TransEdit 4.x

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TransEdit4.x is an advanced variant of the basic TransEdit 3.9.x version. It is recommended for experienced users and experts, not for beginners. You use it at your own risk! If you are not sure what the additional features are about, rather keep it simple and stay with TransEdit 3.9.x.

This article describes additional features of TransEdit 4.x (compared to 3.9.x). It assumes that you already know how TransEdit works and for what it can be used. For the basic features please refer to the manual.

General[edit]

Window Management[edit]

Window Management

TransEdit4.x allows to cover your desktop with scores of windows. The Window Manager helps to keep track of them by displaying all open TransEdit Windows and their dependencies in a tree view. The Manager Window can be opened and closed from other TransEdit Windows by pressing F12 or by clicking "TransEdit Windows" in the system menu.

The Window Manager Window allows to minimize, maximize, restore and close single windows, groups of windows (e. g. all Preview or all ScannerWindows) or the whole application. Right-click the according item in the Window Manager and select the command in the context menu. Left-click an item to bring a single window or a group of windows to the foreground.

The "Open in a new window if possible" check list box on the Settings → General Tab allows to specify separately for different window types whether (ticked:) TransEdit shall open a new window when the according function is called or (unticked:) re-use a window that has already been opened for this purpose before.

Please note: You can reverse the set-up behavior by holding the shift key down when selecting the function. In certain cases TransEdit will not open a new window, even if told so, because there is no DVB hardware available for an additional window.

Handling of Analyzer Windows: The number of available DVB devices for a particular tuner type does not necessarily limit the number of Analyzer Windows that can be open at the same time. If a required tuner is not available TransEdit fulfills the request by stopping the Analyzer in the previous window (without closing it) and using the tuner for a new window. This enables comparing the data of two or more transponders with only one tuner. However, only the Analyzer in the last opened window will run in this case.

Preview Window[edit]

You may open as many Preview Windows playing as you like for channel or file playback. The number is only limited by the CPU power and, if you want to play channels from different transponders resp. frequencies, by the number of available DVB tuners, of course. However, even with a single tuner it is possible to display 6 TV channels at the same time if they are transmitted on a single transponder, provided your PC is powerful enough. Please refer to the "Window Manager" sections for more information.

Preview Windows are able to display the following subtitle types:

  • Teletext
  • DVB
  • ISDB
  • ATSC Captions (CEA 608 only embedded in MPEG2 Video)
  • BluRay Presentation Graphics

Select the subtitles that you want to see from the Preview Window Context Menu, or right-click the subtitle stream in the Analyzer Window and select "Preview" (doesn't work with teletext).

Satellite Frequencies[edit]

Satellite Frequencies

Satellite frequencies are internally processed as kHz, no longer as MHz, thus enabling more precise tuning, which may be important for low bandwidth transponders. The change implies several consequences:

  • In the TransEdit Main Window satellite frequencies are still entered and displayed as MHz, but with up to three decimal places (e.g. 11082.75).
  • Satellite frequencies are stored in transponder lists as kHz instead of MHz, e.g. 11024000 instead of 11024. Current DVBViewer and previous TransEdit versions are able to auto-detect the unit and convert the values back to rounded MHz when reading them. Similarly TransEdit 4.0 automatically converts MHz values to kHz, so there should be no compatibility issues.
  • For compatibility reasons TransEdit 4.0 still stores satellite frequencies as rounded MHz when exporting scan results as INI, CSV or directly to the DVBViewer channel list. Though current DVBViewer versions are able to auto-detect the unit, plugins and add-ons may not be aware of it.
  • The Scanner and Analyzer do not round frequencies from the Network Information Table (NIT) to full MHz anymore. After performing a transponder list update resp. NIT scan your transponder list will probably contain frequencies with a fractional part, indicating the exact center frequency, provided the NIT is right.
  • The Blind Scanner is able to scan a frequency range with a smaller step size. You may enter 10744-10745:0.1 for 100 kHz steps, for example.

