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Monitoring Guide

This guide is a practical reference for engineers and technicians responsible for operating and troubleshooting digital television networks — satellite, cable, terrestrial, and IP-based. It covers how to use TS Analyzer to diagnose quality issues in MPEG transport streams.

Who this guide is for

The material assumes you are familiar with the basic concepts of digital television: what a multiplexer does, the role of encoders and receivers, and the general structure of a DVB broadcast chain. A background in broadcast engineering or network operations is expected.

This is not a guide to using the web interface itself — for navigation, initial setup, and network configuration, see the User Guide.

What this guide covers

  • How to read and interpret monitoring data for each input type (IP, ASI, RF)
  • RF signal quality indicators and their practical thresholds
  • PSI/SI table analysis — finding problems before they affect viewers
  • Bitrate and timing analysis: PCR, PTS, DTS
  • IP network quality: IPAT, MDI, duplicate packet detection
  • UTC time accuracy monitoring
  • Conditional access and EPG diagnostics
  • PES header inspection and encoder parameter monitoring
  • Diagnosing problems caused by remultiplexing
  • Full ETSI TR 101 290 error reference with causes, symptoms, and recommendations

How to use this guide

The most effective approach when a problem appears is:

  1. Check CCE first. The Continuity Count Error counter tells you whether packets are being lost, and on which PIDs. This immediately narrows the scope of the problem. See Level 1 Errors.

  2. Determine the context. Are errors on all PIDs (entire stream problem), PIDs of a single service (service-level problem), or only PSI/SI PIDs? Context drives the direction of the investigation. See Error Contexts.

  3. Trace upstream. Connect the TS Analyzer at progressively earlier points in the signal chain until you reach the first point where errors appear. That device is the source.

  4. Consult the error reference. For any active ETSI TR 101 290 indicator, look up its entry in Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 for a structured description of causes and remediation steps.

A note on the ETSI TR 101 290 standard

ETSI TR 101 290 defines a set of quality indicators for MPEG TS, organized into three priority levels:

  • Level 1 — Critical errors. If any Level 1 error is active, service delivery is impaired or impossible.
  • Level 2 — Quality indicators. These may or may not affect service quality, but always indicate a deviation from standard that warrants investigation.
  • Level 3 — Informational. Often benign, but some can affect EPG, channel switching, or CAS behavior in specific subscriber devices.

Several entries in the standard are marked as outdated and replaced by newer variants (for example, 1.3 PAT_error is superseded by 1.3a PAT_error_2). The error reference in this guide documents both the current and deprecated variants.