DTV question [minor]

[David Nebenzahl]

So one of my local TV stations seemingly stopped sending program
information data--you know, the text that says what's on, what's going
to be on, and explaining in more detail what's on. Landing on that
channel, display simply showed "- No program information -". (BTW, this
seems to be the default for all of the minor little public TV stations
around here, not including the big PBS stations which are diligent about
supplying this information.)

OK, no big deal, but slightly annoying, so I fired off an email to the
station, alerting them to this situation and asking them if this was due
to an omission at their end. (I confess I really don't know what that
information is called, or how it gets supplied at their end. All I know
is that it is somehow transmitted as part of the DTV datastream.)

Well, a day or two later, the program information started appearing for
that station. I figured it *might* have been on account of my email--big
slaps on the back for me as an Alert Citizen!--but since they hadn't
replied, I had no way of knowing.

Then a couple days after that I got a reply back. The station's
operations manager wrote and told me that they (the station) was
supplying that information, and therefore if I wasn't seeing it, it was
probably due to a problem at my end. He suggested doing a complete
rescan (not an "update scan") on my DTV box.

I wrote back, and he replied to that. Here's what he said, in part:

Nothing changed on our end. However it is not unheard of for
set-top-boxes to need to reload the PSIP tables for a channel once in a
while. Forcing a rescan forces the tables to reload. Eventually they
will usually reload on their own which is probably what happened in your
case.

(I had done nothing to my DTV box this whole time.)

So does anyone know if this is correct? Now there's another station (one
of the big networks, not a local independent) that's missing its program
info. Is it possible that my DTV box would selectively omit this
information for just one or a few stations? Every other station shows
this info for me, with the exceptions noted above.


--
The current state of literacy in our advanced civilization:

yo
wassup
nuttin
wan2 hang
k
where
here
k
l8tr
by

- from Usenet (what's *that*?)

 

[William Sommerwerck]

I wrote back, and he replied to that. Here's what he said, in part:

Nothing changed on our end. However it is not unheard of for
set-top-boxes to need to reload the PSIP tables for a channel once in a
while. Forcing a rescan forces the tables to reload. Eventually they
will usually reload on their own which is probably what happened in your
case.

(I had done nothing to my DTV box this whole time.)

So does anyone know if this is correct? Now there's another station (one
of the big networks, not a local independent) that's missing its program
info. Is it possible that my DTV box would selectively omit this
information for just one or a few stations? Every other station shows
this info for me, with the exceptions noted above.

It might be true. I note that the information supplied, and even the call
letters (!!!) of particular channels, can change from day to day on my
Vizio, even though I have done nothing.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 03 Apr 2011 15:50:12 -0700, David Nebenzahl
<nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote:

Then a couple days after that I got a reply back. The station's
operations manager wrote and told me that they (the station) was
supplying that information, and therefore if I wasn't seeing it, it was
probably due to a problem at my end. He suggested doing a complete
rescan (not an "update scan") on my DTV box.

That's probably a good idea. However, you can identify the culprit by
simply checking for data presence on a different TV set (or at a local
store). If none of the TV's see data from this station, then it's
their problem. If only your TV lacks data, it's your problem.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Ian Field]

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d98eb6d$0$32442$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

So one of my local TV stations seemingly stopped sending program
information data--you know, the text that says what's on, what's going to
be on, and explaining in more detail what's on. Landing on that channel,
display simply showed "- No program information -". (BTW, this seems to be
the default for all of the minor little public TV stations around here,
not including the big PBS stations which are diligent about supplying this
information.)

OK, no big deal, but slightly annoying, so I fired off an email to the
station, alerting them to this situation and asking them if this was due
to an omission at their end. (I confess I really don't know what that
information is called, or how it gets supplied at their end. All I know is
that it is somehow transmitted as part of the DTV datastream.)

Well, a day or two later, the program information started appearing for
that station. I figured it *might* have been on account of my email--big
slaps on the back for me as an Alert Citizen!--but since they hadn't
replied, I had no way of knowing.

