All posts by js
Below are all of js's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Bad Characters Update:
I had thought, maybe, the BBC had finally eliminated the root cause of these errors in their EPG data, but no, they haven't.
The latest short-form error-dump follows:
Invalid Character Codes in the EIT off North West multiplex BBC A. Date: 2020/02/19 10:12:56
It has become apparent through observation that invalid bytes in the Freeview EIT text strings are the low-order bytes of the Unicode General Punctuation Block:
Of course only bytes less than 0x20 qualify as invalid codes in the context of EIT text strings.
Since about April 2018, the following invalid codes have been found in the Freeview EIT text items:
0x01, substitute: {0x01} -> Unicode Character: "EM QUAD" (U + 2001)
0x08, substitute: { } -> Unicode Character: "PUNCTUATION SPACE" (U + 2008)
0x0B, substitute: {} -> Unicode Character: "ZERO WIDTH SPACE" (U + 200B)
0x10, substitute: {-} -> Unicode Character: "HYPHEN" (U + 2010)
0x13, substitute: {--} -> Unicode Character: "EN DASH" (U + 2013)
0x14, substitute: {---} -> Unicode Character: "EM DASH" (U + 2014)
0x18, substitute: {L'} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2018)
0x19, substitute: {R'} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 2019)
0x1C, substitute: {L''} -> Unicode Character: "LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201C)
0x1D, substitute: {R''} -> Unicode Character: "RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK" (U + 201D)
There are 1098 invalid codes in the current EIT:
invalid code, count, percentage
0x18, 15, 1.37%
0x19, 1025, 93.35%
0x1C, 29, 2.64%
0x1D, 29, 2.64%
There are 877 events with invalid codes in the current EIT.
The Culprits:
Format:
service_name, number of events containing errors
BBC Radio 4, 1
BBC Radio 4, 1
Yaaas!, 15
Blaze, 2
Blaze+1, 1
TCC, 1
ADULT Studio 66, 32
Planet Knowledge, 32
Sports Channel Network, 32
Sony Movies Action, 2
Ketchup TV, 9
RNIB Connect, 3
Sony Movies, 22
POP, 76
PBS America, 15
Sony Channel +1, 19
POP Max, 128
Sony Movies Classic +1, 2
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
That's TV, 48
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
That's TV, 48
Tiny Pop, 82
Sony Movies +1, 10
Sony Channel, 20
Sony Movies Classic, 8
PBS America +1, 28
Events with invalid codes in the eight-day EIT off multiplex BBC A at 2020/02/19 10:12:56:
#1: BBC Radio 4, Wed 26 Feb 09:45 - 10:00: title = "The Crying Book", description = "3/5. A young Black man is shot by the police in Walmart, prompting poet Heather Christle to consider the power and meaning of {L''}white lady tears{R''}.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D
#2: BBC Radio 4, Wed 26 Feb 09:45 - 10:00: title = "The Crying Book", description = "3/5. A young Black man is shot by the police in Walmart, prompting poet Heather Christle to consider the power and meaning of {L''}white lady tears{R''}.", description error bytes: 0x1C, 0x1D
#3: Yaaas!, Wed 19 Feb 05:30 - 06:00: title = "Wallace and Gromit's Cracking...", description = "... Contraptions: From the Soccamatic to the 535 Crackervac, Cracking Contraptionsis a showcase of 10 short films about Wallace{R'}s wonderfully eccentric ideas.", description error byte: 0x19
...
#877: PBS America +1, Tue 25 Feb 15:50 - 17:00: title = "The Greatest Knight", description = "In a career that spanned half a century, English soldier and statesman William Marshal served some of Christendom{R'}s greatest leaders.", Huffman coded, description error byte: 0x19
Note: EPG for three local and both BBC A multiplexes (C50 and C32) is sent, accounting for the apparent dupli/triplication.
| link to this comment |
The Code Rate for com8 was reduced to 1/2 a while ago.
Here are the current Bitrates for com7 and com8:
PCRs in each transport stream were used to calculate the bitrate.
