DIRECTV Transponder Map ~ Data 1/15/2025

[Tom Speer]

This thread is specifically about the latest Transponder map in post #1 , significant changes to how channels are delivered by the satellites, and significant changes to the channels available. The changes reported by the weekly analysis are there to help understand the aforementioned changes. We have tried to be tolerant of some digressions from this goal, but there have been far too many off-topic posts. I am considering removing changes to logoids and TMSIDs from the weekly comparison, simply because it has created too much noise in this thread.

 

[raoul5788]

Isn't noise in a thread a good thing? I don't think anybody would like a dead thread with nothing going on!

We, the staff, want ON TOPIC posts.

 

[KyL416]

SD and HD versions of 9550 PrimeTNF are now in the guide with Prime's Colts @ Eagles preseason game this Thursday, as of now 9526 is still in the guide also showing the game, but as previously mentioned 9526 and 9527 will be repurposed for an expanded ESPN+ for Business in September.

 

[KyL416]

CINEHD 158 returned, now pointing to the same TID/PID that has CINEHD 161, however the listings for 158 don't begin until next Tuesday when 161 just shows To Be Announced, so it's a prep for a channel number change.

CINEHD 161 was removed today

 

[doctor J]

DirecTV Satellite Transponder Updates for Aug 23 2023

Comparison of Transponder Data for Aug 23 2023 vs Aug 16 2023:


No changes in system tables for any transponder tuning parameters.

Changes to the use of defined transponders:


1 Previously unused Transponder with current APG records::
Net 14 TID 188 Beam A4BC is a Spot Beam Transponder on T12@103s, TPN 21

Stream (PID) counts:

LIVE Streams​	National​		Spot Beams​
	Count​	Change​	Count​	Change​
4K​	4​	​	​	​
HD​	273​	​	1289​	​
SD mpeg4​	140​	​	184​	​
SD mpeg2​	376​	-1​	410​	​
RB​	​	​	​	​
Audio​	89​	​	​	​
Push​	31​	​	​	​
Slate​	21​	​	1​	​
​

TEST Streams​	National​		Spot Beams​
	Count​	Change​	Count​	Change​
4K​	​	​	​	​
HD​	​	​	​	​
SD mpeg4​	​	​	​	​
SD mpeg2​	​	​	​	​
RB​	​	​	​	​
Engr Work​	50​	2​	2​	2​
​

The PID count Excel workbook provides much more count detail.

Newly updated tables of Streams on each transponder are available in the DataDigesters TPN Grids

More details of changes in individual channels will follow in the Weekly Analysis
and Gary Toma's Domestic TPN Map Excel files
Weekly Analysis soon

 

[doctor J]

Weekly Analysis for 8/23/2023:

 

[KyL416]

In addition to the previously mentioned changes over the week

More NFL Sunday Ticket for Business and US Open prep

9755 SPORTS (Sports Pack Offer) has been replaced by 9752 *OFFER (Ultimate Package Offer)

Some more targetted tests in the 9000s
Testing records for WJZ Baltimore and KTVT Dallas on the Medford OR spotbeam transponder that has no chance of hitting either DMA

Bally Sports Extra Arizona was put into test mode and hidden now that the only team that it will have is the Coyotes, who might end up relocating to a different city in a few years.

Passing along Gracenote's removal of the no longer existing WJLPD10 and WZMEDT4 now that Weigel finally provided them updated details of their subchannels after they purchased those NYC area stations.

 

[harshness]

Speaking of minutiae, what's up with the OTA mapping to non-existent RF TV channels? The spreadsheet shows 1,034 channels that are mapped to RF TV channels from 38 to 58, all of which were surrendered in recent FCC repacks.

How does the OTA mapping work these days? I recall some accommodations were made a while back but I don't understand how that works.

My search was prompted by trying to figure out why subscribers weren't able to see some channels from their Nexstar-owned stations.

 

[KyL416]

They can do OTA matching on Major-Minor or RF-Minor, and about 2 years ago they reintroduced the ability to rescan for channels not in the database to Hx2x's and Genies.

