There was something trying to come up on 212.500Mhz on another TV in the house but was too weak to lock on, I’m suspecting Mount Dundas since there’s nothing from Mildura anymore on that bandwidth
@Moe and others who know, is QPSK more robust than 64-QAM?
And/or is C31 Melb packing in more error correction since it’s limited to one channel and unfortunately only SD?
Does anyone have equipment to view the specs to compare the amount of error correction on other channels?
The use of QPSK is a license condition on the Community TV licenses - along with a specific limit to 1 SD only service. It does have the side effect of needing a fraction of the power to cover the same region as the high power services, which should reduce running costs for them, especially compared to the analogue days.
(Q)PSK, QAM and ATSC’s VSB are just types of modulation, they aren’t alone a measure of the robustness of the signal, it’s probably half that and half the choices on error correction levels.
Here’s a table of what it gets you - I believe nearly every service in the country other than a small number of LPONs uses the one marked in bold (1) - 64-QAM, 1/16 GI, 3/4 FEC.
In general, you can treat the table as linear - drawing a diagonal line from top left to bottom right - in terms of the trade off between reception quality and multiplex capacity.
So given most services use the same type, it’ll be pretty unlikely there’s any DX benefits/possibilities due to these differences - it’s kinda just 44 Adelaide which is in a fairly uncongested space in the QPSK mode, while C31 Melbourne isn’t a clear channel for that far outside Melbourne.
2 Likes
NEWSFLASH: Newcastle tropo at the moment, wiping out Wollongong services in Sydney, including for those using the TVCL DVB-T Sydney Webserver to record noodle updates and commercials.
Alright so soon I’m thinking of getting this nifty unit to try for Regional Victorian TV reception. I know I discussed this before, but I was just wondering does anyone know if this TV will be compatible with MPEG-4 channels, as well as TF card recording? It has PVR support, but most listings I’ve seen online don’t seem to have any info on TF card recording, only mentions of USB stick recording. Yet my recordable FM radio records stations to a TF card.
Can anyone please confirm if both of these features work with the LEADSTAR TV? Cheers! 
Why do you think this is going to get you regional channels if you’re not already getting them? Are you taking this hiking or something?
2 Likes
Unless you are going to be in a strong signal area for regional VIC television OR are taking a better antenna with you, you probably won’t get AMV, VTV or BCV with that unit.
OK then. But I’m also wondering will this TV (which supports PVR recording) support TF card recording? Most of the results I’ve seen online say USB recording, and my recordable FM radio records to a TF card. So I was just wondering if the same is true for this LEADSTAR?
And also will this unit support MPEG-4 channels, particularly MPEG-4 HD? I was just wondering as I was looking to record 7HD and 9HD Ballarat with this unit when I go up there (or to another SW VIC area) next, both of which use the MPEG-4 HD standard. Also some Melbourne channels (incl. 7Bravo) are in MPEG-4 HD. Googling will the LEADSTAR 5-inch TV support MPEG-4 TV brings up results for MP4 and video file format playback instead so I was just wondering. Thanks.
I have one of these that I bought ages ago, I don’t think it can record tv at all, it can only play videos and photos off the usb/sd card.
So I guess does that mean the so-called Record button on the remote means nothing in that case? Thanks.