Unable to play channel: No Video Data

[greyltc]

Hi. I just bought an HDFX-4K. I updated it to firmware version 20260326. When I run a channel scan with my setup, it detects 9 over-the-air channels. Looks like five ATSC 1.0 channels and four ATSC 3.0 ones. The ATSC3 ones are:

• 128.4 VS1-4K
• 128.5 VS1-FHD
• 128.7 VS1-HD
• 128.8 VS1-SD

I'm using the Android beta app, version 20260312 on my google pixel 10 pro phone to try to play the channels. The five ATSC 1.0 ones work fine and two of the four ATSC3 ones work fine too. The problem I'm having is with 128.4 and 128.5. When I try to play those ones, I get a black screen for a moment, then the following message appears: "Unable to play channel: No Video Data"

Just before the tuner gives up and tunes out of the channel, I can see some details on the HDFX-4K's tuner details web page.
128.4 VS1-4K (fail):
Virtual Channel 128.4 VS1-4K
Frequency 527.000 MHz
Program Number 2
Modulation Lock atsc3
Signal Strength 92%
Signal Quality 100%
Symbol Quality none
Streaming Rate none
Resource Lock 192.168.3.191

128.5 VS1-FHD (fail):
Virtual Channel 128.5 VS1-FHD
Frequency 527.000 MHz
Program Number 5
Modulation Lock atsc3
Signal Strength 93%
Signal Quality 100%
Symbol Quality none
Streaming Rate none
Resource Lock 192.168.3.191

128.7 VS1-HD (works):
Virtual Channel 128.7 VS1-HD
Frequency 527.000 MHz
Program Number 6
Modulation Lock atsc3
Signal Strength 92%
Signal Quality 87%
Symbol Quality 100%
Streaming Rate 2.874 Mbps
Resource Lock 192.168.3.191

128.8 VS1-SD (works):
Virtual Channel 128.8 VS1-SD
Frequency 527.000 MHz
Program Number 4
Modulation Lock atsc3
Signal Strength 92%
Signal Quality 87%
Symbol Quality 100%
Streaming Rate 0.779 Mbps
Resource Lock 192.168.3.191


I'm pretty sure these ATSC 3.0 channels I'm picking up are related to the following press announcement:
https://humber.ca/today/media-releases/ ... icipal-use

So does anyone have any recommendations or ideas for things I can try to get these higher resolution ATSC 3.0 channels to play?

[NatHillIV]

I am NOT an expert here by any means, so I would wait for an informed answer from somebody who actually knows what they are talking about.
I SUSPECT the channels you can not watch are DRM "protected" channels, which are a giant pain in the butt for Silicon Dust products. DRM "protection" primarily protects the stations from being watched by many ATSC 3.0 potential viewers.
Or, I would email the folks at https://humber.ca/today/media-releases/ ... icipal-use and see what they tell you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RI8xKK5W60 is very interesting

[dash37]

Doubt it's a DRM issue. The two failed channels have zero symbol quality, which could be due to a few things. But maybe there is nothing there to tune into - it's an experimental station. Watch that video starting at 3:10 and keep an eye on the Config_GUI program - they show similar behavior when trying to tune some channels.

[jasonl]

No symbol quality on ATSC 3.0 when signal quality is good means there's no data coming in, which either means there just isn't anything being broadcast at the time or there's something about the way the broadcast is configured that means the HDHomeRun isn't finding the data. I would probably lean towards the idea that they just aren't broadcasting on all the channels all the time, and you may have to hit it at the right time of day to find things.

[NatHillIV]

I told you to wait for informed opinions.
But the website was very interesting.