Then a couple days after that I got a reply back. The station's operations
manager wrote and told me that they (the station) was supplying that
information, and therefore if I wasn't seeing it, it was probably due to a
problem at my end. He suggested doing a complete rescan (not an "update
scan") on my DTV box.

I wrote back, and he replied to that. Here's what he said, in part:

Nothing changed on our end. However it is not unheard of for
set-top-boxes to need to reload the PSIP tables for a channel once in a
while. Forcing a rescan forces the tables to reload. Eventually they
will usually reload on their own which is probably what happened in your
case.

(I had done nothing to my DTV box this whole time.)

So does anyone know if this is correct? Now there's another station (one
of the big networks, not a local independent) that's missing its program
info. Is it possible that my DTV box would selectively omit this
information for just one or a few stations? Every other station shows this
info for me, with the exceptions noted above.

IME DVB-T STBs seem particularly prone to mains borne noise and spikes
corrupting the various bits of NVR data, you could try a mains conditioning
socket strip to clean up the supply or run it through a UPS - handy for
power outages that would mess up recordings on a PVR, otherwise doing the
occasional re-scan is not such a big deal.

 

[Ian Field]

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a3211$0$7784$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

On 4/4/2011 1:06 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d98eb6d$0$32442$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

So one of my local TV stations seemingly stopped sending program
information data--you know, the text that says what's on, what's
going to be on, and explaining in more detail what's on. Landing on
that channel, display simply showed "- No program information -".
(BTW, this seems to be the default for all of the minor little
public TV stations around here, not including the big PBS stations
which are diligent about supplying this information.)

OK, no big deal, but slightly annoying, so I fired off an email to
the station, alerting them to this situation and asking them if
this was due to an omission at their end. (I confess I really don't
know what that information is called, or how it gets supplied at
their end. All I know is that it is somehow transmitted as part of
the DTV datastream.)

Well, a day or two later, the program information started appearing
for that station. I figured it *might* have been on account of my
email--big slaps on the back for me as an Alert Citizen!--but since
they hadn't replied, I had no way of knowing.

Then a couple days after that I got a reply back. The station's
operations manager wrote and told me that they (the station) was
supplying that information, and therefore if I wasn't seeing it, it
was probably due to a problem at my end. He suggested doing a
complete rescan (not an "update scan") on my DTV box.

I wrote back, and he replied to that. Here's what he said, in part:


Nothing changed on our end. However it is not unheard of for
set-top-boxes to need to reload the PSIP tables for a channel
once in a while. Forcing a rescan forces the tables to reload.
Eventually they will usually reload on their own which is
probably what happened in your case.

(I had done nothing to my DTV box this whole time.)

So does anyone know if this is correct? Now there's another station
(one of the big networks, not a local independent) that's missing
its program info. Is it possible that my DTV box would selectively
omit this information for just one or a few stations? Every other
station shows this info for me, with the exceptions noted above.

IME DVB-T STBs seem particularly prone to mains borne noise and spikes
corrupting the various bits of NVR data, you could try a mains
conditioning socket strip to clean up the supply or run it through a
UPS - handy for power outages that would mess up recordings on a PVR,
otherwise doing the occasional re-scan is not such a big deal.

Are you sure of this, or is this just hand-waving? (Like the old "reboot
your computer" advice of the techie on the other end of the phone, no
matter what the problem.)

I ask because after doing a rescan, *another* channel still shows no
program information, so obviously the scan did nothing to correct that. I
still have no idea if the problem is at their end or my end, but the scan
didn't help.

Does someone here *actually know* how this information is handled,
propagated, etc?

Various DVB-T faults get discussed on uk.tech.digital-tv so you could try
asking there.

A search of the newsgroup list on the server I connect to only found uk, Aus
& ru digital TV newsgroups.

 

[Ian Field]

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a36ed$0$11893$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

On 4/4/2011 2:13 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a3211$0$7784$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

Does someone here *actually know* how this information is handled,
propagated, etc?

Various DVB-T faults get discussed on uk.tech.digital-tv so you could try
asking there.

You use the term "DVB-T" as if that's supposed to mean something to me.
I'd never heard this term before.

