The Settings Window

The Settings Window can be accessed via the menu bar of the Main Window. It provides several possibilities to customize TransEdit and control the behavior of the Scanner and Analyzer. The two buttons at the bottom perform the following actions:

Save: Saves changed settings to the file TransEdit.ini, so that they are restored next time when TransEdit is is launched.

Close: Closes the Settings Window.

General | Scanner | Analyzer | Preview | Hardware

General Tab

The General Tab contains options that apply to the Scanner and Analyzer.

Assumed broadcast standard: In many cases TransEdit is able to detect the broadcast standard (DVB, ATSC...) automatically. The Scanner and Analyzer will switch to ATSC mode, for example, if the tuner type of the transponder list is ATSC or a TS file contains ATSC service information. When determining characteristics are missing – particularly in analyzed TS files with incomplete service information - TransEdit will assume DVB by default. This can be changed by selecting another broadcast standard in the drop-down list. E.g. if the TransEdit Analyzer displays Japanese service names incorrectly (due to missing language codes in the SI tables), selecting .„ISDB (Japan)” and restarting the Analyzer will help.

ATSC is a US standard for terrestrial and cable television. ISDB is a Japanese broadcast standard that is also used in South America.

Drop SI tables with wrong CRC: Service information tables are broadcasted with a kind of checksum (CRC), allowing to detect erroneous data. If this option is switched on, the Scanner and Analyzer discard tables if the calculated CRC value doesn't equal the broadcasted CRC, so corrupted data is not processed and not displayed. Only switch this option off if you have to scan or analyze a TS stream with wrong CRC.

Network Interface: Specifies the network interface for DVB IPTV, representing – in simple words – a network interface card.(NIC). „Automatic” lets TransEdit search a suitable interface automatically and will be appropriate in most cases.

Buffered TS Packets: Specifies the initial size of the buffer for receiving IPTV data as a multiple of the TS packet size (188 bytes). TransEdit enlarges the buffer automatically if required. The default value will yield the best result in most cases.

TransEdit internally creates a virtual IPTV device, that – in contrast to DVBViewer Pro – is neither listed on the Hardware Tab nor in the [Hardware] section of the file TransEdit.ini.

contents | to the top | preceding chapter

Scanner Tab

The upper part of the Scanner Tab contains several scanner-related options:

Scan NIT and update transponder list while scanning: Activates reading the NIT (Network Information Table) while scanning for channels. If any transponders are listed in the NIT, that are not present in the current transponder list, they are automatically added and - in case you have clicked "Scan All" - scanned too. Additionally reading the NIT slows down scanning, though.

Mark transponders without signal/PAT with [X] / [N]: Lets TransEdit insert [X] resp. [N] at the beginning of the transponder description, if scanning a transponder delivers no results, because no data arrives, or the stream contains no PAT (Program Association Table). TransEdit removes the [X] / [N] mark automatically, if such a transponder is scanned successfully later.

Skip [X]-marked transponders on „Scan All: Lets TransEdit skip all transponders that previously have been recognized as „dead“. This option – in conjunction with the previous option – may speed up a full scan considerably, but prevents results from transponders that come back to live unexpectedly, of course.

Insert provider(s) as transponder description: If this checkbox is ticked, TransEdit automatically creates transponder descriptions out of the provider names while scanning for channels. Without the following option, it only fills in empty transponder descriptions.

Overwrite existing transponder descriptions: Only takes effect if the previous option is switched on. It allows TransEdit to replace already existing transponder descriptions by the provider names, that are found while scanning for channels.

If a description in your list shall not be overwritten, even if the option above is ticked, you may protect it by an exclamation mark (!) at the beginning (after the scan date, if there is any - see below).

Add date to transponder description: If this option is switched on, TransEdit inserts the scan date at the beginning of the transponder description. It is persistent and will further on be updated, even if you untick this option. The scan date has to be deleted manually, in case you don't want it anymore..

If you want only single transponder descriptions to carry a scan date, you alternatively may insert the AT character (@) at the beginning. TransEdit replaces it by the scan date.

Update channel names in the DVBViewer channel list: Determines whether channel names in the DVBViewer channel list are updated according to scan results or not when using the Update Commands in the Scanner Window.

Append frequency to channel name (Add/Export): If this option is ticked, TransEdit automatically appends the frequency to the channel name when exporting the scan results. This is useful in case of feeds (channels intended for internal transmissions, not for public broadcast), since they often carry no unique name.

