 720 × 576 is used in PAL countries. However, broadcasters may choose to reduce these resolutions to save bandwidth (e.g., many DVB-T channels in the United Kingdom use a horizontal resolution of 544 or 704 pixels per line).^[3]

Each commercial broadcasting terrestrial television DTV channel in North America is permitted to be broadcast at a bit rate up to 19 megabits per second. However, the broadcaster does not need to use this entire bandwidth for just one broadcast channel. Instead the broadcast can use the channel to include PSIP and can also subdivide across several video subchannels (aka feeds) of varying quality and compression rates, including non-video datacasting services that allow one-way high-bandwidth streaming of data to computers like National Datacast.

A broadcaster may opt to use a standard-definition (SDTV) digital signal instead of an HDTV signal, because current convention allows the bandwidth of a DTV channel (or "multiplex") to be subdivided into multiple digital subchannels, (similar to what most FM radio stations offer with HD Radio), providing multiple feeds of entirely different television programming on the same channel. This ability to provide either a single HDTV feed or multiple lower-resolution feeds is often referred to as distributing one's "bit budget" or multicasting. This can sometimes be arranged automatically, using a statistical multiplexer (or "stat-mux"). With some implementations, image resolution may be less directly limited by bandwidth; for example in DVB-T, broadcasters can choose from several different modulation schemes, giving them the option to reduce the transmission bitrate and make reception easier for more distant or mobile viewers.

Reception[link]

There are a number of different ways to receive digital television. One of the oldest means of receiving DTV (and TV in general) is using an antenna (known as an aerial in some countries). This way is known as Digital terrestrial television (DTT). With DTT, viewers are limited to whatever channels the antenna picks up. Signal quality will also vary.

Other ways have been devised to receive digital television. Among the most familiar to people are digital cable and digital satellite. In some countries where transmissions of TV signals are normally achieved by microwaves, digital MMDS is used. Other standards, such as Digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) and DVB-H, have been devised to allow handheld devices such as mobile phones to receive TV signals. Another way is IPTV, that is receiving TV via Internet Protocol, relying on Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or optical cable line. Finally, an alternative way is to receive digital TV signals via the open Internet. For example, there is P2P (peer-to-peer) Internet television software that can be used to watch TV on a computer.

Some signals carry encryption and specify use conditions (such as "may not be recorded" or "may not be viewed on displays larger than 1 m in diagonal measure") backed up with the force of law under the WIPO Copyright Treaty and national legislation implementing it, such as the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Access to encrypted channels can be controlled by a removable smart card, for example via the Common Interface (DVB-CI) standard for Europe and via Point Of Deployment (POD) for IS or named differently CableCard.

Protection parameters for terrestrial DTV broadcasting[link]

^{[clarification needed]}

Digital television signals must not interfere with each other, and they must also coexist with analog television until it is phased out. The following table gives allowable signal-to-noise and signal-to-interference ratios for various interference scenarios. This table is a crucial regulatory tool for controlling the placement and power levels of stations. Digital TV is more tolerant of interference than analog TV, and this is the reason a smaller range of channels can carry an all-digital set of television stations.^{[citation needed]}

Interaction[link]

Interaction happens between the TV watcher and the DTV system. It can be understood in different ways, depending on which part of the DTV system is concerned. It can also be an interaction with the STB only (to tune to another TV channel or to browse the EPG).

Modern DTV systems are able to provide interaction between the end-user and the broadcaster through the use of a return path. With the exceptions of coaxial and fiber optic cable, which can be bidirectional, a dialup modem, Internet connection, or other method is typically used for the return path with unidirectional networks such as satellite or antenna broadcast.

In addition to not needing a separate return path, cable also has the advantage of a communication channel localized to a neighborhood rather than a city (terrestrial) or an even larger area (satellite). This provides enough customizable bandwidth to allow true video on demand.

1-segment broadcasting[link]

1seg (1-segment) is a special form of ISDB. Each channel is further divided into 13 segments. The 12 segments of them are allocated for HDTV and remaining segment, the 13th, is used for narrowband receivers such as mobile television or cell phone.

Comparison analog vs digital[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

DTV has several advantages over analog TV, the most significant being that digital channels take up less bandwidth, and the bandwidth needs are continuously variable, at a corresponding reduction in image quality depending on the level of compression as well as the resolution of the transmitted image. This means that digital broadcasters can provide more digital channels in the same space, provide high-definition television service, or provide other non-television services such as multimedia or interactivity. DTV also permits special services such as multiplexing (more than one program on the same channel), electronic program guides and additional languages (spoken or subtitled). The sale of non-television services may provide an additional revenue source.

Digital and analogue signals react differently to interference. For example, common problems with analog television include ghosting of images, noise from weak signals, and many other potential problems which degrade the quality of the image and sound, although the program material may still be watchable. With digital television, the audio and video must be synchronized digitally, so reception of the digital signal must be very nearly complete; otherwise, neither audio nor video will be usable. Short of this complete failure, "blocky" video is seen when the digital signal experiences interference.

