EMBEDDED SOFTWARE USING C/C++ FOR DIGITAL SET-TOP BOX WITH CONDITIONAL ACCESS FOR PAY TV CHANNELS

Abstract

Today , a digital TV requires a Set-Top Box (STB) i.e. box which is on top of analog TV which is used to decode and tune digital signals, and converts them to a format that is understood by analog TV. The broadcasters and service providers are interacting with their viewers on many levels, offering them greater program choice than ever before. Additionally, the development of a security system provides them with unprecedented control over what they watch and when. A CA system is best described as a virtual gateway that allows viewers to access a new world of digital services. The main goal of any CA system is to control subscriber's access to digital TV pay services and secure the service providers revenue streams. Consequently, only customers that have a valid contract with the network operator can access a particular service. CA System from Conax which is a CA provider has been implemented in the Set-top Box (STB) of HFCL. This is first part of the project carried out at HFCL. To operate STB in a easy and interactive manner , a sort of Graphic User Interface (GUI) has been developed using Fujitsu,s API library functions. The main purpose of OSD is to make handling of Set —top Box (STB) convenient and interactive for the user. Various menus are popped up on TV screen and user can choose and view his favorite channel from the channel list. Also he can customize, set and adjust the various parameters from personal preferences such as password etc. Next part is that of extraction of information from Transport Stream which is based on systems part of the Recommendation/International Standard ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 13818-1: 1994(E) ITU-T Rec. H.222.0 (1995 E) deals with the combination of one or more elementary streams of video and audio, as well as other data, into single or multiple streams which are suitable for storage or transmission. Systems coding is then carried out as per syntactic and semantic rules imposed by above specification and provides information to enable synchronized decoding of decoder buffers over a wide range of retrieval or receipt conditions. Both the Transport Stream and Program Stream defined in above standards provide coding syntax which is necessary and sufficient to synchronize the decoding and presentation of the video and audio information 1 Chapter