Digital TV Labs Ships Evora MPEG-4 Test Suite for French TNT HD Receivers

Digital TV Labs has shipped the first MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) test suite covering digital terrestrial (DVB-T) broadcasts including the receiver requirements of the imminent French HD TNT service. The French law “Télévision du Futur” mandates that all HD Ready televisions must support MPEG-4 AVC HD broadcasts by the end of this year.

The use MPEG-4 AVC is growing fast across Europe’s digital terrestrial networks as broadcasters make better use of existing spectrum. However, there are significant regional and national variations of terrestrial network implementations of this new technology. Receiver suppliers are constantly challenged to understand each country’s requirements and to provide adequate testing to ensure compatibility with the local broadcasts. Digital TV Lab’s Evora pan-European conformance test suite has been extended to include coverage for a number of new MPEG-4 AVC services across Europe, including trial services. Suppliers can ensure that receivers are robust and broadcast conformant, ensuring a quality user-experience and lowering return-rates.

The Evora MPEG-4 test suite consists of custom in-house test streams supporting Main and High profiles as well as Level 3 and 4. AC3, AC3+ and HE-AAC audio codecs are also supported. Tests are included covering PSI/SI, simulcast descriptors, logical channel numbering, lip-sync and transition states. The test suite covers the new MPEG-4 AVC requirements detailed in the new E-Book, Boxer, NorDig, Norwegian RiksTV and French HD Forum specifications. Further releases of the Evora test suite will include tests to cover AFDs, HD subtitles, and HD MHEG.

Source: BroadcastBuyer