PVI VeCOAX MicroMod-2 Reference Manual

1

VeCOAX MicroMod-2

2 Channel HD Video RF Modulator

REFERENCE GUIDE

2

1) This unit is already pre-configured

Follow the quick start points on the next page to operate the unit plug n play

There is no need to reset the unit

If you reset the unit from the front panel, all settings will be lost, and you will need to set again

all the parameters as per this manual.

2) Manuals & Tech Support

Copy of manuals, procedures, troubleshooting are available on our specific pvisupport.com

website. You can also open a ticket at any time for special support and quick help.

Tickets are responded MON-FRI 9 am – 4 pm US EST Time. Tickets received out from this

window or on national holidays days will be responded asap the following business day.

3) Default Configuration

Reset to factory default the unit will take the unit to a laboratory testing condition. All the current parameters will be lost.

You can download from pvisupport.com the default configuration for your unit matching your

current model and software version from the serial number sticker on the unit.

To load the default operational configuration, on the web interface go to backup/restore and

browser / load / apply then save the config file

From the same Web control screen, you can also save your current configuration to a file, so in

case you can always recover it to restore previous conditions

4) If you need to install MULTIPLE UNITS

To install multiple units on the same coax / ip network you will need to :

- set different frequencies on each unit

- set different names per each channel

- set different network id per each unit

- set different NIT / VCT numbers ( program numbers )

- set different IPTV ip service port addresses per each unit

- set different IPTV streaming ports per each channel Pre-configured presets might be available on pvisupport.com, searching your model and sw version see the serial sticker on the unit/s

5) If you are looking for a specific configuration

just follow this manual, page by page, for each of your units. At the end you can save your specific backup file for this configuration for future use

FOR ANY TECH SUPPORT, THE FASTEST AND MOST EFFICIENT PROCEDURE IS TO OPEN A QUICK

TICKET ON WWW.PVISUPPORT.COM so the proper engineer will address your questions and will help you very quickly, usually in minutes. Phone calls are less fast and might not be able to resolve your question as we cannot send you pictures, manuals, quick starts, documents, files over the phone. Please we suggest to open a quick ticket first so we can help you faster and better, in

minutes.

Read Me First

3

QUICK START HERE

1) Connect your Video Sources > Front panel Led CH1 CH2 turns on

This process is automatic, and there is no setting when you use HDMI or SDI If you want to use other inputs you need to configure the video input first from the web interface as described next on this manual If one of the inputs is not valid or not connected, the ALARM led will turn on The alarm led is one, for all the inputs, and turns on when one input is not valid

For your first test use a DVD or BLURAY or APPLE TV device

Do not use a computer for the first test as its video card might require additional configurations to make it the same format as the dvd or bluray ( 720p / 1080i / 1080p @ 50 frames per second EU TV

Standard )

If you are using a computer out and the channel led on our front panel does not turn on, it means the video format from the computer is wrong, not acceptable to run over coax to the TV Antenna mpeg decoder, so you need to do a test with another type of source first, and then make the computer out the same as the

working source as per the specs above

FOR DIRECT TV BOX Connection :

1) SETTINGS>DISPLAY>VIDEO > native=ON / SCREEN= original

2) SETTINGS>DISPLAY>TV RESOLUTION > select 1080i and 1080p ONLY all other resolution checkbox must be UNSELECTED

note: if your TVs are not FULL HD 1080, then you must select 720p so the distribution will be in 720p only and your 720p TVs will decode it

FOR SKYBOX and similar satellite / terrestrial / cable decoder, FIRST connect it to the tv and change

the output resolution to FIXED 1080i or 1080P.

Audio MODE must be stereo uncompressed pcm, unless you set the audio pass-through mode for

dolby modes on our encoder settings ( see on next pages of this manual )

2) As First Test, connect a TV directly with a short piece of coax, then scan for digital channels The found frequencies will show the channels on position 1 2 on the TV channel list

IMPORTANT : Make sure your TV ANTENNA MODE is set to DIGITAL, and scan for Standard STD

digital cable channels

IMPORTANT : If your TV is not receiving the channels, please test with another brand/model of TV as Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Sony, Sharp, just to compare, as there might be some other settings on

the current tv that needs to be changed first.

