TVNZ FreeView quick guide to whats on air now

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › TVNZ FreeView quick guide to whats on air now

Frankei

66 posts

Master Geek

#8454 1-Jul-2006 18:53

First things first WTF are all the acronyms

Fairly straight forward, someone can add to this if they wish but thats the basics

STB - Set Top Box
FTA - Free to Air
DVB-T - Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial (uses a UHF aerial)
DVB-S - Digital Video Broadcase Sattelite (uses a sattelite dish)

[b]DVB-T[b]

You will need a UHF aerial pointed to Waitaroa(sp?), which I beleive most in Auckland are, then a DVB-T STB; these can be had well under $200 infact my one set me back $30 new but unless you know people in the know expect around $200 and finally you need a TV with RCA, Svideo or Scart

The decord Im using is the Legend LSD2 http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212607;pid;410;pt;1
On my uber Sharp 32" LCD LC32GA4X ^_^

Its rather simple plug the aerial into the STB then into your TV much like with a VCR then plug in the RCA cable into the back on the STB and then into your TV

Turn on the STB and the TV to the AV chanel
Unlike normal Analogue TV the channel scanning is a little different

Go to the Menu then Scan near the bottom
Leave scan type on normal and change the bandwidth to [b]8MHz[/b] then just press Start Scan

The STB will find 5 channels for your viewing pleasure
TV 1, TV2, DW, CCTV and a Test channel
Obviously once officially launched there will be more channels available and they will keep ading more and more to that list

TV 1,2 DW and CCTV are very average quality however the test channel is pretty good

The good thing is that even if you have really bad receiption with normal TV you will get mint Digital :) I only get a 55% signal but being digital that means SFA

I'll try to get a few comparison screen shots for ya all but since I run 64Bit Windows and all the manufacturers are too lazy to make drivers for it =/

I'll do a more indepth Sattellite over the week
It's pretty simple and if anyone want a DVB-T decoder they can be easily bought from overseas

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#40286 1-Jul-2006 20:27

how much lag is there on the dvb-t vs analog?

Richard rich.ms

andyninefingers

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#40619 7-Jul-2006 09:20

If you want to get tnz freeview on your pc You can buy a compro videomate dvbt series pci tuner card that costs $185 from http://www.computerstore.co.nz/store/web/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=318&idproduct=3754.
really good quality picture and you can tune analogue digital and cable stations. the software that comes with it is easy to use and also the card works with my theatre really easily. I have had no success getting it to work with progdvb yet. it took me a while to tune the digital signal as this thread is the only place i have seen the frequencies listed i found them myself and was just about to post them when i found them here. I tuned using a start frequency of 698000khz end frequency of 710000 on 8mhz bandwidth. I only have 4 channels at present they are TV2 DWTV CCTV and a test channel Thee test channel loops a full series of stargate and then a program about the turin shroud, it is the same as tv nz wide on optus satellite
hope this helps
the lag is about 1 second less than between satellite and analogue
all in all i think it is a very cheap way to get a digital pvr and a tv tuner all in one
as the anologue signal will be killed eventually it seems logical to but a card that can recieve both anologue and digital signals

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#40636 7-Jul-2006 17:29

TV 1,2 DW and CCTV are very average quality however the test channel is pretty good

Me thinks this is due to the fact that the TV1/2 feeds are demodulated from the terrestial feeds that feed the transmitter network though out the country as they pass through Wellington(the uplink is at Avalon). The analog network feed uses a video compression that is similar to MPEG2 but different enough that it has to be brought down to baseband video and recompressed as mpeg2 for uplinking, this concatenation of two relatively low bitrate compressions means that the pics look a bit stuffed.

DW and CCTV arnt too bad, but remember they are taken from already low bit rate distributions on their way down from China and Germany so cannot really complain.

The wide test channel looks pretty good to me, my guess is that it is compression off a video server at Avalon I presume (guessing here), so it looks pretty good, there is no reason why TV1/2 cannot look this good assuming the network is engineered properly

My hope is that when Freeview starts in ernest they acutally have a single mpeg compressor on the SDI feed out of Hobson St so that there are no mpeg concatenation errors (thus bad looking pics even if modest bit rates are used). The current TV1/2 feeds are just extensions of the analog network, so in my view are not up to full digital broadcast standards, hopefully this is a key feature of the freeview upgrade along with proper 16:9.

Cyril

cokemaster

Exited
4927 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#40639 7-Jul-2006 18:08

When you refer to CCTV, are you meaning CCTV 9? Or different CCTV channels?

webhosting

Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#40642 7-Jul-2006 18:57

CCTV9, that is there only International service, I presume TVNZ get it from the PAS-8 C-Band (transponder 6C) feed.

Cyril

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#40655 7-Jul-2006 23:59

Would have been nice to see nasa tv back on there with the recent launch.

