Why can I not see some NANZ beam channels on Optus D1?

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Why can I not see some NANZ beam channels on Optus D1?

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#198725 20-Jul-2016 12:08

Hey all - I was setting up my media center again, changing from WMC to Kodi with NextPVR, and as I have a DVB-S tuner I checked LyngSat (http://www.lyngsat.com/Optus-D1.html) to see what was available besides Freeview, and saw that 9 Go and 9 Gem and on the NANZ beam, in the same way Channel Nine is. Now I can get Channel Nine just fine, always have, but I cannot find the 9 Go and 9 Gem channels, even during a manual scan of the frequencies.

Is this due to the dish size? Or is there something else I don't know about?

mm1352000

1149 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1595690 20-Jul-2016 15:35

timbosan: Is this due to the dish size? Or is there something else I don't know about?

Those channels are being broadcast using "professional grade" settings/features. I'm referring particularly to the use of the 16 APSK modulation scheme and MIS (multiple input stream). My understanding is that such settings are usually only used for private or temporary links. Unless your tuner supports those features (which a lot of bog-standard consumer gear doesn't), your tuner won't be able to demodulate the signal. Additionally, receiving 16 APSK does require a higher SNR than 8 PSK or QPSK. Therefore in some cases a larger dish would be required too.

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#1595715 20-Jul-2016 16:28

mm1352000:

timbosan: Is this due to the dish size? Or is there something else I don't know about?

Those channels are being broadcast using "professional grade" settings/features. I'm referring particularly to the use of the 16 APSK modulation scheme and MIS (multiple input stream). My understanding is that such settings are usually only used for private or temporary links. Unless your tuner supports those features (which a lot of bog-standard consumer gear doesn't), your tuner won't be able to demodulate the signal. Additionally, receiving 16 APSK does require a higher SNR than 8 PSK or QPSK. Therefore in some cases a larger dish would be required too.

Thanks for the info - something I didn't know so good to know there is a reason. By 'gear' do you mean the software or hardware? For example I have a HTPC with a DVB-S2 card, would the limitation of 16 APSK be due to the card, or the software I use (NextPVR)?

mm1352000

1149 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1595802 20-Jul-2016 19:28

timbosan: By 'gear' do you mean the software or hardware? For example I have a HTPC with a DVB-S2 card, would the limitation of 16 APSK be due to the card, or the software I use (NextPVR)?

Both the hardware and software have to support the features for it to work.

[edit: To be clear, 16 APSK and MIS are primarily hardware features. However they won't work unless the software also supports setting the required parameters during tuning.]

What card do you have?

Some of the newer DVB-S2 tuners support 16 APSK, though it isn't always listed in the spec because 16 APSK isn't generally used for direct-to-home broadcasts.

I'm not aware of many tuners supporting MIS. In fact off the top of my head there's only a few TBS and Omicom tuners that come to mind.

As for N-PVR: I've never used it and have no idea whether it supports either 16 APSK or MIS.

Apsattv

2389 posts

Uber Geek

#1595945 21-Jul-2016 02:58

pretty much correct as above, also the FEC is 8/9 which really mean it needs quite a large dish.

Preferaly around 2.4M and upwards

There are some threads about this service on nzdtv.com

lannykaster

64 posts

Master Geek

#1605335 6-Aug-2016 11:10

You can Channel 9?! I had a DVB-S2 box and lost those three channels years ago! :(

tangerz

625 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1605747 7-Aug-2016 10:10

lannykaster: You can Channel 9?! I had a DVB-S2 box and lost those three channels years ago! :(

Channel 9, (just Channel 9, not Gem or Go!) has been back for a while now. DVB-S2, 12381 Vertical, 3750 SR, 2/3 FEC, QPSK.