Broadcast and cable communication systems

Broadcast vs Cable network vs Online distributors

Signal distribution and reception systems encompass methods for delivering audio and video content to audiences through broadcast communication networks. Terrestrial radio waves to internet-based platforms; with historical and modern approaches including terrestrial broadcasting, cable television, satellite broadcasting, and Internet Protocol-based services; broadcasting has shifted toward IP-based workflows (e.g., SMPTE ST 2110), mobile-first delivery via 5G, and AI for automation and personalization. Streaming’s dominance and cloud-based production are reshaping traditional models, with LEO satellites like Starlink expanding broadband support for content delivery. This page explores these methods, their historical development, and potential mimicking/simulation solutions.

Terrestrial broadcasting

Terrestrial broadcasting, also known as over-the-air (OTA) broadcasting, transmits audio and video content via radio waves from land-based stations to a wide audience, received through antennas.

Television: Terrestrial TV stations broadcast signals received by household or portable antennas. Historically analog, most regions transitioned to digital formats like Digital Television (DTV) and the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard by the early 2000s (e.g., U.S. in 2009). ATSC 3.0, introduced in the 2020s, supports 4K resolution, HDR, and mobile delivery. Examples include local stations and network affiliates like ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Radio: Terrestrial radio uses analog systems, primarily Amplitude Modulation (AM), which varies signal strength, and Frequency Modulation (FM), which varies frequency for better quality but requires more bandwidth. Digital standards like HD Radio (U.S.) and DAB/DAB+ (Europe) have enhanced audio quality and channel capacity since the 2000s.

Infrastructure: Requires broadcast towers and transmitters to send radio waves, often located in high-elevation areas for maximum coverage.

Equipment: Receivers include TV antennas (e.g., rooftop or indoor) for television and AM/FM radios for audio. Digital TV requires ATSC-compatible tuners, often built into modern TVs.

Subscription: Typically free for viewers with appropriate equipment, though some regions require TV licenses (e.g., BBC in the UK).

Cable television

Cable television delivers programming through radio frequency (RF) signals over coaxial or hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) networks to subscribers’ homes. Originating in the 1940s to extend broadcast signals, cable TV expanded with dedicated channels by the 1980s and digital transmission by the 1990s. Subscribers use set-top boxes (STBs) or integrated tuners to decode signals, typically requiring a subscription. As of 2025, cable TV serves 68.7 million U.S. subscribers but faces declining viewership due to streaming services, holding 24.1% of TV viewership. Also see Early online services.

Infrastructure: Extensive physical networks of coaxial or HFC cables connect broadcast centers to households, requiring maintenance and upgrades for digital and high-speed services.

Equipment: Subscribers need set-top boxes (STBs) or cable cards to decode signals, with modern TVs often including built-in tuners. Modems may be required for integrated internet services.

Subscription: Requires monthly subscriptions, often tiered for channel packages (e.g., basic, premium). Bundled services include internet and VoIP.

Satellite broadcasting

Satellite broadcasting uses geostationary or low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to transmit signals, offering broader channel selections and exclusive content like live sports.

Satellite TV: Providers like DirecTV and Dish Network deliver signals via dish antennas and receivers, requiring subscriptions. Popular in areas with limited terrestrial or cable access, satellite TV’s market share is declining due to streaming competition.

Satellite Radio: Operating under Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS), satellite radio (e.g., SiriusXM) provides digital audio to subscribers via specialized receivers, often in vehicles, since the early 2000s.

Infrastructure: Satellites in orbit, ground uplink stations to form the network, with LEO systems like Starlink emerging for broadband support.

Equipment: Requires satellite dishes and receivers (e.g., set-top boxes for TV, specialized radios for audio) to decode signals.

Subscription: Typically requires monthly subscriptions for access, with tiered packages for premium or exclusive content.

Internet protocol television (IPTV) and streaming services

Internet-based delivery uses Internet Protocol (IP) to transmit content over managed or public networks.

IPTV: Managed services like AT&T U-verse deliver live TV over private networks, "focusing" quality of service for subscribers, often bundled with internet and VoIP.

Streaming Services: Over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video deliver on-demand and live content over the public internet. By 2025, streaming accounts for 44.8% of U.S. TV viewership.

Infrastructure: Relies on mobile delivery/cellular or broadband internet infrastructure for IPTV or Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for streaming.

Equipment: Requires internet-connected devices like smart TVs, computers, smartphones, or streaming sticks (e.g., Roku, Amazon Fire TV). IPTV may need provider-specific STBs.

Subscription: IPTV typically requires subscriptions via telecom providers. Streaming services offer subscription-based (e.g., Netflix), ad-supported (e.g., YouTube), or free models.

Simulators

Name	Platform(s)	Years(s)	Region(s)	Enhancements	Active
MyRetroTVs		'50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s	United States of America	~	✓*
swimelodeon		'90s	United States of America	?	?
Toonami Aftermath		'90s, '00s	United States of America	?	?
RetroBlast		'90s, '00s	United States of America	?	?
Swimrewind		?	United States of America	?	?
mistwx		'80s, '90s, '00s	United States of America	?	?
WeatherStar 4000+		'90s	United States of America	?	?
radio.garden		Live	Global	?	?