OK, so it appears to be a *prospective* worldwide DTV standards-setting
body. (Looks suspiciously like yet another Euro-standard being pushed on
us, but never mind.)

But is this even applicable to the US? Not sure, even after reading this,
with no mention of DVB-T applying to us:

http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/usa

In any case, I'm still looking forward to someone *here* who has at least
an inkling of how textual program information is handled *here* (the US,
where I live).

You don't seem very grateful for the attempts to help you, so I think I've
reached the limit of what I can do for you.

 

[David Nebenzahl]

On 4/4/2011 1:06 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d98eb6d$0$32442$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

So one of my local TV stations seemingly stopped sending program
information data--you know, the text that says what's on, what's
going to be on, and explaining in more detail what's on. Landing on
that channel, display simply showed "- No program information -".
(BTW, this seems to be the default for all of the minor little
public TV stations around here, not including the big PBS stations
which are diligent about supplying this information.)

OK, no big deal, but slightly annoying, so I fired off an email to
the station, alerting them to this situation and asking them if
this was due to an omission at their end. (I confess I really don't
know what that information is called, or how it gets supplied at
their end. All I know is that it is somehow transmitted as part of
the DTV datastream.)

Well, a day or two later, the program information started appearing
for that station. I figured it *might* have been on account of my
email--big slaps on the back for me as an Alert Citizen!--but since
they hadn't replied, I had no way of knowing.

Then a couple days after that I got a reply back. The station's
operations manager wrote and told me that they (the station) was
supplying that information, and therefore if I wasn't seeing it, it
was probably due to a problem at my end. He suggested doing a
complete rescan (not an "update scan") on my DTV box.

I wrote back, and he replied to that. Here's what he said, in part:


Nothing changed on our end. However it is not unheard of for
set-top-boxes to need to reload the PSIP tables for a channel
once in a while. Forcing a rescan forces the tables to reload.
Eventually they will usually reload on their own which is
probably what happened in your case.

(I had done nothing to my DTV box this whole time.)

So does anyone know if this is correct? Now there's another station
(one of the big networks, not a local independent) that's missing
its program info. Is it possible that my DTV box would selectively
omit this information for just one or a few stations? Every other
station shows this info for me, with the exceptions noted above.

IME DVB-T STBs seem particularly prone to mains borne noise and spikes
corrupting the various bits of NVR data, you could try a mains conditioning
socket strip to clean up the supply or run it through a UPS - handy for
power outages that would mess up recordings on a PVR, otherwise doing the
occasional re-scan is not such a big deal.

Are you sure of this, or is this just hand-waving? (Like the old "reboot
your computer" advice of the techie on the other end of the phone, no
matter what the problem.)

I ask because after doing a rescan, *another* channel still shows no
program information, so obviously the scan did nothing to correct that.
I still have no idea if the problem is at their end or my end, but the
scan didn't help.

Does someone here *actually know* how this information is handled,
propagated, etc?


--
The current state of literacy in our advanced civilization:

yo
wassup
nuttin
wan2 hang
k
where
here
k
l8tr
by

- from Usenet (what's *that*?)

 

[David Nebenzahl]

On 4/4/2011 2:13 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a3211$0$7784$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

Does someone here *actually know* how this information is handled,
propagated, etc?

Various DVB-T faults get discussed on uk.tech.digital-tv so you could try
asking there.

You use the term "DVB-T" as if that's supposed to mean something to me.
I'd never heard this term before.

OK, so it appears to be a *prospective* worldwide DTV standards-setting
body. (Looks suspiciously like yet another Euro-standard being pushed on
us, but never mind.)

But is this even applicable to the US? Not sure, even after reading
this, with no mention of DVB-T applying to us:

http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/usa

In any case, I'm still looking forward to someone *here* who has at
least an inkling of how textual program information is handled *here*
(the US, where I live).


--
The current state of literacy in our advanced civilization:

yo
wassup
nuttin
wan2 hang
k
where
here
k
l8tr
by

- from Usenet (what's *that*?)

