FAQ PlayBox.pdf

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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General
QUESTION: What is PlayBox?
ANSWER: PlayBox is a cost-effective modular TV automation system. It is made up of many
modules, each dedicated to specific part of the TV broadcasting workflow. PlayBox can grow
with the customer’s requirements – each additional module can be installed later whenever
there is a need and budget for it. Some of the existing PlayBox modules are AirBox,
CaptureBox, DataBox, ListBox, FinishBox LE, and TitleBox.
QUESTION: Can I get technical specifications, product literature and demo versions of
PlayBox modules?
ANSWER: You can find detailed last-minute information and download evaluation versions
on the PlayBox website http://www.playbox.tv .
QUESTION: Can I get a full trial version of your software?
ANSWER: You can download a demo version from PlayBox website. The demo versions
have certain functional limitations, but we believe they don’t prevent most customers from
evaluating the software. In case you need a non-limited trial you are advised to contact your
reseller or us for obtaining a trial WIBU Key.
QUESTION: What are the Demo limitations for PlayBox modules?
ANSWER: They are different for each separate PlayBox module. These limitations are
described in detail at the “Demo Download” section on PlayBox website.
QUESTION: What is the PlayBox price?
ANSWER: PlayBox is a modular system. Each module is dedicated to a specific task and has
an individual price. You should decide which modules you need, how many of them and
where to place them before ordering the software. Regarding the prices you should contact
your local reseller (see “Where to buy” section on http://www.playbox.tv or write to our sales
department at sales@playbox.tv .
QUESTION: What does the commercial PlayBox package contain?
ANSWER: It contains a license for the purchased PlayBox module, hardware USB key
(software protection), user's manual and installation CD.
QUESTION: Can we purchase additional modules?
ANSWER: You can always purchase additional PlayBox modules when you need them.
Additional software licenses can be added to your existing WIBU key with a simple e-mail
attachment. No shipping is needed if you don’t need new dongles.
QUESTION: How can I get the latest versions of the PlayBox modules?
ANSWER: There is a Download subsection called "Updates/Patches" on PlayBox website
http://www.playbox.tv . It contains the fully functional versions of our software. It is a
restricted area. Only licensed users and resellers can browse it. Access to this area is granted
ONLY to registered licensed users. A dedicated registration form is included in every
PlayBox package.
QUESTION: What is the PlayBox software protection?
ANSWER: All PlayBox modules are hardware key (dongle) protected. They need the USB
hardware key to be attached at all times in order to function properly. All the modules check
periodically for the key presence on the USB port.
QUESTION: Can I use any MPEG2 capture card such as ATI All In Wonder to capture
content for AirBox?
ANSWER: In general – Yes, MPEG files produced by such general-purpose cards are close to
ISO-13818 specs and AirBox would playback them fine. However, in most cases image
quality is not satisfactory. In addition, such cards need a fast workstation in order to do higher
bitrate and better quality respectively. In contrast, professional MPEG2 encoders use
hardware MPEG2 circuitry and can achieve excellent video quality even at low bitrates.
QUESTION: What are your LAN recommendations?
ANSWER: Network requirements depend on video bitrate used. For example, if you are
going to use IBP up to 15 Mbit, a Gigabit (or even fast Ethernet) is more than enough. If you
are going to use I-frame at 25 or 50 Mbit, the best choice would be a Fiber-Channel SAN or
NAS.
QUESTION: What are your recommendations about storage sizes?
ANSWER: It depends on video bitrate used and your specific quality requirements. As a rule
of thumb (CBR stands for Constant Bit Rate MPEG2 stream):
At 8 Mbit/sec a 2-hour movie (CBR) takes less than 4 GB;
At 15 Mbit/sec a 2-hour movie (CBR) takes less than 8 GB;
At 25 Mbit/sec a 2-hour movie (CBR or DV) takes less than 14 GB;
At 50 Mbit/sec a 2-hour movie (CBR or DV50) takes less than 28 GB;
At 8 Mbit/sec 1 week of storage (168 hours) would require 168 x 4 = 700 GB storage array;
At 15 Mbit/sec 1 week of storage would require 168 x 8 = 1,400 GB storage array;
At 25 Mbit/sec 1 week of storage would require 168 x 14 = 2,400 GB storage array;
At 50 Mbit/sec 1 week of storage would require 168 x 28 = 4,800 GB storage array.
WIBU Key
QUESTION: What kind of hardware keys do you use?
ANSWER: We use WIBU-key USB ( http://www.wibu.com ).
QUESTION: What operating system do the keys require?
ANSWER: The hardware keys support Microsoft Windows 2000 & XP.
QUESTION: What kinds of WIBU-Keys exist?
