ABC 99w Network Feeds Transitioned to DVBS2 HEVC 4:2:2

[Titanium]

I use several different STBs and also a TBS 6983 with EBSpro and TSReader software (either displayed on my workstation or a 55" 4K wall mounted monitor). STBs and computer satellite reception both have their strengths and weaknesses. I prefer blind scanning, channel management and channel surfing and the ease of use with the Mio 4k, but would rather use the TBS 6983 for analyzing signals, transport streams and trying new codecs.

Even computer based hardware requires updating to meet the technical changes. Had to upgrade to a DVBS2 PCIe card when services transitioned to MPEG4 and a powerful video card to handle 4K. Unlikely that the cost of required STB upgrades over the years even comes close to the cost of my HTPC!

My wife prefers a remote control and frankly, we would never use the satellite system at home if she had to navigate through software tabs to change channels or satellites. At one point, had programmed a remote to work with the HTPC, but finally gave up after a few years trying to keep up with the key programming to emulate a STB RCU.

 

[ancient]

Political Post Removed

Opinions about the legitimacy of any particular news source:

Not to mention that the majority of the programming is NOT news.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Opinions about the legitimacy of any particular news source:

Not to mention that the majority of the programming is NOT news.

Don't worry, if you disagree with him he'll just block you. He has me and lord knows how many others on ignore

 

[Alan Rovner]

Is the FEC still 9/10 for the new ABC signals?

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8504F using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Titanium]

Yes, still 9/10 FEC

Is the FEC still 9/10 for the new ABC signals?

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8504F using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[KE4EST]

johnnynobody please keep politics and controversial opinions out of this forum.

However, you are more than welcome to join the Pub and discuss things of this nature in the PIT.

 

[migold]

Can someone describe in detail, a diagram would be good, exactly how to use the Mio 4K to stream to one of the devices listed at the beginning, so that ABC can be seen on a TV.
1. Is there any "Smart TV" or "Android TV" that will show the video?
2. Where can we get the "Android STB using the free DreamDroid app"?
3. Will an Android TV be able to use the DreamDroid App?
Well, this is a lot of questions, so I have numbered them for reference...
Thanks for any answers.

 

[Magic Static]

Can someone describe in detail, a diagram would be good, exactly how to use the Mio 4K to stream to one of the devices listed at the beginning, so that ABC can be seen on a TV.
1. Is there any "Smart TV" or "Android TV" that will show the video?
2. Where can we get the "Android STB using the free DreamDroid app"?
3. Will an Android TV be able to use the DreamDroid App?
Well, this is a lot of questions, so I have numbered them for reference...
Thanks for any answers.

Can you see your computer on your TV/Display? I posted this a bit ago
Streaming from the Edision with VLC

 

[migold]

Can you see your computer on your TV/Display? I posted this a bit ago

No, don't think I can do that. And I'm really not interested in viewing TV on an 8" screen... Particularly when I have a practically new 55" Sony... I can buy a receiver and an STB if that is what it takes to get it to the TV.... But HOW?

 

[Magic Static]

I use an HDMI cable between my PC and 55" Samsung. Most laptops have an HDMI port too. If you had an Android phone or tablet you could use the dreamdroid app and a ChromeCast on the TV I think.

 

[FTA4PA]

Anyone having any luck with these on an Amiko Mini HD SE? They used to play fine before the change to HEVC 4:2:2. Now, as others have said, it's just the sound with a black screen. Since I can't play them I've tried recording them for playback but the receiver won't even save a file to the drive. I have also tried streaming them using iBoston's great program SAT2IP under both Linux and Windows but SMplayer just displays starting and never goes any further. Other channels stream fine so I know that's not the issue. Also tried the write stream to file option under SAT2IP but get the error:

Run-time error:'52'.
Bad file name or number

This error happens under both Linux and Windows. What am I missing (besides a receiver upgrade)?

 

[primestar31]

You need another receiver, it has to be able to decode HEVC even if it can't do the 4:2:2, even if you are just recording the file to watch with VLC player.

Maybe time to upgrade to an Edision Mio? You won't regret it, I promise you...

I used PayPal credit, and paid it off with NO interest over 6 months.

 

[KE4EST]

Anyone having any luck with these on an Amiko Mini HD SE?

You will not be able to do it with that receiver. If you have the Amiko Mini HD265 you could, but not that one. Not only is this signal now 10-bit color (4:2:2).
It also uses HEVC or H.265 compression. The Mini SE is only H.264.