3) After the above test is ok, you can connect the unit to your coax distribution and scan all the TVs to find the channels

IMPORTANT : if you are not receiving the signal on the other TVs, please use the same first test TV which was perfectly working, and move it step by step to the various locations through the coax, to

find where the signal stops.

There could be too much loss of signal on the coax, so you need to add a line amplifier, or there could be a signal amplifier which is distorting the signal as our output might be too high and needs

to be lowered from the modulator web control page

4

Tech Support

Please read carefully all this manual as it covers ALL and EVERY aspect to set this product as per your

needs, using pictures and examples. Should you need any additional support please go to pvisupport.com and open a quick ticket The proper engineer will address your questions very quickly right after you post the ticket

Tickets works faster and better than phone calls as the tickets are responded directly from the proper

engineers to give you a prompt and best solution. We strongly suggest to open a ticket first, so we can better and faster help you The free tech support is active MON-FRI 9 AM – 4 PM US EST TIME

Tickets posted out from this time window or on Saturdays Sundays and US/FL holidays days are responded

asap the next following business day

If you need to check your configuration, you will be asked to provide a TEAMVIEWER ID and PASS so our

engineers will connect shortly and help you to trouble shoot and set your system together with you. Help on settings is not possible over the phone nor in other ways but the Teamviewer. You can download and install a copy of TEAMVIEWER from teamviewer.com

5

AUDIO VIDEO INPUTS:

Your unit has 2 independent channels / inputs, each with analog & digital connectors, you can select via software per

each of the channels: HDMI Input: Connect your Digital audio/video source with a single HDMI digital cable – For best quality solution

NOTE: you can use this port to input Dolby Pass Through stereo / 5.1 / 7.1

Component Input: Connect your RGB analog HD/SD video using the RED GREEN BLUE RCA Composite Input: Connect your CVBS composite SD video using the YELLOW RCA out into the RED RGB input Closed Captioning Input: Connect your CVBS CC signal to the YELLOW RCA marked CC Analog L/R Audio Input: Connect your L/R analog audio to the RED / WHITE RCA marked AUDIO

RF COAX OUTPUT:

Your unit has 1 RF Coax out port, F-TYPE

This output is already amplified and goes directly to your coax splitter box from where all the coax cables distribute to all

your TVs. This output is already amplified and usually does not require additional external amplifiers

The level can be adjusted up to +45 db millivots

IMPORTANT : SHOULD YOU USE EXTERNAL COAX AMPLIFIERS, YOU MIGHT NEED TO REDUCE OUR POWER

OUT IN ORDER TO AVOID SIGNAL OVER-DRIVE SATURATION / DISTORSION OF THESE AMPLIFIERS

The typical symptom is pixelisation or signal lost on the TV, please remove your amplifiers or reduce our power

out in single steps until the picture on your TVs is perfect. Should you have a spectrum analyzer you can also adjust the levels through it for the perfection

Coax out : Connect to your distribution splitter to all the TVs. You can also connect directly to one TV full power without

any risk, as all the TVs supports +45dbmv input with no problem and have the AGC automatic gain control

Coax in: Connect to an incoming coaxial feed with third party channels, as from cable operators, or your indoor/outdoor

antenna. The injected channels are mixed with the VECOAX channels and output mixed to the RF OUT connector.

NOTE: The insertion loss is 6 db TYP, as any passive combiner, so you will need to compensate the incoming signal of 6

dB to get the same original level you apply to the input. You can also add a coax amplifier before entering the Coax in.

IMPORTANT: Cable providers might have special signals on their coax. It is a common practice to inject our coax output to the coax combiner, avoiding to pass-through the cable operator coax feed and their special

signals through our unit, so we do not change their specific signal path.