The main and context menu of the main window provide a "Round to MHz" item. It only applies to satellite transponder lists. The function rounds the frequencies of selected transponders with a fractional (kHz) part to MHz.

DVB-T2 Support[edit]

DVB-T2 Support

DVB-T2 is an advanced version of the DVB-T broadcast standard. If a DVB-T device is selected on the Settings → Hardware Tab theDVB-T2 checkbox above the Tuner Type Drop-down List indicates whether the tuner is able to receive DVB-T2 transponders or not. TransEdit retrieves this information from the hardware database. It can also be corrected manually for devices that are not yet present in the database.

If a DVB-T transponder list is selected the TransEdit Main Window provides a DVB-T2 checkbox in the area for editing transponder data on the right side. It can be used to flag frequencies / transponders as DVB-T2. In this case TransEdit automatically uses a DVB-T2 capable device for receiving it (see above). It can't be received if no DVB-T2 device is available.

There are DVB-T2 devices that are able to auto-detect if a transponder is DVB-T2 and pass this information to an application. Currently TransEdit knows how to get this information from Digital Devices, DVBSky or TBS drivers. Transponders are automatically flagged as DVB-T2 when the scanner uses one of these devices. If the DVB-T2 checkbox for a transponder is ticked, additional input elements show up.

The Substream ID input field selects a stream on MPLP transponders (Multiple Physical Layer Pipe), which means there are multiple separate transport streams broadcasted on a single frequency, each complete on its own. This DVB-T2 feature enables targeting different device types (e.g. mobile and stationary) requiring different signal robustness on a single frequency, or enhanced distribution of regional services. The value in the range 0...255 is automatically set when TransEdit performs a scan with one of the devices mentioned above and passed to the driver on subsequent tuning, so it can provide the according transport stream.

SubstreamIDs are stored in the DVB-T transponder list and in (exported) scan results. In the main window and scanner window list views TransEdit appends Substream IDs to the frequency with a preceding #, e. g. 506#0, 506 #1 etc. Please note that TransEdit regards transponder list entries with the same frequency, but different Substream IDs as different transponders. Receiving them at the same time requires two DVB-T2 tuners!

When using other DVB-T2 tuners without (known) MPLP support and auto-detection capabilities, Substream IDs have to be entered and added manually. TransEdit tries to pass them to the driver by using a standard BDA interface that is available since Windows 7. It is not known yet which vendors are supporting this interface, though.

Additionally a Lite checkbox appears in the TransEdit Main Window if a transponder is flagged as DVB-T2. Lite streams targeting mobile devices are detected automatically by the scanner if the driver of the DVB-T2 device provides according capabilities. Up to now only drivers from Digital Devices are known to support DVB-T2 Lite.

DVB Network Distinction[edit]

The “Net Number” input field on the left side of the TransEdit Main Window is a transponder list property for all tuner types except satellite. The network number is limited to a 0....500 range. Technically it is similar to a satellite orbital position. It is part of the DVBViewer channel ID, thus allowing to distinguish DVB-C/T etc. networks e. g. if you are receiving more than one DVB-C network in a professional scenario. Channels with identical channel data are regarded as different if they are scan results from transponder lists with different network numbers.

Please note: Only use this setting if you know exactly what it does. It may have several side effects. Channels that are scanned and exported with a wrong network number will affect the assignment of favorites to channels and the execution of scheduled recordings.

TransEdit as Streaming Client[edit]

The TS Stream tuner type comprises various network protocols and file types that carry / contain an ISO compliant transport stream or which TransEdit is able to convert to a transport stream (currently only AAC/MP3 audio streams). The streams/files are handled by virtual TS Stream Devices. The URLs (which may also be the path of a local file) are stored in TS Stream transponder lists. TransEdit regards each URL as a separate transponder (in the DVB sense) that can be analyzed, scanned and pre-viewed like a DVB transponder resp. channel. The following stream / file types are supported:

