The MPTS Data Statistics provide an analysis of the demodulated and captured transport stream. The report consists of a character emitted once per second which indicates the health of the transport stream. A typical report resembles:
Wed Apr 25 2018 19:46:00 ............................................................ Wed Apr 25 2018 19:47:00 ...............................B............................ Wed Apr 25 2018 19:48:00 ............................................................ Wed Apr 25 2018 19:49:00 ...................................E........................ Wed Apr 25 2018 19:50:00 ............................................................
The transport stream is monitored for the following errors:
- Packets with the Transport Error Indicator (TEI) set. When the TEI is set, one or more bits in the packet is in error. The TEI may be set by the demodulator when an error is detected via Reed-Solomon coding, but cannot be corrected. However TEI may also be set up- or downstream of the demodulator.
- Continuity counter errors (aka “sequence errors”). A continuity counter error is a discrepancy in the way that the continuity counter increments for a particular stream in the MPTS. It is usually caused by dropped transport packets, however can also be caused due to a transport error (i.e. if the continuity counter field itself is damaged).
In addition, the following internal errors may be represented in the reports:
- Network transfer error. This indicates an error within the monitoring system where there was data loss between the HDHomerun tuner and the monitoring system. This does not represent any issue with the broadcast.
- Buffer overflow error. This indicates an error within the monitoring system where internal buffers overflowed. This does not represent any issue with the broadcast.
Legend
The per-second status is generated according to the following process:
- Lower case ‘o’: A buffer in the monitoring system overflowed. This does not represent a broadcast problem.
- Lower case ‘n’: A network packet was dropped between the HDHomerun and the monitoring system. Each network packet contains 7 transport packets. The exact number of network packets lost is not recorded. This does not represent a broadcast problem.
- Upper case ‘A’ – ‘Z’: If packets with the TEI bit have been received, then a character in the range ‘A’ – ‘Z’ is printed. The number of packets with the TEI set is indicated by the character. ‘A’ means between 1 and 9 packetd with TEI set, ‘B’ between 10 and 19, etc. ‘Z’ indicates that 250 or more packets with TEI set were observed.
- ‘1’ – ‘9’: If no packets were received with TEI set, then the transport stream is checked for continuity counter errors (aka “sequence errors”). If the counter increments in an unexpected fashion than an error is flagged. The numbers 1 – 9 reflect the number of continuity counter errors detected. If more than 9 errors occur, then ‘9’ is displayed. Note that this value is the number of errors and not the number of missing packets. The number of packets missing can only be determined by comparing the transport stream to a reference stream and determining which packets are missing.
- Underscore (‘_’): If no packets were received in the one-second period, then ‘_’ is printed. This may represent a broadcast issue, a reception issue, or a failure within the monitoring system.
- Period ‘.’: No errors were detected