Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Written as an authoritative introduction, this text describes the technology of digital television broadcasting. It gives a thorough technical description of the underlying principles of the DVB standard following the logical progression of signal processing steps, as well as COFDM modulation, source and channel coding, MPEG compression and multiplexing methods, conditional access and set-top box technology. If you are looking for a concise technical `briefing' that will quickly get you up to speed with the subject without getting lost in the detail - this is the book you need. After an overview of analogue TV systems and video digitization formats, the author then examines the various steps of signal processing - taken in order from transmission to reception - to facilitate an understanding of the architecture and function of the main blocks of the Integrated Receiver/Decoder (IRD) or "set-top" box. Herve Benoit focuses attention on the very complex problems that need to be solved in order to define reliable standards for broadcasting digital pictures to the consumer and gives solutions chosen for the current DVB system.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. ix)
• Acknowledgements (p. xi)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• 1. Colour television: a review of current standards (p. 3)
• 1.1 Monochrome TV basics (p. 3)
• 1.2 Black and white compatible colour systems (p. 6)
• 2. Digitization of video signals (p. 15)
• 2.1 Why digitize video signals? (p. 15)
• 2.2 Digitization formats (p. 15)
• 2.3 Transport problems (p. 21)
• 3. Source coding: compression of video and audio signals (p. 25)
• 3.1 Some general data compression principles (p. 25)
• 3.2 Compression applied to images: the discrete cosine transform (DCT) (p. 28)
• 3.3 Compression of fixed pictures (p. 31)
• 3.4 Compression of moving pictures (MPEG) (p. 34)
• 3.5 Compression of audio signals (p. 48)
• 4. Source multiplexing (p. 58)
• 4.1 Organization of the MPEG-1 multiplex: system layer (p. 58)
• 4.2 Organization of the MPEG-2 multiplex: program and transport streams (p. 62)
• 5. Scrambling and conditional access (p. 74)
• 5.1 Principles of the scrambling system in the DVB standard (p. 75)
• 5.2 Conditional access mechanisms (p. 77)
• 5.3 Main conditional access systems (p. 80)
• 6. Channel coding (forward error correction) (p. 81)
• 6.1 Energy dispersal (randomizing) (p. 82)
• 6.2 Reed-Solomon coding (outer coding) (p. 83)
• 6.3 Forney convolutional interleaving (temporal spreading of errors) (p. 84)
• 6.4 Convolutional coding (inner coding) (p. 86)
• 7. Modulation by digital signals (p. 89)
• 7.1 General discussion on the modulation of a carrier by digital signals (p. 90)
• 7.2 Quadrature modulations (p. 92)
• 7.3 Modulation characteristics for cable and satellite digital TV broadcasting (DVB-C and DVB-S) (p. 95)
• 7.4 OFDM modulation for terrestrial digital TV (DVB-T) (p. 99)
• 7.5 Summary of DVB transmission characteristics (cable, satellite, terrestrial) (p. 108)
• 8. Reception of digital TV signals (p. 110)
• 8.1 Global view of the transmission/reception process (p. 110)
• 8.2 Composition of the integrated receiver decoder (IRD) (p. 112)
• 9. Middleware and interoperability aspects (p. 124)
• 9.1 Main proprietary middlewares used in Europe (p. 127)
• 9.2 The open European 'middlewares' (p. 131)
• 10. Evolution: state of the art and perspectives (p. 136)
• 10.1 Digital terrestrial television (p. 136)
• 10.2 Evolution of the set-top box (p. 138)
• 10.3 New architectures (p. 141)
• Appendix A Error detection and correction in digital transmissions (p. 146)
• A1.1 An error detecting code: the parity bit (p. 146)
• A1.2 Block error correction codes (p. 147)
• A1.3 Convolutional coding (p. 151)
• Appendix B Spectral efficiency of cable and satellite transmissions with DVB parameters (p. 153)
• Appendix C Reception of the digital TV channels of ASTRA and EUTELSAT (p. 156)
• Appendix D The main other digital TV systems (p. 159)
• D1.1 The DSS system (satellite, USA) (p. 159)
• D2.1 The ATSC system (terrestrial, USA) (p. 160)
• D3.1 The ISDB-T system (terrestrial, Japan) (p. 162)
• Appendix E The IEEE 1394 high speed serial AV interconnection bus (p. 165)
• Appendix F The DiSEqC bus for antenna system control (p. 168)
• F1.1 The DiSEqC levels (p. 168)
• F2.1 DiSEqC basic principles (p. 169)
• F3.1 Different fields of the DiSEqC message (p. 171)
• Appendix G The common interface (DVB-CI) (p. 175)
• Appendix H Example chipset for DVB decoders (p. 178)
• Glossary of abbreviations, words and expressions (p. 179)
• Abbreviations (p. 179)
• Words and expressions (p. 186)
• Bibliography (p. 192)
• Books (p. 192)
• Official documents (in English) (p. 192)
• Some useful Internet addresses (p. 193)
• Index (p. 195)