  1. Simple HTTP streams without additional protocols involved, as for example used by broadcasters providing streams via HbbTV.
  2. Unencrypted HLS (HTTP live streaming) based on M3U8 master playlists itemizing M3U8 media (index) playlists itemizing transport stream segments. Read more about it here.
  3. UDP/RTP multicast and unicast, similar to DVB IPTV supported by DVBViewer Pro and previous TransEdit versions, but more flexible and manageable, particularly in view of future IPv6 support. The “classic” DVB IPTV will be maintained for compatibility, though. UDP/RTP multicast URLs may optionally specify a source IP and the local network interface (NIC) in the following way: udp://[Source-IP@]Multicast-IP:Port[/Local-IP]
  4. Sat>IP compliant RTSP streams letting TransEdit work as a Sat>IP thin client that uses static RTSP URLs provided by a Sat>IP server (e. g. as RTSP channel list like the one exported by the Recording Service).
  5. HTTP streams containing AAC or MP3 audio (e. g. internet radio). Internally the streams are converted to transport streams so they can be processed / displayed by the TransEdit Analyzer and Scanner. ShoutCast metadata (if available) appears as a fake SDT (containing channel name) and EIT (containing artist, title etc.as EPG data). This feature can be used to scan lists containing internet radio URLs in order to find out which of them are not working anymore.
  6. Paths of local TS and M2TS files


Though different URL types can be mixed in a single TS Stream transponder list it is strongly recommended to keep them in separate lists.

The TS Stream tuner type entails various extensions and facilities that are enumerated below:

TransEdit is able to receive HTTPS streams, which requires the 32-bit versions of the OpenSSL libraries libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll in the TransEdit installation directory (where TransEdit.exe is). They should already be present if the Recording Service is installed. Otherwise they can be downloaded from here.

TS Stream transponder lists can be loaded and saved as M3U resp. M3U8 files (the latter using UTF-8 character encoding), thus facilitating import/export of VLC type URL lists. This means you can simply store M3U URL lists in the Configuration Folder\Transponders sub-directory as transponder lists without conversion to the INI format.

If TransEdit is part of a DVBViewerGE 3.6 installation TS Stream scan results can be exported to the DVBViewer GE channel list (which handles them like DVB channels).

TransEdit can be launched with an URL as command line parameter which immediately lets the Analyzer show up (like a TS file as parameter does).

There are URL input facilities enabling drag & drop of links, URLs and text from browsers or text editors like Notepad++ to the TransEdit main window. If a TS Stream transponder list is selected you may

  • drag a link or a selected URL into the URL input line
  • drag selected text (e. g. a channel name) into the Description input line (works for all tuner types)
  • drag a link or a selected URL into the list of URLs (resp. transponders) on the right side of the TransEdit main window. TransEdit will copy the URL to the URL input line, clear the Description input line and automatically perform Add, thus creating a new entry in the list.
  • drag selected text into the list of transponders resp. URLs. TransEdit will copy the text to the Description line and automatically perform Apply if (and only if) there is no description assigned to the currently selected entry yet.

So you would typically first drag a URL into the list (creating a URL entry without description), immediately followed by a channel name. Please note that drag & drop does not work with the Internet Explorer if it is running in protected mode, because it restricts data exchange with applications that are running with a higher privilege level. You must either switch the protected mode off (not recommended) or use another browser like Firefox.

TransEdit as Streaming Client

The Checkbox "Omit SDT and use description as channel name" as TS Stream transponder list property in the main window may accelerate scanning of URL lists considerably. In many cases TS streams come without an SDT (Service Description Table containing the channel name and provider). The checkbox prevents the scanner from wasting time by waiting for it and lets it use the URL description as channel name. In case of HLS the scanner always omits the SDT, regardless of the checkbox setting. Please note: Don't tick “Omit SDT” if the scanned streams contain EPG data (e. g. DVB IPTV or RTSP/Sat>IP). In this case the SDT must be read because it contains the network ID that is required for assigning EPG data to channels.

