The Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interactive TV

Everything you need to know about the coming digital interactive TV revolution! Theres a revolution coming to your TV: a digital, interactive, Internet-enabled revolution that will make possible services youve never imagined! The next TV revolution comes with new technologies, new standards, new architectures, and new business paradigms. Finally, theres a single source for up-to-the-minute insight into every aspect of next-generation digital TV: The Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interactive TV! From MPEG-4 to middleware, webcasting to Java OS, Gerard ODriscoll covers the state-of-the-art, comparing the strategies and technologies-and cutting through the hype. Coverage includes all this, and more: * Digital TV building blocks: compression, encoding, modulation, conditional access, transmission, and management * Advanced digital set-tops: features, components, installation, and troubleshooting * Set-top operating systems: JavaOS, Windows CE, David OS-9, PowerTV, VxWorks, pSOS+, Linux, and more * Internet-based TV: set-top Web browsing, webcasting, email, online chat, broadband applications, video on demand, parental controls, and more * Electronic program guides (EPGs)