Audio

It is possible to receive either the Left or Right audio on their own. This was useful during the 1999 Superbowl, as Sat1 broadcast a commentary in German on the Left audio channel, and the original US commentary on the Right Audio channel.

To select Left or Right audio only, press the Button, and either the or buttons for Left or Right only (actually pressing either button repeatedly will cycle between the three options.

Get rid of the Onscreen ‘Scrambled’ Messages

You can remove the on-screen messages saying that the channel is scrambled or that the audio is scrambled (such as on one of the French Mosaic channels).

Just press the button twice, and the message is gone until you next change channel.

 

This feature no longer works on the F1-CI (and probably others) since the most recent software upgrade (2.03.00). Hopefully there will be another fix to get rid of these messages.

 

Tips on receiving SCPC channels

What are SCPC Channels ?

A lot of digital channels are grouped together so that a single frequency can be used to receive the channels. Program Identifications (or PIDs) are used to identify the individual channels uniquely within the digital information stream. This method of transmission is known as Multiple Channels per Carrier or MCPC (also known as a bouquet). Most MCPCs use a symbol rate above about 10000MS/s corresponding to a bandwidth above about 15MHz.

Other channels, such as most News feeds, use a frequency all to themselves (but still use PIDs to identify the video and audio), and these are known as Single Channel per Carrier or SCPC. Unfortunately, the Humax receivers still use a bouquet memory space for each of these SCPC channels, causing problems with the infamous 100-bouquet limit. Most SCPCs use a symbol rate below about 7000MS/s corresponding to a bandwidth below about 10MHz.

Tuning in a SCPC channel

Sometimes you may experience problems when trying to tune in a SCPC channel.

Many LNBs do not operate on the exact local oscillator frequency (the radio frequency of the signal send from the LNB to your receiver) that is shown on the outside of the LNB case. The SCPC channels having a much smaller bandwidth than the MCPC channels require more accurate tuning of the frequency.

The combination of the smaller bandwidth and slight inaccuracy in LNB can cause problems when receiving SCPC channels. The trick is to try a frequency a few megahertz either side of the published value and see if this resolves the problem.

No Audio on SCPC Channels ?

When searching for channels, the Humax examines the data stream received and uses the PID values, sent by the broadcaster, to resolve the video and audio.

Sometimes the PID value for the audio is incorrect and you will get the message that the 'Audio is not Available'. This is when you need to use the published PID values and use the 'Advanced Search' option in the 'Channel Searching' menu, which allows you to manually enter the Audio PID to resolve the audio. (Note: it is VERY rare that you need to specify the Video or PCR PIDs when doing these channel searches, and these should be set to 'Auto')