All Sky digibox’s employ the same characteristics, the only major difference being the speed of the processor inside the Digibox, All of them feature;

Interactive card

This was originally designed for cash card slots and was designed to be used with the upcoming Mondex cashcard, are precursor to the modern chip and pin system we use today. Since the digibox was designed for interactive services, and that home banking was one of the characteristics of interactive TV, it was to allow the customer to insert their cash or bank card in order to pay for goods and services.

This was never utilized during the first few years of Sky, which would have been the best time to utilize this. However Sky later launched, and closed a Sky credit card services where purchasing goods with the Sky card would reduce your Sky subscription payment, for example spending £10 on your Sky credit card would knock off 10p off your monthly Sky subscription bill. The customer would hen insert the card into their digibox in order too check their balance on the interactive service. This was the only function of the card as the customer could not make any purchase through Sky Active, and many retailers had pulled out at this point.

Message Light

This was an amber colour light that was included on all Digibox’s up until the 2010 Sky+HD boxes. Initially it was through to be used for the Open/Tak21 email services, and would light up if a customer was to receive an email however the Digibox lacked push email functionality. The actual purpose was for Sky to send broadcast message alerts to their Digibox’s via the satellite signal. These messages could be for informing the customers of upcoming PPV events, newly launched channels, upcoming offers and potentially alerts specifically tailored to the customer such as a package upgrade. A software update in 2004 added a Message alert function which could be activated by pressing the yellow button on the remote control, however it was still unused as pressing the button simply yielded a ‘ There are no message alerts’ notification.

General Interface

At the back of every digibox produced up until 2006 was a backplate with the worth’s General Interface, which when unscrewed contained PCMCIA slot which was to allow future plug in modules to be inserted. This was thought to be a means to expand and future proof the digibox by allowing the user to install new hardware. Sadly it was never used by Sky officially and was taken out of the digibox specifications around the same time SkyHD had launched.

Possible uses were:

• DVB-T tuner – this was rumoured to be in the works shortly after Sky digibal had launched, as Sky originally did not carry ITV due to bandwidth limitations needed to carry the different regions for ITV. This would have allowed the digibox to receive local terrestrial programmes such as BBC, ITV, Ch4 and 5.
• Optical Out – this could have ben used to provide an S/PDIF or TOSLINK connector to the digibox, allowing it to output sound digitally to an AV receiver or a stereo amplifier, since the digibox lacked Dolby AC3 support, the digibox could have outputted this externally to a received for it to be decoded. Sky+ would later launch with an Optical output instead, along with the Sony VTX750 digibox
• Ethernet – Could have added access to on demand services and would have allowed sky to compete with the on demand services launched by ntl and telewest in ate 2005, some Sky boxes did include an Ethernet socket such as the Thomson Sky HD digibox. Sky’s on demand service however rely’s on the customer downloading the programme directly to the hard drive, as unlike ntl and telewest which use their own network for transmitting on demand ontetn, Sky have to rely on BT ADSL infrastructure, and some customers make not have enough bandwidth to stream content live. which would not have been possible on a regular digibox unless external storage was provided.
• MPEG4 AVC decoder – allows the digibox to receive MPEG4 SD channels, this would have worked by converting the incoming MPEG4 stream to MPEG2 where it could be decoded by the digibox, allowing Sky to transmit their channels in MPEG4. They would still only transmit in SD resolution.
• Conditional Access – Probably the intended purpose. As Sky had used Videocrypt for their analogue transmissions prior to their digital launch which was notorious for being compromised, and that the Directv implementation of Videoguard had already been compromised also. This would have allowed Sky to incorporate a new form of conditional access should Videoguard itself become insecure.
• Additional storage – This would have been useful when Sky had to stop launching new channels due to memory limitations, a memory upgrade in the form of flash memory which could have been used to store TV listings for the search and scan banner rather than storing this in the digiboxes RAM. This cannot be used to expand the RAM directly as the interface is too slow for that, rather using it as a paging file similar to how Virtual Memory functions on PC’s

Interactive Services

Set-Top Boxes

Pace

Pace were one of the leading manufactures of digibox’s, and were one of the first to launch their Digibox, the 2200 in October 1998. As Pace were a common supplier of analogue videocrypt decoders for Sky. The 2200 was the first digibox released by Pace, and there are several different revisions of this model. The 9F01 version incorporated a ST20-TP2 processor running at 40mhz, and used a separate MPEG2 decoder and a Fujitsu Videoguard decoder processor. These early models have the ‘egg’ logo branding on them. A second revision, the 9F02 upgraded the processor to a ST20-TP3, which saw the main CPU and videoguard descrambler combined into one package, and the clock speed increased to 50Mhz. These models typically have the ‘Swoosh’ logo style on them, but some units still have the egg logo. Like all early model digibox’s the ST20 processor was used as this was already used by Directv in the US for their set top units.

