DEVELOPMENT OF A DIGITAL TELEVISION SET TOP BOX FOR MULTIPLE TELEVISION RECEIVER CONTROL AND ACCESS THROUGH A PERSONAL AREA NETWORK

Abstract

Digital Television set-top boxes are now a standard supplementary appliance to the television set of Filipinos. Although internet video sharing applications and streaming services provide a challenge to free television broadcasts, Free Television is still the primary access of entertainment for those who still have no internet access. The purpose of the study is for the researcher to prove the possiblity that through a device prototype, a digital television set-top box can multi-connect at least four television sets with independent user control. This is accomplished with the combination of Bluetooth, Infrared, Mircro-controller and Radio Frrequency technologies which enable the independent control for the infra-red signal and the independent reception of IDSB-T signals to each connected sets. This device is intended for households and lodging establishments that have multiple television units. The researcher used a mixed research method in this study. The specific research design is the exploratory sequential design. This design is applicable for studies which use prototypes and mixed testing of qualitative and quantitative data outputs. For the test instruments, the researcher developed two kinds. The first instrument is used for the functional test of the prototype. This is based on how the device would be operated by the user in terms of control signal response of the set-top box, and the quality of the received video and sound on the television unit. The second instrument is a user evaluation survey with criterions based on five of the eight characteristics of the ISO/IEC 25010 standard which measures the acceptability of the prototype set-up box in terms of functional suitability, usability, reliability, portability, and maintainability. The researcher recorded a video presentation of the prototype in action. This video is included in the user evaluation on-line survey. The initial survey lasted for 2 weeks and gained 35 respondents. The researcher’s statistical treatment for the gathered data is weighted averages for both instruments. The results of the functional test, the demonstration, and the user’s evaluation support the hypothesis of the study. The functional test findings show that there is normal response to the control signals within the Bluetooth’s 10-meter range. The video and audio signals are rated high to good quality. Moreover, there is a noticeable degrade of video and audio quality beyond the 10-meter range. In addition, the control signals are no longer working in the mentioned range. The respondents for the on-line user evaluation are mostly from the Electronics Engineering discipline and are faculty and students of the said specialization. There were also respondents who have expertise in other fields of Engineering and Applied Technologies like Computer Engineering and Information Technology. These respondents, after viewing the demonstration, have given the prototype an overall adjectival rating of “excellent” based on a 4-point Likert scale. With this, it is considered that the prototype has achieved the objective of this study. For the improvement of the device, the researcher proposes several recommendations. Among these recommendations are the use of smaller available components to reduce its size, and the use of other wireless means to transmit the audio-video signals to distant units.