Monday 31 December 2012

Decoding user defined Nordig, DTG (D-Book) and IEC 62216 (E-Book) descriptors

Next version of DVBStreamExplorer will include the option to select which syntax to be used for decoding of user defined (0x80 - 0xFE) descriptors.
This is of special interest with regards to Logical Channel Number descriptors which are defined in each of the above standards except for EN 300 468. While the syntax is very similar in the standards, there are minor differences regarding the allocation of bits for each field.
The standard to be used for decoding can be selected in DVB PSI/SI / Multiple DVB-S/T/C MUX scanning window before starting scan operation. See screenshot below.


On SI scan completion you can switch to service view. A new 'lcn' column has been added. A value of -1 means that there was no LCN descriptor applicable for service. See screen shot below.


LCN information is also shown for each service found in MUX in DVB TS Monitor. Like for for SI scanning the syntax to be used for decoding has to be selected before starting scan operation. See screenshot below.


Finally LCN information has also been added as a new field to the CVS export of service information.

While LCN descriptor is probably the one of most interest, other user defined (0x80 - 0xFE) descriptors will also be decoded. You will find these in the various descriptor loops of decoded sections.

Follow +DVBStreamExplorer to keep up to date with DVBStreamExplorer related news.

Sunday 25 November 2012

Export to folder after SI scan in DVBStreamExplorer

If you are using DVBStreamExplorer to scan entire DVB, ATSC or ISDB networks for PSI/SI/PSIP information, you might appreciate a new feature in DVBStreamExplorer Professional Edition V3.0.113 that allows you to have various files exported and saved automatically when PSI/SI/PSIP scan is completed. Note that this feature is only applicable for 'Multiple * MUX scanning' features found in PSI/SI/PSIP menu.

The new feature can be enabled from Options / Preferences / SI scan page as shown below.


Here you can enable/disable the feature, select destination folder and select which file types you want to export.
'Save SI XML' corresponds to File / Save/Save As file, which is a file type that can be loaded by DVBStreamExplorer for offline viewing of PSI/SI/PSIP information.
'Save service XML' and 'Save CSV' corresponds to options found in File / Export / XML and File / Export / CSV.
All files will be saved in specified folder. File name will be automatically generated based on network type, export type and date/time of export. The date/time part of file name is based on, but does not necessarily strictly conform to, ISO 8601. The time is specified in UTC to allow files to be easily exchanged between different time zones.



BDA tuner configuration in DVBStreamExplorer

DVBStreamExplorer V3.0.113 fixes a problem that it would fail to initialize some BDA devices on Windows 7. The old device selection box looked like below.


 In case of device initialization failure you would see a message like below when starting application.



While fixing this issue, it was found that the application was not always able to reliably detect BDA tuner configuration. I.e. it was possible that a DVB-T device could be detected as DVB-S device.

You can verify how your BDA tuner device was detected by application by opening Device / Settings page.
Below is a screenshot showing how a DVB-C  device was detected as DVB-S.


As a workaround a new feature has been added, so that it is now possible to specify network (tuner) type when selecting device during application launch.
The new device selection box is shown below.


You can select between auto detect, DVB-S, DVB-T, DVB-C and ATSC.
It is recommended to first try with auto detect. If then network type is not detected correctly by application, you will need to specify correct network type when launching application.
Note that application can only remember the last network type used. So if you change between different BDA device types, you will have to specify correct network type every time you launch application unless you are using auto detect option.






Sunday 14 October 2012

DVBStreamExplorer export to Web Services

The next release of DVBStreamExplorer Professional edition will introduce new features for exporting data to Web Services.
  • Service WS export
  • EIT WS export
Service WS export
This feature will export the same data as when exporting to CSV file. The difference being that it will export directly to a server that implements a WS that can be consumed by DVBStreamExplorer.
This could be used by users who are using DVBStreamExplorer to produce data for an on-line DTV service list.
For information on how to develop a WS that can be consumed by DVBStreamExplorer visist http://developer.dvbstreamexplorer.com
The WS export is invoked from export menu.

