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+.. -*- coding: utf-8; mode: rst -*-
+
+.. _dvb_introdution:
+
+************
+Introduction
+************
+
+
+.. _requisites:
+
+What you need to know
+=====================
+
+The reader of this document is required to have some knowledge in the
+area of digital video broadcasting (DVB) and should be familiar with
+part I of the MPEG2 specification ISO/IEC 13818 (aka ITU-T H.222), i.e
+you should know what a program/transport stream (PS/TS) is and what is
+meant by a packetized elementary stream (PES) or an I-frame.
+
+Various DVB standards documents are available from http://www.dvb.org
+and/or http://www.etsi.org.
+
+It is also necessary to know how to access unix/linux devices and how to
+use ioctl calls. This also includes the knowledge of C or C++.
+
+
+.. _history:
+
+History
+=======
+
+The first API for DVB cards we used at Convergence in late 1999 was an
+extension of the Video4Linux API which was primarily developed for frame
+grabber cards. As such it was not really well suited to be used for DVB
+cards and their new features like recording MPEG streams and filtering
+several section and PES data streams at the same time.
+
+In early 2000, we were approached by Nokia with a proposal for a new
+standard Linux DVB API. As a commitment to the development of terminals
+based on open standards, Nokia and Convergence made it available to all
+Linux developers and published it on https://linuxtv.org in September
+2000. Convergence is the maintainer of the Linux DVB API. Together with
+the LinuxTV community (i.e. you, the reader of this document), the Linux
+DVB API will be constantly reviewed and improved. With the Linux driver
+for the Siemens/Hauppauge DVB PCI card Convergence provides a first
+implementation of the Linux DVB API.
+
+
+.. _overview:
+
+Overview
+========
+
+
+.. _stb_components:
+
+.. figure:: intro_files/dvbstb.*
+ :alt: dvbstb.pdf / dvbstb.png
+ :align: center
+
+ Components of a DVB card/STB
+
+A DVB PCI card or DVB set-top-box (STB) usually consists of the
+following main hardware components:
+
+- Frontend consisting of tuner and DVB demodulator
+
+ Here the raw signal reaches the DVB hardware from a satellite dish or
+ antenna or directly from cable. The frontend down-converts and
+ demodulates this signal into an MPEG transport stream (TS). In case
+ of a satellite frontend, this includes a facility for satellite
+ equipment control (SEC), which allows control of LNB polarization,
+ multi feed switches or dish rotors.
+
+- Conditional Access (CA) hardware like CI adapters and smartcard slots
+
+ The complete TS is passed through the CA hardware. Programs to which
+ the user has access (controlled by the smart card) are decoded in
+ real time and re-inserted into the TS.
+
+- Demultiplexer which filters the incoming DVB stream
+
+ The demultiplexer splits the TS into its components like audio and
+ video streams. Besides usually several of such audio and video
+ streams it also contains data streams with information about the
+ programs offered in this or other streams of the same provider.
+
+- MPEG2 audio and video decoder
+
+ The main targets of the demultiplexer are the MPEG2 audio and video
+ decoders. After decoding they pass on the uncompressed audio and
+ video to the computer screen or (through a PAL/NTSC encoder) to a TV
+ set.
+
+:ref:`stb_components` shows a crude schematic of the control and data
+flow between those components.
+
+On a DVB PCI card not all of these have to be present since some
+functionality can be provided by the main CPU of the PC (e.g. MPEG
+picture and sound decoding) or is not needed (e.g. for data-only uses
+like “internet over satellite”). Also not every card or STB provides
+conditional access hardware.
+
+
+.. _dvb_devices:
+
+Linux DVB Devices
+=================
+
+The Linux DVB API lets you control these hardware components through
+currently six Unix-style character devices for video, audio, frontend,
+demux, CA and IP-over-DVB networking. The video and audio devices
+control the MPEG2 decoder hardware, the frontend device the tuner and
+the DVB demodulator. The demux device gives you control over the PES and
+section filters of the hardware. If the hardware does not support
+filtering these filters can be implemented in software. Finally, the CA
+device controls all the conditional access capabilities of the hardware.
+It can depend on the individual security requirements of the platform,
+if and how many of the CA functions are made available to the
+application through this device.
+
+All devices can be found in the ``/dev`` tree under ``/dev/dvb``. The
+individual devices are called:
+
+- ``/dev/dvb/adapterN/audioM``,
+
+- ``/dev/dvb/adapterN/videoM``,
+
+- ``/dev/dvb/adapterN/frontendM``,
+
+- ``/dev/dvb/adapterN/netM``,
+
+- ``/dev/dvb/adapterN/demuxM``,
+
+- ``/dev/dvb/adapterN/dvrM``,
+
+- ``/dev/dvb/adapterN/caM``,
+
+where N enumerates the DVB PCI cards in a system starting from 0, and M
+enumerates the devices of each type within each adapter, starting
+from 0, too. We will omit the “ ``/dev/dvb/adapterN/``\ ” in the further
+discussion of these devices.
+
+More details about the data structures and function calls of all the
+devices are described in the following chapters.
+
+
+.. _include_files:
+
+API include files
+=================
+
+For each of the DVB devices a corresponding include file exists. The DVB
+API include files should be included in application sources with a
+partial path like:
+
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ #include <linux/dvb/ca.h>
+
+ #include <linux/dvb/dmx.h>
+
+ #include <linux/dvb/frontend.h>
+
+ #include <linux/dvb/net.h>
+
+
+To enable applications to support different API version, an additional
+include file ``linux/dvb/version.h`` exists, which defines the constant
+``DVB_API_VERSION``. This document describes ``DVB_API_VERSION 5.10``.