New Test Channel

pa990

The previous mystery channel on mux 1 (the channel broadcasting without a name)
has now been named TEST SERVICE and is broadcasting a Test card and tone

it appears on No 18

glimmerman123

I wonder what's going to be on it ?

pa990

glimmerman123 wrote: »

I wonder what's going to be on it ?

maybe a saorview promo channel? (for retail use)
only time will tell

scath

my own guess is that it will be one of two possibilities, RTÉ Jnr or RTÉ PLUS

glimmerman123

scath wrote: »

my own guess is that it will be one of two possibilities, RTÉ Jnr or RTÉ PLUS

RTE jnr and RTE+1 are suppose to time share on one channel unless this has changed.

The Cush

The new test channel is the mysterious stream which appeared in mid March and could only be seen by some receivers until now - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056212459

I posted this over in the other thread, copied here

glimmerman123 wrote: »

I thought mux 1 was all full and that we would have to wait until mux two was fired up to see more tests. Any idea what might be on the second test channel?

Machinehead wrote: »

What's the story now with 8 TV channels incl. one of which is HD + the radio services & MHEG5, are things not a bit crowded on that one mux & does that mean that overall quality is going to suffer somewhere or does that mean that the 2nd muxes might now be fired up & RTÉ 2HD might now be moved across?

With the "RTÉ 2 Temporary" channel gone there should be approx 2-2.5 Mbps available.

Someone speculated previously that the 2 test channels could be the 1 timeshared video stream similar to BBC3/4 and the BBC childrens channels with each channel having its own ID and epg position and using the available capacity when the other is off-air.

pa990

The Cush wrote: »

......

Someone speculated previously that the 2 test channels could be the 1 timeshared video stream similar to BBC3/4 and the BBC childrens channels with each channel having its own ID and epg position and using the available capacity when the other is off-air.

but both channels are currently broadcasting different audio at the moment, so maybe its not for time share(ing)

glimmerman123

We all know RTENL like to do tests so maybe it's going to be a test channel for the forseeable future.

The Cush

pa990 wrote: »

but both channels are currently broadcasting different audio at the moment, so maybe its not for time share(ing)

Timesharing the video stream but not the audio stream.

givecredit

The Cush wrote: »

Timesharing the video stream but not the audio stream.

You seem to be correct. The test service with Lyric fm audio has actually 3 audio streams, (English, Narrative and Irish) The Narrative audio is the same audio as 2nd test service. The Irish stream is RnaG.

Hopefully soon TG4 will start an english audio stream for their excellent GAA and Rugby coverage. (similar to S4C)

Solair

I wonder will City Channel / Channel South try to get on board?

pa990

Solair wrote: »

I wonder will City Channel / Channel South try to get on board?

i hope not

Solair

pa990 wrote: »

i hope not

But, I mean the non-cable community has yet to be exposed to their wonderfully high production values and quality shows!

The Cush

Solair wrote: »

I wonder will City Channel / Channel South try to get on board?

Did they sumit an expression of interest to the BAI during the recent consultation? http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056195645

PressTheButton

pa990 wrote: »

The previous mystery channel on mux 1 (the channel broadcasting without a name)
has now been named TEST SERVICE and is broadcasting a Test card and tone

it appears on No 18

Whoopee! Panasonic TH-42PZ81B is picking up the new Test Service, both sound & picture, Channel 54/Three Rock. Curious or what?

scath

Solair wrote: »

I wonder will City Channel / Channel South try to get on board?

You might not admire their production values but surely its better to have another Irish TV channel than not on the platform. If it had it allows room for development. The Channel could be a combination of the regions with afew acquired foreign programmes and national news (or combination of regional news) and a mixture of regional and national adverts. The advantage is a truely regionally based service with region as its emphasis (outside Dublin). I would be in favour. It can improve over time.

Colmo52

On ch7 the first test channel i'm getting audio from Lyric fm but the test card visual.

The Cush

Colmo52 wrote: »

On ch7 the first test channel i'm getting audio from Lyric fm but the test card visual.

There's also 2 other audio streams being transmitted - RnaG and a test tone.

fat-tony

Folks,

There are two test services, not channels as described.

One service ID (1107), links or points to the test card video stream (VPID 1107) and a tone (marked nar APID 1207) and an existing audio stream for RnG (marked iri APID 1229) and an existing audio stream for Lyric (marked eng APID 1228).

The other service ID (1108) points to the same test card video stream (VPID 1107) and same test audio tone (APID 1207) as service ID 1107.

The test card video stream is only using about 1 Mbit/s of bandwidth, but is back at the regular resolution of 544x576 of the other channels. There is only about 0.5 Mbit/s of bandwidth "spare" at the moment, being transmitted as null packets.

I'm posting this to clarify that no significant extra bandwidth has been found anywhere in the mux. When the previous RTE Two test service was running it was only using around 1.0 - 1.5 Mbit/s.

The fact that there are two services present would indicate certainly that RTENL are testing a scenario where will be two part-time services pointing at the same video/audio stream data at different times of day. Make sense?

The Cush

fat-tony wrote: »

The fact that there are two services present would indicate certainly that RTENL are testing a scenario where will be two part-time services pointing at the same video/audio stream data at different times of day. Make sense?

That confirms what we guessed earlier in the thread and was discussed when the 1108 video stream appeared in mid March.

Based on RTÉ's sample mux the new timeshared RTÉjr/RTÉ1+1 should have around 2Mbps available when operational. It'll depend on how they allocate the bits when the new services launch, no point allocating a high bitrate to a test card when other services can use it.

weehamster

Going ahead with DVB-T over DVB-T2 is becoming more and more a very shortsighted decision.

Sam Russell

weehamster wrote: »

Going ahead with DVB-T over DVB-T2 is becoming more and more a very shortsighted decision.

No because T2 sets are only now coming onto the market, and it will be several years before they will be 'normal' The problem we have is going from one mux to two, as this doubles the cost of transmission. Once the second mux begins to fill up, the transition to three muxes will only increase the cost by 50%. I would not expect there to be more than two, certainly not more than three, public muxes. If we go commercial (payTV), then the payTV service can use T2 to broadcast because they will need the encryption which is absent from the Saorview spec, and so will have to provide their own boxes. They will want to get as much bang from their buck as they can.