SHORT TECHNICAL GLOSSARY
Smartcard
Card from pay TV provider for decoding its programmes
Stand-by
Standby mode
Symbol rate
The symbol rate describes the quantity of data that is transmitted per second. The symbol rate is measured in MSymbols/s and is equal to the number of symbols received per second.
Time-shift function
Timeshifted playback
Timer function
Clock function for
Transponder
A transponder is a frequency converter which receives TV and radio signals broadcast from the earth, converts them and then rebroadcasts them to the earth at a different frequency. A satellite has several transponders.
Analogue transponders transmit only one TV channel and possibly multiple radio channels on a single transmission frequency.
Digital transponders simultaneously transmit several TV and several radio programmes on a transmission frequency. If a programme provider is broadcasting several TV channels via a digital transponder, we refer to the provider's channel package. The terms “digital transponder” and “channel package” have the same meaning.
VCR/DVR connection
Connection for an external recorder (such as a video or DVD recorder)
Video bit rate
The video bit rate describes the quantity of data from the digitised video signal that is transmitted per second.
Viterbi rate
The Viterbi rate (code rate, error rate) characterises the error protection used by the programme provider. The DVB standard provides the following values: 1/2 - 2/3 - 3/4 - 5/6 - 7/8
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