Median values tend to eliminate rogue PCR results.
The values can be used to deduce the transmission parameters using a calculator such as:
DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator: DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator - Tools for Digital TV and Mobile DTV
com7:
Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 34 <= dPCR <= 37 ms intervals over 11 seconds for Arqiva C Com78 National (19/02/2020 15:47:35)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
05.985 | 01.852 | 03.471 | BBC NEWS HD
06.237 | 02.318 | 03.592 | Channel 4+1 HD
10.648 | 02.747 | 04.934 | 4seven HD
08.426 | 03.609 | 05.472 | TJC HD
03.727 | 00.644 | 01.238 | Smithsonian Channel
03.841 | 00.553 | 01.334 | Quest Red+1
02.585 | 00.559 | 01.321 | More4+1
02.490 | 00.654 | 01.334 | CBS Reality +1
01.227 | 00.775 | 00.985 | 5USA+1
04.778 | 02.151 | 03.187 | RT HD
05.163 | 01.271 | 02.609 | Pick+1
02.323 | 01.019 | 01.722 | Jewellery Maker
03.471 | 00.569 | 02.362 | Null Packets
04.999 | 02.080 | 03.264 | All Other Streams
36.825 | 36.825 | 36.825 | TS Bitrate
PCR PID, Calculated Bitrate (bps)
0301, 36824872
0401, 36824873
2211, 36824874
2331, 36824874
1101, 36824876
0101, 36824877
0511, 36824878
0731, 36824878
0841, 36824880
2121, 36824880
2401, 36824895
2021, 36824901
0631, 36825177
maximum bitrate = 36825177
minimum bitrate = 36824872
average bitrate = 36824903
median bitrate = 36824878
A match of 36824882 Bits/s is found with the decontis DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator with these parameters:
Bandwidth: 8MHz with ext. ticked
Modulation: 256 QAM
Code Rate: 2/3
Pilot Pattern: PP4
Data Symbols: 59
FEC Blocks: 195
com8:
Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 34 <= dPCR <= 35 ms intervals over 11 seconds for Arqiva D Com78 National (19/02/2020 15:47:04)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
06.551 | 04.038 | 05.174 | QVC HD
06.018 | 02.753 | 05.054 | CBeebies HD
06.090 | 02.810 | 04.718 | QUEST HD
02.667 | 00.554 | 01.435 | 5STAR+1
02.374 | 00.556 | 01.415 | CBS Justice +1
01.463 | 00.687 | 00.949 | Forces TV
01.872 | 00.515 | 00.845 | PBS America +1
03.522 | 01.070 | 01.849 | FreeSports
01.411 | 00.682 | 01.096 | Together TV+1
02.835 | 00.768 | 01.320 | NOW 80s
01.630 | 00.000 | 00.237 | Null Packets
03.249 | 01.501 | 02.884 | All Other Streams
26.975 | 26.975 | 26.975 | TS Bitrate
PCR PID, Calculated Bitrate (bps)
2611, 26974875
0311, 26974877
2111, 26974877
0101, 26974879
0211, 26974880
2221, 26974880
2511, 26974889
2311, 26975003
2801, 26975116
2421, 26975229
maximum bitrate = 26975229
minimum bitrate = 26974875
average bitrate = 26974951
median bitrate = 26974880
A match of 26974881 Bits/s is found with the decontis DVB-T2 Data-Rate Calculator with these parameters:
Bandwidth: 8MHz with ext. unticked
Modulation: 256 QAM
Code Rate: 1/2
Pilot Pattern: PP4
Data Symbols: 59
FEC Blocks: 191
| link to this comment |
Chris.SE: Yes, I saw the report on DS. They might have changed simultaneously but com8 Winter Hill is not in the SFN yet. In fact, it has a Cell ID of 2369 which is the same for all the multiplexes that originate from Winter Hill apart from com7 which has Cell ID of 16449.