Effect on existing analog technology[link]

Television sets with only analog tuners cannot decode digital transmissions. When analog broadcasting over the air ceases, users of sets with analog-only tuners may use other sources of programming (e.g. cable, recorders) or may purchase set-top converter boxes to tune in the digital signals. In the United States, a government-sponsored coupon was available to offset the cost of an external converter box. Analog switch-off (of full-power stations) took place on June 12, 2009 in the United States,^[7] July 24, 2011 in Japan,^[8] August 31, 2011 in Canada,^[9] February 13, 2012 in Arab world, and is scheduled for October 24, 2012 in the United Kingdom^[10] and Ireland,^[11] by 2013 in Australia,^[12] by 2015 in the Philippines and Uruguay and by 2017 in Costa Rica.

Disappearance of TV-audio receivers[link]

Prior to the conversion to digital TV, analog television broadcast audio for TV channels on a separate FM carrier frequency from the video signal. This FM audio signal could be heard using standard radios equipped with the appropriate tuning circuits.

However, after the relatively recent transition of many countries to digital TV, no portable radio manufacturer has yet developed an alternative method for portable radios to play just the audio signal of digital TV channels. (DTV radio is not the same thing.)

Environmental issues[link]

The adoption of a broadcast standard incompatible with existing analog receivers has created the problem of large numbers of analog receivers being discarded during digital television transition. An estimated 99 million unused analog TV receivers are currently in storage in the US alone^[13] and, while some obsolete receivers are being retrofitted with converters, many more are simply dumped in landfills^[14] where they represent a source of toxic metals such as lead as well as lesser amounts of materials such as barium, cadmium and chromium.^[15]

While the glass in cathode ray tubes contains an average of 3.62 kilograms (8.0 lb) of lead^{[16][unreliable source?]} (amount varies from 1.08 lb to 11.28 lb, depending on screen size but the lead is "stable and immobile"^[17]) which can have long-term negative effects on the environment if dumped as landfill,^[18] the glass envelope can be recycled at suitably equipped facilities.^[19] Other portions of the receiver may be subject to disposal as hazardous material.

Local restrictions on disposal of these materials vary widely; in some cases second-hand stores have refused to accept working color television receivers for resale due to the increasing costs of disposing of unsold TVs. Those thrift stores which are still accepting donated TVs have reported significant increases in good-condition working used television receivers abandoned by viewers who often expect them not to work after digital transition.^[20]

In Michigan, one recycler has estimated that as many as one household in four will dispose of or recycle a TV set in the next year.^[21] The digital television transition, migration to high-definition television receivers and the replacement of CRTs with flatscreens are all factors in the increasing number of discarded analog CRT-based television receivers.

Technical limitations[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Compression artifacts and allocated bandwidth[link]

DTV images have some picture defects that are not present on analog television or motion picture cinema, because of present-day limitations of bandwidth and compression algorithms such as MPEG-2. This defect is sometimes referred to as "mosquito noise".^[22]

Because of the way the human visual system works, defects in an image that are localized to particular features of the image or that come and go are more perceptible than defects that are uniform and constant. However, the DTV system is designed to take advantage of other limitations of the human visual system to help mask these flaws, e.g. by allowing more compression artifacts during fast motion where the eye cannot track and resolve them as easily and, conversely, minimizing artifacts in still backgrounds that may be closely examined in a scene (since time allows).

Effects of poor reception[link]

Changes in signal reception from factors such as degrading antenna connections or changing weather conditions may gradually reduce the quality of analog TV. The nature of digital TV results in a perfectly decodable video initially, until the receiving equipment starts picking up interference that overpowers the desired signal or if the signal is too weak to decode. Some equipment will show a garbled picture with significant damage, while other devices may go directly from perfectly decodable video to no video at all or lock up. This phenomenon is known as the digital cliff effect.

For remote locations, distant channels that, as analog signals, were previously usable in a snowy and degraded state may, as digital signals, be perfectly decodable or may become completely unavailable. The use of higher frequencies will add to these problems, especially in cases where a clear line-of-sight from the receiving antenna to the transmitter is not available.

Timeline of transition[link]

See also[link]

• Broadcast television systems

Notes & references[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hart, Jeffrey A., Television, technology, and competition : HDTV and digital TV in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-521-82624-1

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Digital television

• Overview of Digital Television Development Worldwide Proceedings of the IEEE, VOL. 94, NO. 1, JANUARY 2006 (University of Texas at San Antonio)
• The FCC's U.S. consumer-oriented DTV website
• Digital TV Consumer test reports - UK Government-funded website to support Digital Switchover
• The UK's Ofcom accredited impartial comparison service for digital TV
• How to Set up a DTV Digital Converter Box and Antenna, a how-to article from wikiHow
• How to Scan for DTV Channels Using a Digital TV Converter Box (and why this must be done 11 June 2009 in US), a how-to article from wikiHow
• How to Use Your Older VCR, TiVo, or DVR With a DTV Converter Box, a how-to article from wikiHow
• Finding-the-Right-DTV-Antenna-for-your-location

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