Pace would continue to release further digibox’s based on the 2200 design, and introduced the 2300 and 2400 respectively. The 2400 was a slight redesign of the front panel of the 2200, however the internals remained the same as the later revision 2200. The 2300 was the same as the 2400 but in silver, and rumoured to be exclusive to comet. These models were released in 1999, and all had the identifier 9F02, with the 9F03 releasing later. Because these models have a different front panel design, but share the same internals, it makes sense to identify them by their identifier, rather than the model number.

Around this time, Pace also partnered with LG to produce an ISDTV, which was a TV with an integrated digibox (different from the later Panasonic IDTV, which had an integrated satellite tuner) and have announced a partner programme, where they would produce digibox designs for third party companies, one example was Toshiba, similar to how Pace would sell receiver designs to other companies, resulting in clone receivers. This was never made to market, and the concept was abandoned.

The 2500N (9F04) was released in 2000, and looked similar to the 2500B but replaced the ST processor with a NEC EMMA processor, which was MIPS based. Pace would go onto use the EMMA processor in their 3000 Sky+ box. Later models of the 2500 would be released in black and silver, and would use the ST5512 processor. These were released in 2001 and began with the 2500S3 model (9F05), along with the 2500S4 (9F06) and the 2500S5 (9F07), which was the first model to have the tuner module integrated onto the main board, rather than using the ZIF design.

The 2600 was a remarkable redesign, integrating the mainboard and power supply board into one unit, allowing for a smaller, more compact design, housed in a while chassis. These boxes were remarkably popular thanks to their powerful processor (Conexant CX22496, similar to what’s used in the Di4000) that was leagues faster compared to other digibox’s, and had a sensitive tuner which made it ideal for reception in Spain or south France. Pace would then release the DS430N, which used the same case design and layout, but would change the processor to an ST 5517. Pace also released the minibox, which used the established 5512 processor. The final Digibox released by Pace would be the DS440N which was recalled and replaced with with the DS445N, which was designed to fix a flaw with the power supply.

Pace 2500S5

Amstrad

Amstrad were an interesting manufacturer of digibox’s, like Pace they had also manufacturer analogue satellite receivers for Sky, and released their first digibox shortly after launch. The DRX100 (4F01) was similar in specifications to the early Pace 2200, both having the ST20-TP2 processor, and having a separate videoguard descrambler. A new revision was released shortly (4F02) which upgraded the CPU to the TP3. All DRX100 boxes were designed and manufactured by Samsung for Amstrad, and the original service manual is Samsung branded.

The DRX200 was released, using the St5512, followed by the DRX300 and later the DRX400, which was manufactured by Technisat and used the Conexant CX22496. Amstrad boxes have had mixed reception by end users with concerns over their stability and long term reliable, with the DRX100 having issues with its tuner module failing. However the later models, along with the DRX500 are considered to be reliable units. Amstrad also made a flow design digibox (DRX550), and had also began manufacturing Sky+ units.

Panasonic

Panasonic had manufactured a select few analogue receiver units and were one of the first announced for Sky Digital, with the TU-DSB20 being released shortly after launch, with it’s ST20-TP3 processor. Unlike other launch models, the DSB20 did not have a TP2 variant. Panasonic would then release the DSB30 in 1999, which saw the introduction of the MN2 processor. Reception to the DSB30 was extremely positive due to its fast operation and response times and its sensitive tuner made it ideal for reception in fringe areas such as Spain. Panasonic followed this up with the DSB31, which featured a new front panel design, but with several cost reductions, and the tuner was downgraded. The DSB31 was not as well regarded as the DSB30.

During this time Panasonic would also experiment with the concept of an IDTV, and would release TV sets with built in digibox’s based on their design, this resulted in the TX, which were digital TV’s with both freeview and sky digital tuners, negating the need for a separate digibox. Sales of this were low and the concept did not take off, and due to the different software being needed to support them correctly, they were unsupported by sky as of 2008, where free replacements to sky+ were offered.

On the digibox side, Panasonic released the DSB40 in 2002, which reused the DSB31 case design but upgraded the processor to n MN2.8. The DSB50 was released in 2004 and used  MN3 processor. Panasonic would later cease to produce digibox’s for Sky, and would exit the set top box market following discontinuation of its freeview boxes (DVD/HDD recorders still continued. Panasonic never release a sky+ box.

Panasonic TU-DSB40

Sony

Sony only made two digibox’s, the VTX-750 and the VTX-760. The 750 featured an ST20-TP3 processor and was released in 2000, whilst the 760 featured a NEC EMMA based processor. Both boxes have a slimline design and feature an optical audio SPDIF output. They did not support Dolby surround sound or AC3 audio. Sony would later ease to provide digibox’s to Sky, likely due to the free box offer, Sony had intended for their boxes to be a premium product.

