Copyright: Evertz© XDS Packet Control Software
Citation: Thanks for choosing Evertz©


Overview

The Evertz XDS Packet Control Software was designed to interface to an Evertz 8074 Closed Caption Encoder running firmware dated 061798 or later. Please be advised that Evertz does not guarantee the accuracy of the XDS packets in units running pre-dated firmware.

In order for XDS packets to be inserted into Line 21 of the Digital Video Bitstream, The 8074 must be configured to communicate with the PC. The default settings for the 8074 are 1200 Baud, 7 Data Bits, Odd Parity and 1 Stop bit on Port 2. The default settings for the 8074 Packet Control software is the same. Please see .Comm Port Settings for more information on changing your com port settings.

Please view the 8074 manual for detailed instructions on cable requirements and configuration instructions for the 8074.

Also required is a Null Modem cable connected to either port B or C on the 8074 and either Comm1 or Comm2 on the PC.  This first of software defaults on program startup to communicate on Comm2 of the PC, this default setting can be changed and the setting can be changed (see File Menu for more information).

If you require the use of Port A on the 8074, you must create a special cable as outlined in the 8074 manual, or use the adapter cable that was shipped with your unit as well as a standard null modem cable.

Once you have established communications between the PC and the 8074, you may enter data in the related fields and send this data to the 8074 for encoding (see System Setings for more information).


System Setings

Network Name: Enter the Network Name required in the adjacent box.

Call Letters: Enter the Call Letters required in the adjacent box.

Time of Day: The time of Day is extracted from the internal PC clock. In order to change this you must click on the clock display for Win95 (lower right corner of the "Start Menu Bar"). Enter the new time and close the Time window. XDS automatically updates the time display from the new system time. The XDS software polls the system for the updated time every second.

Transmission Signal ID: This new XDS packet is outlined in the EIA-752. This packet contains four non-ASCII characters that carry the unique 16-bit Transmission Signal Identifier (TSID) that is assigned to the originating analog licensee. Please enter the appropriate number in the box provided.

Time Zone: The Time Zone settings are extracted from the Win95 system settings. If your settings are incorrect or need to be changed double click on the clock display for Win95 (lower right corner of the "Start Menu Bar"), and click on the "Time Zone" Tab. After you have changed the Time Zone, you will have to restart the XDS Packet Control software for the change to take effect.

Time Zone Status: The Time Zone data is not enabled as a default. To enable Time Zone data simply click on the enable option.

Daylight Savings Time: The default setting for Daylight Saving Time is disabled. To enable Daylight Savings simply click on the enable option.

Send/Remove Buttons: Once you have entered the appropriate data into the above fields, you have the option of sending One XDS Packet or All XDS Packets. To send the data, click on the appropriate "Send" button.  To remove XDS information from the 8074 simply click on the appropriate "Remove" button and the XDS packet will be disabled.

What do all the colors of the text and backgrounds mean? Please see Text Color Codes for more information.

Note: Removing an XDS Packet that is not present in the 8074, will cause the 8074 to display a CMD FRMT ERROR message.

If the "Send Current Time", "Remove Current Time", "Send All Settings" and "Remove All Settings" buttons are disabled you have one of two problems.

A)	The 8074 is not communicating with the PC (see Comm Port Settings for more information)

B)	The 8074 firmware needs to be updated (see Comm Port Settings for more information)


File Menu

Save Settings: Use this option to save all the system configuration settings. Items saved are as follows:

1)	Network Name

2)	Station Call Letters

3)	Transmission Signal ID (TSID)

4)	Time Zone Status (Enabled/Disabled)

5)	Daylight Savings Time Status (Enabled/Disabled)

6)	Comm Port

7)	Baud Rate

8)	Parity

9)	Data Bits

Load Settings: Loads previously saved settings or the default if no previously saved settings exist.

Exit: Use this option to close the XDS Packet Control software.


Communications Menu

The communications drop down provides status of the Comm Port settings. Please see Comm Port Settings for information on changing the Comm Port setup.

