According to the latest research report released by high-tech consulting firm In Stat, digital satellite set-top boxes are currently the largest segment of the digital television set-top box market. In 2005, global satellite digital set-top box sales were 65 million units, and by 2009, it is expected that their sales will reach 79 million units.

    Digital satellite set-top box devices include pay TV set-top box devices and free TV set-top box devices. Analysts from the consulting firm pointed out that the development trends of these two devices are completely different, with the former having increasingly rich functions, while the latter only having some of the most essential functions.

    Analysts from the consulting firm point out that the latest features of digital satellite set-top box devices include DVR hard drives, multiple tuners, more interface options including USB and Ethernet interfaces, high-definition decoding capabilities, and more.