RENDER: ATSC 3.0 Analysis Tool

[Trip]

All,

I'm very pleased to announce a public release of RENDER, the RabbitEars NextGen Data Evaluator and Reporter. Most of the relevant information can be found here:

https://www.rabbitears.info/kb/render

I've written the software for the Linux command line, but it's open source (GPLv3) and should be possible to compile on other platforms as well. Note that this is a very early experimental release. I can make no guarantees about the accuracy or functionality at this time.

I've also provided a link to view the output from all those files that folks have heard me chasing down over the past few weeks. As I continue develop the code, I'll periodically update and replace those files with versions using the newer code. Note that the heaviest testing I've done has been on the three DC-area signals and the one Baltimore-area signal, as they're local to me, but WHUT is the only station that I believe I have seen with BPS, which makes it particularly interesting.

By the way, I'm still looking for data from a number of stations to help with my testing and validation. The complete current list is now found below the instructions on this page here:

https://www.rabbitears.info/kb/capturing_3.0_data

Looking forward to feedback and opinions. Hope folks find it interesting and/or useful!

- Trip

[Trip]

For folks with no local 3.0 signals, or who want to test out the Dev-level functions, or who want to see a signal with BPS in it, I've added a folder of test data from three of my four local 3.0 signals that can be downloaded and run through it.

- Trip

[lenlab]

Link did not work for me

[Trip]

Version 0.2 of RENDER is now out:

https://www.rabbitears.info/kb/render

- Trip

[danieljlevine]

Hey Trip, I managed to stumble and find the RENDER results on rabbitears for WBAL to determine that the encrypted WBAL NextGen broadcast isn’t much better than the ATSC 1.0 broadcast in audio or video. Hopefully I read that right.

I was trying to do the same for WRC NBC4 without success. How am I supposed to navigate to those results in the site?

[danieljlevine]

Ah, it looks like I needed to open WHUT to see the information for the ATSC 3.0 stations using their tower.

https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php? ... 72#station

So, now I can see it provides ATMOS audio and 1080P. So perhaps an Olympics watching option if I get something to handle DRM and can receive the station. I know WHUT stations appear in my list of channels but they have all the bars and are yellow in the HDHR app settings->channels.

[danieljlevine]

Same “trick” with WUTB tells me the summary info I was looking for on WBAL. So I guess that’s also 1080P but Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, with DRM. So just snd upgrade from the 1080i ATSC 1.0 station.

Perhaps this is what the green icon on WUTB means to me and slightly different row coloring: it’s an ATSC lighthouse. And from an antenna positioning and signal strength perspective, that’s what people are primarily looking for on that site.

[Trip]

Same “trick” with WUTB tells me the summary info I was looking for on WBAL. So I guess that’s also 1080P but Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, with DRM. So just snd upgrade from the 1080i ATSC 1.0 station.

Perhaps this is what the green icon on WUTB means to me and slightly different row coloring: it’s an ATSC lighthouse. And from an antenna positioning and signal strength perspective, that’s what people are primarily looking for on that site.

Sorry, just seeing this.

The green on the channel number means it's a channel sharing station. The actual 3.0 signals have the green on the whole row with the little green "fast forward" icon. WNUV is the Baltimore 3.0 signal.

I will note that any audio or video above what is found on the 1.0 is an upconversion. There's no native 1080p/HDR/Atmos audio being provided anywhere in the US.

- Trip

[Trip]

RENDER v0.3 has been released with significant bug fixes and feature additions.

https://www.rabbitears.info/kb/render

Please report any bugs you encounter, unless they're known issues listed on that page.

- Trip