This paper presents an overview of the fields of technology addressed by technical specifications created by the DVB Project (DVB). It serves as an introduction to the section of the special issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE in which a number of very recent DVB technologies will be explained in detail. The overview starts with an explanation of the wide field of application which the members of the DVB Project decided to address over the years. It then discusses the base band processing required for DVB services and looks into the specifications provided for the broadcasting over cable, satellite, and terrestrial transmitters. The concept of broadcasting generic data is explained and the interaction channels supported by DVB will be introduced. Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) facilitates a horizontal market of receivers able to run software programs (applications in DVB terminology)in a well defined way. After a short introduction into the specifications addressing the delivery of broadcast-type content over broad-band IP networks,the concept of broadcasting to handheld devices is introduced. The paper closes with a description of the newest areas of development DVB has decided to tackle.

This special issue of the proceedings of the IEEE presents a systematical and complete tutorial on digital television (DTV), produced by a team of DTV experts worldwide. This introductory paper puts the current DTV systems into perspective and explains the historical background and different evolution paths that each system took. The main focus is on terrestrial DTV systems, but satellite and cable DTV are also covered,as well as several other emerging services.