Rough guide to the DMAC system & Variants (Deceased 3rd July 2006)

[nanochickin]

As you have probably already read about the BSB stuff that used to be broadcast in DMAC i thought now would be an ideal opportunity to talk about its relative D2Mac.

D2MAC = Multiplexed Analogue Components - D2 Variant

The MAC system was originally proposed as the analog standard for European HDTV, to be started in 1995. However, MAC never made it in Europe, but was instead used for satellite broadcasts using standrd resolution. A digital + analog system, used only for satellite TV broadcasts. MAC transmits luminance and chrominance data separately in time rather than separately in frequency (as other analog television formats do, such as composite video). Audio was transmitted digitally rather than as an FM subcarrier. (see pics below)

D2mac signals were often encrypted using EuroCrypt M and EuroCrypt S2. EuroCrypt was a conditional access system for Multiplexed Analogue Components-encoded analogue satellite television. It supported receivers with card slots and those with embedded keys

D-MAC satellite broadcasts provided the first broadcast sourced widescreen television in Europe, and HD-MAC provided the first HDTV broadcasts, in 1992.

The final ever transmission in D2Mac format was broadcast from Thor 2 at 1W 3rd July 2006. The final channel was DR2 which was on 11434V. :'( Most of the channels that were broadcast in D2Mac are now broadcast in Digital.

I always liked the D2mac format and think its a pity that it is no longer used. The picture and sound quality was in my opinion always better than PAL analogue. I still prefer it to digital if i'm honest.

Sadly most of the satellites that broadcast in D2MAC are now in Junk orbit, including the 2 Original BSB Marcopolo birds which started life broadcasting similar DMAC transmissions. Its ironic how much of the older BSB equipment ended up being modified to receive d2mac as well. See Picture below of a Philips STU902 BSB receiver, converted to D2MAC on top of a Pace MSS1000 receiver.

[BGonaSTICK]

Excellent post :clap:

What 'resolution' was HD-MAC broadcast in, as a comparison to today's digital HD transmissions?

Can you really compare it?

[nanochickin]

There were several satellites that broadcast in D2-Mac.

The obvious 2 are Sirius1 at 5E and Thor 1 at 1W which were the original BSBs MarcoPolo birds.

Others included:-

TELE-X - 5.0 E, TV-SAT 2 0.6 W, THOR 2. 0.8-W, Sirius 2. 5E, INTELSAT 707. 1.0-W, Eutelsat II F3. 16E, Intelsat 601. 27.5W, Telecom 2A. 8W, Telenor Sat. 1W.

As far as i am aware with the exception of Thor 2 and Sirius 2 i think the rest are now in junk orbit.

As a taster of what used to be avaliable i have dug out an old channel line up for the old D2Mac birds.

INTELSAT 707 - 1.0°W

Cartoon Network (06-20) & TNT (20-06)
11.001 V -D2MAC - Eurocrypt M/S2

TV1000 11.054 V D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

TV3 Norge 11.096 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

TV3 Danmark 11.473 V D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

CNN 11.485 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt M/S2

TV2 Norge 11.555 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt S2

TV3 Sverige 11.597 V D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

CMT (02-10) Granada Good Life (10-18) DR2 (18-01) Granada Men & Motors (01-02)
11.667 V D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

BBC Prime 11.679 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt M/S2

SIRIUS 1 - 5.2°E

All in right hand polorization

VH-1 11.785 D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

Nickelodeon (07-13) Travel (13-16) ZTV Sverige (16-02) 11.862 D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

TV6 Sverig (16-24) Playboy TV (00-04) 12.015 D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

TV3 Sverige 12.092 -Eurocrypt M

SIRIUS 2 - 4.8°E

EBN - European Business News (05-09) Sci-Fi Channel Scandinavia (09-05) 12.322 V D2MAC - Eurocrypt M


TV-SAT 2 - 0.6°W

All in left hand polorization

TV1000 Cinema (21-18) The History Channel (18-21) 11.888 L D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

EBN - European Business News (05-09) Sci-Fi Channel (09-05) 11.912 L D2MAC - Eurocrypt M

3+ 11.977 L D2MAC - Eurocrypt M


THOR 1 - 0.8°W

All in right hand polorization

Sky News (02-18) Computer Channel (18-20) National Geographic Channel (20-02) 11.773 D2MAC FTA

Animal Planet 11.797 D2MAC FTA

Eurosport 11.862 R D2MAC - Eurocrypt M/S2

TCC (06-18) The Discovery Channel (18-01) HSN Direct (01-06) 11.938 R D2MAC - Eurocrypt M/S2

Canal+ Gul 12.015 R D2MAC - Eurocrypt S2

Canal+ Sverige 12.092 R D2MAC - Eurocrypt S2


THOR 2 - 0.8°W

TV Danmark 11.216 VD2MAC FTA

Canal+ Danmark 11.261 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt S2

Canal+ Norge 11.293 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt S2

NRK To 11.325 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt S2

NRK 1 11.357 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt S2

TVS Sportkanalen 11.389 H D2MAC - Eurocrypt S2


MTV 11.434 V D2MAC - Eurocrypt M/S2


TELE-X - 5.0° E
Left hand polorization


TVS Sport. 12.664. D2Mac Eurocrypt. M/S2.