Input filters automatically adjust entered / dropped URLs on Apply / Add. The filters perform the following changes:

  • Removal of leading / trailing blanks and quotation marks.
  • Conversion of the Dreambox URL format to normal URLs (%3a is replaced by “:”, %2f by “/”, handling of the playpath part). Please note that the input must include the playpath in order to get a complete URL.
  • Conversion of RTMP (Flash) URLs to HTTP HLS URLs. TransEdit cannot process Flash streams, but many servers also deliver a segmented HLS transport stream if the URL is modified accordingly. This automatic conversion may work or not, depending on the server.
  • Conversion of HTTP request header additions appended to an URL (like “User-Agent=” or “X-Forwarded-For=”) to the TransEdit / DVBViewer GE query format (see below), provided they are starting with a “|” pipe character resp. %7c.

It is possible to append special parameters as “queries” to an URL, which are not sent to the server, but processed by TransEdit internally. The query string starts with a question mark (“?”). Multiple queries are separated by a “&” character. So if the URL already contains a query string you can simply attach additional parameters with leading “&” characters. You can add the following:

  • HTTP request header fields influencing the server behavior. Example: "?addhdr=User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3) TransEdit 4.1" letting the server believe that TransEdit is a Mozilla compatible browser. Two or more header fields must be separated by %0D%0A (carriage return and linefeed): "?addhdr=FieldName1: Value1%0D%0AFieldName2: Value2"
  • HLS data rate restriction. Many (not all) HLS streaming servers allow the client to select between streams with different data rates / video resolutions, provided the URL references a M3U8 master playlist. The following example "?maxbw=1000" lets TransEdit select a stream with a bandwidth as close as possible to (but not above) 1000 kbps, if available. Please note that a bandwidth restriction does not take effect if no such stream is available. It may also result in an audio transport stream (without video) or even in a pure audio elementary stream that cannot be processed by TransEdit.
  • HLS time offset. Some HLS servers provide the TS segments of the last broadcasted x minutes in the media resp. index playlist, so playback can start up to x minutes in the past: "?timeshift=10" lets TransEdit start with a TS segment 10 minutes in the past, if possible. By default TransEdit starts with the last but second segment, usually yielding a time offset of 15...30 seconds, which is not too far away from the live position and enables sufficient buffering.

You may specify the user agent string that TransEdit uses for HTTP request headers by adding a UserAgent=... line as tweak to the [Hardware] section of the file TransEdit.ini in the configuration folder. It overrides the default user agent “TransEdit 4.1”. Example: [Hardware] UserAgent=Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3) TransEdit 4.1 Please note that a user agent string appended to a URL as query (see above) precedes the general user agent setting.

A percent character (“%”) in the URL description (which will mostly contain a channel name) lets TransEdit take measures against time stamp flaws particularly in HLS streams, e. g. if the program clock reference (PCR) does not match the video/audio presentation time stamps (PTS), if it runs too slow/fast, if video time stamps jump several hours forward / backward etc. The “%” character in the description basically removes the (faulty) PCR form the stream, so playback falls back to using the audio PTS as clock reference, and instructs the DVBViewer Filter to ignore and drop discontinuous time stamps. You may try this patch if a stream is received (the Analyzer shows incoming TS packets), but can't be played properly or not at all.

The "Set Network Interface (UDP/RTP)" Sub-Menu in the Edit Menu and the context menu on the right side of the TransEdit main window. assigns the selected local network interface (NIC) to all selected URLs and modifies them accordingly (see UDP/RTP URL syntax in the enumeration of URL types above). The “Automatic” menu item removes the NIC IP from all selected URLs.

If an internet radio URL (resp. an URL that may be internet radio) is selected in the TransEdit Main Window there are two new commands in the context menu belonging to the list on the right side: Get Direct Address retrieves the direct URL of the stream and replaces the original URL if it references a playlist or if it is redirected by the server. Get Channel Name retrieves the name of the radio station from the ShoutCast metadata and stores it as transponder description.