Comm1: Unchecked Port not selected.

Comm2: Checked Port selected. (Default)

1200 Baud,O,7,1: Default communications settings for the computer to communicate with the 8074. (see Overview for more information).


Comm Port Settings

In order to pass XDS data to the 8074 you must connect the appropriate cable to the back of the 8074 and the back of your PC. Please locate an available communication/serial port and attach the cable. (see Overview for more information) The Default program settings are displayed above.

Com Port: All available com ports will be displayed in this section. If all options are "grayed out" check your PC system settings for possible hardware errors. Select the Com Port that is connected to the 8074.

Baud: Set the Baud rate to match the baud rate setting for the 8074. Please review your 8074 manual for information on changing the 'Baud Rate" options on your 8074.

Parity: Set the Parity to match the parity setting on the 8074. Please see Serial Port "Word" settings in your 8074 manual for more information.

Data Bits: Set the Data Bits to match the Data Bits setting on the 8074. Please see Serial Port "Word" settings in your 8074 manual for more information.

Set Port Button: Once you have set all the Com Port settings "Click" the Set Port button to send a test packet to the 8074. If all the settings are correct you should see the Prom version and revision date information displayed in the 8074 Prom Info Window.

Prom Info Window:

Not Detected - Displayed in Red when communications with the 8074 have not been established.

Detecting - Displayed in Green when the Set Port button is clicked and the PC is attempting to establish communications with the 8074.

Revision Information - Displayed in Blue when communications with the 8074 have been successfully established.

8074 Packet Status:

This new window area indicates what packets are present in the 8074. Included are the packet ID's, repeat counts, keep/delete status as well as contents. If you have not established communications with the 8074, you will not see any packet information displayed in this screen. Please refer to section 4.5.5 of the 8074 manual for more information on this topic.

Why are my buttons "Grayed Out"?

1)	You have not established communications with the 8074. Review the information above.

2)	You have communications but you need to upgrade your Proms in the 8074 to accommodate Time of Day Packets. Please contact our factory. (see Contact Information for more information)


Program Settings

The Program Settings screen is used to send the Program ID and V-Chip rating information to the 8074 automatically on a 1/2 hour basis. The information will not be sent until you "Enable Automatic Output". The V-Chip ratings are based on the "TV Parental Guidelines" and you can save the settings you selected.

Program Items:

The program items are made up of a 1/2 hour time block (09:00) the Program Name (sz) the V-Chip rating (TV-14) and optional specifiers (check boxes). The "Hot Time" is highlighted in Red. This is the time block that will be sent to the 8074 when you Enable Automatic Output.

Once the Program items have been sent to the 8074, the background of the Program ID field will turn Yellow to signify that the data was sent. XDS Packet control will continue monitoring the time and when the half-hour changes the next program block of data will be sent to the 8074. If you exit the XDS Packet Control software the Automatic Output will be disabled until you run the program again and re-enable the automatic output.

Enable Automatic Output:

The Enable Automatic Output check box tells the XDS Software to start sending program items to the 8074. Please ensure that you have communications with the 8074 and that there is data present in the program item fields prior to enabling this option. To enable the option simply "click" on the item with the mouse and the program will instantly start sending data to the 8074. If there is a "check mark" in the box, the Enable Automatic Output is enabled. To disable the Automatic Output simply "click" on the item again with the mouse. Disabling Automatic Output does not remove Program ID and V-Chip rating information from the outgoing video. New data will not be sent from the PC however any existing packets in the 8074 will continue to be transmitted until you remove them.

Remove Program Data:

The "Remove Program Data" button will send a command to the 8074 telling it to stop transmitting Program ID and V-Chip rating information. It will also Disable the Automatic Output to ensure that no Program ID or V-Chip data gets sent to the 8074 until you re-enable the Automatic output.

Load/Save Settings Buttons:

These buttons are used to store and retrieve Program ID and V-Chip rating information. Please see for more information.

