Digea Greece Mux 3C/D

[Adam792]

Think I've discovered the reason for mysteriously losing access to these channels.

Turns out my LNB is probably knackered on high horizontals. The dish is usually on 13°E and I've been puzzling for the past week why I couldn't get the SRF channels on 12399H. Experimenting a bit revealed that no high horizontals were coming through, but leaving the receiver on SRF Info, the signal would lock intermittantly (with a perfectly strong, usual signal level) for about 10 seconds at a time then disappear to nothing.

I'm going to swap it out and then hopefully have more luck with Digea.

 

[Adam792]

Bingo! Damn LNB...

 

[Analoguesat]

Chuck the duff one in the bin. Dont put it back in your spares box because you will forget which one it is & reuse it (got the tshirst on that one )

 

[strs65]

There are two new frequencies for Digea on Eutelsat 3D, both encrypted with a new BISS (although already found).

12519,V,13960 3/5, DVB-S2/QPSK (ALPHA, ANT1, ART, E TV)
12537,V,13960 3/5, DVB-S2/QPSK (MEGA, SKAI, STAR, m.TV)

 

[Adam792]

Someone needs to tell the Greek channels about aspect ratios...

 

[strs65]

As if they would care or even get it...

 

[Adam792]

ERT (before they were shut down!) used to seem to manage to switch between 4:3 and 16:9 correctly!

 

[Adam792]

I wonder if we'll see the two Digea HD muxes appear here at some point on 3.1°E?

I read on a Greek forum (with help from Google Translate ) that a fair few mainland Greek transmitters carry the two HD multiplexes as they are fed by fibre now, but the islands don't get them because their transmitters are fed by satellite.

Do any of our Greek members here think we'll see them appear via satellite soon?

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[MCelliotG]

OK, let me break the situation down.
Digea HD is still like an experimental project, the channel owners themselves don't really care if the channels can be received throughout the whole country, as they have covered the biggest cities on the mainland through fibre relays.

There is also a technical aspect that explains the freeze in the HD network's spread.

Digea for the moment holds 4 frequencies in DVB-T for the national channels they carry. They transmit the SD's in the first two, and the HD's in the other two. In the biggest part of the country however, the 4th frequency is being rent to ERT that keep on also delaying finishing their own network with owned transmitters. Of course Digea does not really want ERT to complete their network, as they get tons of money from them.

Now, the fibre network that carries the HD channels consists of two multiplexes. The first carries the "HD" versions of ANT1, SKAI, STAR and M.tv. And I put HD in quotes, as the only native HD channels are STAR and M.tv. SKAI transmits certain and very limited content in native HD, and ANT1 is simply a bad upscale. The same goes for the other two channels of the second mux ALPHA HD, and E HD, only bad upscaled content, and it's noteworthy that E HD's picture quality is even worse than the SD's. Talk about some good professionals...

Anyway, in order for Digea HD to be transmitted it is necessary to use both frequencies, they designed the network in a way they cannot use only the 3rd for only the first HD mux. But for that to happen, ERT has to first release the rented 4th frequency and they don't seem likely to achieve it any time soon. So, the only regions Digea HD transmits is where ERT has their own transmitters.

Now, this is for the mainland. For the islands, they need to use satellite. But since they cannot complete the mainland's coverage, they won't pay for something they don't yet need.
Bottom line, Greece and its mentality in all its glory...

 

[Adam792]

Thank you for the detailed information! Very interesting!

So, is ERT on Eutelsat 3 12734V transmitted by ERT themselves, or by Digea to feed the transmitters that ERT rents from them?


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[MCelliotG]

By ERT themselves, they use it for both their own transmitters and Digea uses that too for the rented frequencies. Once ERT completes their owned network plan they may still use the same feed or switch to another satellite and Multistream!

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[Adam792]

Talking of SKAÏ only having very limited HD content, I keep seeing the "available in HD on Digea" (or words to that effect) graphic come up when Survivor is on...

Would Multistream for ERT be because of making the second multiplex (with RIK Sat, TV5 Monde, etc) national? Or will this always be limited to just Athens and Thessaloniki/major cities?

 

[MCelliotG]

Yes indeed, the message if purely for people watching SKAI on the pay tv platforms since HD is only available terrestrially! Funny thing is that they switch to upscale 5 seconds before commercial breaks, they don't even have a separate console for these.... Only STAR HD is all native, they have even switched older films to HD even the greek black and white cinema from the 60s!
ERT was considering multistream indeed to feed their second mux which is still MPEG2 and relayed also through fibre in selected areas and of course mainland only! Some time ago they tested the second mux for a few days indeed on 3E!

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[Adam792]

Hopefully in the future then we'll see it back on 3.1°E, along with Digea HD. Sounds like it will probably be quite a while though!

Hopefully they won't increase the FEC too much if they go Multistream. It works nicely for me at the moment offset from 5°W on an 80cm dish, with around 7dB SNR on all three transponders. That's really easy to lock with QPSK and FEC 3/5, as that combination only needs just over 2dB!


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[Adam792]

Been on a ship visiting various Greek ports this last week (Piraeus, Mykonos, and Katakolo) and it's strange (in a good way!) to see Greece is finally totally switched over to digital.

The last time I went (to Zakynthos in 2011) it was all analogue channels still (from Mount Ainos on Kefalonia) - so the switchover has been much quicker and more of a change than in the UK!

 

[MCelliotG]

You clearly didn't pay a visit in the vast mainland. Still analog as hell....[emoji13]

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[Adam792]

The ART channel has reappeared on 12702H after completely disappearing for a while with a static message telling people in the Attica region to retune to channel 49 or 52 to carry on watching it. Presumably it can no longer afford national distribution in Greece and has moved over to a regional multiplex covering the Athens area.