The Cell ID is shown in this screenshot from CrazyScan2, taken the morning after reading the report. I'm not sure what bitrate CrazyCat shows here but the parameters are correct.
Winter Hill com8 14 February 2020.png - Album on Imgur
CrazyScan / Wiki / Info
| link to this comment |
Chris.SE: Well, com8 is up and running on C56- 753.833MHz. I wasn't expecting that. The Cell ID is now 16449.
| link to this comment |
Mr R. Tyson: You might need a new aerial. See Important changes to Freeview | Freeview
You should find the original channels in your channel list on these numbers:
751 BBC ONE N West
752 BBC TWO
755 BBC FOUR
756 CBBC
757 CBeebies
758 BBC NEWS
759 BBC Parliament
760 BBC Red Button
761 BBC RB 1
762 BBC Radio 1
763 BBC R1X
764 BBC Radio 2
765 BBC Radio 3
766 BBC Radio 4
767 BBC R5L
768 BBC R5SX
769 BBC 6 Music
770 BBC Radio 4 Ex
771 BBC Asian Net.
772 BBC World Sv.
773 BBC Manchester
774 BBC Lancashire
775 BBC Cumbria
776 BBC Merseyside
777 BBC Stoke
| link to this comment |
Chris.SE: What does Signal Test on your LG TV show for COM8?
This is what I see on mine:
BBCB: UHF Ch 54 (737900 kHz)
COM7: UHF Ch 55 (746000 kHz)
COM8: UHF Ch 56 (753900 kHz)
Note: The Winter Hill BBCB is officially on C54- or 737833 kHz.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday 12 February 2020 11:32AM
ASTRA/BSkyB Diffs:
Looks like a transponder move is in the pipeline for Smithsonian HD:
Comparing files List ASTRA 11-02-2020 18 01.txt and List ASTRA 12-02-2020 11 01.txt
************************ NEW ************************
SERVICE NAME TYPE EPGID SID TSID ONID FREQ.P ENC EIT PROVIDER BOUQUETS LCN
55271 25 1196 55271 2092 2 11509V 0 1 BSkyB 000000000000010 1014
55271 is showing Smithsonian HD, which is currently on 11171 H 22000 5/6 DVB-S QPSK:
Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 37 <= dPCR <= 64 ms intervals over 16 seconds for 11508.50 V 23000 2/3 DVB-S2 8PSK (12/02/2020 11:05:15)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
09.778 | 09.610 | 09.683 | eir Sport 1 HD (55276) [ENC]/eir Sport 1 HD (55275) [ENC]
08.650 | 08.549 | 08.600 | 55271
11.919 | 11.022 | 11.628 | Racing TV HD [ENC]
08.651 | 07.854 | 08.443 | TRT World HD
03.907 | 02.198 | 02.978 | Null Packets
03.818 | 02.458 | 03.189 | All Other Streams
44.520 | 44.520 | 44.520 | TS Bitrate
Video Bitrate (Mbps) sampled at 38 <= dPCR <= 38 ms intervals over 16 seconds for 11170.75 H 22000 5/6 DVB-S QPSK (12/02/2020 11:06:06)
maximum | minimum | average | service_name
01.741 | 01.443 | 01.559 | A1TV
03.324 | 03.050 | 03.186 | Racing TV [ENC]
08.676 | 08.507 | 08.600 | Smithsonian HD
05.116 | 01.068 | 02.637 | TCM Movies [ENC]
04.732 | 01.184 | 02.235 | Cartoonito [ENC]
01.939 | 00.947 | 01.408 | TCM Movies+1 [ENC]
02.770 | 01.505 | 02.003 | Boomerang [ENC]
03.645 | 01.150 | 02.084 | Boomerang+1 [ENC]
03.565 | 01.781 | 02.513 | Cartoon Netwrk [ENC]
02.522 | 00.910 | 01.544 | CN+1 [ENC]
01.860 | 00.238 | 01.088 | Null Packets
05.889 | 04.164 | 04.934 | All Other Streams
33.791 | 33.791 | 33.791 | TS Bitrate