Found the following response to a question about channels and would like to ask a question related to it: 'Cox does not provide a listing of the Clear QAM Digital channels. There are only a handful anyway and Cox is constantly changing the channel numbers. Without an HD STB or Retail CableCARD device all you get are the Local HD channels, available Analog, and a few Clear QAM Digital' OK, I would like to know why COX does not publish a list of channels that clearly states which ones require cable box or CableCard device and which ones don't? It is also interesting that to get most cable services requires some type of decryption device which usually have HDMI (or other non-coax) connection to display device (TV or monitor).
So the TVs we buy have television tuning circuits that we don't use (if using the HDMI input). Comparable computer monitors could be used as display (HDMI-DVI converters are cheap) but on average cost more. What is wrong with this picture? Honda600: 'OK, I would like to know why COX does not publish a list of channels that clearly states which ones require cable box or CableCard device and which ones don't?' Go to making sure your location is correctly set. The PDF version is easier.
Program Guide For Direct Tv
Look at the little notations by each channel, and the 'footnote' explanation at the bottom of the page. The equipment requirements are listed. Those channels without notation are analog and need no extra equipment. I didn't say that the ClearQAM channel number was listed (although in my market they are usually the same as the STB channel number. For example, KFMB-DT is 1008 on the STB and 1008 on ClearQAM.) What I said was the little symbols next to the channel denote what, if any, extra equipment was needed.
The channels that you listed had either a triangle or Circle, or both, meaning they need additional equipment, which means that they aren't ClearQAM at all. What makes you think that they are ClearQAM? This was not a trick question, but an exercise showing that Cox does not provide a Channel Listing for the Clear-QAM Channels YES every Channel I listed has a notation of a Triangle, that tells you it is a Clear-QAM, just not where to find it.
For the Phoenix market all Local HD and Local SD sub-channels are mapped to their OTA channel number. Just a few Examples: 8-1 KAET – PBS HD 8-2 KAET – PBS Life SD Sub Channel 10-1 KSAZ – FOX HD 51-1 KPPX — ION HD But the Additional available Clear-QAMs are apparently random and channel assignments do change Just a few Examples: 79-3 WGN HD 110-62 The Pentagon Channel It would be nice and very easy if Cox would just provide the Channel number listings for Clear-QAM tuners. SiliconDust used to provide Channel Listings for the Clear-QAM Channels for every major market, and provider, but they have stopped and now only provide the OTA Channels.
It actually does do an automatic background scan of digital channels (Clear-QAM, and ATSC.) I haven't seen MC actually lose a Guide listing due to it; however, I have seen it frell up (sometimes so seriously, that I had to re-run TV Setup to fix it) my QAM channel mappings (thank you, BHN, for wonky PSIP data!) As such, I have that function disabled on both of my machines. To disable the background channel scanner: Open Regedit. Go to HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Media Center Service BackgroundScanner. You may or may not see a value there named PeriodicScanEnabled (if it's not there, create it (as a DWORD value) in that folder), and set the ValueData to 0. (for future reference: 0= disabled; 1= enabled.) Close Regedit, and reboot. Standard warning: incorrect editing of the Registry can have far-reaching (and sometimes catastrophic) consequences, and may require reinstalling Windows to correct. Proceed at your own risk!
Required warning on the BackgroundChannelScanner: you cannot run TV Setup (when you're using digital (Clear-QAM and/or ATSC) tuners with this service disabled. If it is disabled, TV Setup will fail (hard-lock) on the 'scan for additional channels you may receive' portion of setup. If you need to re-run TV Setup, you must first enable the service. If this fixes your issue, great. If it doesn't, you can always re-enable the service (just set it to 1), and we can try something else. HTH, Chris MS-MVP (Media Center) If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the 'Mark as Answer' or 'Helpful' button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.
If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the 'Mark as Answer' or 'Helpful' button.
Quote from jstillusion: oops almost forgot That's one of the links I was looking for thank you. I also found another guide which seemed to help greatly. It turns out even though the channels weren't displayed, my tuner DID find them.
I guess it had something to do with not being able to assign them a spot for the guide so I had to do that manually (example, Fox 24 was actually listed as 86.4 so I had to select that station, set it to recognize it as my local Fox station, and then change it to list as 24.1 in my guide). I now have most of my usual stations with a few bonuses. I'm just not sure what a couple of them are (118.1 is an automated info station and 37.1 has some religious show on right now). Also, I'm not getting all of the stations that are showing in the silicon listing (no 2.2, no 16s at all, and only one of the channel 18s listed). However I do get some other stations that I didn't notice before (WGN, CW, and some entertainment on demand station). Quote from irish713: Just learned about this ClearQAM stuff from one of the current FP deals.
