DTH (Direct To Home) TV

Direct to Home (DTH)

• DTH is a digital satellite service that

provides television viewing services
directly to subscribers through satellite
transmission.
• It is a service that broadcasters use to
deliver TV and radio content directly to the
consumer homes.
• DTH TV works from signals received
directly on the dish antenna placed
outdoors facing the direction of the
satellite. So for DTH satellite TV to work,
there is no need for any cables from
outside the compound of the house or flat
building. The only cable required is from
the dish antenna to the Set Top Box (STB)
Decoder near the TV and then from the
STB or Set Top Box, a connecting cable to
the TV.
History
• 1980 - Satellite television services, first in
Europe, began transmitting Ku band
signals
• Dec. 11, 1988 - Luxembourg launched
Astra 1A
• 1990 - 4 large American cable companies
launched PrimeStar, a direct broadcasting
company using medium-power satellites.
History
• 1996 – DTH services were first proposed
in India.
• Mar. 4, 1996 - EchoStar introduced Digital
Sky Highway (Dish Network) using the
EchoStar 1 satellite.
• Sept. 1996 - EchoStar launched a second
satellite to increase the number of
channels available on Dish Network to
170.
Difference of DTH from CATV
• In DTH, TV Channel would be transmitted
from the satellite to a small dish antenna
mounted on the window or at the rooftop
of the subscriber’s home. So the
broadcaster directly connects to the user.
• DTH can also reach remote areas.
• With DTH, a user can scan nearly 700
channels.
How DTH Works?
Components of DTH System
• Programming Sources
– Channels that provide programming for
broadcast.
– The TV provider does not create original
programming itself; it pays other companies
(HBO, Discovery, Fox, etc) for the right to
broadcast their content via satellite.
– This way, the provider is kind of like a broker
between you and the actual programming
sources.
 Components of DTH System
• Broadcast Center / Head End
– The central hub of the system.
– The TV provider receives signals from various
programming sources and beams a broadcast
signal to satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
• Uplink Antenna
– Uplink satellite dishes are large in size which
provides accurate aiming and increase signal
strength.
– They are pointed toward specific satellite and the
frequency used is specific so that satellite
transponder can receive the signal.
Components of DTH System
• Satellite
– Receives the signals from the broadcast
station and rebroadcast them to Earth.
– A typical satellite can have 32 transponder for
Ku band (10 Ghz to 18 Ghz) and 24
transponder for C band (4 Ghz to 8 Ghz).
– A typical transponder can have bandwidth
between 27 Mhz to 50 Mhz.
– The satellite retransmits the signal back to
earth in Ku band and C band frequency.
Components of DTH System
• Satellite
– The DTH satellite sends a beam of signals to
the earth which is like shining a giant torch-
light towards the earth.
– Similar to the torch lighting up an area of the
earth, the signals from the satellite are
focused over a small area of the earth. The
area where the signals hit the earth is known
as the 'footprint' of the satellite.
– Any Dish Antenna placed within the footprint
of the satellite can pick up signals and decode
it to show us the TV pictures.
Components of DTH System
• Satellite
– In the center of the Satellite footprint, the
signal is the strongest and you need only a
very small dish antenna to pick up the DTH
signals. The further you move away from the
centre of the footprint, the signal gets weaker,
and you will need bigger diameter dish
antennas to receive the signals.
– The DTH footprint map of satellites show the
signal strength, the size of dish required is
inversely proportional to the signal strength.
That is for stronger signal you need smaller
dishes to receive DTH TV.
 EIRP >50 50 49 48 47 46 45 44
(dBW)

Dish 50 50-60 55-65 60-75 65-85 75-95 85-105 95-120

Size
(cm)
 Components of DTH System
• Satellite Dish (viewer’s)
– Receives the signal from the satellite and passes it
on to the receiver in the viewer’s house.
– It is parabolic reflector, it receives the signal and fed
to LNB(low noise band/block down converter),
which works as a receiver for signal transmitted by
satellite.
– LNB
• It collects the signal from satellite/minidish
• It receives the signal from Ku band and converts it
down to radio frequency signal.
• It amplifies and removes distortion from received
signal.
Offset Dish Antenna is most
widely used for DTH TV,
where the feed structure is large
enough in relation to the dish
to block a significant proportion
of the signal.
 Components of DTH System
• Coaxial Cable