URLs may contain a user name and password, e. g. http://DVBUser:xyz@127.0.0.1/..., particularly for receiving / testing streams originating from the Web Server of Recording Service 1.33 and later whose streams are optionally password-protected.

if TransEdit cannot get in sync with the TS packet structure (because the stream / file does not contain a transport stream) scanning or analyzing is canceled with the error message “The file / stream format is not supported!".

Scanner[edit]

Drag & Drop Export of Scan Results[edit]

TransEdit 4.x provides simplified export of channels and channel lists as INI file. Select the to be exported entries in the list of scan results and drag & drop them on any location that accepts files, e.g. the Windows Explorer, NotePad... or the DVBViewer Pro Channel List Editor resp. the DVBViewer GE Channel List.

Please note: This drag & drop features enables a very convenient transfer of scan results to the DVBViewer channel list. However, it has to be applied carefully. Don't forget that it is still an INI export / import via a temporary transfer file, influenced by the TransEdit export settings. And there are drawbacks:

  • The drag & drop export is not compatible with the Scanner functions that directly write to the DVBViewer channel list (Add/Update, Update All, Delete DVBViewer Channels, Deleting Channels in the Dead Channels Window). Avoid confusion by mixed usage as long as a Scanner Window is open!
  • TransEdit doesn't come to know where the drag & drop export goes, so it can't update the "already present" marking of scan results, and it can't prevent double entries in the DVBViewer channel list like the other functions. You have to take care of it!

Analyzer[edit]

Table Statistics[edit]

The Analyzer provides sophisticated table statistics function. Right-click the SI table in question or one of its sub-nodes in the Analyzer Tree View and select "Table Stats" from the context menu.

While the Analyzer Main Window focuses on the payload of SI tables, the Table Stats function uses a tree view to show their division into sub-tables and sections. It displays additional information like Table ID, Section Length, Section Number, Last Section Number, Version Number etc., and constantly updates the section counter, data rate and cycle time for each (sub-)structure, indicating how often it is broadcasted.

Table Statistics

Please note: TransEdit displays the Section Length "as broadcasted", which means, the number of bytes following the Table ID and Section Length field occupying 3 byte. So the actual section size is Section Length plus 3! The data rate calculation is based on the number of received sections and their size. It doesn't include the TS header or stuffing overhead.

Header Info[edit]

Header Info

The Analyzer provides a Header Info function, showing the PES Header of Packetized Elementary Streams, and in case of video/audio additionally the content of video/audio headers plus a summary of the main video/audio parameters like resolution, sample rate etc.. Right-click the stream in the PID List that you want to examine, or the according PAT -> Service -> PMT -> ES PID node in the SI Tree View, and select "Header Info" from the context menu.

The Header Info function is able to read the headers of the following video and audio formats:

  • MPEG2
  • H.264
  • HEVC
  • VC-1
  • MP2/MP3
  • AC3
  • E-AC3
  • AAC (ADTS and LOAS/LATM)
  • DTS
  • LPCM
  • AES3

For H.264 and HEVC the Header Info function calculates and shows the visible video resolution (e. g. 1920 x 1080) instead of the decoded resolution (1920 x 1088) by using the crop information in the Sequence Parameter Set.


Teletext[edit]

The Teletext Analyzer shows teletext internals. Right-click a teletext stream in the PID List, or a PAT -> Service -> PMT -> Teletext ES PID in the SI Tree View, and select "Teletext/Subtitle Analyzer" from the context menu.

The right side of the Teletext Window displays the teletext in the same way as the DVBViewer Teletext Window and provides the same functionality. The tree view on the left side shows the teletext structure composed of magazines, pages and packets. For each page you can view the presentation time stamp (PTS), the last and average cycle time, control flags, control codes within the text and additional non-displayable packets. If "Update Pages" is ticked, TransEdit updates the tree view content when new page versions arrive. Untick the checkbox if you want the content to remain unchanged while examining it.

