November 1, 2004
RE: HOD/MaxOD moving to Transponder 11 only as of 1/4/05
Dear HOD/MaxOD Affiliate:
As you know, HBO currently pitches HBO-On-Demand (HOD) and Cinemax-On-Demand (MaxOD)
content to your N2BB catcher via Galaxy XIII (127º W.L.), transponder 10, on the horizontal polarity.
Effective Wednesday, December 1, HBO will pitch HOD and MaxOD from transponder 11, on the
vertical polarity, but on the same Galaxy XIII satellite. HBO is making this change in order to be able
take advantage of new technological advances offered by Motorola that will make future service
enhancements possible.
In order to provide your headend(s) time to complete a smooth migration from transponder 10 to
transponder 11, HBO will continue to pitch HBO and MaxOD on transponder 10 as well as the new
transponder 11 through the HOD pitch scheduled for Monday, January 3, 2005 (typically from 6:00 a.m.
ET through 9:00 p.m. ET).
Effective Tuesday, January 4, 2005 HOD and MaxOD will be pitched only from transponder 11.
Next steps: Between December 1, 2004 and January 3, 2005:
1. Since the new transponder (11) is on the opposite polarity from transponder 10, you will need
to connect a vertical feed of your Galaxy XIII downlink to your DSR-4520X IRD (RF Port 1)
in place of the current horizontal feed and reconfigure RF Port 1.
2. Perform Factory Reset and then Retune your HOD/MaxOD IRD to the transponder 11
signal, selecting the new VCT and channel number for the new location (please see IRD setup details on pages 2-9). You will not need to reconfigure your HOD/MaxOD N2BB catcher.
3. Once you have reconfigured your DSR-4520X IRD and have successfully made the transition
from transponder 10 to transponder 11, please contact the HOD Hotline to request a “Ping”
test (to confirm that your catcher is successfully receiving content via the new transponder).
The “Ping” test package will be pitched once daily Tuesday through Friday during the month of
December, but you must be scheduled in advance by the Hotline to receive the Ping test,
so please be sure to contact the Hotline.
4. The HOD Hotline will contact you if any problems occur with your “Ping” test results and will
assist in resolving them in a timely fashion.
HBO recommends that you plan for your transition to occur on a Tuesday (a non-pitch day) in order to
allow extra time for testing and troubleshooting and to avoid any risk of missed pitches. In the interim, if
you have any questions or require any assistance, please contact the HBO Hotline at 212-512-5666
(Monday through Friday, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm ET), or e-mail us at hodhotline@hbo.com.
Thank you for your continued support of HBO and Cinemax.
Regards,
Dave Grodsky
Director, Engineering and Affiliate Support
Galaxy XIII TR 10 to Galaxy XIII TR 11 Migration: 12/01/04 - 01/03/05
Procedure for Reconfiguring the HOD/MaxOD DSR-4520X
CONNECTING the IRD
To Connect the Unit to receive HOD/MaxOD
Connect the V-pol feed from the antenna, already peaked on Galaxy XIII, at 127 W.L.
and connect it to RF Port # 1 in place of the H-pol Feed on the IRD.
Note: (RF Port 1 is recommended for use). Use a DC block if necessary to prevent
another receiver's LNB power output from shutting down the DSR-4520X. Only Port 1
of the DSR-4520X provides LNB power. If you are using Port 1 and the LNB is
powered from elsewhere be sure to have LNB power disabled on the IRD (see
Motorola manual). Please confirm that the RF input signal level is between –65dBm
and –25dBm (optimal is in the –40dBm range).
CONFIGURING the IRD
To Configure the Unit to receive HOD/MaxOD from Galaxy XIII, TR 11
The following are instructions and menu screen samples specific to the configuration
of the IRD for reception of HOD and MaxOD from its new Galaxy XIII location:
Perform Factory Reset on the IRD
From the 4520X main menu select <Unit Control>. From Screen 1 of 3 use the front
panel buttons toggle the cursor over to <Factory Reset> and switch it from No to Yes.
The Unit will come back and ask you if you want to continue, select yes. Wait for the
unit to reset. Select your default language setting.
Contrast
ACQ Recovery
Factory Reset
<MAIN MENU]
=
=
=
17
Transponder
Yes
UNIT Control (1/3)
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[NEXT>
Configure the RF Port
From the 4520X main menu select <RF Ports>. Press the down arrow until you see
screen 10 of 10.
Select transponder to < C-Band Transp # 11 > OR set it to 1230 (examples below)
and select the <Symbol: Code Bit> (rate) to <29.3 7/8 Combined>.
Setting
(set frequency)
>Active Port
Frequency
Symbol:Code:Bit
<MAIN MENU]
=
=
=
1
1230
29.3:7/8:Combined
MANUAL TUNE (10/10)
[NEXT>
(or select transponder)
>Active Port
Frequency
Symbol:Code:Bit
<MAIN MENU]
=
=
=
1
C-Band Transp # 11
29.3:7/8:Combined
MANUAL TUNE (10/10)
[NEXT>
Disable Ports 2-10.
