TR 101 290 — measuring the received DVB stream

Castreon checks every running DVB mux — from a card in the server or from a SAT>IP tuner — against ETSI TR 101 290, the measurement guideline used by broadcasters and operators. The measurement runs all the time, on the stream as it is received, and costs almost no CPU.

Available since Castreon 3.0.0, in all editions.

Where you see it

DVB adapters → click an adapter → the TR 101 290 section in the adapter panel. It has three groups:

• Priority 1 — the stream cannot be decoded correctly: sync lost (1.1), wrong sync byte (1.2), PAT missing or scrambled (1.3), continuity counter errors (1.4), PMT missing (1.5), a video or audio PID declared in the PMT that has not arrived for more than 5 s (1.6).
• Priority 2 — errors recommended for continuous monitoring: packets flagged by the demodulator (TEI, 2.1 — usually a weak signal), table checksum errors (2.2), PCR repetition and discontinuity (2.3a / 2.3b), PCR accuracy (2.4), PTS repetition (2.5), scrambled packets without a CAT (2.6).
• Priority 3 — service information: NIT, SDT, EIT present / following and TDT missing for longer than allowed, and PIDs not referenced by any table. These are informational.

For each indicator you see the errors in the last minute and the total since the last reset; hover over a line for a short explanation. Indicators that cannot be judged on that stream (for example PCR accuracy on a variable-rate stream) show “not measured on this stream”. Under the table, Castreon also shows the mux rate measured from the PCRs.

Reset sets the adapter's counters to zero (operator rights; the action goes into the audit log) — useful after you have fixed a dish or a cable, to see whether errors still come.

Alerts

When an adapter has priority 1 errors for 30 seconds in a row, the channels on that mux get the alert “DVB stream has ETSI TR 101 290 priority 1 errors”; it clears after 60 seconds without errors. A short burst (a retune, a drop of rain) does not fill the history with alerts. The alert goes out like the other DVB alerts, through notifications (e-mail, Telegram, webhook) if you have them on.

Reading the results

• 1.4 continuity growing together with 2.1 TEI → the signal is too weak or noisy: dish alignment, LNB, cable, connectors, or rain fade.
• 1.4 continuity alone, with TEI at zero → packets are lost after the demodulator: with SAT>IP, look at the network (the adapter panel shows RTP losses); with a card, at the server load.
• 1.3 / 1.5 (PAT / PMT missing) on one transponder only → the problem is at the broadcaster; Castreon only measures it.
• Priority 3 errors rarely affect the picture; they matter for the TV guide (EIT) and for receivers that need the NIT.

The same measurement is done for every transponder by the transponder monitor, with the number of seconds you choose per transponder.

In the API and SNMP

The measurement is part of the adapter status in the API (GET /api/v1/adapters/status, the tr101290 field), the reset is POST /api/v1/adapters/{id}/tr101290/reset, and the priority 1–3 error counts per adapter are also available over SNMP.