The Settings → Teletext Tab provides additional settings concerning the Teletext Analyzer and Teletext Subtitles:

  • "Font" selects the font that is used for displaying teletext.
  • "Use PMT for automatic character set selection": If this checkbox is ticked, TransEdit tries to resolve the ambiguity of the teletext character set information by reading the language from the PMT (Program Map Table). If available it overrides the user defined preferences (see below).
  • "Character set preferences": Lets you decide which country specific character set shall be applied. Each section of the checklistbox contains a group of languages ambiguously specified by the teletext national option bits. E.g. a certain bit pattern may specify English, Polish or Serbian. Select the one that you want to be applied in case of doubt.
Teletext

Subtitles[edit]

The Subtitle Analyzer shows the internals of

  • DVB subtitles
  • ISDB subtitle
  • ATSC captions (only CEA 608 embedded in MPEG2 Video)
  • BluRay Presentation Graphics

Right-click the stream containing the subtitles in the PID List, or the according PAT -> Service -> PMT -> ES PID node in the SI Tree View, and select "Teletext/Subtitle Analyzer" from the context menu.

After opening a Subtitle Analyzer Window, its left side collects PES packets and the contained data in a tree view, while the right panel continuously displays the subtitles "live" as they arrive, until the maximum number of PES packets (set up in the PES Packets Input Line) is reached. As soon as you select a tree view entry, the Subtitle Analyzer switches to static mode, constantly showing the subtitles at the selected position (if there are any), thus enabling to check stepwise which data yields which subtitle display. Use the Sub ID drop-down List to select the subtitle track, if there is more than one encoded in the stream, and click Restart to let new settings take effect.

Subtitles

Hex View[edit]

The Hex View of the Analyzer provides a search function. Click "Find" to open the Search Panel. Enter a byte sequence as hex digits in the Hex String Input Line and click "Find" to find its next occurrence. Or enter a text in the Text String Input Line and click "Find Text". It will convert the text to a byte sequence, showing up in the Hex Input Line, and start the search.

The Mask String Input Line enables entering a hexadecimal byte sequence that specifies which bits in the Hex String Input Line are significant for the search. A zero mask bit lets TransEdit ignore the according Hex String bit when comparing bytes, so it does not matter whether they are equal or not. A one bit marks the according bit in the Hex String as significant. If the Mask String is empty or shorter than the Hex String, all missing mask bytes are set to FF by default, which means, all bits of the according Hex String bytes are compared. You can just leave the Mask String Input Line empty if you don't need masking.

Hex View

Descrambling[edit]

The Analyzer's context menus provide a Descramble menu item. It is only available if an encrypted service resp. stream is selected in the Analyzer and it uses

  • a RTSP device with the DVBViewer Recording Service as server (assuming that the Recording Service is able to descramble the service with a CI/CAM).
  • a RTSP device with Digital Devices OctopusNet as server configured for CI usage (more about it in the Settings – Hardware – OctopusNet CI Support section).
  • a DVB device for which TransEdit natively supports descrambling with a CI/CAM (currently Digital Devices cards and old TechnoTrend devices like TT 3200, TT 3650, CT 3650, not the new 4xxxx devices that are relabeled far-east products). Please tick Settings → Hardware → Has CI for activating CI support.

If descrambling succeeds, the color of the affected streams changes from red to black in the Analyzer, and other functions like Preview can be applied to them. Please note: The Recording Service only allows descrambling of a single service per transponder resp. RTSP device. So applying the Descramble Function to another service will let the first one fall back to the scrambled state again.

If no “Has CI” checkbox is available on the Settings → Hardware Tab TransEdit can be forced to assume CI availability by adding the tweak HasCi.x=1 (where x is the device number) in the [Hardware] section of the file TransEdit.ini. This does not add any non-existent functionality, however.

Data Rate Calculation[edit]

The "Average Data Rate" sub-menu in the context menu of the Analyzer's PID list allows to select how the displayed data rate is calculated:

  • Overall Average: Average data rate over the time since the Analyzer was (re-)started
  • Exp. Moving Average a=0.1...0.9: Exponential moving average. The factor a indicates the weighting of the current data rate (within the last second) in relation to the previous average. E.g. a=0.7 means the current data rate gets 70% influence and the previously calculated average 30% influence on the new average. The higher a is selected, the more momentary changes become visible. The lower a is selected, the more past measuring gains influence and the more smoothing takes place.
  • Current Value: The average over the last second. Past measuring is disregarded (equates to a=1.0).

