Portsdown Test Cards

Introduction

All versions of the Portsdown Transmitter have a Test Card transmit function; this is based on the Test Card F. The Portsdown 4 has the additional capability to select one of 12 Test Cards for use.

Test Card Selection

On Menu 3, there is a "Select Test Card" Button. This brings up a screen with 12 available Test Cards. Five of these are in-built cards, but 7 are easily customised for individual use. The in-built cards are shown here:

Widescreen versions of these cards are also included. These can be transmitted by slecting Format: 16:9 or 720p (rather than 4:3) on Menu 1.

Callsign Caption

The Callsign caption is automatically displayed on Test Card F, but is turned off for the other cards as it is unlikely to be in the right position, or rendered at the correct size. The Caption can be turned on or off from the Test Card menu, or from the button on Menu 1.

Custom Test Cards

Provision has been made to install 7 custom Test Cards. However, the Portsdown stores 3 versions of each card:

• A 4:3 version which is a .jpg file of 720x576 pixels.
• A 16:9 version which is a .jpg file of 1024x576 pixels
• A 720p version which is a .jpg file of 1280x720 pixels

If only one of these files is uploaded, the uploaded Test card will only be available in the uploaded definition.

The custom files need to be uploaded to the /home/pi/rpidatv/scripts/images folder. The basic file name used for the 4:3 card should be appended with 16w for the 16:9 card, and with w for the 720p card. The basic filename (without the .jpg extension) should be written into the testcard_config.txt file. A suitable title for the Touchscreen button can also be added.

Custom Test Cards are preserved during software updates.