IMPORTANT: Do your first tests on a simple test bench, connecting a test TV directly with a short piece of coax to

our RF COAX OUT, scanning for channels. Leave other channels feeds disconnected at first.

Connections

6

ASI I/O Ports ( option ):

Your unit has 1 ASI Input and 2 ASI Output BNC ports, to add transport stream data from any ASI external source, or

to feed any ASI device with the transport stream REMUX generated from the unit Usually the ASI ports are not used. Please see the related special ASI application page for more details.

REMOTE CONTROL NETWORK PORT:

Your unit has 1 RJ45 standard LAN Network port to remote control the unit from a computer

You can connect your Laptop with a simple network patch cord, directly, no need for a cross cable, then use your

favorite browser to setup and control the unit faster and easier. Please refer to the Configuration Via Computer chapter for all the details.

DO NOT CONNECT THE REMOTE CONTROL PORT and the IPTV STREAMING PORT ON THE SAME SWITCH

REMOTE Control port should never receive ip streaming packets or could reduce responsiveness and control speed

IPTV STREAMING NETWORK PORT (option ):

Your unit has 1 RJ45 standard LAN Network port to stream the video channels over LAN/WIFI/WAN Networks.

The video channels can be played on any ip device through the proper video play application, mostly free downloadable

from internet. Please refer to the IP STREAMING chapter for all the details.

DO NOT CONNECT THE REMOTE CONTROL PORT and the IPTV STREAMING PORT ON THE SAME SWITCH

REMOTE Control port should never receive ip streaming packets or could reduce responsiveness and control speed

USB Port:

USB is used for upgrade of the software

Connections

7

Easy Setup & Customization to your parameters

For an easy and quick configuration of your parameters we suggest to connect a laptop and use the WEB Browser

interface The default WEB ADDRESS to enter on the navigation of your web browser is 192.168.0.136

So you need to set first your computer to a valid static network address to communicate to the unit address. As example you can set your computer to 192.168.0.100, so it will be able to “ talk “ to the unit

Here is a quick example of how to configure a Windows 8 PC to connect to the REMOTE CONTROL port on the

modulator

On windows 8 desktop select the network icon on botton right

1) Select ethernet

Configuration via Computer

8

Configuration via Computer

2) Select PROPERTIES

9

Configuration via Computer

3) Select INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 4 - PROPERTIES

4) Select USE FOLLOWING IP ADDRESS and enter the value 192.168.2.100,

then ckick OK

10

11

Configuration via Computer

5) Close all the Network Setup Windows

12

LOGIN to the unit

6) Open Internet Explorer or Google Chrome or Firefox browser.

In the address field of your browser enter 192.168.2.136 then click enter

The Login Splash page should appear, then login with:

user = admin password = admin

13

Configure Channel 1

Video Inputs & Encoders setup

On the web interface select INPUT 1 to control the audio video and assignment for channel 1

Copy the values on the picture for the best factory-standard settings When done, Click the APPLY BUTTON to set the parameters

14

Configure Channel 1

Interface = Select the input connector/s you want to use, as HDMI or YPbPr Component or CVBS Composite

– default is HDMI PLEASE NOTE: TO CONNECT COMPOSITE VIDEO CONNECT THE YELLOW RCA TO THE RED RGB INPUT.

The Yellow is for the closed captioning capture ONLY

Video Format = Select between MPEG2 and MPEG4 H264 video compression

– default is MPEG2

CC Switch = Select ON if you feed CLOSED CAPTIONING CVBS Signal to the YELLOW RCA,

otherwise leave OFF – default is ON

Video Bitrate = Quality of the video

– default for MPEG2 = 19000 ( 19 Megabits )

ASPECT RATIO = Select between 16:9 / 4:3 or Auto for all formats

– default = Auto

LOW DELAY = Force the TV TUNER Mpeg Decoder to decode faster if your application requires low delays

– default is NORMAL – Works on any TV – mode1 = FASTER ( 50 milliseconds encoding time ) – mode2 = Mid Speed ( 150 milliseconds encoding time ) – manual = Adjust the speed through the DTS parameter – 1= faster / 500= slower

While in manual you should set the GOP B frame to 1 and the Pframe to 6 for the best quality Important: The Low delay mode 1 and 2 send I-FRAME only to the TV antenna mpeg decoder (fast mode)

If the TV decoder is not fast enough, it might drop frames.

