III. THE PROPOSED SOLUTION
Because of the existence of the set-top box, the digital TV
set becomes a pure display utility. And the set-top box has
already become a compulsory accompanying part for the
digital TV set. This means that people cannot consume the
digital TV services without the set-top box. Of course this is
based on the assumption that the set-top box functionality has
not been incorporated into the digital TV set, the so called
built-in digital TV.
In order to cater digital TV sets and set-top boxes to
remote controllers, it is necessary to make fully use of the settop
boxes, because the set-top box can provide a kind of black
box functions. And in this case, it is possible to reduce the
number of the remote controllers from two to one, i.e. people
will have only one remote controller for both digital TV and
set-top box, as illustrated in Fig.2.