Endpoint URL of Web Service has to be entered. There is also an ID field. The meaning of this is defined by WS implementation. It is not used internally by DVBStreamExplorer. This could for instance be a unique DTV service list instance, so that multiple DTV service lists could be hosted.

EIT WS export
This feature will export EIT event data to a Web Service. DVBStreamExplorer could then be used to provide event data for an on-line TV guide.
For information on how to develop a WS that can be consumed by DVBStreamExplorer visist http://developer.dvbstreamexplorer.com
This feature is part of the DVB TS Monitor EIT page.


Before starting TS Monitor session, export to WS must be configured. Configuration of EIT WS export can be invoked from Options -> Preferences EIT export tab.


Endpoint URL of Web Service has to be entered. There is also an ID field. The meaning of this is defined by WS implementation. It is not used internally by DVBStreamExplorer.
EIT module will cache events in memory. When a sufficient number of events have been cached they will be exported to Web Service. This will happen either when 'Upload interval (minutes)' has passed or count of events has exceeded 'Event threshold', depending on which of these two events occurs first.
A maximum number of 'Max events per request' events will be sent in one request to Web Service. If number of cached events exceeds this value multiple requests to Web Service will be made.


Thursday 11 October 2012

Using Google Drive with DVBStreamExploerer exported CSV files

Service information files exported from DVBStreamExplorer in CSV format can be uploaded to Google Drive and converted to Google Spreadsheets. Service information can then be shared easily with other users and you can access information from everywhere including handheld and mobile devices.
You will need either a Google Account or a Google Apps Account.

Below is a DVBStreamExplorer scan of local DVB-T channels (Malta) exported to Google Docs spreadsheet.



Direct link to spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlzKD8F--RuTdDJpUWlRYXF3WFpiT3pRdUxRWFgxUUE

Below is a DVBStreamExplorer scan of 'Astra 19.2°E' exported to Google Docs spreadsheet.



Direct link to spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlzKD8F--RuTdHhqcVJNWmdTRDVoNVdhM1ZESWphLXc

Once service CSV file has been converted to spreadsheet one could apply Google Apps Script to add special features. This could for instance be extraction of certain information which would normally be difficult to spot when looking at a large spreadsheet. Or it could be used to spot service changes over time. For instance if 'Astra 19.2°E' was scanned one day and then scanned again a week after a script could generate a report of service changes. Such a report could include added and removed services, and list of services where one or more properties changed.

Follow +DVBStreamExplorer to keep up to date with DVBStreamExplorer  related news.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

NorDig support in DVBStreamExplorer

The next release of DVBStreamExplorer will introduce decoding of NorDig logic_channel_descriptor and content_protection_descriptor private descriptors.
This might be of interest to users in Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) and Éire.
For logic_channel_descriptor, both Version 1 (descriptor_tag 0x83) and Version 2 (descriptor_tag 0x87) are decoded.
Below is a screenshot of logic_channel_descriptor (Version 1) decoding in DVB PSI/SI scanning.


And below is screenshot of decoding of same descriptor in DVB Transport Stream Monitor.



Saturday 11 August 2012

Extracting CA EMM/ECM sections with TS File Demux

In this post I will demonstrate how to use TS File Demux section  filter feature to extraxt CA entitlement management message (EMM) / entitlement control message (ECM) sections. I will use a local DVB-T MUX 770 MHz from GO as example.
Screenshot below show the MUX in DVBStreamExplorer with Boomerang TV service expanded.

Boomerang TV service expanded in DVBStreamExplorer TS Mon


I have outlined CA EMM and ECM streams which are those of interest for this post. It can be seen that CA provider is Norwegian Telekom (CA_ID 0x0b00) which would imply that the CA system is Conax. The EMM PID is carried on PID 0x0063 (99) and the ECM PID for Boomerang TV service is carried on PID 0x01f6 (502).
I used DVBStreamExplorer to capture a Transport Stream file that I will use as input in TS File Demux. But you can use any software capable of capturing Transport Stream file.