Holding the mouse cursor on a data rate value in the list lets the Analyzer display the minimum and maximum value as hint.

Data Rate Calculation

Settings[edit]

Hardware[edit]

Device List[edit]

The Device List on the Settings -> Hardware Tab provides the following functions:

  • Add Button: Adds virtual devices to the Device List. It opens a Popup Menu offering "DVB IPTV Network Device", "RTSP Network Device (Sat>IP)" and “TS Stream / File Device”. Two or more virtual devices of the same type can be configured and used at the same time if required.
  • Delete Button: Deletes the selected device from the Device List.
  • In-place Editor: Allows to change and customize the names of virtual IPTV/RTSP devices. In the Device List
  • Sorting by Drag & Drop: Allows to re-sort entries for fine-tuning the priority. TransEdit prefers the topmost device if the "Usage" settings are identical.
  • Color marking: Devices that are set to "Don't use" appear grayed in the Device List. Devices displayed in red have been deactivated in the Windows device manager, have been removed (USB) or are not available for other reasons. TransEdit does not try to use such devices, but automatically looks for another suitable device.
  • Surprise Removal: If a currently used USB device is removed (without using "Safely Remove Hardware" that wouldn't allow it), TransEdit immediately cancels all activities depending on this device and prompts you to not do such a naughty thing again.

Sat>IP Support[edit]

Sat>IP Support

Sat>IP is designed for accessing live media broadcasts from satellite reception servers on IP networks. It is based on established standards like UPnP and RTSP. Servers and clients find each other by using UDP multicast. The client sets up a RTSP compliant TCP connection for sending commands like PLAY to the server. In return the server provides a UDP/RTP stream as wrapper for a DVB transport stream. In order to save network bandwidth the client usually requests a selection of data packets (PIDs) for playback, not the original “whole transponder” transport stream. The RTP (Real Time Transport Protocol) stream is accompanied by a RTCP (Real Time Control Protocol) stream containing real-time information about DVB reception parameters like the signal level. So much about the basic architecture...

The Settings → Hardware Tab provides control elements for RTSP (SAT>IP) configuration. They appear after a virtual RTSP device (representing a tuner in the Sat>IP server) has been selected in the Device List. Please follow the instructions below:

  • Server Detection: TransEdit tries to detect suitable RTSP servers automatically. Usually you only need to pick it from the Server Drop-down List, thus letting TransEdit configure the server IP and port automatically. Please note that the Sat>IP server detection only displays one address per server instance resp. UUID. In case of a local server on the same PC 127.0.0.1 (localhost) is preferred, in case of servers on other PCs the address belonging to the same sub-net as the client, if possible.
  • Client Ports: This setting specifies a port range for receiving the RTP and RTCP stream. Usually there is no need to change the default values. TransEdit automatically finds free ports within this range by trial and error. Two ports are required: One with an even port number for the RTP stream and one with the subsequent odd port number for RTCP.
  • DVB-C, DVB-T: Though the SAT>IP standard initially has been designed for satellite distribution over a network, some servers like the DVBViewer Recordings Service also provide other reception types (DVB-C/T) in the same way. All you have to do is to select the according Tuner Type for the RTSP device.
  • UDP/TCP: UDP is the standard protocol for Sat>IP media streaming. The DVBViewer Recordings Service also supports TCP as alternative. It is only selectable in TransEdit if the Recordings Service is the server. Usually TCP provides a better robustness against data loss in the network, but also implies more protocol overhead. You may want to try TCP if you get a lot of drop-outs with UDP.
  • PID Filtering: A Sat>IP client may access the stream without or with PID filtering, which means, it can request the whole transponder stream or only the required part from the server, thus saving network bandwidth. However, some servers only support the PID Filter Mode, which is usually recommendable, except if your network can easily transmit 100 MBit/s and more. The DVBViewer Recording Service supports both modes. For experimental purpose Transedit allows to select the "Whole Transponder" mode by ticking the according checkbox for an RTSP device. It may or may not work.
  • Analyzer: The TransEdit Analyzer forces the Sat>IP "Whole Transponder" Mode in any case, because it can't work without it. Therefore the Analyzer will not work correctly or not at all if
    • the SAT>IP server doesn't support this mode.
    • the network connection can't cope with such a high data rate.
    • the DVB device is configured for hardware PID filtering in the Recording Service (particularly FireDTV, SkyStar 2 and SkyStar S2).

