Eesti t.v. kanavat via Artec usb

[UbuntuMan]

Fellow Finnish Ubunteros!

I have an "Artec T14BR mini USB Digital TV Receiver". I can watch Finnish TV very well with it using Kaffeine. I can even watch AVA which my digiboksi cannot see... Wierd...

My question is this. Is there anyone in the Quad Helsinki Area (QHA) that is able to use their USB DVB-T tuner to watch Estonian television? In Kaffeine I can see settings for Latvia and Lithuania but no Estonia. LT & LV are MPEG4 countries so how come they show up in Kaffeine and not EE which also is MPEG4???

Any advice to fix this will be great appreciated.

Thank you very much for your time and support.

[salai]

I think Estonia still has no initial-tuning-data-file:
gnome-dvb-daemon does not find channels in Estonia and Lithuania


Me-TV 1.3.6 (in 11.04 based Mint or Peppermint Two) finds Estonian channels even with wrong input data like this:



I can see most of them, even though I live some 100 km north-east from Tallinn. Finnish channels Me-tv doesnt find, so I must import them from channels.conf.

Does this help you, I dont understand language:
Digi-tv.ee • Vaata teemat - Eesti DVB-T vastuvõtul toimivad arvutikaardid

[UbuntuMan]

Thanks salai!

I don't speak Estonian but I do know they show tons of American programming like here in Finland, thus the interest.

I checked out the tuner I got but it hasn't MPEG4 so I think this is problem as soon as we get out the gate.

ebay has this one for 3€ so maybe it pays to buy it??? BUt I can't find it in Ubuntu compatible hardware list which is typical of chinese stuff although they still do work... Just a no name brand.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PC-Laptop-Mini-USB-HDTV-DVB-T-MPEG-4-Freeview-TV-Tuner-Receiver-P219-/380411854517?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5892503eb5

[nm]

So Kaffeine doesn't find the channels when you try automatic scanning? Then the signal is probably so weak that watching would be impossible even if you got all the channel parameters from someone else.

Check your antenna and aiming. You'll probably need a clear view to south (no trees or buildings blocking the signal) and a good directional antenna.

I checked out the tuner I got but it hasn't MPEG4 so I think this is problem as soon as we get out the gate.

Your tuner is fine for Estonian MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) broadcasts. They are old-standard DVB-T (not DVB-T2), so any DVB-T tuner can be used for reception.

DVB-T USB and PCI devices marketed as "MPEG-4 capable" simply come with Windows software and codecs for decoding and playing AVC video. On Linux this feature doesn't matter at all, and most players and DVB viewing programs do support AVC.

[UbuntuMan]

Hi nm!

Thanks for your reply. Actually, I'm over in Lauttasaari. It's an Island here in Helsinki and I'm right next to the sea. The Antenna on top of the house actually has a clear line of vision to Estonia.

When I open Kaffeine and do a channel search I use Espoo and get the Finnish channels but EE for Estonia doesn't appear at all. LV and LT do but not Estonia.

From the way it sounds now it seems that if I were to find a means to load an Estonian config channel file into Kaffeine I just may be able to start to see those Estonian channels.

But how can this be done?

Thanks for the feedback and support!

[nm]

Thanks for your reply. Actually, I'm over in Lauttasaari. It's an Island here in Helsinki and I'm right next to the sea. The Antenna on top of the house actually has a clear line of vision to Estonia.

Your antenna is probably aimed to west towards Espoo, and since it's a proper rooftop type, it's strongly directional. Signals from Estonia come from side, so their reception will be very poor. Or do you happen to have a second TV antenna at the roof aimed to Estonia?

When I open Kaffeine and do a channel search I use Espoo and get the Finnish channels but EE for Estonia doesn't appear at all. LV and LT do but not Estonia.

Kaffeine also has an automatic scanning option where you don't pick a specific location. Just select "Autoscan" from the top of the Source list and then search the channels.

From the way it sounds now it seems that if I were to find a means to load an Estonian config channel file into Kaffeine I just may be able to start to see those Estonian channels.

If autoscan doesn't find Estonian channels, it's likely that the signal is too weak. But if you still want to try with manually specified parameters, I'd suggest using the scan tool from dvb-apps package. It's a command line program. You also need frequencies and other parameters from someone who is receiving the channels.

After you have a working initial tuning file, send it to Kaffeine developers.

