Packet Identifiers (PIDs) Overview

Each RF channel has five or more associated PIDs assigned in a hierarchy (see diagram below), and the content of each RF channel is carried in a transport stream.

The transport stream is a packet-based protocol, where each packet has a PID that is used to uniquely identify packets for particular purposes (video, audio, etc.). This allows multiple video and audio streams to be multiplexed without receiver confusion. For example, if a stream contains three video programs, each video program has a unique PID. The PAT PID is always 0x0000 and all other PIDs can be in the range 0x0010 to 0x1ffe, inclusive.

The PAT and PMT are tables that indicate which PIDs are used for which purposes. The PAT contains a list of PMT PIDs. The PMT contains a list of the PIDs of elementary stream data, such as audio or video, etc. Typical transport streams contain one PID for the PAT, as well as three or more PIDs for each program (one for PMT, one for video, and one or more for audio). The PIDs used for each elementary stream must be unique to allow receivers to properly demultiplex.

Pro:Idiom adds a third PID type to each PMT. The Pro:Idiom message PID may fall anywhere in the range 0x0010 to 0x1ffe, inclusive and also must be unique. If Pro:Idiom channels are present in the target system, ensure that Pro:Idiom message PIDs are never used on any other streams in that system. To facilitate PID allocation, the OAT100R uses a block of 64 contiguous PIDs that can be moved by selecting the start PID.

Refer to ISO/IEC 13818-1:2000, Section 2.4.3, “Specification of the Transport Stream syntax and semantics,” for further information.

Typical PID

HierarchyPAT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Program 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Program 2

 

 

PMT

 

 

 

 

 

 

PMT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio 1A

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio 2A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio 1B

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio 2B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro:Idiom *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro:Idiom *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*For channels with Pro:Idiom encrypted content only.

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