When using a RTSP device TransEdit responds to the following events:

  • The server does not reply within a 1000 ms timeout: TransEdit automatically tries to use another (virtual or hardware) device. The timeout can be influenced by adding a "ConnectionTimeout.x=..." entry for the RTSP device in the [Hardware] section of the file TransEdit.ini, specifying the timeout in milliseconds. x stands for the device number.
  • The RTSP server is not able to provide the requested transponder resp. channel: TransEdit displays an according error message and stops all operations (particularly a scan) that depend on this network connection.
  • The Recording Service as RTSP server is stopped or shut down (only applies if TCP is selected as protocol): TransEdit displays the error message "RTSP connection shut down by Recording Service" and stops all operations that depend on this network connection.
  • The Recording Service as RTSP server switches over to another transponder due to a tune request with higher priority: TransEdit displays an according error message and stops all operations that depend on this network connection.

OctopusNet CI Support[edit]

TransEdit 4.x provides support for Digital Devices OctopusNet CI, allowing to analyze / play scrambled channels. OctopusNet is a SAT>IP server. TransEdit works as client by means of virtual RTSP network devices (see Settings – Hardware – Sat>IP Support).

If the (selected) server is recognized as OctopusNet, the Hardware Tab displays a drop-down list containing the following options:

  • Don't use CI
  • Use any CI
  • Use CI #1
  • Use CI #2

for assigning a CI to the RTSP device. The last two options require OctopusNet 1.0.17 or later. An RTSP device configured for CI usage enables pre-viewing scrambled channels from the Scanner Window and using the Descramble function in the Analyzer (only if the server's CI/CAM is able to descramble the streams, of course). Please refer to the Analyzer – Descrambling section for further information.

Please note: An RTSP device configured for CI usage occupies the CI all the time while it is used, even when TransEdit receives unscrambled streams. If the CI is not available, tuning will fail in any case. OctopusNet does not allow dynamic CI allocation and deallocation "on demand". "Any CI" means the first available (unoccupied) CI.

Configuring TS Stream Devices[edit]

Configuring TS Stream Devices

Usually TS stream devices are created dynamically on demand and remain invisible, so that you don't have to care about it. However, if you want to change the default settings of a TS Stream device it is necessary to add it to the device list on the Settings → Hardware Tab. Furthermore, in order to save network bandwidth, TransEdit only creates new TS Stream devices dynamically if there is no alternative like taking the device away from a lower priority task (like Preview) for a high priority task (like the Analyzer). So if you don't want a new TS Stream Analyzer Window to automatically close playback of a different TS Stream in a Preview window, just add enough TS Stream devices to the device list. TransEdit regards them as “available in any case”.

The Settings → Hardware → HTTP Settings section for virtual TS Stream devices entails

  • Connection Timeout: Specifies the time in milliseconds that TransEdit waits for a server response. Increasing the default value (3000 ms) may enable connecting to servers that are responding very slowly, but also increases the time while the TransEdit UI is unresponsive in such cases.
  • Receive Buffer: Specifies the size in kB of the socket receive buffer set up by the network driver for the connection. The default value 1024 kB = 1 MB proved to be OK for video streams, but may be increased for high data rates in order to prevent drop outs.

Read more about TransEdit as streaming client here.