Broadcast and Cable Communication Systems

Broadcast vs Cable network vs Online distributors

This page is about signal distribution and reception systems mainly focusing broadcast communication network which is a system for transmitting audio and/or video content to a wide audience achieved through radio waves such as over-the-air broadcasting. These networks can be further categorized into different types such as Broadcast television systems and Radio broadcasting systems. Cable TV and cable networks uses a physical cable infrastructure to deliver signals to subscribers' homes, users need a subscription and specific equipment to access these signals. placeholder text

Simulators

Name	Operating System(s)	Latest version	Years(s)	Region(s)	Type(s)	Enhancements	FLOSS	Active	Recommended
MyRetroTVs		?	'50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s	United States of America	Broadcast television systems Cable network?	~	?	✓*	✓
swimelodeon		?	'90s	United States of America	Cable network?	?	?	?	?

Comparison

MyRetroTVs

MyRetroTVs - 1996 news

This website is for watching captured footage from TV channels or various videos from the eras of the '50s to '00s, eliminates the need for handpicking videos and creating a personal collection, which can be time-consuming and require a significant amount of storage space. This website simply gathers videos from specific sources such as YouTube playlists etc, so we can say that this website offers a simulated experience of watching TV channels from during those specific eras. It also supports some basic #Enhancements. While this is a great way to experience retro television, there's room for even deeper immersion. For example adding surfing channel collections playlists, this could be achieved by integrating with Archive.org's vast collection of VHS TV channel surfing captures. Also integration with EmuVR, perhaps with some kind of support for playlists support for libretro core, could be a great next step too.

swimelodeon

This website is for watching '90s Nicktoons, original Adult Swim, old-school cartoons and anime. placeholder text

Enhancements

Name		MyRetroTVs
Post-Processing	Filters	✓
	AI-powered filter compatible (Freestyle)	?
	Shader Chain	~*
	Inverse tone mapping compatible	?
Quality of life	Rewind	?
	Fast-Forward/Turbo Speed	?
	Savestates	?
	Video recording	?
	User Profile	✗
	Command Line Options	?
	Built-in Custom resolution/CRTSwitchRes For using this on Windows OS you need CRT Emudriver. Another option is using EDID editor tool such as "Custom Resolution Utility".	Exclusive to libretro cores and GroovyMAME at the moment. Also there is a project for achieving software emulators like libretro cores and GroovyMAME send the raw RGB data over a network to a core running on MiSTer, it basically turns the MiSTer into a GPU for the emulator allowing for easy setup and use with CRT TVs/Arcade monitors.
	Big Picture Mode	?
Misc	Netplay or SyncPlay	?
	AI Service With the help of OCR and other techniques, the AI service can provide a live translation of a video, or text-to-speech capabilities for the visually impaired among other things, either on demand or automatically.	Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment. So there is no support at the moment.
	EmuVR support	Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment. So there is no support at the moment.

Type(s)

Broadcast television systems

Analog Television Systems

During the 1st and 2nd generation of video game consoles, RF connection was the only way to connect a video game console to a TV. During the 3rd generation some consoles such as the NES had separate outputs for unmodulated signals and all consoles had the option by the 4th generation. By the 5th generation, composite video became the standard form of connecting a video game console

NTSC

NTSC was the first color television system to be widely adopted, NTSC works by transmitting a high frequency color signal on top of the legacy black and white image, the amplitude of this signal determines the saturation while the phase determines hue, this is a property that many early consoles and home computers took advantage of. Every nation using the NTSC system also used a 59.94hz field rate. Many filters exist to replicate this display on emulators.

PAL

PAL was created in Germany as a response to NTSC's susceptibility to hue fluctuations during poor reception conditions. The difference from NTSC is that the phase is inverted every other line, causing phase errors to cancel out, causing a less objectionable drop in saturation instead. The color signal is also in a higher frequency than NTSC, thanks to the larger channel bandwidth on European channel allocations. PAL was almost always used with a 50hz field rate.

PAL-M

PAL-M was only used in Brazil and should not be confused with PAL-60. PAL-M uses PAL encoding on NTSC channel allocations, as such the frequency of the color signal is lower than that of regular PAL, close but not the same as NTSC. As with NTSC PAL-M used a 59.94hz field rate.

SECAM

SECAM (also written as SÉCAM ) was developed in France for similar reasons as PAL. Unlike NTSC and PAL, which transmits a full color signal each line, SECAM alternates between two axes of the color signal, making a delay line mandatory for decoding (hence the name which translates roughly as Sequential color with memory). Also unlike NTSC and PAL this signal is frequency modulated, which makes it more robust to transmission errors. Aside from France, SECAM was used by the Soviet Union and its satellite states. For this reason SECAM is rarely found on video game consoles, most often opting to use a RGB SCART cable instead (in some cases such as the NES, the RGB signal comes from an internal PAL decoder, hence not being "pure" RGB). Rare exceptions are the French Atari 2600 and Soviet Sega Master System

MUSE

MUSE (Multiple sub-Nyquist Sampling Encoding), also known commercially as Hi-Vision (high definition television) was created in Japan in the eighties where it was used for HDTV transmissions as well as laserdisc. MUSE works in a completely different manner from the above systems and was never used for any video game console, and is only mentioned here as it was still an analog system :)

Radio broadcasting

In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio station, while in satellite radio the radio waves are broadcast by a satellite in Earth orbit.

There are preservation efforts by Radio Preservation Task Force, National Recording Preservation Board and Association of Recorded Sound Collections dedicated to project operates in fulfillment of the “to develop an online inventory of extant American radio archival collections.” Over 2000 radio collections are linked in this database and more to come. Also see radio collections on Archive.org.

See also

• Preservation projects
• Online and Discontinued Online Services
• Game Room Simulations
• Auto-load next disc
• Arcade LaserDisc emulators#Comparisons - Domesday Duplicator project and difference between captures for Daphne/Singe and dumps for MAME.

Home media or media content playback focused devices

• Home Media Player
• Portable media players
• Smart TVs, DVRs, smart TV boxes/digital media players/media boxes, smart blu-ray players

External links

• Wikipedia:Broadcasting
• Wikipedia:Broadcast television systems
• Wikipedia:Digital terrestrial television
• Wikipedia:Radio broadcasting
• Archive.org
• set-top box