What is DVB-S2?

DVB-S2 is a digital satellite transmission system developed by the DVB Project. Satellite transmission was the first area addressed by the DVB Project in 1993 and DVB standards form the basis of most satellite DTV services around the world today, and therefore of most digital TV in general. It makes use of the latest modulation and coding techniques to deliver performance that approaches the theoretical limit for such systems. DVB-S2 will not replace DVB-S in the short or even the medium term, but makes possible the delivery of services that could never have been delivered using DVB-S.

History of DVB-S2

The world's first digital satellite TV services were launched in Thailand and South Africa at the end of 1994 and both used the newly released DVB-S system. Now it has become the most popular system for the delivery of digital satellite television, with more than 100 million receivers deployed around the world. With the system being more than 10 years old, the industry eventually decided the time was right to update. Thus DVB-S2 was developed, with the DVB Technical Module sub-group responsible for the work being chaired by Dr. Alberto Morello of RAI. The work would take advantage of advanced techniques for channel coding, modulation and error correction to create a system that would make a range of new services commercially viable for the first time, e.g., when combined with the latest video compression technology, DVB-S2 would enable the widespread commercial launch of HDTV services.


What is DVB-S2 Card

The DVB card including DVB-S card and DVB-S2 card are designed for receiving, decoding and displaying DVB (Digital Video Broadcasts) transmitted via satellite for people to watch digital TV on a standard Personal Computer. They include a hardware MPEG decoder and a composite video output, so the digital TV program can be displayed both on the PC monitor and an external TV set.

Compared to the DVB-S card, two new key features of DVB-S2 card that were added are:

* DVB-S2 card has a more powerful coding scheme based on a modern LDPC code.
* DVB-S2 card also support VCM (Variable Coding and Modulation) and ACM (Adaptive Coding and Modulation) modes, which allow optimizing bandwidth utilization by dynamically changing transmission parameters.

Other features of the new generation of DVB card include enhanced modulation schemes up to 32APSK, additional code rates, and the introduction of a generic transport mechanism for IP packet data including MPEG-4 audio–video streams, while supporting backward compatibility with existing MPEG-2 TS based transmission.

The standard document claims that the DVB-S2 card performance gain over DVB-S card is around 30% at the same satellite transponder bandwidth and emitted signal power. When the contribution of improvements in video compression is added, an (MPEG-4 AVC) HDTV service can now be delivered in the same capacity that supported an early DVB-S card based MPEG-2 SDTV service only a decade before.

What is DVB-S card and DVB-S2 card 's connection with BlazeVideo HDTV Player?

To put it simple: DVB card ( DVB-S card or DVB-S2 card ) + BlazeVideo HDTV Player = Watch Digital TV on PC for free

What's special about this DVB card and DTV combination:
* Free TV transmited via satellite - Free your broadband
* Record Videos & Live DTV
* EPG Guide - Search HDTV programs automatically.
* TimeShifting - Pause a live program or skip a boring AD.
* DTV + Analog TV + FM radio

Thre are still some other features like DVD playback, video conversion, video desktop, image capture, zoom video etc.

For more information about this digital TV please see: BlazeVideo HDTV Player

Compatibility list of DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-T and DVB-C cards manufactures:
* Anysee (E30S Plus, etc)
* AverMedia DVB-S
* Azurewave (TwinHan) (VP-1027, VP-1034, VP-1041, etc).
* BroadLogic 2030/1030
* Compro VideoMate DVB-S
* Digital everywhere FireDTV/FloppyDTV
* GeniaTech products(Digistar DVB-S PCI, satbox, TVStar, Digistar2, Digiwave 103G, etc)
* Hauppauge
* Kworld DVB-S 100 compatible (Vstream, Dynavision etc)
* LifeView FlyDVB
* 10moons
* Netcast DVB
* NEWMI Advanced DVB
* Pinnacle
* Technotrend
* Tevii
* TBS Q-Box
* Technisat
* Telemann Skymedia 300 DVB (non-official)
* Tongshi
* Terratec
* St@rKey usb box
* Cards with BDA driver (possible issues with some cards)
(To be updated for more DVB cards)