 

[FTA4PA]

You need another receiver, it has to be able to decode HEVC even if it can't do the 4:2:2, even if you are just recording the file to watch with VLC player.

Maybe time to upgrade to an Edision Mio? You won't regret it, I promise you...

I used PayPal credit, and paid it off with NO interest over 6 months.

You will not be able to do it with that receiver. If you have the Amiko Mini HD265 you could, but not that one. Not only is this signal now 10-bit color (4:2:2).
It also uses HEVC or H.265 compression. The Mini SE is only H.264.

Thanks guys, I kinda thought that was the case but was hoping otherwise.

 

[Jim S.]

Some receivers used to be able to record and/or stream codecs that they couldn't play. Sounds like the guys programming the Mini made a bad decision somewhere...

 

[wvman]

Yes, still 9/10 FEC

If you have a UHD receiver that will decode NASA and UHD1 on SES1, shouldn't it also decode the ABC channels on Galaxy 16? If not, what's different between ABC and the others?

 

[comfortably_numb]

If you have a UHD receiver that will decode NASA and UHD1 on SES1, shouldn't it also decode the ABC channels on Galaxy 16? If not, what's different between ABC and the others?

NASA is H.265

ABC is 4:2:2

Two different animals, but a 4:2:2 feed could also be H.265-

 

[Brct203]

NASA is H.265

ABC is 4:2:2

Two different animals, but a 4:2:2 feed could also be H.265-

exactly!

in my experience, a receiver like the Amiko miniHDre cannot decode h.265 nor 4:2:2, however it has (clunky) streaming capabilities, and I was able to watch CBS and CBC 4:2:2 feeds which were compressed in h.264.

As far as I know, only one receiver in the past could do 4:2:2 directly on the appliance, I don't remember its name but it's probably a bit obsolete in other aspects as it's a few years old (h.265? 4K? etc)

Newer receivers like the Amiko mini h265, the Edision osmio4k, can receive h.265, but cannot decode 4:2:2.

an important thing to understand is that on most receivers that can't do h.265, those channels will scan in as Radio, with the video part of the stream dropped. Even if you stream those, I don't think you'll see any video.

However, receivers will scan in the 4:2:2 as normal channels, but will display a black screen, or a completely garbled screen. But if you stream it to VLC or similarly capable player, you'll be able to watch the video.

Now a few questions:

- can we record something that is 4:2:2 on the receiver and play it back in VLC? I think I tried on the Amiko and it did not work, but i'd like to hear from others if they had any luck with that.

- Theoretically, if we could find a capable player plugin for Enigma2, something along the lines of VLC, with 4:2:2-capable codec, could we imagine streaming from the osmio4k to the player running inside the osmio4k? Or is the limitation in the display adapter hardware in the receiver, that just can't do 4:2:2? is 4:2:2 even relevant to a codec? or is it more about rendering?

 

[ancient]

I don't watch much TV in the summer so hadn't really paid much attention to this until last night, but it appears this new format includes several audio channels. It appears the last one in the list is normal stereo channels but the first ones have six discrete audio channels. Therefore the techniques described in these articles could work to give you full 5.1 audio:

Fixing the audio on recorded programs from a certain network (which shall remain nameless)

Fixing the audio on live TV from a certain network (which shall remain nameless) in TVHeadend

Both of these techniques appear to use ffmpeg to convert the audio to a format that an AV receiver can process, such as a Dolby format. Since you are only converting the audio and not the video it can be done in real time if you have a reasonably modern system, so if you are running something like Tvheadend as a backend the technique in the second article can be used to process the audio in real time. I tested this yesterday in Tvheadend and it does work on this new format. All the channels appear to be mapped properly in a 5.1 system, as best I can tell.

I suppose most people are just using that last audio channel in the list, and that appears be plain old stereo. If you use the first channel, you get left and right audio but weak or no center center channel and no low frequencies for your subwoofer. But if you have a 5.1 audio system or better and are running Tvheadend you may want to look into this. Or, if you have a receiver that runs Linux behind the scenes it just might be possible to channel the received signal through ffmpeg in this way, though I have no idea how you'd do it. I would say to be sure to use a fairly recent version of ffmpeg since I believe earlier versions did not support 10 bit video, and while that should not matter if you are just copying the video stream, I can't be certain that an older version of ffmpeg would pass the video through correctly.

 

[wvman]

NASA is H.265

ABC is 4:2:2

Two different animals, but a 4:2:2 feed could also be H.265-

Sounds like we're back to game they played with Beta Max and VHS. Have to wait to see which format will be the standard. Is there a STB that will do both?