DVB-T Mendip

[BigAlUK]

I've been a little perplexed that with each upgrade of PVR (or so it seems) I am getting less and less DVB-T channels from the Mendip transmitter.

I decided to open up the 0108.ini file and have a look. I noticed that a lot of the six frequencies listed have digits in the last decimal places. I thought that odd, since the Mendip info (see www.ukfree.tv for Mendip Transmitter) only lists the frequencies as whole MHz.

I hence edited 0108.ini as follows:

[TERTYPE]
1=Southern England
2=Mendip
[DVB]
0=6
1=C59,778000,0,0,16
2=C55,746000,0,0,64
3=C62,802000,0,0,64
4=C65,826000,0,0,16
5=C56,754000,0,0,16
6=C67,842000,0,0,16


Lo and behold, I got a lot more channels for my efforts - though not all of those I expected, and not as many as I used to get long ago (TMF and The Hits both sadly missing). One question is: I guessed that the last parameter (was ,8) represents the QAM. If I'm wrong, how do I know what the parameters ,0,0,8 should be?

[BigAlUK]

Guess what? I hammered it with a second and third rescan attempt and eventually got those two missing channels - plus a number of "Unknown" channels I've never seen before!

However, the question still stands: what are the last three parameters for, and should the last on in particular represent the QAM number (16 or 64 for Mendip, depending on frequency band).

[sub]

The only values that should do anything are 6/7/8. All other values are ignored.

From what I've read, the UK uses 8MHz spacing, so the the value should be "8"

[BigAlUK]

In that case, it appears the 8 is ignored too!

[sub]

I'm pretty sure its not, otherwise no DVB-T users in the UK would get channels. We use 8 here. If I set it to 7 then it does work.

[BigAlUK]

I've tried 0, 6, 8, 16, and 64 - all of which don't appear to change a thing.

[BigAlUK]

However, repeatedly doing a refresh scan does appear to get slightly different selections each time. I've eventually accumulated around 10 more channels (most of which do not appear or reapper in every scan, but are at least added to the list). Oddly, a successive scan tends to leave ticks against channels it no-longer sees, but also unticks a large number of channels its sees every time.

Strange mechanisms at work here? Could it be that the scan is being a litlle "slap-dash" that it picks up certain channels only intermittently?

[sub]

I'm not aware of any issues with this. Maybe you have marginal signal or something.

[bgowland]

I decided to open up the 0108.ini file and have a look. I noticed that a lot of the six frequencies listed have digits in the last decimal places. I thought that odd, since the Mendip info (see www.ukfree.tv for Mendip Transmitter) only lists the frequencies as whole MHz.

The 'whole MHz' that you mention is the centre frequency. In practice this may or may not be the actual frequency which could be 'centre' or +/-166KHz off centre.

One question is: I guessed that the last parameter (was ,8) represents the QAM. If I'm wrong, how do I know what the parameters ,0,0,8 should be?

Always 8 for UK Freeview. This isn't anything to do with the constellation (QAM).

As far as actual frequencies are concerned, here's an extract from a scan from Crystal Palace

Code:

23/06/2008 03:38:28.984 GNIT: Frequency: 505834 KHz  TSID: 4100
23/06/2008 03:38:28.999 GNIT: Frequency: 481834 KHz  TSID: 8197
23/06/2008 03:38:28.999 GNIT: Frequency: 561834 KHz  TSID: 12290
23/06/2008 03:38:28.999 GNIT: Frequency: 529834 KHz  TSID: 16384
23/06/2008 03:38:28.999 GNIT: Frequency: 578166 KHz  TSID: 20480
23/06/2008 03:38:28.999 GNIT: Frequency: 537834 KHz  TSID: 24576

The same website that you linked to (http://www.ukfree.tv) will tell you that the MUX frequencies should be 506, 482, 562, 530, 578 and 538MHz respectively - the above, however, is what Crystal Palace is actually broadcasting on.

Cheers,
Brian

[Graham]

config -> capture source -> edit capture source -> recording source settings -> advanced bda settings -> tick ignore errors (i've got both ticked)

worked for me when e4 disappeared a while back. might be same problem you have.

I have read that the scan channel software mentioned at
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=12082
works with non-Hauppauge cards.

I have only Hauppauge cards and I found it useful for diagnosing reception issues.

Good Luck

Graham

My experience, this year and last, has been that:

Trees + summer = leaves + crap reception

I have attached a GBPVR scan file for Mendip. I can't be sure that everything is in it --- it may have been a victim of the leaves + summer thing.

Good Luck