Why set-top box is a hit?

The recent report tells you that the sales of set-top boxes are on the rise. The statistical report tells you that in 2021 over 300 million sales were made in a single year. And the current report tells you that current sales are on the rise. So, whatever may the tik-tok generation tells you, using a set top box is old school, but in reality, it is not!

And we will tell you how and why!

Types of STBs

Most people do not know that there are two types of STBs and the most growth is seen in the latter.

1. Traditional: This kind of STB uses a satellite.
2. Retail OTT: Marketing specialists have described a steady growth rate in this STB.

Mind-blowing Features

1. Content is at the peak: The enhanced user interfaces, which include a high-resolution interface and individualised content suggestions, are the main emphasis of all the better experiences. While this is going on, the expanded capabilities mainly concentrate on the requirement for better image quality for 4K video throughout the entire pipeline. The entire pipeline supports 4K video for even more affordable STBs. Additionally crucial is AI super-resolution (more on that later). All home appliances, including smart TVs and STBs, are evolving as a result of this, necessitating the development of more performance hardware solutions to enable the end user to make use of these growing capabilities.
2. Smart camera: This allows for AR capabilities comparable to the Snapchat application (for example, animal characteristics and upgrades, and so on) and intelligent focus with facial tracking. It also recognises hand and body gestures, improves or blurs the background, and blurs out unwanted portions of the image.
3. Gaming entertainment: In China, STBs are used to access a variety of gaming applications from cloud service providers like Google Stadia and Tencent Games. For enhanced gaming experiences, cloud gaming demands STBs that support video and command streaming, low latency features, as well as upgraded CPUs and GPUs. With Android TV already supporting Android game apps, even entry-level STBs enable the most fundamental cloud gaming experiences.
4. Health: Following the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many individuals to exercise from home, fitness applications have started to appear on DTVs and STBs. Fitness applications now have a chance thanks to this new trend and the resurgence of smart cameras. In fitness applications, body location tracking with AI algorithms is necessary. In addition, the set-top box has an always-on voice subsystem for voice commands and digital assistant functionality.
5. Voice UI: In addition to basic voice commands for a better user experience, these devices require voice UI to enable more complicated applications and experiences, like the fitness applications previously mentioned (UX). It is crucial to use specialised NPUs in this situation since they add AI functionality for better Local Automatic Speech Recognition.
6. Par-excellence resolution: The picture quality of STBs is promising as it uses AI. On the other hand, while converting video sources from low resolution to 4K, this STB uses a combination of AI and implements conventional video processing technologies. This might even reach 8K for the most expensive set-top boxes. While 4K STBs presently dominate the market, it won't be long before more 8K STBs start to be sold and supplied internationally.