 

[David Nebenzahl]

On 4/4/2011 2:29 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a36ed$0$11893$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

On 4/4/2011 2:13 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nobody@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a3211$0$7784$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

Does someone here *actually know* how this information is
handled, propagated, etc?

Various DVB-T faults get discussed on uk.tech.digital-tv so you
could try asking there.

You use the term "DVB-T" as if that's supposed to mean something to
me. I'd never heard this term before.

OK, so it appears to be a *prospective* worldwide DTV
standards-setting body. (Looks suspiciously like yet another
Euro-standard being pushed on us, but never mind.)

But is this even applicable to the US? Not sure, even after reading
this, with no mention of DVB-T applying to us:

http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/usa

In any case, I'm still looking forward to someone *here* who has at
least an inkling of how textual program information is handled
*here* (the US, where I live).

You don't seem very grateful for the attempts to help you, so I think I've
reached the limit of what I can do for you.

Well, you haven't been very helpful, so I guess we're even.


--
The current state of literacy in our advanced civilization:

yo
wassup
nuttin
wan2 hang
k
where
here
k
l8tr
by

- from Usenet (what's *that*?)

 

On Apr 4, 3:32 pm, David Nebenzahl <nob...@but.us.chickens> wrote:

On 4/4/2011 2:29 PM Ian Field spake thus:





"David Nebenzahl" <nob...@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a36ed$0$11893$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

On 4/4/2011 2:13 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nob...@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a3211$0$7784$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

Does someone here *actually know* how this information is
handled, propagated, etc?

Various DVB-T faults get discussed on uk.tech.digital-tv so you
could try asking there.

You use the term "DVB-T" as if that's supposed to mean something to
me. I'd never heard this term before.

OK, so it appears to be a *prospective* worldwide DTV
standards-setting body. (Looks suspiciously like yet another
Euro-standard being pushed on us, but never mind.)

But is this even applicable to the US? Not sure, even after reading
this, with no mention of DVB-T applying to us:

http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/usa

In any case, I'm still looking forward to someone *here* who has at
least an inkling of how textual program information is handled
*here* (the US, where I live).

You don't seem very grateful for the attempts to help you, so I think I've
reached the limit of what I can do for you.

Well, you haven't been very helpful, so I guess we're even.

--
The current state of literacy in our advanced civilization:

   yo
   wassup
   nuttin
   wan2 hang
   k
   where
   here
   k
   l8tr
   by

- from Usenet (what's *that*?)

Go read this as it should help you get started.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSIP

G˛

 

[David Nebenzahl]

On 4/4/2011 10:18 PM stratus46@yahoo.com spake thus:

On Apr 4, 3:32 pm, David Nebenzahl <nob...@but.us.chickens> wrote:

On 4/4/2011 2:29 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nob...@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a36ed$0$11893$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

On 4/4/2011 2:13 PM Ian Field spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" <nob...@but.us.chickens> wrote in message
news:4d9a3211$0$7784$822641b3@news.adtechcomputers.com...

Does someone here *actually know* how this information is
handled, propagated, etc?

Various DVB-T faults get discussed on uk.tech.digital-tv so
you could try asking there.

You use the term "DVB-T" as if that's supposed to mean
something to me. I'd never heard this term before.

OK, so it appears to be a *prospective* worldwide DTV
standards-setting body. (Looks suspiciously like yet another
Euro-standard being pushed on us, but never mind.)

But is this even applicable to the US? Not sure, even after
reading this, with no mention of DVB-T applying to us:

http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/usa

In any case, I'm still looking forward to someone *here* who
has at least an inkling of how textual program information is
handled *here* (the US, where I live).

You don't seem very grateful for the attempts to help you, so I
think I've reached the limit of what I can do for you.

Well, you haven't been very helpful, so I guess we're even.

Go read this as it should help you get started.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSIP

Thank you. You win the "first person to actually provide useful
information in this whole damn thread" award.


--
The current state of literacy in our advanced civilization:

yo
wassup
nuttin
wan2 hang
k
where
here
k
l8tr
by

- from Usenet (what's *that*?)