If this is the case, use the manual mode, and find the best setting adjusting the DTS from 1 (fast) to a higher

value (reduce the speed). You might also try to use DTS 1 and increase the Value of Bframes from 1 to 2 or 3 ( max ) so help slower tv decoders to decode “ faster “

DTS Delay = Active only with the low delay – see above GOP BFrame = Active only with the low delay – see above GOP PFrame = Active only with the low delay – see above

Brightness = Adjust the Picture Brightness when the ANALOG INPUTS are used

– default = 128

Contrast = Adjust the Picture Contrast when the ANALOG INPUTS are used

– default = 128

Saturation = Adjust the Picture Saturation when the ANALOG INPUTS are used

– default = 128

HUE = Adjust the Picture HUE when the ANALOG INPUTS are used

– default = 0

Resolution = Not active when the AUTO CONFIG is selected

If Auto is selected, the transmission video size will be the same as the original.

Otherwise you can select the wanted down-scaling size so the picture will be scaled as needed, to fit lower resolution

televisions, or narrow-band networks / lower bitrates – default = AUTO

Audio Format = Compression format for the Audio. You can select between the regular DOLBY STEREO AC3 and

MPEG2 / AAC, or PASSTHROUGH in case you feed the unit with dolby 5.1 or THX 7.1 so the original compressed

bitrsteam passes through as is. Pass-Through works from HDMI in or from OPTICAL Audio in. – default = AC3

NOTE: if your video source is only outputting compressed bit streams (5.1 / 7.1 / stereo) you might need to

change this to AC3 PASS HDMI if from HDMI or AC3 PASS SPDIF if from the audio optical input

15

Configure Channel 1

Dialog Normalization = FCC dialog norm value – required for some broadcast transmission

– default = -24

Audio Source = Select the input connector for the AUDIO, as HDMI digital or L/R Analog or Optical

If you need to feed HDMI video but take the audio from the L/R RCA connectors, switch this to Analog. – default = AUTO ( follow the video hdmi or analog )

Audio Bitrate = Select the quality for the Audio

– default = 192 kilobits

Audio Gain = Boost or attenuate the audio level

– default = 100 ( no gain / no attenuation )

16

Configure Channel 1

Second TAB – Encoder Out Parameters

Copy the values on the picture for the best factory-standard settings When done, Click the APPLY BUTTON to set the parameters

OUT Enable = Map this encoder channel to the wanted Modulator Frequency Output

This unit has FOUR frequency modulators ( RF1 / RF2 / RF3 / RF4 ) Each modulator can be turned on or off so you can decide to send out the two encoded channels on one single frequency, or use one frequency per each encoder channel

In US QAM 256 the max bitrate allowed per frequency is 36 megabit/s, so only one full quality HD or UHD video can be

sent per channel. When using MPEG2 video formats, the bitrate of one encoder channel might be too high to fit two channels in one frequency, so it could be necessary to use two frequencies, one for each mpeg2 encoder, to allow the needed bitrate. Most likely, when using H264 video formats, one frequency is enough to fit two full quality hd encoded channels.

In our example we will map the ENCODER 1 to frequency out RF1, the ENCODER 2 to frequency out RF2, and the USB

4K UHD player to frequency out RF3. The RF4 Frequency will be turned off ( not used ) The “MPTS” selector send the encoder stream also to the ASI out, in case you need ASI applications

– default = CHECK SELECT BOX “ RF1” – first on the left

17

Configure Channel 1

Service Provider = The name of the Headend (any id, or the name of the company ).