Richard rich.ms

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#40662 8-Jul-2006 07:54

NasaTV was still on the Satellite when I last looked a couple of days ago.

Cyril

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#40663 8-Jul-2006 08:29

Ok, Are the pids on lyngsat still current? my receiver locks up if I try to scan the SI information so I have to enter them manually.

Richard rich.ms

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#40672 8-Jul-2006 13:04

Just checked it, the 12.483GHz transponder is carrying (as it has for some months) VPID:520, APID:658, PCR:8190

I think the issue is that Lynsat has not been updated to show that it has gone from the 12.456GHz transponder.

Cheers
Cyril

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#40690 8-Jul-2006 22:46

Will give that a go once my ex-sky LNB has dried out ;)

Richard rich.ms

freeviewshop

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#42457 25-Jul-2006 23:10

richms: how much lag is there on the dvb-t vs analog?

Both the DVB-T and DVB-S lag by about 1 second. If you want more lag you can buy a PVR at freeviewshop
http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=PVR

freeviewshop

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#42462 25-Jul-2006 23:17

cyril7: Just checked it, the 12.483GHz transponder is carrying (as it has for some months) VPID:520, APID:658, PCR:8190

I think the issue is that Lynsat has not been updated to show that it has gone from the 12.456GHz transponder.

Cheers
Cyril

TVNZ is currently broadcasting from 2 transponders maybe that is why some people are missing channels?

The first transponder (Frequency 12456, Polarisation Vertical Symbol Rare 22500 Forward Error Correction 3/4)

Maori TV
TV One
TV 2
TV One
TV 2
TV One
NASA TV
CCTV9
NASA TV

The first transponder (Frequency 12483, Polarisation Vertical Symbol Rare 22500 Forward Error Correction 3/4)

TVNZ Widescreen
Bloomberg
TV 2 (Channel name is MTS)
TV One
TV 2
TV One
TV 2
DWTV
Nasa TV

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#42493 26-Jul-2006 08:59

Freeviewshop, the above was true untill yesterday, as of a few day time, the 12456 transponder will be shut down, only the 12483 trasnponder will remain, the channel pid setup changes slightly, and NASATV will be gone for good (from FreeView).

I expect the 12456 transponder will reappear sometime in the future, presumably with canwest services on it.

Cyril

freeviewshop

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#42498 26-Jul-2006 09:38

cyril7: Freeviewshop, the above was true untill yesterday, as of a few day time, the 12456 transponder will be shut down, only the 12483 trasnponder will remain, the channel pid setup changes slightly, and NASATV will be gone for good (from FreeView).

I expect the 12456 transponder will reappear sometime in the future, presumably with canwest services on it.

Cyril

Cheers for the Info Cyril, how do you know that? TVNZ did not tell us that when I spoke with them yesterday.

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#42508 26-Jul-2006 10:15

Curtisy of apsattv.

A Reminder changes being made to channels on TVNZ's experimental platform at 0200 Tuesday, Also there will be an outage on SKY NZ for some channels (Probably related to the TVNZ changes)

Changes to TVNZ’s Free-To-Air Channels on its Digital Platform

This is a reminder that TVNZ will be making changes TOMORROW to its Free-To-Air test channels that it transmits as part of the experimental digital platform. The changes are necessary as part of the preparation for the new FreeView digital service.
This work will be carried out on both TVNZ’s carriers TOMORROW, Tuesday 25th July 2006 beginning at 0200 hours (2am) and should be completed soon after. Present content on 12.456GHz will appear on the frequency 12.483GHz as well as 12.456 GHz. Then, on the 31st of July, the two carriers will reduce to just one, namely 12.483 GHz.

Most Set Top Boxes will have to be re-tuned to 12.483GHz.
Some Set Top Boxes, when first turned on after the changes, might detect the alterations and initiate an auto-search, find the new frequencies and reset themselves. Other Set Top Boxes will have to be manually adjusted using the menu to find the tuner and then the desired channels.

Any viewers who experience problems finding the reallocated channels should call me.

The rearrangement means one of the experimental channels, showing NASA activities, will not be restored to the test platform.

The list of test channels after the TOMORROW’s changes will be:
·        MTS
·        TVONE (Wellington)
·        TV2 (Wellington)
·        TVONE (Christchurch)
·        TV2 (Christchurch)
·        Bloomberg
·        DWTV
·        CCTV9
·        TVNZ WIDE

This is the first change to TVNZ’s experimental platform in preparation for FreeView. Subsequent changes will be advised. We remind you, and we ask this be passed on to viewers, that some of these channels, including CCTV9 and DWTV, continue to be part of our digital testing and may not be included in the FreeView bouquet.

For further information contact Ric Carlyon at TVNZ’s Digital Group, (09) 916 7658 or 021 711 288 or email   digital@tvnz.co.nz

----

I should note that the TVNZ Wide currently has no pid info in the SI stream, so you will need to enter them manually.

Cheers
Cyril