VBox Home

TV gateway A TV gateway (also called network TV tuner) is a television headend to a network UPnP router that receives live digital video broadcast (DVB) MPEG transport streams (channels) from terrestrial aerials, satellite dishes, or cable feeds and converts ...

is a

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

-enabled live TV tuner and PVR HDTV

set-top-box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sig ...

produced by VBox Communications Ltd. The VBox Home TV Gateway is also known as: * V@Home TV Gateway PVR * V@Home TV Gateway * VHome TV Gateway * VBox TV Gateway * XTi

History

VBox Communication was established in 2001 and received strategic investment from Optibase (now part of Vitec Group). On Jan 9, 2002 VBox Communications acquired from BroadLogic (now part of Broadcom) its Satellite Express and DTV product lines, adding DVB core functionality to VBox's IP. VBox TV Gateway technology was first used in its XLV Professional product line unveiled at the Satellite 2006 Show in Washington, D.C., targeting the hospitality, digital signage and enterprise markets. The VBox Home TV Gateway is based on VBox's 6th generation XLV Professional product line. It debuted at the Mobile World Congress ShowStoppers event in Barcelona, Spain on February 23, 2014 and was first reviewed by CNET UK.

Overview

VBox Home TV Gateway is a network TV tuner and

digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to ...

providing both

front and back ends In software engineering, the terms frontend and backend (or sometimes referred to as back end or back-end) refer to the separation of concerns between the presentation layer (''frontend''), and the data access layer (''backend'') of a piece of so ...

, capable of recording and streaming multiple channels to multiple devices at the same time. Unlike standard

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of s ...

es it does not have an

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...

or other video or audio outputs that directly connect a television, instead its multiple

DVB Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) o ...

tuners receives the live TV RF signal from

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

or terrestrial antenna and streams the decoded video over a

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a large ...

to any

UPnP Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of networking protocols that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly discover each other's presence on the n ...

-enabled player such as a

smart phone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...

tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being com ...

smart TV A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techn ...

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...

, or

game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a ...

Technical specifications

Supported
DVB Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) o ...
standards

Supported content

All VBox Home TV Gateway devices support

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

(FTA) content, models that end with CI also support encrypted

pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

content with single or dual

Conditional-access module A conditional access module (CAM) is an electronic device, usually incorporating a slot for a smart card, which equips an integrated digital television or set-top box with the appropriate hardware facility to view conditional access content ...

(CAM)

Common Interface In Digital Video Broadcasting, the Common Interface (also called DVB-CI) is a technology which allows decryption of pay TV channels. Pay TV stations want to choose which encryption method to use. The Common Interface allows TV manufacturers to ...

(CI) slots; there is no support for CI+ CAMs.

Supported recordings

Recording of live or scheduled TV program is available from any of the free VBox apps, the recordings are stored on an external storage and can be played from any device. Supported recording devices: * USB attached storage such as

USB flash drive Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply ( interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A bro ...

or external HDD. Supported

file systems In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...

: FAT32, FAT16,

EXT Ext, ext or EXT may refer to: * Ext functor, used in the mathematical field of homological algebra * Ext (JavaScript library), a programming library used to build interactive web applications * Exeter Airport (IATA airport code), in Devon, England ...

2, EXT 3, EXT 4 * Network storage - Windows Shared folder or

NAS Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ...

. Supported file system: SMB/CIFS

Simultaneous streaming of different channels

VBox guarantees a single channel per tuner, however, in reality, the tuner locks on a

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

or MUX and can stream all the available channels in that bouquet up to about 40 Mbit/s.

Compatibility and apps options

* UPnP - Any UPnP device or application (and

DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA; originally named Digital Home Working Group, DHWG) was founded by a group of PC and consumer electronics companies in June 2003 (with Intel in the lead role) to develop and promote a set of interoperability ...

although not officially supported) can discover the device and play live or recorded TV programs *

m3u M3U (''MP3 URL'' or Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3 Uniform Resource Locator in full) is a computer file format for a multimedia playlist. One common use of the M3U file format is creating a single-entry playlist file pointing to a st ...

- The device generates a link to an m3u channel playlist for connectivity with supported applications such as Kodi with the IPTV Simple PVR add-on, VLC, DVBLogic * XMLTV - The device generates a link to an EPG XML TV program file for integration with 3rd party applications *

Web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

- A web browser with the VLC web plugin can connect directly to the device to watch and record live or scheduled TV and view the EPG * Kodi - VBox PVR add-on, provided as part of Kodi Isengard and provides live TV, EPG, timeshift, remote access, external EPG source *

MythTV MythTV is a free and open-source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living room TV. It turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital ...

- VBox is supported from MythTV version 0.2.28 *

Tvheadend TVHeadend, sometimes TVH for short, is a server application that reads video streams from LinuxTV sources and publishes them as internet streams. It supports multiple inputs, a DVB-T USB tuner stick and a Sat>IP tuner for instance, combining them ...

* VBRec for VBox XTi - iOS/Android 3rd party application, simplifying recording and search for EPG. * VBox applications - iOS, Android, Android for the big screen (with remote control), Firefox add-on, VBox@TV PVR

References

External links

Official website (VBoxComm.com)
{{Home theater PC (application software) Digital video recorders Set-top box Television technology Television placeshifting technology