TV Parental Guidelines Mode:

The XDS Packet Control software conforms to the guidelines set out in the TV Parental Guidelines spec. All Violence ratings are based on these specs. Future releases of the software will support other modes.

Ratings:

Please see V-Chip Ratings for more information.


Contact Information

Please visit our Web site at http://www.evertz.com.

You can reach our offices at 1+(905) 335-3700

Fax: 1+(905) 335-3573

Or e-mail tech support at eng@evertz.com

Evertz

3465 Mainway Drive

Burlington, Ontario

L7M 1A9


V-Chip Ratings

Rating Drop Down: Click on the down arrow beside the "None" rating and select the desired rating from the selected list. The appropriate options will be available in the check boxes beside the Rating selection.

Rating	Options

None	None

TV-Y	None

TV-Y7	FV

TV-G	None

TV-PG	V S L D

TV-14	V S L D

TV-MA	V S L

Options:

FV	Fantasy Violence

V	Violence

S	Sex

L	Language

D	Dialog

Once you have selected the appropriate rating please check any options that apply by "clicking" on the appropriate box with the mouse. These settings can be saved and recalled later using the Save/Load Program Settings .


Save/Load Program Settings

Select the appropriate name from the drop down list provided. Once you have selected the appropriate name ou may Save/Load the settings by clicking on the "OK" button. Your Program ID and V-Chip rating information will be written to the hard drive or recalled from the hard drive. To cancel the procedure at any time simply "click" on the "Cancel" button.

For information on saving and loading the system information, please see the File Menu section.


Status Bar

The status bar is used to inform you of the current status of the XDS Packet Control Environment. The status bar is designed to give you a quick indication of the system integrity as well as a general feedback to your commands. A description of each portion of the Status bar follows.

Communications Status:

A Green box indicates that the 8074 and the PC are configured correctly and communicating successfully.

A Yellow box indicates that communications have been lost but the PC is attempting to reconnect.

A Red box indicates a loss of communications or a failure to receive a command verification from the 8074. The PC is attempting to reconnect.

A Grey box indicates that the PC configuration is invalid. Ensure that the 8074 and PC are set correctly and press the "Set Port" button on the Comm Port Settings page to initialize the communications

Time Block Data:

The first "Time Block" on the Status Bar is the hours and minutes from the PC clock time.

The second "Time Block" is the Hot Time used for Program and Rating submission to the 8074.

Program Data:

The first Program Data Status indicates the Program Name Data for the 8074. "Program Name Packet Detected" indicates that the 8074 is transmitting Program Name packets. If the contents of the packets to not agree with the contents from the PC you will be warned with a message.

The second Program Data Status indicates the Program Rating for the 8074. This functions the same way as the Program Name Status area outlined above.

The last message area display the response from your last action or any appropriate messages that the system needs to bring to your attention.

The following is an example of the status bar in the event that communications with the 8074 are lost.


Text Color Codes

Red Text on a Yellow Background: This indicates that the packet is present in the 8074 but the contents of the PC have changed and should be re-sent to the 8074. Clicking the mouse cursor on the text entry field and then moving to something else on the page will cause the text to turn red even though nothing has changed in the text entry field.

Red Text on a White Background: This indicates that the packet is not present in the 8074 but the contents of the PC have changed and should be re-sent to the 8074. Clicking the mouse cursor on the text entry field and then moving to something else on the page will cause the text to turn red even though nothing has changed in the text entry field.

Blue Text on a Yellow Background: This indicates that the packet is present in the 8074 and the contents of the PC match the contents in the 8074.

Blue Text on a White Background: This indicates that the packet is not present in the 8074 and the contents of the PC have not changed.


Communications Status

Communications Status Box


PC System Time

PC System Time (Hours, Minutes) Status Box


Hot Program Time

Current Time Block for Program XDS Packets Status Box


Program Name

8074 Program Name Packet Status Box


Program Rate

8074 Program Rating Packet Status Box


Comm Message

Informational Status Box