Introduction
There are various kinds of STBs available in the market for DVB-C , DVB-T/T2 and DVB-S/S2. Some of these STB manufacturers are CISCO , Motorola , Humax and EchoStar and Pace etc.
So there is always a need for STBs to be tested before deploying them.
In this article we will understand What is STB Testing ? How it Works ? and What Kind Of Functions should be tested in it.
What Is STB Testing ?
STB Testing is the step by step process to test quality of a Set Top Box. In which several factors of STB are responsible like Set Top Box Video Quality, Audio Quality , STB Integration testing and User Experience etc.
Where your STB can be simple CATV STB, IPTV STB, Android STB, Hybrid STB, Roku STB, Satellite Receiver or Terrestrial Receiver etc.
How To Do STB Testing ?
A STB Tester Toolkit or STB Tester Analyzer is used to perform the STB Testing. This Tester is a single device integrated with various testing instruments.
Where each integrated instrument is responsible to test specific function in STB. This tester is connected in between STB and Laptop. Where STB tester generates and sends the signal to STB and get the output from stb. Then this tester generates the logs in it and then shows on our laptop.
we will understand more about it below in this article.
Basically Set Top Box Testing is done in following two ways,
(1) Automated STB Testing
Automated STB Testing is the fasted and efficient process of STB Testing. In this process STB Tester is used perform various tasks on STBs. We integrate the STB with STB tester first then leave it by giving automated commands to it.
After a specific period of time we read the log file generated by STB tester and gets the conclusion about STB quality test.
A single STB Tester performs different tests on stb.
(2) Manual STB Testing
This kind of testing is slow and not that much efficient. Because it consume lot of time, money and man power too.
Manual Set Top Box testing is done in specific cases. Where some specific kind of problem is found in STB for which manual interfere is needed.
What Kind Of Properties Are Tested In STB Testing ?
(A) STB Tuner Testing
It is done by generating the signal from tester. After that proper tuning or searching is tested in STB.
(B) Channel Selection Testing
It is also a very important part to be tested in stb. It is the time delay between two channels while changing the channels.
When a customer press channel + button then it starts counting time and stops when it found next channel on screen. It should be as minimum as possible to increase the good User Experience.
(C) Video Quality Testing
Output video quality of STB is tested via HDMI or AV out. Where HDMI cable is connected to tester for measuring the proper HD out quality of STB.
(D) Audio Quality Testing
Here audio quality of STB is tested by using the Analyzer.
(E) STB Interfaces Testing
As we knows STB have various interfaces to communication with devices like HDMI , Audio Video and RS 232 etc.
These interfaces are communicating the other devices properly or not it is tested by the Analyzer.
(F) Display Function Testing
In this test subtitles or texts are tested on the display of STB by STB Tester. Where proper positing of texts matters a lot.
Conclusion
STB Testing is the process to be performed on DVBC , DCBS and DVBT STBs to test its quality. A STB Tester or Analyzer is used to perform these tests.
There are various kind of analyzer available in the market to test your stb. These STB Testers are connected with STB via IR (Infrared) transmitter or signal transmitter.
Which gives stb input signal and stb gives output signal via HDMI port to stb analyzer where it is analyzed and then it reflect on the computer.
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