Cursors. So am I understanding this correctly that I should be able to hook my TV up to our cable outlet and get certain channels even though I'm not a cable subscriber? And the tuners on the FP are for if I want to push those channels to a PC somewhere on the network? Depends on if they physically came out to disconnect you from the pole when you cancelled service. If you have cable internet but no cable tv, then you're probably good unless they added in a physical in-line filter. I slickdeals: $12: 10 (good!) DVDs $138: Zen X-Fi 32 gb $4: ToyStory 1&2 BR/DVD + 2x TS3 movie tix $45: 8 bags M&Ms+ 4Orville 6packs + 2 Redbox +3 blurays+ 2 DVDs+ 4 movie tix+ 1 Bisquick $262: 50' LED TV $281.99: mower+ 3 barstool+ 2 tailgate grill+ 6fertilizer+sawzall+4pillows+edger+swimsuit+2WiiU AfterglowPro +2sandals + sprinkler + 50' hose - SYWR One happy wife! Running video game deal list: $155 bought me 3DS: DKCR, ALBW, PkmnY, MarioGolf, Starfox, FE:A WiiU: NinLand, BatmanAC, AC4, W101, NG:RE, MK8, Pikmin 3, NSLU, 3DWorld, ZombiU.
I have WMC on Windows 7 Enterprise, with a Silicondust HDHomerun. Over the last couple of weeks I've spent a lot of time in the program guide, and I have a suggestion regarding channel mapping. I'm posting it here to get some community feedback, and learn whether there are any features I may have missed that accomplish some or all of what I'll discuss here.
Everyone who has set up digital cable using clear QAM sources on a PC has tried to deal with the hassle of setting up the guide. There are two primary problems encountered. The first is that QAM channel assignments map to virtual channel numbers, i.e. Channel 71-3 might be virtual channel 11.2 (WTXFDT on Comcast Digital Northwest - Port Murray), and neither 71-3 nor 11.2 reflect the actual position of the channel in the guide. The definitive guide that the service provider uses really is the modern equivalent of the well-known dial of yesteryear. The channel numbers in the guide are 'the channel number' for a given channel as far as the viewing public is concerned. An example of this is WABC in our area (NJ).
The HD feed is WABCDT on channel 23-1, virtual channel 7.1, guide number 231. The second is that the callsign which uniquely identifies the channel in the guide data is often not at all reflective of the channel's public brand. The most basic example of this is WABCDT, meaning WABC (Digital), which is known publicly as WABC HD. That one's pretty easy for an enthusiast, at least, to figure out. A less obvious example is NJ12NJ, which in our area is News 12 New Jersey.
A worse one is WPXNDT, which is ION Television HD. The average person trying to edit in the channels WMC missed during scan, or provide meaningful name for each channel, often has to crawl the Comcast and Zap2It sites trying to make sense of the callsigns. I recognize that short of regional databases, or getting the providers to open up their data formats more, this last problem is hard to solve, but I think it can be improved.
I would like to see some additional capabilities in the channel edit screen(s). Channels should be stored with a display name, callsign, channel number, and guide number. The virtual channel number is really pretty useless and misleading as an identifier. Being able to enter a guide number and tie it to a channel number and callsign would allow users to organize the channels to match the service provider listings. When, as often happens, the provider changes the channel assignment, the callsign and guide number provide a stable anchor. All that would be required is to locate the new channel assignment and edit it into the channel definition. The guide number, callsign, and display name would remain the same, and the channels position in the EPG would remain the same.
Ideally the service providers would lose their mistrust of the HTPC community and provide more clear channels, and more open guide and in-band data formats. Until (and if) that happens enthusiasts will need to manually fix these things up, and it can be a big chore. In our area WMC scans 44 clear channels, where there are actually 111 clear QAM channels available. It does not seem possible in the current version to edit those channels into a configuration that matches the service provider listings, no matter how much time you spend on it. To oh so much of that, I say 'Amen!' Several years of admin'ing a Media Center here at home make me agree with that. This, though: It's not so much a matter of cable providers providing more in-band data formats; rather, it's a matter of them respecting (and, in some cases, not stripping out) an already-existing standard: PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol.) It's an already-existing ATSC standard, and one that all broadcast stations must make use of.
