VGC Digital

VGC Digital is an upcoming Philippine ISDB-T digital terrestrial television set-top box developed and owned by VGC, with Sony being the company's partner. The DTT device uses a scaled-down version of the motherboard and operating system software used in the television boxes distributed by the VGC Cable pay television service, which itself is derived from the PlayStation 4, despite the cheap price of PHP 849.99. The device is set to pick up over-the-air digital television channels, as well as a warning system, and information services to areas in the Philippines served by VGC affiliates and stations that support the device's features.
== History ==
== Hardware ==
Despite the hardware on the device being derived from the more expensive PlayStation 4 gaming console, VGC Digital uses a more modern AMD Zen 2-based CPU, clocked at 3.5 GHz, and an AMD RDNA 2-based GPU, clocked at 2.3 GHz. While not a system-on-a-chip (SoC), it is similar to what is used on the PlayStation 5. The device has 12 GB of GDDR6 SDRAM, and integrates Bluetooth 5.1 and 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6). It also has support for PCIe NVMe M.2 solid-state drives, and if with a Windows license key input or a Microsoft account login, has an option to dual-boot between the proprietary open-source Cable OS operating system (based on the PS4's Orbis) and Windows 10. VGC's licensing agreement with Microsoft allows VGC Digital boxes to have Windows 10 pre-installed on the system but requires the customer to purchase a separate Windows 10 license. Given its purpose as a digital receiver, the system has a built-in ISDB-T tuner in order to allow the pickup of DTT channels in the Philippines.
=== Storage ===
The internal storage is the same custom-built 825 GB (667 GB available) solid-state drive that the PS5 has. Although too large for a digital television receiver, VGC says the large storage will allow viewers to record certain channels that have the feature supported in lossless high-definition if available.
Unlike either the PS4 or the PS5 which does not support NVM Express (NVMe) out of the box, a patch was applied on the operating system to support NVMe storage, which means customers can buy expandable storage at an affordable price.
== System software ==
VGC Digital includes a modified version of the Cable OS operating system used on VGC Cable boxes, which itself is based on the Orbis operating system of the PS4. As mentioned above, Windows 10 is pre-installed on the digital receiver, but will not let users into "Windows 10 Mode" until they have entered a valid Windows 10 Pro product key and/or are signed in with a Microsoft account with a digital license.
== Channel lineup ==
The channel lineup varies on each local area, but unlike other digital receivers, VGC uses PSIP technology, which lines up the channels in a "virtual channel" manner. It means VGC isn't necessarily on the first line of the list.