Exclude channels from EPG (Add/Export): If this checkbox is ticked, TransEdit sets the „Exclude from EPG“ flag in exported channels. As a result, DVBViewer will not show them in the „What's Now“ and „Timeline“ EPG. Additionally, DVBViewer GE excludes the channels from the background EPG update. By using this option you can prevent DVBViewer from collecting and displaying needless EPG data. If necessary, this setting can later be changed in DVBViewer „per channel“.

Always scan with auto FEC detection (satellite only): FEC (Forward Error Correction) determines the degree of automatic error correction that is provided in the DVB data stream. If this option is switched on, TransEdit will always scan with the Auto FEC Detection, independently from the transponder list entries.

The lower part of the Scanner Tab allows to adjust the maximum time that TransEdit waits for data to arrive.

PAT Timeout: Specifies how long TransEdit tries to read the PAT. If the timeout is too short, TransEdit will receive no data from the transponder at all - the PAT (Program Association Table) is the base for everything else.

PMT Timeout: Specifies how long TransEdit tries to read the PMT. If the PMT timeout is too short, TransEdit will get no information about the video-, audio and teletext-PIDs, so that TV and radio channels may be mistaken for data services.

SDT Timeout: Specifies how many milliseconds TransEdit tries to read the SDT. If the SDT timeout is too short, TransEdit will not be able to detect a channel's name and its provider - the channel will be displayed as "Service XXXX" with "Unknown" as provider. However, some channels may carry no name, or are not transmitted according to the DVB specifications.

NIT Timeout: Specifies how many milliseconds TransEdit tries to read the NIT. If the NIT timeout is too short, TransEdit will not be able to detect additional transponders.

The default values will be sufficient in most cases. However, there might be channels that are transmitting the data more slowly, or other conditions prevent TransEdit from reading the tables in time. In this case it may help to increase the timeout values. But have in mind that it may slow down scanning in general. On the other side you can try to improve the scan speed by lowering the timeout values.

contents | to the top | preceding chapter

Analyzer Tab

This tab provides options for the TS Analyzer and its recorder.

Output Directory: Determines the folder in which all files generated by the TS Analyzer are stored. Use the Folder Button at the right to open a dialog window for selecting a different folder.

Write PID info file for recordings: Lets the TS Analyzer write an additional file for each recording. It carries the same name as the TS file, but the extension .txt. The PID info file contains a list of all streams resp. PIDs that are recorded. It is an excerpt of the PID list displayed by the TS analyzer. The columns are separated by tabs (control character #9).

Accept packets with Error_Indicator: The header of TS data packets contains a bit that is set in case of uncorrectable errors, e.g. due to bad reception. Usually TransEdit filters these packets out. However, in special cases it may be useful to examine them, e.g. for diagnosis purpose. If this checkbox is ticked, the faulty packets are passed on to the Analyzer's PID list, the Hex Dump window and the recorder.

High speed file analysis: When analyzing a file, the TS Analyzer tries to read it in the same speed as broadcasted, provided it contains time stamps (PCR, Program Clock Reference). If this checkbox is ticked (or no PCR present), the Analyzer switches to full speed, which is only limited by your hard disk. However, particularly small files are read in a very short time in high speed mode, so it may become difficult to activate the Preview Window for viewing the content before the Analyzer reaches the end of the file – that's what programmers call a „race condition“. This setting takes effect after selecting the next file.

Auto-restart on PAT version change: Most of what is displayed by the TransEdit Analyzer depends directly or indirectly on the broadcasted PAT (Program Association Table). If its version number changes, TransEdit assumes that the PAT content has changed and automatically restarts the Analyzer in order do keep the displayed information consistent. However, in case of rapid and continuous (probably erroneous) version changes the Analyzer may become unusable due to permanent restarts. Switching the auto-restart off fixes this issue.

Read Private Sections with known table IDs: If this option is switched on, the Analyzer tree view shows additional „private“ service information tables on some transponders (provided the type of the contained tables is known to the Analyzer), particularly

• the AIT (Application Information Table) informing about Java based MHP data broadcasts (Multimedia Home Platform).

• the freesat tables on Astra/Eurobird 28° East, recognizable by the high PID numbers (in contrast to the PIDs of normal SI tables in the range of 0..20). If you want to inspect the freesat EIT (EPG data), additionally „Read EIT for other transponders/networks“ (see below) must be ticked.

