BATC Forum

I have just issued a new software release (202101310) for the Portsdown 4. It is a major new release and I encourage everyone using the Portsdown 4 to update to it.

New Features

• DVB-T Transmit using the Pluto. The Pluto can be configured to transmit DVB-T at 1 MHz bandwidth and below. Select Pluto from the "Output to" Menu (first) then select DVB-T from the Modulation Menu. The system will ask you to confirm some parameters (QPSK and 1/32 are recommended for initial tests at 333 kHz), and then you can select the source. Pi Cam, WebCam, Comp Vid and Test Card are currently supported with H264 encoding. IPTS input is also supported.
  --- Note: Please do not test DVB-T on QO-100 before you have a working local receive capability. ---
  
• DVB-T Receive using a Knucker Tuner. In anticipation of the availability on Knucker Tuners (still on order from China), full DVB-T receive functionality has been added to the Receive Menu. It works in a similar fashion to the MiniTiouner, but you can only have one tuner connected at a time.
• The "programme" for display in a multi-programme received signal can now be selected from the Receive Config menu. This works for DVB-S/S2 and DVB-T, allowing the viewing of multi-programme repeaters (or terrestrial BBC1 using the Knucker Tuner). Note that the on-screen caption always refers to the default programme, and that this feature is only available with VLC, not OMXPlayer (which is soon to be discontinued on the Portsdown unless anybody needs it!).
• Extra details have been added to the Info screen (access from Menu 2). It now displays the required bitrate for IPTS input for the selected mode/FEC (including DVB-T). It also indicates whether any connected C920 Camera is the more capable model with an H264 encoder.

Maintenance

• The recommended software for new builds is now the 2021-01-11 build of Raspios Buster Lite.
• LimeSuite has been updated to the latest version, and reference to the old 1.29 LimeSDR Mini Firmware removed.
• There are also numerous small bugfixes and improvements.

Thanks to Charles G4GUO for all the DVB-T code and to all the beta testers for their help with this release.

Please report any bugs here.

Dave, G8GKQ

Just a little comment to say it detects my older C920-C camera fine with it's onboard h264 encoder.
Seems to be about the same quality as the newer C920's but maybe a bit faster focus.

Rob
M0DTS

Thought I would go for a C920 webcam. Looked on Ebay and saw all the new ones. Bought one that looked old and put an offer in as it had just been added (so 'or best offer') that was around the minimum price Ebay recommended. The seller had a reasonable number of sales and feedback was 100%.
and accepted my offer (£68 + postage)
It has arrived and it is the early one with H264 encoder - I know because of the new software - .
Very happy.

Martin G8LCE