– default = PVI

Program Name = This is the Program name you want to assign to this channel

- make sure to use different names between the different channels of your unit to avoid conflicts – default for the left column = HD1

SERVICE ID = Is the ID number of this stream.

- make sure to use different numbers between the different channels of your unit to avoid conflicts – default for Input 1 = 1 ( displays 0x when saved )

PMT PID = Id of the PMT Descriptor Stream – do not change unless your application requires it

- make sure to use different values between the different channels of your unit to avoid conflicts – default for Input 1 = 100 ( displays 0x when saved )

VIDEO PID = Id of the Video Stream – do not change unless your application requires it

- make sure to use different values between the different channels of your unit to avoid conflicts – default for Input 1 = 101 ( displays 0x when saved )

AUDIO PID = Id of the Audio Stream – do not change unless your application requires it

- make sure to use different values between the different channels of your unit to avoid conflicts – default for Input 1 = 102 ( displays 0x when saved )

PCR PID = Id of the PCR stream – do not change unless your application requires it

Usually this should be the same value as on the Video PID above, for this encoder channel. Each encoder channel has a different video pid and the pcr should match the related video pid. – default for Input 1 = 103 ( displays 0x when saved )

Major Channel Number = Is the DESTINATION MEMORY POSITION you want for this channel on all your TVs

as example BUTTON # 1 – default for Input 1 = 1 ( displays 0x when saved )

Minor Channel Number = Is the SUB-DESTINATION MEMORY POSITION you want for this channel on all your TVs

The combination of the MAJOR.MINOR channel makes the final memory position on the TVs. The minor channel is mandatory to the TV to understand this is a DIGITAL TV Channel. Channels with no sub channel number are ANALOG.

Most of the television will ignore the minor channel and recall the channel just with the major channel number IF there are

no other channel in the same frequency. The minor channel cannot be Zero. – default for Input 1 = 1 ( displays 0x when saved )

Source ID = Is the Reference number for this encoder. Every source must have a different id in order to avoid conflicts

when multiplexed together. – default for Input 1 = 1 ( displays 0x when saved )

Short Name = Is NAME YOU WANT TO SHOW ON THE TVs for this channel. A max number of letters applies by the TV

standard. – default for Input = HD1

18

Configure Channel 1

Status Box ( top right ) = Shows the current format for the incoming video and the current encoding bitrate

NORM = UNKNOWN > the video is not connected / the video format is invalid / the video is connected to a wrong port respect the one selected.

( 50 OR 59.94 FRAMES PER SECOND ) Check the INTERFACE selector is set to the proper input. Test with a DVD Player or a Bluray disk player FIRST.

DO NOT USE A COMPUTER AS VIDEO SOURCE AT FIRST as it might require settings to output the same video format as the DVD or Bluray Disk devices, and might make confusion. The TV OVER COAX MPEG Standard is only : 480i – 576I – 720P – 1080i – 1080p 50 / 59.94 FPS If the Video Dot switches between Green/Red Continuously, your video source is feeding a wrong video format, Not Suitable for the Video Over Coax distribution. The limit is the TV TUNER MPEG DECODER over coax which cannot decode non tv standards.

In case your source does not support any of the TV Video format standard, you could use an external scaler to convert any unknown non-tv formats to a valid tv format NOTE : IF the video source works when connected directly (hdmi or video) to the tv, this is because the tv is a slave monitor device when connected via video cable, different from when the tv works receiving from the coax using its built-in coax MPEG Video receiver decoder

BITRATE = 0.0 > the encoder is not running, so the channel will not be found from TV scans

19

Configure Channel 2

On the web interface select INPUT 2 to control the audio video and assignment for channel 2

Copy the values on the picture for the best factory-standard settings When done, Click the APPLY BUTTON to set the parameters

20