Thread: PBS sound / What are: LPB? mux? MCPC? / My success...

I have 3 questions but direct me to a more appropriate forum for the first one if needed:

(*I think I found the answer to item #1 below: http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air...-problems.html. It turns out my receiver has an S/PDIF optical pass-through outlet and by TV has an S/PDIF digital coax outlet so I may need a respective cable for each and a Digital Coax S/PDIF To Optical Toslink Converter. I just don't know where to get that locally. *I also have an update to my warping issue below that I wasn't sure of before: I'm now sure the warping affects my signal because when on my roof and I bend it to the way I think it should be for a few seconds I lose the signal, but it just springs back and the signal comes back. The dish blew over in a storm when I had it on a weighted tripod on the ground and I also accidentally dropped it on concrete another time. It is secure now.)

>> 1) AMC 21: I get 12179/v/30001 (for PBS) at 36-46 quality. PBS World comes in great but there is no sound. In fact, there is no sound from about 10 of my 36 channels I get while aimed at AMC 21 and Galaxy 18. The common thing with these is a Dolby Digital icon in the bottom right of the bottom info bar on my Fortec Dynamic receiver. I get 11 TP's from Galaxy 18 and 1 is from AMC 21. I can't get any better than that so far even with an SF-95 finder. I'm really only trying for PBS and not Galaxy 18. My dish is warped and I'll get a new one soon because my tries at bending it back haven't worked. All the other channels that don't have that Dolby Digital icon do have sound. Why is this? My TV is an HD TV.

2) What is an LPB mux?

3) What is MCPC?

BTW, I've had my dish up for a month and with DOZENS of trips to my roof for re-aiming/tweaking/re-enforcing I've been successful at getting a total of 4 Satellites plus a 5th but that one (121.0W Galaxy 23) but that just shows a system msg. All Satellites were received one at a time though. I really enjoy the results. I'm ready for a motor after all that and I've ordered one.

OutdoorDog
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90x99 cm offset WS International dish / Fortec Star Dynamic Rcvr. / Univ. LNB
USA - Dickerson, MD 20842

Originally Posted by outdoordog

>> 1) AMC 21: I get 12179/v/30001 (for PBS) at 36-46 quality. PBS World comes in great but there is no sound. In fact, there is no sound from about 10 of my 36 channels I get while aimed at AMC 21 and Galaxy 18. The common thing with these is a Dolby Digital icon in the bottom right of the bottom info bar on my Fortec Dynamic receiver. I get 11 TP's from Galaxy 18 and 1 is from AMC 21. I can't get any better than that so far even with an SF-95 finder. I'm really only trying for PBS and not Galaxy 18. My dish is warped and I'll get a new one soon because my tries at bending it back haven't worked. All the other channels that don't have that Dolby Digital icon do have sound. Why is this?

most of the channels on AMC21 are in dolby digital (or AC-3) so you need a audio receiver that can decode it. You shouldnt be getting both G18 & AMC21 at the same time. Sounds like that warped dish is hindering the ability for AMC21 to work.
The only stations on AMC21 that arent AC-3 is Montana PBS

2) What is an LPB mux?

Louisiana Public Broadcasting. Louisiana PBS. Its in DVB-S2 which is a different setup than what most receivers can get (DVB)

BTW, I've had my dish up for a month and with DOZENS of trips to my roof for re-aiming/tweaking/re-enforcing I've been successful at getting a total of 4 Satellites plus a 5th but that one (121.0W Galaxy 23) but that just shows a system msg. All Satellites were received one at a time though. I really enjoy the results. I'm ready for a motor after all that and I've ordered one.

