science

Program and System Information Protocol

Program and System Information Protocol is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Program and System Information Protocol rather than just read about it. In short: The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group, a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a television station and for p…

Key takeaways

Program and System Information Protocol belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Program and System Information Protocol to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Program and System Information Protocol from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group, a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a television station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch by title and description. Its FM radio equivalent is Radio Data System (RDS).

Function

PSIP defines virtual channels and content ratings, as well as electronic program guides with titles and (optionally) descriptions to be decoded and displayed by the ATSC tuner. PSIP can also send:

the exact time referenced to UTC and GPS time; the short name, which some stations use to publish their callsign. A maximum of seven characters can be used in a short name. PSIP is defined in ATSC standard A/65, the most recent revision of which is A/65:2013, published in 2013. A/69 is a recommended practice for implementing PSIP in a television station. PSIP also supersedes the A/55 and A/56 protocol methods of delivering program guide information (which the ATSC has deleted). TV Guide On Screen is a different, proprietary system provided by datacasting on a single station, while PSIP is required, at least in the United States, to be sent by every digital television station. PSIP information may be passed through the airchain using proprietary protocols or through use of the Programming Metadata Communication Protocol metadata scheme.

Programming Metadata Communication Protocol PMCP, defined in the Advanced Television Systems Committee's A/76B, provides ATSC broadcasters with a standardized means to exchange system information (SI) among systems that create and manage these data elements. These systems can be outside Program listing services, program management systems, traffic (commercial and program scheduling) and broadcast automation systems, which all contribute a portion of the PSIP data to a PSIP Generator. At the heart of PMCP is an XML Schema (actually a collection of XML Schema Definition files), which provide a standardized structure into which PSI and PSIP-related data may be exchanged. PMCP does not dictate systems' internal database structures; it is simply a platform-independent protocol for the exchange of data. PMCP was first published as A/76 in November 2004, and enjoys adoption from a variety of broadcast equipment and system vendors. Two revisions (largely backwards-compatible) with the standard have been made. ATSC A/76a extended PMCP to include metadata necessary for proper signaling of ACAP data broadcast elements, and A/76B, was released in 2007, fixed some errors and made the schema usable with the related SMPTE S2021 (BXF) schema.

Included tables System Time Table (STT) Current time, transmitted at least once per second, with an accuracy of new time values within 1 second or better. Master Guide Table (MGT) Data pointers to other PSIP tables. Terrestrial Virtual Channel Table (TVCT) Defines each virtual channel and enables EITs to be associated with the channel. Cable Virtual Channel Table (CVCT) Assigns numbers to each virtual channel and enables EITs to be associated with the channel. Rating Region Table (RRT) Content ratings for each country (region) covered by the station, save the U.S., as that region is loaded into television sets already. Event Information Table (EIT) Titles and program guide data. Extended Text Table (ETT)

Channel Extended Text Table (CETT) Detailed descriptions of channels. Event Extended Text Table (EETT) Detailed descriptions of aired events. Directed Channel Change Table (DCCT) The DCC function lets broadcasters tell a digital television receiver where to change, based upon the viewer's settings. This is most likely to be a ZIP or other postal code, which can select demographically-based programming to show, such as television commercials or weather bulletins, possibly taken from an accompanying datacasting channel. Implementation of the DCC feature is entirely optional, and depends on development of receiver and decoder technology. For example, a digital video recorder could record commercial broadcast at other times for later replay, so that many more different commercials could be shown in different parts of a large metro area than can actually be transmitted at once. Directed Channel Change Selection Code Table (DCCSCT) Provides for the ability to update states, counties and program genres used in DCCTs.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Program and System Information Protocol

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Program and System Information Protocol claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Program and System Information Protocol before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Program and System Information Protocol ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Program and System Information Protocol

In research: Program and System Information Protocol appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Program and System Information Protocol in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Program and System Information Protocol is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics ATSC, Digital television, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Program and System Information Protocol outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Program and System Information Protocol in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Program and System Information Protocol means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Program and System Information Protocol out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Program and System Information Protocol in simple terms?

Why does Program and System Information Protocol matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Program and System Information Protocol?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Program and System Information Protocol.