A hybrid STB has been jointly developed by Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd, Intel Corp. and Huashu Digital TV Co. Ltd to serve the digital home market segment in China.
The digital STB platform is based on OKI's video processing technologies and Intel's CE2110 media processor for multimedia consumer electronics, and its design reflects Huashu's experience as a developer of value-added services in China.

The hybrid platform is designed to enable China viewers to enjoy high-definition TV broadcasts, video-on-demand and future valued-added services such as 3D graphics.

The number of DTV subscribers in China reached 23.64 million households in November 2007, representing 24.3 percent of the China's total households subscribed to CATV, and an 81.3 percent increase from the previous year.

The number of high-definition broadcast channels in China is expected to increase with the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. The digitalization of CATV and the spread of IPTV are expected to drive the convergence of broadcast and telecommunications-based video services with resulting growth in the STB market segment.

To accelerate the adoption of DTV technology, telecom carriers in China have provided low-end STBs to their subscribers at no cost. These devices have limited the ability of subscribers to access value-added services, and free STB distribution has made it difficult for carriers to increase their profitability.

The hybrid STB, which can be used for both DVB and IPTV, supports HDTV decoders including MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and H.264. The Intel CE 2110 media processor includes a 2D/3D graphic accelerator and supports applications including a Flash player, Java Virtual Machine and a browser.