121 has just the "you are aimed at 121" screen. 123 has the most English channels of the 3

Originally Posted by Iceberg

Quote:
Originally Posted by outdoordog
>> 1) AMC 21: I get 12179/v/30001 (for PBS) at 36-46 quality. PBS World comes in great but there is no sound. In fact, there is no sound from about 10 of my 36 channels I get while aimed at AMC 21 and Galaxy 18. The common thing with these is a Dolby Digital icon in the bottom right of the bottom info bar on my Fortec Dynamic receiver. I get 11 TP's from Galaxy 18 and 1 is from AMC 21. I can't get any better than that so far even with an SF-95 finder. I'm really only trying for PBS and not Galaxy 18. My dish is warped and I'll get a new one soon because my tries at bending it back haven't worked. All the other channels that don't have that Dolby Digital icon do have sound. Why is this?

most of the channels on AMC21 are in dolby digital (or AC-3) so you need a audio receiver that can decode it. You shouldnt be getting both G18 & AMC21 at the same time. Sounds like that warped dish is hindering the ability for AMC21 to work.
The only stations on AMC21 that arent AC-3 is Montana PBS

Actually there is a 2nd channel. It should scan in with a regular DVB receiver, however it depends upon what time and day, whether it will have video that can be displayed by a regular receiver as it's sometimes in MPEG4 HD mode. I have no idea of where it's from, but it's PBS content.

Originally Posted by Iceberg

Quote:
BTW, I've had my dish up for a month and with DOZENS of trips to my roof for re-aiming/tweaking/re-enforcing I've been successful at getting a total of 4 Satellites plus a 5th but that one (121.0W Galaxy 23) but that just shows a system msg. All Satellites were received one at a time though. I really enjoy the results. I'm ready for a motor after all that and I've ordered one.
121 has just the "you are aimed at 121" screen. 123 has the most English channels of the 3

Again, actually there is another fta channel (with real content) on that sat that's been there for at least a couple years. However it's hidden, and won't scan in via a regular blind scan. Funny thing is that it's on a transponder that Lyngsat says is empty.

Thanks all! That's cool that a warped dish can get 2 satellites at once. It also got 95.0 W and 97.0 W before.

1) What is mux?

2) What is MCPC? Does it have to do with S/PDIF or AC3 or TosLink? That may have been where I saw it.

3) I have my new dish up and it gets only single satellites at one time but with MUCH stronger signals than before. I also installed a motor. AMC 21 at 125.0°W comes in the strongest, then Galaxy 18, and as I get to more eastern satellites the signal gets so weak that I can't get anything east of SatMex 6 at 113.0°W. Why is that? My guess is that I have to adjust the motor latitude/elevation on the dish latitude/bracket-angle maybe it is not true south when at go to 0. I spent a lot of time and made my own tripod and used an elevation protractor so I know it is plumb.

mux is a group of channels....a transponder that has more than one channel on it

Originally Posted by Iceberg

mux is a group of channels....a transponder that has more than one channel on it

Boy, I wish that there was a more correct way to say this. I use the word transponder the way you did, but it really bothers me when I do that, since it really isn't proper, but I don't know of a better way to phrase it. Often I just call them "signals" instead of transponders. Ie a transponder is a sort of repeater on the sat that retransmits everything within it's band, say 11700-11740. In most cases, on that transponder, we might find several, even dozens of signals, each of which we call transponders. Like for example, the 11729 LEO and the 11735 RTN signals, are both the same transponder, as are a half dozen other nearby signals, yet we refer to them all as separate transponders.
I know I'll continue to call these signals as transponders, but I wish there was a more accurate terminology.

I know what you're saying BJ. I guess you are a little more old school then me

I dont think of the whole transponder (like the analog days) that way. If a frequency (say 11720 on G18) has 16 channels, I call that the "Equity mux".

But like last night when there was a sports feed that took up 3 frequencies (12182, 12188, 12194) with the same game (one was clean feed, one was english audio, one was spanish audio) I wouldn't call that a mux because it was one channel per frequency.....but others might since its within the "transponder" area of 12180-12200

I'm with you, Ice. If a number of channels are multiplexed onto a single tp frequency, then I call it a mux . We have to have some sort of shorthand ( even if maybe a little inaccurate technically ) to be able to communicate at all.
Can't spend all our time typing.

I agree re the mux definition, I was looking for another term for a signal instead of transponder, since a transponder could have a dozen signals on it, but we call them all transponders even when we see many on the same actual transponder. For example, on AMC-21, the 12150, 12163, 12169 and 12175 horizontal signals are all on the same transponder, but we call them all transponders. I guess there's no more appropriate term.