PBS on AMC 1 C-Band

[mr.silverado]

Has anybody found the PBS station on AMC 1 on 103? During the day it is PBS Kids and then changes to a regular PBS station in the evening. It is on transponder 4101 Vertical sr 14028 3/4. I do not see it in the list. I've been trying to find out which PBS it is, but they never say. Not listed on Lyngsat either.
The California channel has moved to this sat as well. Tr 4197 & sr 2893 3/4.

 

[turbosat]

Yes, 2-3weeks ago I discovered that one. Don't know where its from, but is very handy to have.

 

[skysurfer]

the feed is very much like the AMC-4 analog service (descriptive video audio included) but has HD in addition to SD. I can't get anyone at PBS to return my inquiries as to whether the backyard dish service is going digital. I suppose at some point the text detail on the PBS site will change or we'll get a press release about it.

I don't see why it shouldn't convert. You have DVB SD for those who want the dirt cheap receivers and you have DVB HD for those who have a little nicer receiver, so the investment isn't much to end the AMC-4 feed.

 

[GreatFTA]

Ahhhhh...
Another PBS channel?
Wonderful!!!!

 

[tvropro]

I think it's going to replace PBS X analog.

 

[B.J.]

There was a bit of a discussion about this transponder several weeks ago.... I thought it was here, but maybe it was at satforums... I can't remember.

But there is one BAD thing I noticed about this feed, and that is that the audio channels on some programs make it impossible for us to listen to the full audio.

It's not on all programs, although on most programs they seem to alternate which audio channels have the regular audio, and which have the enhanced audio with someone giving descriptions of the video for the visually impaired, meaning that if you record, you have to record ALL of the audio streams or risk missing the good one.

But the BAD programs, are programs that have dialog from different surround sound channels sent over different audio streams. I watched one program where there were characters (this was a cartoon) in the center of the screen, and characters to the left and right. There was NO audio PID that would allow you to hear both the center AND the right/left. With any PID, you'd see lips moving and no sound came out, then the other characters would talk, and you'd hear it. You could reverse whether you were hearing center or left/right by changing audio PIDs, but you couldn't hear both. Only way to do it would be to use two receivers. If you record all channels, I'm not sure if there is any program that can combine audio streams into one stream or not. I couldn't find one.

But anyway, I checked the AMC21 feed when this was happening on AMC1, and the audio was normal there. So this behavior does NOT make it seem like this channel is being aimed at us hobbiests, because the average hobbiest isn't able to hear the audio on some programs.

 

[Lucky53]

There was a bit of a discussion about this transponder several weeks ago.... I thought it was here, but maybe it was at satforums... I can't remember.

But there is one BAD thing I noticed about this feed, and that is that the audio channels on some programs make it impossible for us to listen to the full audio.

It's not on all programs, although on most programs they seem to alternate which audio channels have the regular audio, and which have the enhanced audio with someone giving descriptions of the video for the visually impaired, meaning that if you record, you have to record ALL of the audio streams or risk missing the good one.

But the BAD programs, are programs that have dialog from different surround sound channels sent over different audio streams. I watched one program where there were characters (this was a cartoon) in the center of the screen, and characters to the left and right. There was NO audio PID that would allow you to hear both the center AND the right/left. With any PID, you'd see lips moving and no sound came out, then the other characters would talk, and you'd hear it. You could reverse whether you were hearing center or left/right by changing audio PIDs, but you couldn't hear both. Only way to do it would be to use two receivers. If you record all channels, I'm not sure if there is any program that can combine audio streams into one stream or not. I couldn't find one.

But anyway, I checked the AMC21 feed when this was happening on AMC1, and the audio was normal there. So this behavior does NOT make it seem like this channel is being aimed at us hobbiests, because the average hobbiest isn't able to hear the audio on some programs.

I'm using a CS 5000 here with no problems with audio..Just wondering what ur using to receive??

 

[B.J.]

I'm using a CS 5000 here with no problems with audio..Just wondering what ur using to receive??

It doesn't matter what receiver you're using. Like I mentioned, the problem I mentioned is only on some programs. Most programs have OK audio, although it's annoying that the "good" audio channel isn't always on the same stream. Sometimes it's on stream 1, sometimes stream 3, etc.
But if you run into one of those programs with the center channel on a separate stream, then there is NOTHING that can be done with ANY of our FTA receivers. Only solution would be to use two receivers, one tuned to the center channel, and one tuned to the L/R channel.

So far, the only programs I've seen with center completely separated were kids cartoons, ie they have somewhat artificial audio. However I HAVE observed cases with normal programs where the levels are significantly altered for different types of audio.

I'm really afraid that this audio problem will become more and more common. NBC also has some strange audio where some segments (usually AC3 commercials I think) don't have any audio on some audio PIDs, but you can usually find one PID that has all the important programming. But if they start putting center channel on a separate PID like this new PBS does, then we're going to have problems.