[UbuntuMan]

We got this Estonia guy in the house and he bought in Tallinn this digiboksi that catches both Finnish and Estonian television programs. It's similar to this box being sold in Finland by satshop.fi:

http://www.satshop.fi/digiboksit/dvb-t/digiline-t3201-conax.html

Anyway, we are all using the same antenna on top of the roof and connected via same cable.

On my digiboksi I can get all all the Finnish channels except AVA. When I do same scan using my USB tuner then AVA again isn't recognised. If I re-scan using the digital "plate" antenna then Kaffeine sees AVA. Then, now that AVA is found,  if I disconnect the digital plate antenna and connect to house antenna AVA disappears again.

Are we sure of the Artec being capable of MPEG4? The Artec website doesn't reflect this. See:

http://artectv.com/ehtm/products/t14.htm

I did a w_scan and at the very least that's suppose to tell you if the channel is out there or not and nothing was founded during the scan. The scan was conducted using both the plate antenna and roof antenna. Using the Kaffeine auto scan also yielded negative results.

Thanks again for your support and insight into this most challenging problem.

P.S. I understand that FInland is moving to MPEG4.

[nm]

We got this Estonia guy in the house and he bought in Tallinn this digiboksi that catches both Finnish and Estonian television programs.

Ok, then it might be possible to receive them with T14BR. Check the frequencies and channel parameters from your friends box and post them here. It could be that Kaffeine and w_scan aren't looking within the right frequency range.

On my digiboksi I can get all all the Finnish channels except AVA. When I do same scan using my USB tuner then AVA again isn't recognised. If I re-scan using the digital "plate" antenna then Kaffeine sees AVA. Then, now that AVA is found,  if I disconnect the digital plate antenna and connect to house antenna AVA disappears again.

That's very odd. Sounds like you are receiving a different signal source with the house cabling. Are you sure it's not operated by DNA Welho? They broadcast DVB-T in their cable network at Espoo frequencies and probably don't include AVA in that service. Otherwise I can't explain how AVA could be missing from the "A" bouquet.

Are we sure of the Artec being capable of MPEG4?

Absolutely sure. USB DVB receivers are dumb devices -- they don't care what data streams the broadcast contains as far as the link level and MPEG-TS structure is standard compliant. Estonian broadcasts are plain old DVB-T, so any DVB-T USB stick can receive them.

MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC are video coding formats and only the receiving software needs to deal with that part. Both streams are just bits for the tuner and the demultiplexer hardware in your T14BR.

Take a look at salai's screenshot too. He's using a DiBcom 7000PC receiver there, which is either Artec T14BR or a device based on the same chipset as T14BR.

The Artec website doesn't reflect this.

Many DVB-T devices are targeted at UK and German markets where only MPEG-2 is used. The company simply cuts costs by not including a H.264 decoder that would be needed on Windows XP and Vista. H.264 royalties cost a couple euros.

This is also why some companies have an "MPEG-4" model of a device with the same hardware: there's a H.264 decoder included in the software package and a slightly heftier price tag on the box.

P.S. I understand that FInland is moving to MPEG4.

Yes, but it's only used for HD broadcasts in DVB-T2 (and DVB-C networks). You'd need new hardware for that.

[salai]

Here is my channels.conf (included as channels.tx), which I made with w_scan using "My Cinema U3100 Mini" dongle. It has 5 free Estonian channels and all Espoo channels, I think.

I can open that file in VLC 1.1.9 and see all free channels (except Kanal12 Levira) and also import all channels to Me-tv 1.3.6 from it.

[UbuntuMan]

salai, that file looks great! Thanks! I actually got it to load in Me tv simply by renaming it to channels.conf.


But how do you get it into Kaffeine format? e.g. channels.dvb? I looked last couple hours for a converter and nothing.

HOw are you opening it in VLC? I use Ubuntu 10.04 and vlc but there isn't any place you can upload this file for VLC. Or are you simply drag and dropping it into a folder?

Anyway this house hasn't DNA/Welho. Just antenna on roof.....

Thanks again!!!!

[salai]

My Kaffeine 1.1 doesn't use channels.dvb, its for older versions - this version has channels in sqlite.db.

Here are included channels.dvb and sqlite.db (in channels.7z), which works for Kaffeine 1.0 --> if copied to ~/.kde/share/apps/kaffeine folder.

[UbuntuMan]

salai,

Thanks for these files! I got them into Kaffeine and they work! I was hoping that using the antenna outlet would enable me to see Estonian channels but that wasn't possible. I went to the Attic of the house and then they started to come in.

Thanks again for your support!