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All posts by js

Below are all of js's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


Brian, your numbers are wrong ... should be:

The change from DVB-S to DVB-S2 last year increased the "usable" bitrate from 33.790850 Mbits/s to 40.62837796 Mbit/s, the change to the 8PSK 2/3 will provide 45.55463347 Mbit/s.


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J
Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
Friday 14 September 2012 6:07AM

There are a few puzzling items in the "North West" aka "Winter Hill" service tables at present.

Sometime in the last two weeks, the Time Offset Table (TOT) has had an entry for Ireland added to it, as shown below.

Time Offset Table
UTC_time = 14/09/2012 03:16:16
country_code = GBR
country_region_id = 0
local_time_offset = 01:00
local_time_offset_polarity = 0
next_time_offset = 00:00
time_of_change = 28/10/2012 01:00:00

country_code = IRL
country_region_id = 0
local_time_offset = 01:00
local_time_offset_polarity = 0
next_time_offset = 00:00
time_of_change = 28/10/2012 01:00:00

For quite some time now, maybe a year, Welsh transport streams "BBC A" and "D3&4" have been listed in the SDT.
These transport stream are not listed in the NIT so no frequencies are given for them, nor are LCNs assigned to the services on them.
They are, however, listed in the EIT, where full schedule data is present for the following services:

BBC ONE Wales
BBC TWO Wales
ITV1 Wales
S4/C

Perhaps someone can shed some light.

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J
Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
Saturday 15 September 2012 12:49AM

Thanks Dave, that accounts for the Welsh puzzle.

I've just checked the TOTs on satellite. There are two networks at 28 degrees East, namely ASTRA and Freesat, each with their own service tables. The ASTRA TOT has an entry for Ireland (to be expected since BSkyB officially broadcast to Ireland). The Freesat TOT does not.

So, why is there a TOT entry for Ireland from Winter Hill? Is this another case of accommodating a regional overlap?

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Briantist:
BBC text Page 998 (off satellite):

"During September and October some of our channels are changing
on satellite and you might need to take some action if you have
trouble receiving any of our services:

On 27 September our HD channels will be changing, that's:

- BBC One HD
- BBC HD

On 12 October several of our TV services will be moving.

On 15 October most of our Radio services on satellite will be
moving."


Blindscan report for BBC HD transponder:

Frequency: 10847.112 Mhz
Symbol rate: 23000 KS
Polarization: Vertical
Spectrum: Inverted
Standard/Modulation: DVB-S2/8PSK
FEC: 2/3
RollOff: 0.25
Pilot: on
Long frame
Carrier width: 28.750 Mhz
BitRate: 44.520 Mbit/s

Note: The bitrate with pilot off would be 45.555 Mbit/s


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J
Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
Thursday 1 November 2012 10:22PM

What's this about then?

From the Winter Hill NIT:

Network Change Notifications

cell_id = 0946

network_change_id = 02
NetworkChangeType = Major - multiplex frequency changed
network_change_version = 01
ReceiverCategory = all receivers
start_time_of_change = 14/11/2012 00:00:00
change_duration = 06:00:00
invariant_ts_onid = 233A
invariant_ts_tsid = 1048
ISO_639_language_code = eng
message text = "On 14 November TV services may be subject to disruption until late afternoon. You may need to re-tune to get your channels back."

network_change_id = 03
NetworkChangeType = Major - multiplex frequency changed
network_change_version = 01
ReceiverCategory = all receivers
start_time_of_change = 14/11/2012 09:30:00
change_duration = 05:30:00
invariant_ts_onid = 233A
invariant_ts_tsid = 1048
ISO_639_language_code = eng
message text = "On 14 November TV services may be subject to disruption until late afternoon. You may need to re-tune to get your channels back."

end Network Change Notifications


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I am posting this for the benefit of those whose Freesat PVRs may be behaving oddly.

I regularly scan for changes to the channels on ASTRA/Freesat and noticed that the Freesat streams had gone from the Channel 5 transponder (10964H) again.

(This has happened before, sometime between 25/10/2012 and 31/10/2012, and the streams were restored on 02/11/2012)

A Freesat box with a single feed, tuned to that transponder will not receive Time or Date information nor update the EPG data, with obvious implications for reliable recording capability.