Read Event Information Table: Unticking this checkbox prevents the TS Analyzer from reading and evaluating the EIT.

Read EIT for other transponders / networks: Unticking this checkbox prevents the TS Analyzer from reading and evaluating EPG data that is broadcasted for other transponders or networks..

Read Extended Event Descriptions: Unticking this checkbox prevents the TS Analyzer from reading the extended event descriptors, that are part of the EIT. They contain the „long“ EPG descriptions. If this option is switched off, Extended Event Descriptors show up in the Analyzer tree view, but not their content.

The Event Information Table is one of the broadcasted service information tables that are listed on the left side of the TS Analyzer Window. The EIT contains the EPG data for the whole transponder, and sometimes even data for other transponders or networks. Evaluating every bit of information in this table may create a huge number of tree-view entries – more than 500,000 on some transponders! That's why the Analyzer Tab provides options to suppress reading the EIT or parts of it, in order to avoid a high memory and CPU usage. Particularly transponders broadcasting EPG data for a lot of other transponders may let the TransEdit Analyzer occupy several hundred MB of memory. If the memory usage exceeds 95% the Analyzer puts on the emergency break and refuses to collect more "EIT - Other" data in order to keep your PC responsive.

contents | to the top | preceding chapter

Preview Tab

The Preview Tab allows to select DirectShow components, that are used by the Preview function for TV/Radio playback. A change takes effect when TransEdit (re)starts playback after you have selected a channel for preview in the Scanner Window resp. a service or stream in the Analyzer Window.

MPEG2 Decoder: Allows to select your favorite MPEG2 video decoder. The drop-down list contains all suitable video decoders that are present in your system.

H.264 Decoder: Selects the H.264 video decoder respectively.

H.264 HD decoding may cause a high CPU load, unless hardware acceleration (by the graphics card) is available and the decoder uses it. Software decoding may freeze TransEdit temporarily if the CPU is too slow.

Video Renderer: Selects the video renderer that shall be used. Under XP and later Windows versions „<System Default>” corresponds to the Video Mixing Renderer 7 (VMR7). Under XP it uses overlay mode, if possible. The VMR9 is installed with DirectX 9 or later versions. The Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) is available since Windows Vista, or under XP if the .NET framework 3.0 (or later) is installed.

MPEG Decoder: Selects the audio decoder that is used for playback of MPEG audio (MP2). The drop-down list contains all suitable video decoders that are present in your system.

AC3 Decoder: Selects the AC3 audio decoder respectively.

AAC Decoder: This drop-down restricts the selection to AAC decoders that are suitable for DVB requirements resp. are able to handle AAC with ADTS and LOAS/LATM headers.

Setting the decoder selection to „<System Default>“ delegates it to the DirectShow Filter Manager, sometimes with questionable results. Preferably select decoders that are known to work well. Right-clicking the Preview Window opens a popup menu that enumerates the actually used DirectShow filters and allows to open their property pages, if available. Additionally TransEdit adds the filter graph to the Running Objects Table (ROT) of Windows, enabling to examine it with GraphEdit („Connect To Remote Graph“).

contents | to the top | preceding chapter

Hardware Tab

The Hardware Tab provides device-specific settings.

Device: The list shows the DVB devices that TransEdit has detected. Select the device, for which you want to change the settings.

Tuner Type: TransEdit detects the tuner type of a device automatically. It should only be changed if the detection fails.

Status: Specifies whether TransEdit shall use a device not at all, normally or preferably. This setting only makes sense if there are two or more devices of the same type (DVB-S, DVB-T...). If they are set to the same status, TransEdit takes the first matching device from the top.

Open whole transponder (only for devices providing hardware PID filters): If this checkbox is ticked, the hardware resp. driver delivers all streams that are broadcasted on a transponder. In this case TransEdit filters the streams out that are required for scanning or the Preview function. If this option is unticked, the hardware or driver does the filtering

Hardware PID filtering can be useful for receiving transponders with a very high data rate exceeding the hardware's maximum transfer rate, thus causing loss of data. DVB devices with BDA driver usually deliver the whole transponder. The TS Analyzer automatically activates „whole transponder“ mode, if necessary, because it needs the unfiltered streams for a complete analysis.

Stop stream while tuning: Lets TransEdit stop the received stream while tuning a transponder. Try to change this setting in case of tuning issues.

