HD490 Smart Encoder
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Appendix C: Grand Alliance Interface Protocol
The following table describes the Data Packet Structure used by EEG
equipment to send caption data to Grand Alliance protocol ATSC
encoders. This protocol has been proven compatible with encoders from
all major manufacturers supporting GA protocol.
ASCII SOH, start of packet
ASCII “1”, NTSC field 1 data
ASCII “2”, NTSC field 2 data
Packet size, in bytes, including header
and trailer bytes.
CEA-708 data bytes.
1 byte checksum. The sum of all bytes
in the packet must be zero, modulo
1. The maximum packet size is 128 (0x80).
Notes:
2. Because the packet size (Count) includes the header and trailer bytes,
the minimum valid count is 5. This corresponds to a packet with zero
data bytes.
3. This packet structure is applied only to the data for the closed caption
serial stream input to the ATSC encoder. Outgoing bytes in the
ATSC stream follow the CEA-708B standard.