Freesat UK, 3 weeks in

[steeb]

Hi all UK DVB-S users,

thought I'd start a new thread as much has been happening with the launch of Freesat and I'm beginning to find it hard to to find where we're at in the Forum....

It doesn't appear like we can get a crafty EPG off the satellite at the moment, if we can let me know. Otherwise Alan Birtles excellent XMLTV Gui:

http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/

seems to be the way to go, for now, well at least to me. Personally I find more stock in the XMLTV Data than the EPG broadcast but that's me and you disagree as you choose

As per Big Mooses comment on page 7 of this thread:

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...ht=freesat

I have found how to fill the gaps. No, Radio Times does not list all channels but there is a workaround that currently costs £9.99 a year and I've only made it work with Birtles, for now I can't advertise it as want to keep quiet but you could always PM, if you're interested?

Please don't ask me any questions about Hi Def at the moment, not bothered :p Want to get SD sorted first.

As per same previous thread as last given above, I'm still not getting More 4 or E4 on a scan but strangely enough More 4 +1 and E4 + 1 scan, lock and play. If anyone could help me with uploading files either to an FTP or WebServer as per this thread:

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=35305

Then Sub could take a look?

Otherwise is everyone else getting these 2 channels?

Lastly

if you've got more than one card (and particularly DVB-S ones, with all the hundreds of channels it gives) and you are using Birtles XMLTV this tweak here does a very good job!

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=35194&page=2

(Thanks Martin)

Cheers

Steeb

[BigMoose]

This thread is good timing for me as I have a few minor niggles. I've recently updated to 1.2.13 and updated to 8.5 ATI drivers and things aren't quite as good as I'd hoped. Firstly I have interlace problems with the SD channels, I only get the option of weave or bob with 8.5 (I've got the 780G mb with HD3200) which is the only options I got with 8.4 for that matter (but have once seen the full set of deinterlace options, cant remember for the life of me which driver version that was), but some of the SD channels are looking rather "comby".

GBPVR 1.2.13 isn't giving as nice a picture with EVR as 1.2.9 did but maybe that's my ATI driver upgrade. It looks more like overlay in it's harshness. I'm using the ATI Mpeg decoder for SD - which hasn't been upgraded recently.

I am getting the channels you're not - I did a full scan the other day so will post the results later. I did lose the BBC HD channel but got that back with a rescan so dont know what happened there. ITV HD still works but not watchable when I go from BBC HD to ITV HD, but is fine when I go from any SD to ITV HD which is weird. Although I have found problems with the Cyberlink H264 decoder. I'm using the 7.3 version that came with my LG Blu-ray drive and with HD it judders for a couple of seconds every 30 seconds or so. Playing back a recording directly in PDVD does the same, so I'm assuming it's a PDVD problem as it's not a GBPVR one although I'm not 100% convinced it's always done this... I've yet to play with graphedit to see if something else is causing the problem, but I'm guessing an upgrade of PDVD is in order.

I'm digressing from UK freesat issues into a general rant! :o

[nemulate]

Interesting reading! I actually brought a Freeset cheap Bush SD on launch day to try it out but obviously at some point would like to access it via my Hauppauge HVR 4000 card which I've used for BBC HD in the past. Waiting for my 780g mobo which is the worryingly the same as yours BigMoose given the problems your having at the mo Would be cool if Sub (or someone) could decrypt the freesat epg

[BigMoose]

The MB is fantastic and I have had great results, so you shouldn't worry. I think I've done something dumb but dont know what and haven't had the time to put in to work it out. I originally had a vista64 install and a vista32 so I struggle to remember what I did on which one. The disk with the 64 died so I'm just using the 32 for now cause I cant be bothered to reinstall just for 64bit. I would be very interested to know from anyone else with this mb what drivers are the best for interlacing etc (maybe I should start a new thread and not hijack this one!) and if anyone has got 1080p50 to work.

[fluffykeith]

if you've got more than one card (and particularly DVB-S ones, with all the hundreds of channels it gives) and you are using Birtles XMLTV this tweak here does a very good job!

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=35194&page=2

Hi

I'm not sure what this gives us? I have 2 T cards and one S card.

I also found that some of my channels have vanished but others remain - have they changed frequency or something requiring me to rescan - which I was avoiding as I don't like selecting each mapping, hence my question above - so if that helps mapping then please tell me more.