 

[Lucky53]

OK...I watched the kids programs this morning..and still watching with no adverse audio problems..I have my audio going from the receiver with RCA jacks and an audio cable for AC3 and dolby stereo thru my home entertainment receiver..the cs 5k has 2 audio settings for this channel..the 1st setting is working great,however the 2nd setting seems to have split audio..I hope this helps a bit..Maybe someone with a similar setup can elaborate on this issue..

 

[Lucky53]

Oh also one thing..the 2nd audio setting seems to be discriptive audio..

 

[B.J.]

It's not ALL programs, and it's not all KIDs programs. It's just that some of the newer programs have separated audio, and I guarantee that it will be a problem for ALL consumer receivers. For example, right now, I'm watching some kids show about the monkey who lives with the park ranger, and that audio is fine. One of the kids shows that gave me problems , was what I think is a relatively new one about a family of dinosours with pointed faces, and another one which I think is new (I don't keep up with kids shows, but I hadn't seen it before). And I checked, and the same program was on AMC21, and the audio was fine there.
And yeah, the descriptive audio thing is the other thing that was annoying me, because I had that channel set for the channel that DIDN'T have descriptive audio to be default, but it seemed to change from program to program, which means that if I record, I have to record ALL audio streams, or else the odds are pretty good that I'll end up with having to listen to that visual impaired audio. The descriptive audio thing was kind of wierd though, because last time I went to that channel, one stream was clean, one had loud descriptive audio, and one had descriptive audio that was sort of in the background, ie it was there but not very loud. Anyway, I really like having this feed on C-band, because I get rain outages on AMC-21, but I get the feeling that with newer programs that the audio is really going to eventually be a problem on more and more programs. Right now, most programs are OK, some it just requires you to switch PIDs, and only a few that are completely messed up.
I did think of one possible solution, however, but I haven't tried it yet, and that is that assuming that the SD feed is the same, that we might be able to make a manual PID channel which has the HD video from the first HD channel, but the audio from the SD channel. I think that might work, because the SD channel only has 2 audio streams, while the HD channel has 4, and the SD audio doesn't seem to be messed up.

Darn... it just occurred to me that perhaps that's why other people don't seem to be noticing any issues here, and that's because maybe most people are still watching the SD channel on this transponder, and everything I'm talking about is with respect to the HD channel, which has 4 audio streams.

 

[B.J.]

.....
I did think of one possible solution, however, but I haven't tried it yet, and that is that assuming that the SD feed is the same, that we might be able to make a manual PID channel which has the HD video from the first HD channel, but the audio from the SD channel. I think that might work, because the SD channel only has 2 audio streams, while the HD channel has 4, and the SD audio doesn't seem to be messed up.
.......

Just tried the above, and it didn't work. Well actually it worked if you used the PCR PID from the SD program, however the lip sync was off by a few seconds, WAY off.

 

[ebo]

I am unable to find this feed with my cs4000 pro, either manual scan or blind scan.
It is AMC1 at 103 W, freq = 4101 sr = 14028?
Thanks,
ebo

 

[B.J.]

I am unable to find this feed with my cs4000 pro, either manual scan or blind scan.
It is AMC1 at 103 W, freq = 4101 sr = 14028?
Thanks,
ebo

I'm using a slightly higher SR, but your values work for me too, so yes.

It's a pretty strong signal here in Maine.

I think 2 channels scan in with names like Clear feed , both a HD and SD.

The HD channel has 4 audio PIDs, the SD channel has 2... at least every time I tuned in.

right now, all the audio is fine

 

[mr.silverado]

According to what I have seen on this PBS station, it always refers to WGBH, which is in Boston, but the program schedules don't always match. I did find a couple that seem to be right on which is WPBSDT3 from Watertown, NY. and WNPIDT3 from Norwood, NY.

 

[skysurfer]

According to what I have seen on this PBS station, it always refers to WGBH, which is in Boston, but the program schedules don't always match.

you're probably seeing the program producer identifications. WGBH produces a lot of programming that airs on PBS.

I see nothing but generic "PBS" mentions at the times you'd expect a station ID.

 

[B.J.]

According to what I have seen on this PBS station, it always refers to WGBH, which is in Boston, but the program schedules don't always match. I did find a couple that seem to be right on which is WPBSDT3 from Watertown, NY. and WNPIDT3 from Norwood, NY.

It's not wGBH. If you look at the NIT in the signal it is ID'ing as "PBS-Alexandria" .
Since the main PBS uplink site is in northern Virginia, I'm guessing that this is a regular PBS feed, not a feed from any specific station, but I guess that there are a lot of states that have an Alexandria in it, so I guess it's possible that some town of Alexandria has a PBS station that is uplinking....... but I'm betting on it coming directly from PBS. Every time I've checked, it had the same schedule as the main PBS-HD channel on AMC21.

\

 

[N0QBH]

I haven't been able to receive this PBS feed lately. Anyone else?

 

[photoman76]

The frequency changed to 4090.

 

[Blindowl1234]

Yeah it changed and the signal is so weak for me now that I can't lock it in at all. My threshold point is 29-30 and it's at 28. I enjoyed it before they changed it. Oh well always have other PBS stuff around. Blind