Select <NEXT> which should take you to screen 1 of 10.
Set satellite designator to G9. Set Polarity to Vertical.
Setting
>Satellite
Polarity
Status
<MAIN MENU]
=
=
:
G9
Vertical
Defined
PORT 1 SETUP (1/10)
[NEXT>
Note: The Actual satellite IS Galaxy XIII however the designation in HBO’s NIT table
says (and must say) G9. This was done to avoid having to make 100’s of affiliates
manually change settings when Panamsat replaced GIX with GXIII.
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At this point the DIGICIPHER LED on the front panel should be illuminated, indicating
acquisition of the TR 11 satellite signal. If it is not, recheck all settings, RF
connections, and antenna pointing.
Select Channel
Give the IRD a few minutes to download the Virtual Channel Table (VCT) from the
HBO satellite feed. Then select, <CHANNELS> from the Main Menu. Select VCT 730
and set the Channel Number to 171:
Setting
>
VCT ID
Channel Number
Provider ID
<MAIN MENU]
=
=
=
730
171
---
CHANNEL SELECT (1/2)
[NEXT>
Note: It may take up to a minute to download the entire VCT and Channel Map
Confirm Service Acquisition
From the Main Menu select the <DATA> menu. Confirm the following:
> Asynchronous
Isochronous
Ethernet - IP
<MAIN MENU]
=
=
=
Not Defined
Not Defined
Defined
DATA STATUS (1/5)
[NEXT>
If <Ethernet - IP> displays a <Defined> status, the IRD has acquired the service and will
output IP from Ethernet Port 1, which has been connected to the N2 Broadband Mediapath
Catcher. Go back and confirm all front panel LED indicators and settings if Ethernet status
is displayed as <Not Defined>.
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Configure (or verify) IP Address on Ethernet Port 1
While still in the <Data Menu> Select [NEXT> two times. Verify the following settings
(that may have still been resident in memory from TR 10). If the following settings are
not indicated change the menu screens to these settings.
>IP Address
Subnet Mask
Default Gateway
=
=
=
10.2.0.2
255.255.255.0
168.84.51.1
<MAIN MENU] ETHERNET PORT 1 (3/5)
[NEXT>
On-Screen Diagnostic Display
To view on-screen diagnostics during installation, connect the Video Output on the
unit to a video monitor. Diagnostic data is output only on Video 2 Output.
The Fast Facts 1 and Fast Facts 2 screens of the on-screen diagnostic (OSD)
display available on the video output of the IRD (see Motorola manual) contains very
useful fields of information that indicate the status of the IRD. A sample of a “happy”
IRD OSD looking at HOD/MaxOD would have a Fast Facts 1 screen that looks
something like this:
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This is what the Fast facts should indicate once your IRD has been reconfigured.
Unit:nnn-nnnnn-nnnnn-nnn
VC# = 171
Firmware: 000A12 000A12
VCT ID = 0730
Encryption = Unencrypted
Service # = 72
Auth State = Unauthorized
Eb/No = +10.0
Signal State = Locked
Sat/Xpndr = G9/10
Signal Quality = 75
Virtual Network = nnn
Symbol Rate = 29.27 Msps
Polarization =V
Frequency = 1230.000 MHz
FEC Rate = 7/8
The OSD Fast Facts 1 screen is currently the only place where you can get any detail
regarding the quality of the downlinked satellite signal. Without it you only have the
DIGICIPHER LED on the front panel of the unit to tell you if the IRD is “locked” to the
satellite signal; the LED indicator does not give you any information with regard to
downlink or bit-error margin. If you have difficulty establishing or maintaining lock, or
if you have ongoing catch failures, it is useful to check the Eb/No (energy-per-bit/noise
spectral density – roughly equivalent to a digital S/N figure). A lower than optimal
Eb/No will result in a high bit-error rate (BER). At the HBO FEC rate of 7/8, an Eb/No
of 8.0 dB is necessary to maintain a serviceable BER; an ideal Eb/No is in the 1012dB range. Signal Quality is a number provided on an arbitrary scale, represents a
combination of the input signal level and the BER. This number should always be at or
above 75.
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Fast Facts 2 Screen
Use this screen if you need to verify that the port definition has taken in the unit
configuration. Do not worry if the other RF ports show something other than
<Undefined>; as long as you have set the active port to Port 1, the IRD will only
concern itself with the input signal at that port.
Port 1 = G9:V
Confirmed
Port 2
Undefined
Port 3
Undefined
Port 4
Undefined
Port 5
Undefined
Port 6
Undefined
Port 7
Undefined
Port 8
Undefined
Please forward all comments and suggestions to:
Craig Cuttner
HBO Technology Operations
Craig.Cuttner@hbo.com
(212) 512-5249
For General Support please contact the HBO Scrambling Hotline at: 212-512-5666, email hodhotline@hbo.com.
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