• There are streamers out there doing a similar job such as ThatsSoDisney for 90s/2000s Disney Channel, NickPicks for 90s/2000s Nickelodeon, 4GTV for Classic G4, 90srewind for primarily Nickelodeon, CartooNetwork24 for Cartoon Network, 90sCartoonCentral for general cartoons or SFTV, 90sAnd2000sNostalgia for general.
• There are IPTV channels such as MeTV Toons for Classic Cartoons.
• There are YouTube channels such as The Museum of Classic Television Chicago, Shout TV and much more.

Comparison

MyRetroTVs - 1996 news

MyRetroTVs

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

Toonami Aftermath

Anime, cartoon network, also has Nick/MTV/Movie channels.

RetroBlast

Cartoon Network/Anime.

Swimrewind

Adult Swim.

mistwx

This website is for watching simulations that recreate The Weather Channel's WeatherStar broadcasts from the '80s to '00s as seen on the Local on the 8's segments or on the now defunct Weatherscan network.

WeatherStar 4000+

This website is for watching simulations that recreate The Weather Channel's WeatherStar 4000 local broadcasts, which primarily aired during the '90s with some local cable affiliates using them until the early '10s.

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.

Broadcast television systems

Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals.

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

MAC

MAC (Multiplexed AnalogueComponents), was created in UK and Europe by IBA and EBU in the eighties where it was used for SDTV/EDTV/HDTV transmissions as well as LaserDisc and S-VHS. Variants are A-MAC, B-MAC, C-MAC, D-MAC, D2-MAC, E-MAC, non-broadcast versions such as S-MAC, T-MAC and ACLE and even HD variant known as HD-MAC. MAC alongside 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 :)

MUSE

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

Samples

Comparison table

System	Refresh rate	Chroma subcarrier frequency	Usage	Effect of phase errors
NTSC	59.94	3.58 MHz	Most of the Americas, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan	Color shifts
PAL	50	4.43 MHz	Most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand	Desaturation
PAL-60	59.94	4.43 MHz	60Hz modes in PAL regions, never used in broadcasting	Desaturation
PAL-M	59.94	3.58 MHz	Brazil	Desaturation
SECAM	50		France	Immune

Analog Hidden Signals

Extended Data Services

XDS is a protocol used in analog television broadcasting to transmit additional information like program name, rating, or network name in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of a TV signal.

Wide Screen Signaling

WSS involves embedding digital metadata within the analog TV signal to inform the television whether the content is formatted for 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios, allowing for appropriate display adjustments.

Vertical interval timecode

VITC is a method to encode timecode data in the vertical blanking interval of video signals, allowing for synchronization and frame-accurate editing in video production. It's especially useful for slow tape speeds on analog formats.

Vertical interval test signals

These signals are used in analog television to check and adjust the quality of the broadcast signal. They are inserted during the vertical blanking interval and include patterns for testing aspects like color, linearity, and synchronization.

Video Encoded Invisible Light

VEIL is a technology for embedding digital data into the luminance of video signals. It's been used for applications like interactive TV, DRM, or controlling toys, where the data is invisible to viewers but readable by devices.

Vertical blanking interval

The vertical blanking interval (VBI) is a portion of the television signal where the electron beam in CRTs is turned off to return to the top of the screen. It's used to transmit data like closed captions, teletext, or VITC without affecting the displayed image.

Programme delivery control

PDC is a system primarily used in Europe for controlling video recorders, allowing them to start and stop recording based on broadcast schedules, using data encoded in the VBI.

Ghost-canceling reference

A GCR signal is used in analog TV to combat ghost images (echoes of the main signal caused by reflections). It's transmitted in the VBI to help receivers adjust for better picture quality.

Electronic programming guides

These are systems that provide viewers with on-screen listings of current and upcoming TV programs, often transmitted in the VBI in analog systems or digitally in modern setups.

Copy Generation Management System – Analog

See Copy protection page.

Captioning

Captioning involves adding text to video broadcasts to display dialogue, sound effects, and other auditory information visually, typically embedded in the VBI for analog TV.

Teletext

Teletext is a system for transmitting text and simple graphics within the vertical blanking interval of a TV signal, offering services like news, weather, and program schedules, accessible through a TV's remote control.

Zxnet's teletext viewer

Emulation

Name	Active
zxnet	✓
Teletext-capable version of JSBeeb	?
PagesFromCeefax	?

Digital television systems

Transmission of television signals using digital encoding, contrasting with the earlier analog television technology which utilized analog signals. At the time of its development, DTV was considered an innovative leap forward, marking the first significant evolution in television technology since the introduction of color television in the '50s.