– The coaxial cable connects LNB to set-top

box.
– A transmission cable consists of outer metal
conductor enclosing and insulated from a
central conducting core.
 Components of DTH System
• Set-top Box
– Processes the signal and passes it on to a standard
TV
– A set-top box can demodulate the received signal
and can convert the signal into audio and video
signal
• Tunner
– It selects particular channel range from 48 Mhz to 840 Mhz
• Demodulator
– Selected channel demodulated and fed to decoder
• Decoder
– It is a D to A converter which provide audio and video signal as
output.
• Microcontroller
– It controls all the process performed by each block.
Geostationary Satellite
• An earth-orbiting satellite, placed at an
altitude of approximately 35,800
kilometers (22,300 miles) directly over the
equator that revolves in the same direction
the earth rotates (west to east).
Satellite Television signals are beamed in
two types of bands:

C band- This band is comprised of Analogue

or Digital signals in the 4 to 8 GHz frequency
range used for Television Receive Only
(TVRO) broadcast and requires larger size of
dish antenna (6 to 8 feet) to receive the
signals and is not effected by bad weather
conditions like rain.
• Ku band- This band is comprised of
Digital signals in the 12 to 18 GHz
frequency range used for Direct to Home
(DTH) broadcast and requires much
smaller dish antenna (2 to 4 feet) to
receive the more focused signals but is
susceptible to outages during bad
weather conditions like heavy rains
The compression standards used for
broadcasting DTH signals are of two types:
• MPEG 2- This is the older standard of
signal compression.
• MPEG 4- This is the newer standard of
signal compression introduced in. With this
compression standard each transponder
can carry approximately 40 SD channels
(Fewer in case of HD)
Advantages DTH TV
• High-quality audio and picture display.
• Access to hundreds of channels
worldwide.
• Choice of programs. A number of unique
channel packages are there for the
choosing by satellite TV subscribers.
• Wider geographical coverage.
• Parental lock-out options.
• WebTV option.
• Digital video recorders.
Disadvantages of Satellite TV
• Initial investment. The receiver and
satellite dish can be expensive.
• Multiple TV sets require multiple receivers.
A separate receiver for each TV is
needed, making it very expensive if you
have, like most, more than one TV in your
home.
• Can malfunction in bad weather. Since
most of DTH system uses Ku Band which
is prone to atmospheric interference.
 DTH TV Providers in
Philippines
• Dream Satellite TV
• April 22, 2001 – the commercial launch of
Dream Broadcasting System, the first DTH
system in the Philippines, took place.

• Cignal Digital TV
• Was founded February 2009.
• Uses DVB-S2.
• Uses VideoGuard encryption system to
protect its content from signal piracy.
Frequently asked questions:
Q1. Does using a larger dish size
guarantee better picture quality for DTH
service?

Ans. Bigger dish size does not improve

clarity if signal received by small dish is
already at maximum level. Optimization of
signal strength is ensured during
installation by the DTH company engineer.
Q2. Does MPEG-4 have lower picture
quality compared to MPEG-2 standard
since the signal is more compressed?

Ans. MPEG-4 is a newer standard for

signal compression compared to MPEG-
2 and allows more channels to be
carried per transponder but the
decompression algorithm is also more
advanced and the end picture quality is
the same as MPEG-2.
Q3. Is DTH signal reception affected or disrupted by
environmental factors?

Ans. There are two main types of DTH signal

disruptions due to environmental factors which are
intermittent in nature, the first is ‘Rain outage’ where
there is a temporary loss of signal during heavy rains
since water absorbs the high frequency microwave
radiations coming from the DTH satellite and the
second is a phenomenon called ‘Sun outage’ which
occurs intermittently during the period of February to
March and September to October during Equinoxes
when the Sun’s radiation overpowers and interferes
with the DTH signals coming from satellites