DVB-T Freeview in NZ

[RobBrownNZ]

Hi JREkiwi,

The HD Pack from dvbsupport.net looks interesting, but I have to ask: is it *legal*?

I've been trying every H.264 filter that I can find lately, to try and get good quality and performance from my Radeon HD 3200 mobo. The only one that I've found that delivers what the chipset is capable of, is from the Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 trial but I'm not so keen on spending US$100 to get it.

Cyberlink also has a "HD264 Pack" which promises hardware acceleration, but its performance is hopeless. I purchased this one, but I'm in the process of getting a refund.

CoreAVC is great for a software-only decoder, and at least it does what it's advertised as. Media Player Classic-Home Cinema has a Free DXVA implementation, but it gives me a black screen at the moment.

To put some numbers on it, here's my (Athlon X2 5200) CPU usage when watching TV1 at 1080p in MediaPortal:
ffdshow (software only, free) 60%
Cyberlink HD264 Pack (US$40) 60%
CoreAVC (US$15) 40%
Cyberlink PowerDVD (US$100) 10%
mpc-hc (Free) - doesn't work yet.

I've just started setting up SageTV and I'm on the 21-day trial, hopefully it will be more stable than MediaPortal which seems to crash and lock up at least once a day.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by RobBrownNZ

The HD Pack from dvbsupport.net looks interesting, but I have to ask: is it *legal*?

I have no reason to believe that there's anything suspect. Most, if not all of codecs in the HD Pack are trial versions.

John

[RobBrownNZ]

Hi John,

Aha! Thanks for the reply, I may use those codecs although I think I've got enough to keep me going right now! Also thanks for the PredefinedDVBT.frq file, I copied it in and had the TV working 5 minutes later.

The video "judders" a little, not big freezes but just short momentary blips that are nonetheless very noticeable. I've read about the 64k hard disk blocks issue, and also the choice of default directshow filters through "merit", so I'll be looking into those a bit deeper.

But I've hijacked this thread enough, so I'll go and try to help myself some.

Cheers,
Rob.

[JREkiwi]

Just a little update on NZ DVB-T

TV1 is now transmitting dual audio streams AC3/HE-AAC with the AC3 stream flagged as the primary audio stream.

With this change, TV1 now plays fine on the HD-100 extender and on an MVP.

John

[Reefus]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

The modified PredefinedDVBT.frq that includes the NZ settings would look something like this one. It will allow you to at least scan the channels, so you can feel like your making some progress. You'll need to restart to pick up the new values.

Thank you for this, it made my introduction to SageTV (from mediaportal) a non stressful one.

[zzmystique]

I'm watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony on my sagetv server using a hauppauge nova-t 500 digital terrestial and every time they cut over to the studio there is no sound, checked my HD100 and that seems ok. Strange.

Any one else have this problem?

[JREkiwi]

It's working on both HD-100 and PC for me, but the studio audio seems to only be in the left channel.

John

[zzmystique]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

TV1 is now transmitting dual audio streams AC3/HE-AAC with the AC3 stream flagged as the primary audio stream.

With this change, TV1 now plays fine on the HD-100 extender and on an MVP.

John

Has something changed as I now have no sound on my MVP, the HD-100 seems to be jerky with the occasional squeak.

Anne

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by zzmystique

Has something changed as I now have no sound on my MVP, the HD-100 seems to be jerky with the occasional squeak.

TV One have dropped their AC3 audio stream, which is why it's not working now. I suspect they are monitoring the feedback they get following that change, so I suggest contacting TVNZ and complaining about it. I have.

John

[zzmystique]

I did as you suggested and complained to TVNZ about TVOne - here is the Reply.

Are you able to receive audio on Tv2 correctly?

If so then your receiving card works correctly and the problem should be resolved by re-scanning.

There is no difference in how the audio for TV One and TV2 are broadcast on the DTT Service at present.

The digital network is designed for compliant receivers, which will adapt to network changes.

Did you get a response from them?

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by zzmystique

Did you get a response from them?

No, haven't had anything back from them

John

[zzmystique]

Doesn't look like TVNZ are going re-instate the AC3 audio stream - this is an update I received today.

The DTT network is designed for compliant receivers, which will adapt to network changes and the network cannot be restricted by the use of non-approved receivers or adapted PCI cards.

AAC audio is used for bandwidth efficiency and AC3 is not transmitted unnecessarily in order to maximise picture quality.

AAC audio is an open standard so there should be no difficulty for manufacturers to develop a codec.

[JREkiwi]

Looks like time to send another request for support to SageTV

John

[zzmystique]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

Looks like time to send another request for support to SageTV

John

Hi John

Any update on this?

Anne

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by zzmystique

Any update on this?

Hi Anne,

I've mentioned it in pretty much every corespondence I've had with SageTV and I keep getting told it's being worked on. I have no reason to doubt that. Unfortunately their priorities don't match ours, in this case.

I see Paul Kendall needs to rewrite his LATM patch before it will get accepted into the FFmpeg trunk and that he's back working on that. Once that is done, at least SageTV should be able to get transcoding to work.

John

[zzmystique]

Thanks John, just seems like this problem has been there for a very long time. Hope they sort it soon, at the moment it feels like I've wasted money on the nova t hd 500 & hvr2200.

thanks

Anne

[JREkiwi]

Hi Anne, with the latest firmware, it's working on the HD200 in standalone mode now, so there is some progress.

John

[zzmystique]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

Hi Anne, with the latest firmware, it's working on the HD200 in standalone mode now, so there is some progress.

John

Thanks John, at least there seems to be some progress.

[JREkiwi]

With SageTV 6.5.11, all DVB-T channels now work on my MVP.

John

[alland]

I'll try tonight with my HD200 and HD100. John, does your post mean that the audio is being transcoded or does the MVP deal with AAC ?