The transition from analog to digital broadcasting started around 2000. This shift has led to the adoption of various digital television standards across the globe:

1. Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB): Utilizes coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation and supports hierarchical transmission. It's adopted in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, covering approximately 60 countries.
2. Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC): Employs eight-level vestigial sideband (8VSB) for terrestrial broadcasting. It has been adopted by nine countries including the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Bahamas, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Suriname.
3. Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB): Designed for both fixed and mobile reception, using OFDM and two-dimensional interleaving. It supports hierarchical transmission of up to three layers with MPEG-2 video and Advanced Audio Coding. Japan and the Philippines use this standard, while ISDB-T International, adapted with H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, has been adopted in most of South America, as well as Botswana and Angola.
4. Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DTMB): Employs time-domain synchronous (TDS) OFDM technology, where a pseudo-random signal frame serves as both the guard interval (GI) of the OFDM block and the training symbol. This standard is in use in China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
5. Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB): Developed in South Korea, this technology allows for the transmission of multimedia content like TV, radio, and data to mobile devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and GPS navigation systems.

Digital Hidden Signals

Electronic programming guides

In digital broadcasting, electronic programming guides (EPGs) provide viewers with interactive on-screen listings of TV programs, including detailed descriptions, schedules, and the ability to set reminders or record shows, transmitted within the digital broadcast stream.

DVB Content Protection & Copy Management

see copy protection page.

Captioning

Digital captioning involves embedding text data within the digital TV signal for displaying subtitles or closed captions, offering features like multiple language support, text styling, and positioning, which are more flexible and richer than in analog systems.

Broadcast flag

The broadcast flag is a bit in the digital TV signal metadata intended to control whether the content can be copied or redistributed. When set, it signals devices to restrict copying of the content, though its implementation and acceptance varied by region.

Active Format Description

AFD is metadata within the digital video signal that tells the display device how to handle the aspect ratio of the content, ensuring that the video is displayed correctly on various screen formats without cropping or letterboxing unintentionally.

Teletext

In digital broadcasting, teletext continues to be supported through digital teletext or subtitling services, where text and basic graphics are transmitted as part of the digital multiplex, offering services similar to the analog version but with enhanced capabilities due to the digital nature of the signal.

Recordings of broadcast television

Early TV was broadcast live. Different means were invented for recording a broadcast.

Professional formats

Telerecordings, also known as Kinescopes, were means of recording a television program onto film. In 50hz territories, the film ran at 25fps and was synchronised with the image being drawn on a CRT. The image was slightly defocused to avoid recording a scanline structure, as that would beat against scanline structure of the telecine (a device used for transferring film to video) causing moire. Telerecordings were always in black and white, as the shadow mask used on color CRTs would cause moire when superimposed on the grain structure of color film. However, some telerecordings were made without filtering out the PAL subcarrier, which allowed modern methods to recover the "buried" color signal.

Quadruplex by Ampex was the first commercially successful format for recording video, released in 1956. Because a video signal requires significantly higher bandwidth than audio, and the tape speed needed for achieving such a bandwidth was impractical to achieve with linear recording (such as on an audio tape). The solution was to have a set of four magnetic heads rotating as 2 inch tape passed by them, hence the name Quadruplex, as a result the effective tape speed was over 1500 ips, or 100 times the linear tape speed. Audio was still recorded linearly. As technology progressed, smaller less cumbersome format took its place.

Sony's U-matic, released in 1971, was the first video format to store the tape inside a cassette instead of on a reel that required manual threading. While it never caught on as a home format due to its high price, it became popular for industrial and educational use. It also found significant use in newsgathering.

Home formats

While home video recording remained out of reach for two decades, home audio recording was a different matter. A number of otherwise lost programs exist in audio form due to watchers recording their favorite shows onto audio tapes, often by simply putting a microphone near the TV's speaker. More inventive persons would tape the audio signal electronically from the TV.

Several home video formats came out in the 1970s, however the two most important ones were Sony's Betamax (not to be confused with Betacam, which was a later professional format) and JVC's VHS in 1975 resp. 1976. While Betamax had a headstart, VHS came out victorious.

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. Lots of recordings and captures preserved on Archive.org as well, such as: Radio Show and Programs Archive. See Tape/casette ripping guide.

Preservation of broadcast and analog media

Main article: Ripping games#Analog

See also

• Preservation projects
• Active and discontinued online services
• Set-top box emulators
• Game room simulations
• Auto-load next disc
• Arcade LaserDisc emulators#Comparisons
• Ripping games#Analog
• Copy protection
• Analog computers
• Literature

Home media or media content playback focused devices

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

External links

• Reddit /r RetroTVRevival
• Wikipedia:Broadcasting
• Wikipedia:Broadcast television systems
• Wikipedia:Digital terrestrial television
• Wikipedia:Radio broadcasting
• Archive.org
• wrongdog reckons: My Nostalgia Machine - Recreating 80's broadcast TV with a Raspberry Pi - recreating over-the-air broadcast television the way he remember it from his childhood. In this video, He will wax nostalgic about the old-days and then show you how he built that simulator and talk about how it works. He use a Raspberry Pi 5, a Raspberry Pico, an old aerial rotator box and some custom code to create an accurate simulation of TV in the late 70s and early 80s. The source code for this project can be found here, more details on the project can be found here.
• VWestLife: Analog TV was smarter than you think