Force auto-modulation (EMPIA-based USB DVB-C tuners only): If this checkbox is ticked, TransEdit lets the driver detect the modulation, regardless of the modulation (QAM16...QAM256) set in the TransEdit Main Window. Change this setting if tuning does not work reliably

DVB-S2 Device (satellite only): Tick this checkbox if TransEdit did not detect automatically that a device is capable of receiving transponders with the DVB-S2 modulation system. TransEdit needs a correct designation in order to select the appropriate device. If this checkmark is missing or if no DVB-S2 device is present, attempts to scan a DVB-S2 transponder will cause an error message, or TransEdit will skip the DVB-S2 transponders in case of a selection containing a S/S2 mixture.

LNB power off on release (satellite only): This option is only available for DVB-S devices that allow to switch the LNB power off by software. Tick this checkbox if you want TransEdit to switch the power off when the device is released (no more used).

Null packet filter (TechniSat devices with WDM driver only): This checkbox activates / deactivates a „null packet” hardware filter. Null packets (with PID 8191 resp. 0x1FFF) are data packets without payload that are broadcasted for stuffing unused portions of the fixed transponder data rate. Activating the filter is useful if the overall transponder data rate exceeds the maximum data rate of the device, resulting in a corrupted stream. However, without null packets the TransEdit Analyzer is not able to determine the correct transponder data rate.

Use standard interface: If this checkbox is ticked, TransEdit uses the „official“ interface, as defined by Microsoft (in case of BDA devices) or by TechniSat (in case of SkyStar2, AirStar2 and CableStar2 cards). If the checkbox is unticked, TransEdit uses its own approach to communicate more directly with the driver, which is more efficient, faster and implies less restrictions, but is not guaranteed to work under all circumstances.

Use internal Network Provider filter (BDA devices only): This option only takes effect, if „Use standard interface“ is switched off. It replaces a Microsoft BDA component (Network Provider) by a built-in TransEdit component, that works faster, uses less resources and avoids having to deal with bugs of the MS version. It is not guaranteed that all DVB device drivers cooperate flawlessly with the replacement, however.

Groups: This list allows to a assign a set of groups to a device. It will only be used for scanning / analyzing a transponder, if the group assigned to the transponder list is ticked here. E.g. if you set a transponder list to group B, TransEdit will only use devices containing group B in their group settings. The groups are useful if DVB-S devices are connected to different dishes, thus only being able to receive particular satellite positions. You can instruct TransEdit which device must be used for which transponder list resp. satellite position by setting up the groups accordingly.

Devices should only be restricted to certain groups as far as necessary. If you try to scan, and TransEdit can't find a matching device for the group assigned to the transponder list, you will get a „There is no matching DVB device for this transponder list“ error message.

Retune attempts: Specifies how many times TransEdit tries to retune a transponder if it gets no signal or no data when scanning. You may try to increase the number of retune attempts if the tuner does not lock reliably to the signal, e.g. in case of low symbol rate transponders.

Tuning Space (devices with BDA driver only): Tuning spaces are precast data structures (templates) that are used for tuning via the Microsoft standard BDA interface. The „Internal“ tuning space is created by TransEdit at runtime. Others originate from Windows or the BDA driver installation. You may try different settings here, if tuning doesn't work correctly. Tuning space selection is only available if „Use Standard Interface“ is switched on.

Unicable Settings (satellite only): This button opens a Unicable Configuration Dialog Window (single cable distribution according to the European standard EN 50494). It is only available if the driver provides means (particularly DiSEqC raw commands) for communicating with Unicable routers. If a device does not allow to fulfill the EN 50494 specifications properly, TransEdit displays a warning before opening the configuration dialog. In this case it depends on the tolerance of the Unicable router if it works or not.

Unicable antenna sockets are often labeled with the values that have to be entered here:

• Use Unicable Slot: Lets TransEdit use the device for Unicable (single cable distribution) reception. Enter the slot number assigned to the antenna socket here.

• Slot Frequency: The user frequency assigned to the antenna socket.

• Use PIN: Tick this checkbox if using the Unicable equipment requires a PIN, and enter the PIN code assigned to your socket.

Detect Devices: Use this button after installation of new DVB devices, in order to let them show up in the device list.

Please note: Performing a manual device detection may also be necessary after a driver update, if TransEdit cannot address the device anymore.

contents | to the top | preceding chapter