4:2:2 - This refers to chroma subsampling, right?

[Rawmotion]

I noticed on AMC-1 there are some NBC channels listed in Lyngsat as 4:2:2. I tried to pick them up, but they're just garbled mess. I can still get the audio, but no luck on the video. I assume this is because my Pansat 3500SD is designed to decode 4:2:0 MPEG2 only.

4:2:2 is a common term in the post industry for luma/chroma sampling, but I don't know if it means the same thing for DVB. Is 4:2:2 actually part of the DVB spec, or is this a new addition that will be supported by more and more receivers as it gets more popular?

 

[qwert1515]

It means the same thing for DVB. I know the Quality FTA receiver decodes 4:2:2, there might be other FTA receivers that decoded it but I am not sure which ones. If you have a PC DVB card you con decode 4:2:2 with the correct software codecs.

 

[Tron]

Some broadcast-grade receivers will decode a 4:2:2 DVB signal, but these tend to be rather expensive. One such example is the Digitrans 7150, which can do 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 DVB, as well as zero/fixed key Digicipher II.

Only consumer-grade receiver that can do 4:2:2 at this time, as Qwert said, is the QualiTV. It costs nearly $700 in the states, though...

 

[vfrjim]

This is the codec you need: Elecard Ltd. - codec pack, dvd decoder, mpeg2 decoder, WMP plugin

 

[satcustomer]

Some broadcast-grade receivers will decode a 4:2:2 DVB signal, but these tend to be rather expensive. One such example is the Digitrans 7150, which can do 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 DVB, as well as zero/fixed key Digicipher II.

Only consumer-grade receiver that can do 4:2:2 at this time, as Qwert said, is the QualiTV. It costs nearly $700 in the states, though...

I actually purchased mine on ebay last year for a lot less than that and have had no problems with the receiver. Just checked ebay...here's a link to someone selling one from Germany (by the way, I bought mine from a person in Germany, too): Quali TV* QS 1080 IR *-HDTV -> 4:2:2-Feeds!!! * TOP * - (eBay item 260195953514 end time Dec-30-07 14:03:33 PST).

Very cheap (relatively speaking)!

 

[Rawmotion]

Only consumer-grade receiver that can do 4:2:2 at this time, as Qwert said, is the QualiTV. It costs nearly $700 in the states, though...

A PCIe card sounds like the best bet in this situation. Twinhan seems to be a popular choice. I assume the card takes the MPEG2 stream and sends it to a Directshow filter to be decoded with your codec of choice. From that point it's sent to the video card's overlay and out the DVI connector. Since DVI = (HDMI - audio), I should be able to connect the PC to the flat panel with a DVI -> HDMI cable. Correct?

A big plus would be to have the ability to dump the raw MPEG-2 / audio stream from the card to disk (without recompression). Is this a reasonable expectation?

 

[Tron]

A PCIe card sounds like the best bet in this situation. Twinhan seems to be a popular choice. I assume the card takes the MPEG2 stream and sends it to a Directshow filter to be decoded with your codec of choice. From that point it's sent to the video card's overlay and out the DVI connector. Since DVI = (HDMI - audio), I should be able to connect the PC to the flat panel with a DVI -> HDMI cable. Correct?

A big plus would be to have the ability to dump the raw MPEG-2 / audio stream from the card to disk (without recompression). Is this a reasonable expectation?

That's the biggest advantage, in my opinion, of the PCI tuner cards. You get the raw stream, directly from the satellite, and can record it as a .TS file. Of course, the side benefits are 4:2:2 and HD. Until I acquired my Visionsat IV-200 PVR over a month ago, my PCI DVB cards were the only means I had to record the pristine stream from a satellite. This Visionsat receiver has built-in PVR capability via a USB port, so one can attach an external hard drive to the receiver to record the stream without a PC. The Visionsat, however, can only be used for 4:2:0 SD DVB.

 

[Woofle]

That's the biggest advantage, in my opinion, of the PCI tuner cards. You get the raw stream, directly from the satellite, and can record it as a .TS file. <snip>

So the TS file would hold the 188-byte packetized MPEG-2 transport stream coming off the transponder, complete with all the various tables and all the media streams on that transponder?

If so, cool! It would be like a cheap protocol analyzer. I think it would be fun to build up the PAT and PMTs and "learn by doing" with an actual stream of data (even if not real-time)

What sort of hardware is known to work to do this, (USB or PCI), if so. That's neat

 

[Woofle]

P.S.: I'm interested in driving a "blind scan". I guess the trick would be to figure out how to tune the transponder frequency in steps, capture the data in a .TS file (if it works as I'm thinking it does), and then build up the tables if a valid stream comes in, then step to the next frequency and repeat, until the whole range is scanned. Well, that and moving the dish

It would be dreadfully slow, but if a machine were dedicated to this task, it wouldn't matter if it took a few hours.

Just thinking it might be kind of fun, in a masochistic sort of way

 

[MotleyFool]

Since the Captiveworks CW-3000HD is basically a peecee with Linux and fancy wrappers around VDR and Xine it should have the capability to do 4:2:2, since Xine uses libmpeg2 which is supposed to support 4:2:2. I've never pointed mine at a 4:2:2 feed and right now all the sat equipment is in boxes as I get moved in to my "new" home.

 

[updatelee]

So the TS file would hold the 188-byte packetized MPEG-2 transport stream coming off the transponder, complete with all the various tables and all the media streams on that transponder?

If so, cool! It would be like a cheap protocol analyzer. I think it would be fun to build up the PAT and PMTs and "learn by doing" with an actual stream of data (even if not real-time)

What sort of hardware is known to work to do this, (USB or PCI), if so. That's neat

take a look at a program called tsreader by coolsf. its really a neet app for seeing what the stream is doing.

 

[MotleyFool]

After a private discussion on the Captiveworks factory forum I found out they are using an older version of Xine that doesn't support 4:2:2. Hopefully they will update to a newer version to provide 4:2:2 support.