Grundig

Since Grundig reused the case design on several models, and released upgraded models using the same model number, its hard to keep track of these boxes, unless you go by the version number. Some models with the /S designation feature S-Video support, something that was later exclusive to the Sky+ boxes.

The first model released was the GDS200, which featured the St20-TP2 processor, with a TP3 revision following up with the 4E02. The GDS200/1 & GDS300 were later released and used the TP3 processor, with the 200/1 reusing the 200 case design, and the 300 using a new case design, internally they are the same and are known as the 4E02.

Later models were built around the popular ST 5512 processor, and some of these models included S-Video support, the only regular digibox’s to do so. These box’s are known as the 4E04 models, and consisted of the GDS310/2, GDS210/2, GDS210/3 and GDS2000. The final model released was the GDS3000, which had a new front panel design, and was internally known as the 4E05.

All models suffer from poor power supply capacitors, which are notorious for failing from around 18 months of use. This can be fixed by changing the PSU or the capacitors themselves. The PSU problem can also manifest into other issues, such the viewing card not being recognised, or No signal being received on certain or all channels. The PSU issue manifested into the Thomson boxes, since Thomson had bought out Grundig’s satellite division.

Thomson

Thomson were the direct successor of Grundig, and immediately released several models based on previous Grundig designs, but using an upgraded processor, the ST 5516. These were known as the DSI4101, DSI4210 and the DSI4212. The final digibox from Thomson was the DSI4214, which featured the Conexant 24155 and used the flow design.

Complete STB Info

SKY IDTV

Sky IDTV’s (sometimes referred to IDSTV, Integrated digital satellite television) are similar to the Minibox design (Pace 1000) and typically lack the second RF out, although they still have dual card slots, a telephone return path and the RS232 serial port, allowing the use of Sky accessories such as Sky Gamepad and Sky Gnome.

They are initially created as a response to the ONdigital integrated TVs which would have eliminate the need of a set top box in order to access the service. Two manufactures have produced IDTV to date, LG and Panasonic. The LG debuted in 1999 and features an integrated Pace digibox, this was essentially a regular Pace digbox (2200/2400 which was being produced at the time) that was internal to the TV. Panasonic entered the market in late 2000 and unlike the LG was a fully custom design which featured an embedded design. The TV also integrated Freeview, and the digibox’s MPEG2 decoder was reused to decode Freeview channels, however the TV did not support ONdigital, despite the set having a cam slot. A flaw was the TV’s power switch was a physical power switch that when powered off, cut off power to the entire digibox, design wise this could cause problems as the digibox would miss firmware updates and card entitlements since the power was physically cut off and the user would have to wait while the tv listings were loaded, unless the customer had put the TV into standby beforehand.

Whilst having a digibox integrated into a tv may seen desirable for those who want a less complex setup, or have limited space for an additional set top box, they suffer from the following setbacks

• They lock you into a specific TV provider, meaning you cannot use the satellite component of the tv for other satellite services
• If the TV segment breaks down you are essentially locked out of your Sky programming since you cannot disconnect and hook up to another TV
• If there are any major changes to the sky TV service that require an physical upgrade of the digibox or the internal digibox suffers a fault, the idtv component of your TV is made redundant.
• Less flexibility if a customer upgrades to Sky+, with a regular digibox they can relocate it to another tv in another room, not possible with an idtv unless the whole to is relocated. Although if the user takes out a multi-room subscription they can record two programmes via Sky+ whilst watching a third on the IDTV, plus the RF2 out on Sky+ could always be used to playback a watched programme on another TV
• EU laws required IDTVs to support conditional access modules, this means the existing Sky guide software needs to be modified to accommodate the CAM slot
• You cannot output the internet digibox to another source such as a VCR, which makes it difficult to record sky channels to a VCR

After Sky had introduced EPG 3.4.4.b, many IDTV users reported issues when navigating their Sky guide. Since Sky had added more guide genres (Lifestyle, Shopping, etc) but the IDTV’s remained on the older firmware which did not support the new categories. Common issues were gaps in the TV guide, missing channels and general instability whenever the TV guide was used.

Sky had neglected to release EPG version 3.4.4.b to IDTV’s which resulted in TV guide errors since these TV’s were stuck on 3.2.11. Whilst Sky did eventually release an update, in 2008 letters were sent out to customers informing that their IDtv’s were no longer supported and a new Sky+ box would be provided.

Because the IDTV’s use the same IR command set, users that installed regular didbox’s found that the IDTV and digibox would conflict on certain commands, for example if the red button was pressed on the sky remote, both the TV and digibox would react, and in the case of the IDTV, pressing the red button when on an AV/scart input would switch the input to another scart socket, resulting in the TV changing to another input and causing an interruption of viewing. Using Sky+ was an advised workaround since Sky+ remote use a different command set.