Hey Tony, I have a couple for you to check. WDBB-17 in Bessemer, Al is a satellite of WTTO-CW Birmingham. Is there any way that the guide data could be reflected to show the WTTO schedule on WDBB from OTA. Also in the Birmingham DMA, WCFT-ABC 33 (ABC3340 from the PSIP data) is the same as WJSU-ABC Birmingham/Anniston. These stations from OTA only show "digital service" in the guide. Could you see about this please.
As far as the AL locals and the availability to splice the guide information... I would have to head to the lab again (YAY, another experiment!).
Tony, I'd like to second this one. I started a thread in the main forum:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/244023-missing-ota-guide-data.html I'll provide some more details:
The Birmingham DMA is pretty large, geographically. We have several stations that are transmitted on two channels. The three examples are:
WTTO 21 (Main channel) and WDBB 17 (satellite) (CW Network)
WBIQ 10 (Main channel) and WCIQ 7 (satellite) (PBS-Alabama public television)
WBMA-LP 58 (Main channel) and WCFT 33 & WJSU 40 (satellites) (ABC)
In each case, the satellite stations carry *exactly* the same video feed as the main station. They are completely interchangeable, and in a lot of cases they are if you are a cable subscriber. Even on DBS, Dish uses 40 for ABC and DirecTV uses 33. And when I say one uses 40 and one uses 33, I would bet a paycheck that they use the same video feed and arbitrarily picked a channel number to use.
The problem is with OTA data. Since Dish uses channel 10, 21, and 40, I believe they only map those channels' guide data to their OTA counterparts. When I scan in channel 7 and 33, I get "Digital Service". I don't get a signal for 17, but I assume it's the same.
The issue with this setup is that since the DMA is so large, depending on where one lives, you might not be able to get the channel that has guide data. What Dish needs to do is add channels 7, 17, and 33 and simply link them to the exact same guide data for 10, 21, and 40 respectively. I don't know if mapdowns are possible with the OTA-only guide data, but that's all it should take. The guide data NEVER differs between the main stations and their satellites. PLEASE pass this along to someone in engineering or whatever department handles this stuff. It would make my life and I think bobvick's life much easier.