After launching TS File Demux the first thing to do is to open the Transport Stream file saved in previous step. TS File Demux will scan the file for program and PID information and you will end up with something similar to screenshot below.

TS File Demux after selecting TS file

You can now locate the PID streams of interest and add filters. You can can double-click on an entry containing a PID value in programs tree to populate filter controls. The application will try to find the most appropriate filter type from the context. You can change parameters before adding the filter by applying 'Add' button.
Below is screenshot after adding 0x0063 (EMM) and 0x01f6 (EMM) section filters.

TS File Demux after adding filters



Now apply 'Start' button and the selected streams will be saved to the folder specified. Two files were generated, sec_0x0063.bin and sec_0x01f6.bin. Their file names were generated from the filter type (section ) and from the PID values saved.
Below is screenshot of sec_0x01f6.bin shown in a hex editor (PSPad).

ECM section in hex highlighted in hex editor

One ECM section is highlighted. It can be seen that table_id field is 0x80 and section_length field is 0x44 (68) bytes.
It is beyond the scope of this post trying to interpret the content of ECM section. I will leave this as an exercise for the reader.
Happy CA exploring!




Thursday 26 July 2012

How DVBStreamExplorer is keeping old PSI/SI section versions

In this post I will describe an often overlooked, but nice feature in DVBStreamExplorer Pro Edition TS Monitor feature. When scanning for SI/PSI table sections DVBStreamExplorer Pro Edition will like most other analysing software keep a copy of all unique sections. However when a new version of a given section arrives in stream, DVBStreamExplorer Pro Edition will keep the old section when inserting the new 'current' section in the tree. Below is an example of how an EIT section version 6 was first acquired and then later superseded by version 7, and finally by version 8. The section version currently applicable in TS is labelled (current) for easy identification. The section version_number field  is 5 bits long. So DVBStreamExplorer Pro Edition will keep up to 32 versions, including current version, of each unique section.


The curious user can then examine different section versions in the tree to find out exactly what changed. Below is EIT section version 7 expanded in SI/PSI tree.


And  below is EIT section version 8 expanded in SI/PSI tree.


It can be seen that the event ID of first event in loop was changed from 707 (section version 7) to 708 (section version 8).
This approach can also be applied for table sections like PAT, CAT, PMT, NIT, SDT, NIT etc. In this example I used EIT because the section version change can be observed after scanning for a relatively short period of time. For the other table section types one usually have to scan for a significantly longer time to catch a section version change.




Monday 18 June 2012

Creating DVB-T MUX list in DVBStreamExplorer

If you are going to use DVBStreamExplorer with DVB-T capture hardware, one of the first thing you need to do is to create a DVB-T MUX list. If you are going to do a 'Multiple DVB-T MUX scanning' session, only entries in DVB-T MUX list can be scanned. When tuning manually it's also offers an convenient way select entry from list instead of having to type frequency manually.
The DVB-T MUX list can easily be created by the application performing a full scan of all standard frequencies. Non standard frequencies can be added to the list manually. Band scan can be invoked from scan button on 'Options  -> DVB-T MUX list' menu.
If you are using BDA hardware the very first thing you should do is to set the 'Tuning wait for lock delay (ms)' to an appropriate value, i.e. 1000 ms. Leaving it at default value 0 ms can cause problems with some cards. In those cases operations like 'Multiple DVB-T MUXscanning' would fail each tuning attempt and you will end up with no data found. The wait for lock value can be set in Device -> Settings menu. See screenshot below.

The video below demonstrates how to set  'Tuning wait for lock delay (ms)' value and how to start DVB-T MUX list band scan operation.



The video below shows the conclusion of DVB-T MUX list band scan operation. It also shows that DVB-T MUX list entries are now available for 'Multiple DVB-T MUX scanning' session.



Similar operations can be applied for DVB-C, ATSC and ISDB-T MUX lists. The case of DVB-S MUX list is more complex and will be documented separately in future post.