ANSWER: There are 2 types of hardware keys used for PlayBox protection:
- Local (standard) keys, which are transparent green and are mostly intended for end-users;
- Network-enabled keys, which are solid green and are mostly intended for resellers.
QUESTION: What is the difference between local and network keys?
ANSWER: The only difference is that if you use a network key, you can run your licensed
PlayBox modules from any workstation in your LAN. If you use a local key, you can run
PlayBox modules only on the workstation where the dongle is plugged. While the LAN
hardware key may sound to be an easy solution, it requires constant LAN connection. If
something wrong happens to the LAN or the WIBU server all of the connected modules will
cease operation. Due to this fact we highly recommend using local hardware keys for the
time-critical modules such as AirBox, CaptureBox, and TitleBox. At the other hand, network
keys provide a flexible way for resellers to demonstrate and evaluate various PlayBox
modules with their NFR network key.
QUESTION : Can we start more than one PlayBox module with one USB key at the same
PC?
ANSWER: Yes, you can. Each dongle can enable one or more than one PlayBox module. It
depends on the number of licenses you have purchased.
QUESTION: How can I see my dongle serial number?
ANSWER: There is a sticker with your dongle serial number on the first page of your
PlayBox user’s manual and on the PlayBox retail box. Also you can go to Control Panel ->
WIBU-KEY -> Contents tab. Under WibuTree > USB you should see your dongle serial
number. Most of the PlayBox modules show the serial number of the WIBU key attached in
their respective “About” boxes.
QUESTION: How can I save my dongle details in a file and send it to you?
ANSWER: Go to Control Panel > WIBU-KEY > WIBU-BOX Context tab > Remote
Programming Context File > Browse > Save to wibukey.rtc (select the folder and press
“Save”) > Press “Apply” or “OK”. A file named “wibukey.rtc”is created. Send it to us at
MPEG2
QUESTION: What is MPEG2?
ANSWER: MPEG2 is an international standard ISO-13818, which defines a set of rules for
compressing, distributing, and decompressing digital video data. Contrary to many other
digital video compression formats, MPEG2 is adopted worldwide and everyone is able to
receive and properly use MPEG2 streams. Due to its flexibility, MPEG2 compression is used
for a vast variety of applications – from satellite TV broadcasting to home video distribution –
DVD-Video.
QUESTION: What are the profiles and levels in MPEG2 for?
ANSWER: MPEG2 profiles and levels refer to the compressed data stream properties such as
frame size, GOP type and size, color sampling, etc. For example Main Profile @ Main Level
(MP@ML) means 4:2:0 sampling at standard GOP (12 frames for PAL, 15 frames for NTSC)
with bitrate up to 15 Mbit/sec typically used for digital content distribution; 4:2:2 Profile @
Main Level (4:2:2P@ML) means 4:2:2 sampling at bitrate up to 50 Mbit/sec typically used
for editing and archiving; High Profile refers to high resolution video for HDTV, etc.
QUESTION: How is MPEG2 compression defined?
ANSWER: Generally there are two types of compression algorithms – Constant Bitrate
(CBR) and Variable Bitrate (VBR). At CBR the compression level is constant and the storage
requirements can be easily predicted – this however may affect the quality in case of more
dynamic scenes and greater picture detail. At VBR the compression level varies, depending
on scene/picture content – in case of more dynamic scenes a lower compression level is used,
which helps for maintaining better picture quality. The quality also depends on the MPEG2
profile used (4:2:2 or 4:2:0) and the sequence length (GOP=12 or 1 for example). The
minimum compression level for I-frame is 50 Mbit/sec – this compression level is used for
post-production and studio work. The optimal compression level for DVB is 5-6 Mbit/sec
with GOP=12 frame in PAL and sampling rate 4:2:0.
QUESTION: What does “bitrate” mean?
ANSWER: Shortly – it refers to data transfer speed. The bitrate describes the amount of data
used/transferred within a time period. It is directly related to the compression level – for
example, if we use DV video (approximately 1:5 compression) we would need 25 Mbit per
second. If we use MPEG2 compression at bitrate = 6 Mbit/sec, the compression level will be
1:27. Therefore, the higher the bitrate we are using, the lower the compression and the better
the quality.
QUESTION : Isn’t MPEG2 a “multimedia” compression? Is it suitable for broadcast TV
applications?
ANSWER: Only MPEG1 is a multimedia compression. MPEG2 compression is being used
for a variety of TV applications, including DTV worldwide. An enormous amount of satellite
TV channels are broadcasted using MPEG2 transport stream with bitrate between 2 and 7
Mbit/sec, MP@ML. The 4:2:2 MPEG2 Profile is even better than many contemporary M-
JPEG or DV-based compressions.

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