It's what allows a TV (with an OTA antenna) to create its channel map, aligning an OTA station's DT channel and subchannels to its primary (analog (now mostly defunct, I know.)) channel. Problem: being an ATSC standard, most cable co's don't feel that they need to make use of it for their ClearQAM streams. Worse, some cable co's actually strip out the PSIP data for their rebroadcast of the local channels. SiliconDust did add a utility to their latest software package for the HDHR; but, I don't like it. Reason: running it re-maps my local channels from where I expect them to be in the Guide (e.g. WDIV-DT and DT2 being at 4.1 and 4.2) to where BH (TimeWarner MI) puts them in their digital listings (e.g. WDIV-DT at 204, WDIV-DT2 at 101.) To me, not convenient.
So much so, that, on my desktop (with one HVR-2250, and one ATI DCT), I combine the BH digital listings for my locals into the Clear-QAM listings (where they make sense to me), removing the BH listings for those channels from the Guide. That said, I'd love to be able to anchor some of the digital listings to their analog feeds in my Guide - so, I feel you on that. Examples for me: WADL is broadcast 38. However, BH puts the analog feed at 19.
Problem: since the broadcast channel is 38, the DT channels are (in my Guide) at 38.1-38.3. Repeat for my local CBS (broadcast 62, BH feed at 14; DT channel is at 62.1.) No way to relocate the DT channels to anchor them to the primary (analog) listing in the Guide. You want some painstaking 'fun'? BH makes the MusicChoice channels available in ClearQAM. I want them in my Guide (on the server), or not tying up my only DCT (on the desktop.) No PSIP data means that MC can't map them to a listing.
Add all of those (all 45 of them!) to the Guide. I have notes for those.:P If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the 'Mark as Answer' or 'Helpful' button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster. To oh so much of that, I say 'Amen!' Several years of admin'ing a Media Center here at home make me agree with that. This, though: It's not so much a matter of cable providers providing more in-band data formats; rather, it's a matter of them respecting (and, in some cases, not stripping out) an already-existing standard: PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol.) It's an already-existing ATSC standard, and one that all broadcast stations must make use of. It's what allows a TV (with an OTA antenna) to create its channel map, aligning an OTA station's DT channel and subchannels to its primary (analog (now mostly defunct, I know.)) channel.
Problem: being an ATSC standard, most cable co's don't feel that they need to make use of it for their ClearQAM streams. Worse, some cable co's actually strip out the PSIP data for their rebroadcast of the local channels. SiliconDust did add a utility to their latest software package for the HDHR; but, I don't like it. Reason: running it re-maps my local channels from where I expect them to be in the Guide (e.g.
WDIV-DT and DT2 being at 4.1 and 4.2) to where BH (TimeWarner MI) puts them in their digital listings (e.g. WDIV-DT at 204, WDIV-DT2 at 101.) To me, not convenient. So much so, that, on my desktop (with one HVR-2250, and one ATI DCT), I combine the BH digital listings for my locals into the Clear-QAM listings (where they make sense to me), removing the BH listings for those channels from the Guide. That said, I'd love to be able to anchor some of the digital listings to their analog feeds in my Guide - so, I feel you on that. Examples for me: WADL is broadcast 38. However, BH puts the analog feed at 19. Problem: since the broadcast channel is 38, the DT channels are (in my Guide) at 38.1-38.3.
Qam Program Guide
Repeat for my local CBS (broadcast 62, BH feed at 14; DT channel is at 62.1.) No way to relocate the DT channels to anchor them to the primary (analog) listing in the Guide. You want some painstaking 'fun'? BH makes the MusicChoice channels available in ClearQAM. I want them in my Guide (on the server), or not tying up my only DCT (on the desktop.) No PSIP data means that MC can't map them to a listing. Add all of those (all 45 of them!) to the Guide. I have notes for those.:P If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the 'Mark as Answer' or 'Helpful' button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.
Hi again, Mark. I did a little experimentation on my main MC box today (I was adding my 3rd HDHR as an ATSC tuner), and found a new trick: You can relocate a channel in the Guide.:D I hadn't tried it before, as I always remembered what happened if you did that in MCE2k5 - there, changing the channel# really did change the (physical) channel number. No more of that BS. When you're in Edit Channels, simply enter the display number that you'd like the channel to have, and hit Save. It won't change the physical channel number - only the Guide number is altered.
Qvc
Now, all of my local DT channels are anchored off of their cable-co analogs. Much cleaner, and much more logical.Chris If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the 'Mark as Answer' or 'Helpful' button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.