The UK D-MAC/packet standard for DBS

The United Kingdom standard for direct broadcasting by satellite (DBS) is described. A multiplexed analog component (MAC) vision format was devised to overcome the inherent limitations of PAL. The resulting D-MAC/packet system offers improved pictures compared to PAL, together with rugged high-quality digital sound, secure encryption, the flexibility to provide widescreen pictures and, in the future, higher definition. The system is evolutionary in concept, and can be used in conjunction with existing television displays. The single-wire baseband format of D-MAC/packet takes up a bandwidth of approximately 8.5 MHz. It consists of time-compressed components of the luminance and color-difference vision signals, together with a 20.25 Mb/s digital data burst in duobinary form. Frequency modulation is applied for satellite transmission, while for distribution on cable networks, vestigial sideband amplitude modulation can be used.<
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