Channel numbers

[jb1945]

Had Dish installed yesterday: Dish 1000, VIP 622 & Bronze with locals. I have a lot yet to learn on operating the 622 but would appreciate if someone can explain the multiple channel listings. For example, local channel 3 is on number 003-00, 6397 and 8632. The first two are listed as HD, 8632 is not. Thanks.

 

[SmityWhity]

I may have it ass-backwards, or back-asswards, but the 6397 is the HD version and the 8632 is the SD version of your local channel 3.

The channel 003-00 doesn't exist, but is just a re-mapping of either 6397 or 8632 to its actual Over-the-Air channel number (3). I believe all new receivers can do this, but some earlier models will not.

Okay, which channel is mapped to number 3? In the menu, I believe under HDTV Preferences you can select if HD channels take precedence over SD channels or not. Since your 003-00 is showing HD, you must have local channels set for HDTV when available. You can also select that your 622 use regular Over-The-Air reception instead of mapping 6397 or 8632. I haven't tried this since I am unable to pick up any local channels here.

So if you do a search for a television program that happens to be on Channel 3, it will show up 3 times, once as 003-00, 6397, and 8632. And if channel 3 was also a SuperStation, then it would be listed 1 or more additional times, depending on how many channels you were picking it up on. There may be a way around this, but it hasn't bothered me that much.

 

[garys]

The sd and HD channels are only uplinked once, any duplication is the channel being mirrored to make it easier to find. They are not really taking up anymore bandwidth. Also having sd and HD versions of the same channel is not really a bad idea as much of the programing on local networks is sd and is not upconverted and usually tooks better by watching the sd supplied channel than by watching the sd program via the HD channel (the program winds up looking washed out and grainy).