Hi - I'd like to beta test DVB-S support for you.  I'm currently running a WinTV-Nova-HD S2 picking up FTA Freesat channels on Astra 2D & Eurobird 1.

Strangely, not much interest in DVB-S support and then I get your message and another similar one in the same day! I'll contact you again when I have something to test but it won't be for a little while (see below).

Since people weren't clamouring for DVB-S support I've given priority to other things.  The two main new features I've been working on are tuner selection and direct loading of data into VMC/MCE.  These will be appearing in the next release which I plan to be soon (but then it's been "soon" for a couple of months now).

Once that release is out of the way then my plan is that the following release will include both DVB-S support and support for the non-standard way that Freesat have gone about implementing their EPG.

For now though there are some ways that DVBGuide can be used on DVB-S.  Some manufacturers drivers and also products such as DVBSBridge will pretend to be DVB-T devices.  DVBGuide should talk to these spoofed devices but whether any useful EPG data can be captured is another matter.  EPG data may be encrypted or, as in the case of Freesat, appear on non-standard PIDs and use non-standard text compression.  Also, users who have used DVB-C devices in a similar way (i.e. pretending to be DVB-T) have reported problems.  When I investigated I found that some of these spoofing solutions were not correctly passing on all of the Service Information tables/descriptors.

If anyone does try one of these spoofing solutions then I'd be interested to hear the results.

Pete

Hello,

 

I have teste with 2 fireDTV DVB S (BDA drivers make this DVB T for Vista MCE)

Didn't works.

TheFFF:

I have teste with 2 fireDTV DVB S (BDA drivers make this DVB T for Vista MCE)

Didn't works.

Can you be a bit more specific about what didn't work?

Did it build a graph and attempt to start capturing EPG data and then not find anything?  Or did it fail to get as far as finding a tuner to use and building a graph?

Pete

Ok, so, i do this :

 

In France, CanalSat have a channel for EPG, that is on the frequence 12363.00 (see here : http://fr.kingofsat.net/packages.php?&id=1&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=no )

 

I launch DVBGuide with the command :  dvbguide -c12363

DVBGuide retourn :
Finding DVB-T terrestrial tuner...
Tuner: FireDTV BDA Tuner DVBS

Tuning receveir...
Carrier: 12363 khz
Bandwitch : 8 Mhz

Waiting for signal lock...FAILED

 

So, i test with dvbguide -123630 , change value for 1236300, nothing is working.

 

 

 

 

OK, so it's building a graph OK and attempting to tune.  The problem is in the selection of the carrier frequency.  My (limited) understanding of the various DVB-S to DVB-T spoofing solutions is that they map a set of satellite tuning parameters (carrier, polarization, etc) onto a valid DVB-T tuning frequency.  You need to understand how that mapping works and then select a DVB-T carrier that maps onto 12363.0V.  If you are already using other apps that talk to the tuner as DVB-T then a look at the tuning parameters being used should give you a good idea of what to do.

Pete

Ok, so frequence sat 12363 is mapping to frequence 689833 for DVB T

I do dvbguide -c689833

Signal Locked
strength 82db and quality 82%

Network ORS DVB-T WN

Transport 0x044A

Gettin EPG records ... 0

EPG Record 0

Start / stop 0000/00/00 00:00:00 UTC

Capture time : 5 seconds

So that's definite progress.  The basic mechanism of finding a tuner, building a filter graph, running it and supplying tuning info is working OK.  But no EIT data is being found.

The first obvious question to ask is: can you or anyone else confirm that this particular transport stream does indeed carry EIT data?  I did a little bit of web searching and found some discussion that implied that it did.  But I also found this web site which lists it as having no EIT data:

http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dbr.php?link=1&sat=1&lang=en&tp=12363

If it is confirmed that EIT data is present then there are two posssibilities.  The first is that the DVB-T spoof driver is not passing on those tables (I've seen similar with DVB-C spoofed as DVB-T).  The second possibility is that the data is there but is present on a non-standard PID (e.g. what Freesat are doing).

Before investigating further, we need to establish whether EIT data is definitely present.  One way of confirming would be if any other media center or EPG type apps are able to see the data (and, if so, can they see the data using both native DVB-S driver and the spoof DVB-T driver?).

Pete

Hello,

 

I have no found information about EIT.

But i found this software that grabbe EPG in the good frequence. but, doesn't work with my DVB card....

 http://dvbsupport.net/info/epg4cplus.html

Hi,

I’m French and I have just information for you about EIT…

We have the chance in France to have a Microsoft Guide. This guide is good, but some channels have no information’s.

I don’t know if some of you have heard that a new update for MCE codenamed Fiji is actually on development at Microsoft.

This update has some new features such native DVB-S cards support, Multiple Audio language streams support, teletext, and EPG from EIT signal.

I have tried the Beta of this update, and I have tried to obtain the Astra EPG stream to see if I can obtain the guide. It works, but I have only the programs for German channels. I don’t know if the EIT is a standard system or if the French EIT is different, but in fact, I have no content for French channels in the guide.

Has anyone made tests with Fiji ?

There's now a beta release of DVBGuide that supports DVB-S and the Freesat EPG.

Pete

Hi Pete,

Is there any way to make this work with Repack 2008 installed? Also, is the loader utility ready?

Keep up the good work.

I keep trying to reply to this thread but the forum keeps giving me errors.  When TGB fix their forum system I'll have another go.

Pete

Hi,

Thanks for developing this app and sharing it wth us. I really appreciate it.

I'm just having a few problems getting it to work on my dvb-s card and wondered if there's anything you could sugggest to help. I'm running the batch file you included in the zip. Please see text below.

Thanks in advance for any help and keep going!

ears

C:\>DVBGuide -as -c11426000 -ph -y3002 -z3003 -o freesat_epg.xml

DVBGuide
========
(c) Copyright 2006-2008  Conquest Consultants
Version 0.89 (Aug  5 2008)

DVB tuner discovery...
Tuner 1:        <Hauppauge WinTV 88x DVB-S/S2 Tuner/Demod>, DVB-S

Selecting DVB-S tuner...
Tuner:          <Hauppauge WinTV 88x DVB-S/S2 Tuner/Demod>

Tuning receiver...
Carrier:        11426000 kHz
Polarisation:   Horizontal

Acquiring signal...
Present:        FALSE
Strength:       +9.8 dB
Locked:         FALSE
Quality:        0%
ERROR - unable to get signal lock

C:\>

I presume that you've tried the obvious and checked that you have a good signal and can tune in OK with the same hardware but with different software?

Three things you could try:

Change the carrier frequency to 11427830. It's slightly wrong in the batch file. Most tuners should still get a lock if the frequency is a bit out, but no harm in fixing this.

DVBGuide doesn't currently support any DiSEqC parameters.  Try using some other bit of software to tune to the transponder you're interested in.  Close that application and then run DVBGuide.

A final check would be to try tuning to other transponders. If you specify the correct PIDs DVBGuide will pick up the Freesat EPG (albeit very slowly).

Pete