With the new Freesat scheme can we now get channel4 and 5?

cheers

Keith

[steeb]

Hi

I'm not sure what this gives us? I have 2 T cards and one S card.

I also found that some of my channels have vanished but others remain - have they changed frequency or something requiring me to rescan - which I was avoiding as I don't like selecting each mapping, hence my question above - so if that helps mapping then please tell me more.

With the new Freesat scheme can we now get channel4 and 5?

cheers

Keith

Hi Keith,

not so good on the T cards any more as moved house last year and can't get reception......

When you say you've lost channels is that with the DVB-S card or the 'T's'?

I have found that some of the Freesat channels seem to have been hopping around a bit.

Channel 4 is available on Freesat but appears listed as 8350. All other Four broadcasts should be avilable except Channel 4 + 1 which doesn't appear to be there yet. But as I said More4 and E4 are causing problems for me at the moment.

Channel 5 are still locked in a deal with Sky but should be broadcasting on Freesat by the end of the year.

Am not sure if the tweak to XMLTV can help you as you have a mix of cards. (DVB-T and S). Essentially what it does is to rename channel names from the XML to the names as they appear in a scan. So when I used to rescan, GBPVR would match about 2 in 10 channels correctly, then I would have to manually scroll down the channles found to match them to my channels, a complete pain for DVB-S with all those channels!

Took a while to set up but now I rescan and pretty much get a 100% match for my channel line up.

The reason I don't know if it would work for you is I'm guessing that a DVB-T scan would come up with slightly different names for channels than a DVB-S one.

Steeb

[Dava]

Hi,

I do get More4 and E4 but cannot seem to get FIVE, I presume that there is no unencrypted transmission for this?

With regard to the XML workaround and finding channels, I use this procedure:

Do a full scan in GBPVR
Open the correctly numbered Scan-Cache file in an editor
Search for the channels I want to add using the editor
Copy an paste these lines into a new "Scan-Cache-Master" file
When I have them all, copy the contents of scan cache master file into the top of the Scan-Cache file
If you go back in to Map channels, the ones you really want are all at the top but the others are still listed.

You then always have the scan cache master file to refer back to when you destroy everything late one night:o

[steeb]

Hi Dava,

I do get More4 and E4 but cannot seem to get FIVE, I presume that there is no unencrypted transmission for this?

Correct, all Five Channels still encrypted.

Could you paste me the results of your More4 and E4 working scans from your cache so I can check with mine?

With regard to the XML workaround and finding channels, I use this procedure:

Do a full scan in GBPVR
Open the correctly numbered Scan-Cache file in an editor
Search for the channels I want to add using the editor
Copy an paste these lines into a new "Scan-Cache-Master" file
When I have them all, copy the contents of scan cache master file into the top of the Scan-Cache file
If you go back in to Map channels, the ones you really want are all at the top but the others are still listed.

You then always have the scan cache master file to refer back to when you destroy everything late one night

Yes this would also be an alternative but the I've found the XMLTV way, once set up, to be unbeatable. You scan, GBPVR matches the channels to your scan, you alter a couple and click OK, done!

Steeb

[fluffykeith]

Hi

Thanks for the info.

The missing channels where in the DVB-S card - BBC1 South! and a few others. I think a rescan is required as you say they have been shuffling them about. (and I was blaming my neighbours tree!)

I think the XML tv options probably will not help me as the channels on DVB-T and S have different names, although re-ordering the cache file would make it easier.

cheers

Keith

[BigMoose]

I use XMLTV and the RT grabber and haven't had many channel naming problems with DVB-S. Someone (RT?) renamed them all recently which was minorly annoying. I also have a DVB-T card but since I'm currently in Ireland there were only 4 channels that the RT carry for me to ensure were named correctly. Think they just worked too.

Since I'm "working from home" today I just nipped down and got my most recent scan file. I have BBC ONE South as my default (from that area originally!) and haven't had problems with it recently. The only ones that have caused me problems are the C4 derivatives when they were being moved about recently and BBC HD over the weekend. The ITV HD settings are probably lost in this scan but I got them from Dabbs in another thread here. My C4, E4 and More4 all work. Not bothered with the +1s so dunno if they do...