Overview of the Hardware

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

To achieve their purposes, broadcast clients require hardware components of the following sort:

• A digital-ready display. Broadcast clients are intended for home display of television. To achieve this goal requires a progressive-scan super VGA (SVGA) monitor with a resolution of at least 800 x 600 pixels, a refresh rate of 60 or 120 hertz, and phosphors with matching persistence so as to minimize flicker while matching the luminance of television picture tubes. Suitable monitors vary in size from under 17 inches to over 35 inches.
• A network receiver card. The receiver card, installed on a PCI or other high-bandwidth bus, provides functionality such as data tuning, decryption, demultiplexing, and other capabilities that permit it to receive signals from specific broadcast sources.
• A video card capable of MPEG-2 compression. A video card with MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 audio and video decoding capabilities, also installed on a PCI or other high-bandwidth bus, must provide functionality such as SVGA video display, MPEG decoding, and NTSC or PAL signal demodulation and encoding. This functionality is needed for digital video disks (DVDs) as well as for videotape input/output and ordinary television broadcasts.
• A standard modem. Customers require a back channel to purchase pay-per-view movies and other premium data services and to interact with advertisers and broadcasters. A 14.4-kilobit-per-second or faster telephone modem provides a low-bandwidth back channel that is more than adequate for these needs. As Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), and cable modems become widely available, faster back channels will become practical. As they do, more dynamic forms of interactive entertainment will evolve.
• A keyboard, pointing device, and remote control. Viewers must be able to control a broadcast client, together with other consumer electronic devices such as a VCR or stereo system, comfortably and conveniently from a seat some distance from the screen. The keyboard, pointer, or remote control device or devices that meet this need should be wireless and designed for easy use on the lap.
• Custom hardware device drivers. Vendors of special-purpose cards to be part of the system need to provide standard device drivers for their hardware based on the Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS).

Detailed minimum and recommended hardware configurations are specified in Client Hardware Requirements. However, within the given boundaries, alternate configurations are encouraged, as long as good television and data reception for broadcasts continues to be provided.