[Analoguesat]

TELE-X - 5.0 E, Dead - junk orbit
TV-SAT 2 0.6 W, Dead - junk orbit
THOR 2. 0.8-W, operational
Sirius 2. 5E operational. To be replaced by Sirius 4 in the next 2 years
INTELSAT 707. 1.0-W, operational - now at53W
Eutelsat II F3. 16E, Dead - junk orbit
Intelsat 601. 27.5W, out of use at 64E
Telecom 2A. 8W, Dead - junk orbit
Thor 1 1W Dead - junk orbit
Thor 2 1W operational although near end of life

[nanochickin]

What 'resolution' was HD-MAC broadcast in, as a comparison to today's digital HD transmissions?

Can you really compare it?

I think this will explain it Stick. I pasted it from another web site as its too much info to type.

HD-MAC

HD-MAC was a proposed television standard. It was an early attempt by the EEC to provide HDTV in Europe. Unlike DVB, HD-MAC was basically an analogue signal (Multiplexed Analogue Components), multiplexed with digital sound, a complex mix of analogue and digital.

Video and audio were uncompressed, and required up to 36 MHz per transmission. Video was broadcast using a modified D2-MAC encoder. Standard resolution was 1250 (1152) lines/50 frames in 16:9 aspect ratio.

HD-MAC could be decoded by a standard D2-MAC receivers, but in that mode only 625 (576) lines and certain artefacts were visible. In order to decode the signal in full resolution, a specific HD-MAC tuner was needed.

In the 1992 Summer Olympics, an experimental HD-MAC broadcasting took place. 100 HD-MAC receivers (in that time, retroprojectors) in Europe were used to test the capabilities of the standard. This project was financed by the EEC. The PAL-converted signal was used by mainstream broadcasters such as SWR, BR and 3Sat.

Today, this standard is considered obsolete.


Technical details

The signal was captured with 50 full frames per second, each at a resolution of 2048×1152. In order to increase the horizontal resolution of the D2-MAC norm, only its bandwidth had to be increased. This was easily done as unlike PAL, the sound is not sent on a subcarrier, but multiplexed with the picture. However, to increase the vertical bandwidth was a bit more complicated, as the line frequency had to stay at 15'625 Hz, in order not to break compatibility with D2-MAC. This offered three choices:

50 frames per second with only 288 lines for fast moving scenes,
25 frames per second with 576 lines for normally moving scenes, or
12.5 frames per second with all 1152 lines for slow motion.
As none of the three modes would have been sufficient, the choice during encoding was not made for the whole picture, but for little blocks of 8×8 pixels. The signal then contained hints which deinterlacing method the decoder should use.

In order to fully decode the picture, the signal has to be digitized and then read from the memory several times.

Digital HD-TV

In current practice, Digital HDTV uses 1280 × 720 pixels in progressive scan mode (abbreviated 720p) or 1920 × 1080 pixels in interlace mode.

It allows the bandwidth of a DTV channel (or "multiplex") to be subdivided into multiple sub-channels. Each TV station uses subchannels to carry multiple broadcasts of video, audio, or any other data, and can distribute their so-called "bit budget" as necessary, such as dropping one sub-channel down to a lower bitrate in order to make another one available to show higher quality video. Often, this is done automatically, using a statistical multiplexer

[Analoguesat]

Coppernickers (Kopernicus) DF1 at 23E seems to have carried D2Mac HDTV tests as long ago as Autumn 1991

[jontydog]

Ah the old days It was the stuff on 1 degree west that first got me into satellites unfortunately when I started out most of the channels were leaving d2mac and going digital. In fact 1 year I even watched the fa cup final on TV3 Danmark rather than the English coverage and of course there was the odd good film on TV1000 after 11pm

[satsid]

hi guys,this takes me back another blast from the past .i liked 27 west out of all the d mac channels,3 great movies 1s here in them days at night well we know what thay were.also a music channel was here 2,think there was a channel from ireland if merroie severs me right.tea he im getting to old lol.
sid

[Bitman]

BBC World Service TV (previously, or was it later) BBC Europe was also in D2Mac on 27.5W.
They used to contain a mixture of BBC1 and 2 original programming (mostly current affairs, documentaries and drama), sometimes live (news), but often a day or a week later, sometimes edited down (e.g. Panorama in 30 minutes).
Just what an ex-pat needed.
Unfortunately, in early 1995, a couple of months after I had bought a 120cm dish and receiver, and taken out a year's subscription, they replaced it with BBC Prime, carrying mainly old comedy repeats.
I was not pleased!

[satsid]

Originally Posted by Bitman

BBC World Service TV (previously, or was it later) BBC Europe was also in D2Mac on 27.5W.
They used to contain a mixture of BBC1 and 2 original programming (mostly current affairs, documentaries and drama), sometimes live (news), but often a day or a week later, sometimes edited down (e.g. Panorama in 30 minutes).
Just what an ex-pat needed.
Unfortunately, in early 1995, a couple of months after I had bought a 120cm dish and receiver, and taken out a year's subscription, they replaced it with BBC Prime, carrying mainly old comedy repeats.
I was not pleased!

Old days this was where the benelux movie channels were,great channels & free i think,lol or im getting to old.