This is from my channel differ program:

*******************
Channel Diffs from 22/11/2012 18:25:42 to 23/11/2012 20:48:28
10964H
Changed:
Channel 5 ( 7700)
Channel 5 ( 7701)
Channel 5 ( 7702)
Channel 5 ( 7703)
Channel 5 ( 7704)
5 USA ( 7710)
5 USA +1 ( 7711)
5* ( 7715)
5* +1 ( 7716)
Channel 5+1 ( 7720)

Number of streams changed from 11 to 6
lost stream PID = 3840 = Data-FSAT-Tunnelled NIT
lost stream PID = 3841 = Data-FSAT-Tunnelled BAT/SDT
lost stream PID = 3842 = Data-FSAT-Tunnelled EIT
lost stream PID = 3843 = Data-FSAT-Tunnelled EIT pf
lost stream PID = 3844 = Data-FSAT-Tunnelled TOT/TDT
*******************

These streams are present (with the above exception) on all Freesat transponders and mapped to all Freesat channels.

The streams are still absent 26/11/2012 07:22

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The Freesat streams were back on 10964H when I checked at 11:30 this morning.

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This curious message is found in the Null Packets on 10964H and quite a few other transponders at 28 degrees:

47 1F FF 10 /packet header
FF 53 31 31 33 32 36 FF .S11326.
31 37 20 2F 30 39 35 39 17 /0959
FF 54 68 69 73 FF FF FF .This...
FF 6E 75 6C 6C FF FF FF .null...
FF 70 61 63 6B 65 74 FF .packet.
FF 77 61 73 FF FF FF FF .was....
FF 62 72 6F 75 67 68 74 .brought
FF 74 6F FF 79 6F 75 FF .to.you.
FF FF FF 62 79 FF FF FF ...by...
FF 52 6F 62 FF FF FF FF .Rob....
FF 46 69 73 68 65 72 FF .Fisher.
FF FF FF 61 6E 64 FF FF ...and..
FF 44 61 72 72 69 6E FF .Darrin.
FF FF FF 4E 61 67 79 FF ...Nagy.
FF 4C 6F 6E 67 FF FF FF .Long...
FF FF FF 4C 69 76 65 FF ...Live.
FF 4D 55 58 FF FF FF FF .MUX....
FF FF 67 72 6F 75 70 FF ..group.
FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ........
41 6C 6C FF 79 6F 75 72 All.your
62 61 73 65 FF 61 72 65 base.are
62 65 6C 6F 6E 67 FF FF belong..
FF FF FF 74 6F FF 75 73 ...to.us

Null Packets are used to maintain a constant bitrate for the Transport Stream and are normally stuffed with FF or 00 bytes.

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The Freesat Streams have been mapped to Sky News, PICK TV and Challenge indicating an imminent launch on Freesat of those channels.

The streams have also been added to 8901 and 8911 on 11023H which are to become BBC 1 Scotland HD and BBC 1 Wales HD, but no surprise there!

From my channel differ program:
*******************************
Channel Diffs from 26/11/2012 11:36:48 to 28/11/2012 00:10:34
Changed:
Sky News ( 4704) 12207V
Number of streams changed from 9 to 14
new stream PID = 3843 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3844 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3842 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3840 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3841 kind = 255 Type = 5
PICK TV ( 4751) 12207V
Number of streams changed from 6 to 11
new stream PID = 3842 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3841 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3840 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3843 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3844 kind = 255 Type = 5
8901 ( 8901) 11023H
Number of streams changed from 10 to 15
new stream PID = 3841 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3840 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3842 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3844 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3843 kind = 255 Type = 5
8911 ( 8911) 11023H
Number of streams changed from 10 to 15
new stream PID = 3844 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3843 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3842 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3841 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3840 kind = 255 Type = 5
Challenge ( 6031) 11565V
Number of streams changed from 6 to 11
new stream PID = 3842 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3841 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3840 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3843 kind = 255 Type = 5
new stream PID = 3844 kind = 255 Type = 5
*******************************

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BBC 1 SCOT HD (8901) LCN 980
BBC 1 WALES HD (8911) LCN 981

were added to Freesat on 3 Jan.

At present they are only available on a Freesat box by entering a unique postcode which maps to a Freesat Test Region.


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