The OTA database was frozen in time after the Gracenote/TMSIDs hit the magic 65535 (0xffff) value. A few years ago they started an expansion market by market where they used the gaps to gave the ones with TMSIDs higher than 65535 fake values, but the result is the stations with real TMSID's below 65535 are stuck in their 2010 state, while those with fake ones are passing along RF, Callsign, network and virtual number updates as Gracenote makes them.

i.e.2 weeks ago Philly launched ATSC 3.0 with WPSG's RF 33 as the host. CBS was one of the last broadcast groups to add subchannels, so only 57.1 WPSGDT (34628) has a TMSID below 65535, their subchannels have real TMSIDs in the 100000+ range, so they got RF number updates to reflect their new ATSC 1.0 hosts. Even though WPSGDT still says their pre-repack RF 32, I was able to rerun the antenna setup which automatically mapped 57.1 WPSGDT to its new ATSC 1.0 host KYW's RF 30. WPSG didn't add 57.5 until after the expansion hit Philly so it didn't make the cut, but that shows up via WPVI's RF 6 signal with its PSIP label "CIRCLE" and generic "Regular Schedule" listings.

 

[lordodogg]

about 2 years ago they reintroduced the ability to rescan for channels not in the database to Hx2x's and Genies.

When was the rescan feature first introduced then discontinued before it was introduced again? I’m guessing first introduced in 2008 when the AM21 came out, then discontinued around 2016?

 

[harshness]

Here's an example that I ran across recently:

WIVBDT​	4.1​	OTA​	39​	27​	14201​	CBS Affiliate WIVBDT (WIVB-DT) from Buffalo, NY​
WNLODT3​	4.1​	OTA​	36​	27​	14201​	CBS Affiliate WNLODT3 (WNLO-DT3) from Buffalo, NY​
WIVBDT4​	4.2​	OTA​	36​	27​	14201​	IND WIVBDT4 (WIVB-DT4) from Buffalo, NY​
WNLODT4​	4.2​	OTA​	36​	27​	14201​	IND WNLODT4 (WNLO-DT4) from Buffalo, NY​

Clearly, the affiliations of the one of the stations wrong as is the RF channel number for WIBVDT.

RF36.1 is 4.1 (WIVB CBS)
RF36.2 is 4.2 (WIVB QVC)
RF36.3 is 23.1 (WNLO CW)
RF36.4 is 23.2 (WNLO Rewind)
RF36.5 is 49.4 (WNYO Get TV)

This begs the question of how the connection is made between the "display channel", the RF TV channel and the call letters (or is the RF channel being summarily ignored since hundreds of them are obviously wrong)?

The subscriber is being denied access to CBS (a casualty of the Nexstar dispute) because some other OTA channel (presumably CW) is taking its place.

 

[KyL416]

Even though 4.1 says WNLODT3 (real TMSID 108044), the listings Gracenote is providing is of CBS WIVB. Kind of complicated, but basically Gracenote screwed up some of the early spectrum shares by creating duplicate 4.x WNLODTx entries when the station told them that they are now hosting 4.1 and 4.2. They did the same thing in Philly where they created duplicate 65.x WPHLDTx entries when WPHL's RF 17 signal started hosting WUVP.

4.1 WIVBDT and WNLODT3 have WIVB/CBS's schedule
4.2 WIVBDT4 and WNLODT4 have QVC's schedule
23.1 WNLODT has WNLO/CW's schedule
23.2 WNLODT2 has Rewind's schedule
49.4 WNYODT4 has GetTV's schedule

WNYO never notified Gracenote that they're the ATSC 3.0 host, so the upstream Gracenote data still has RF 16 for all of their subchannels instead of the RF numbers of their ATSC 1.0 hosts, which got passed along to the entries for WNYODT3 (Real TMSID 97216) and WNYODT4 (Real TMSID 98550). The OTA database still lists RF 49 for WNYODT (44668) and WNYODT2 (44670), RF 39 for WIVBDT (24051) and RF 32 for WNLODT (43430) and WNLODT2 (43432) because they have real TMSID's below 65535.

 

[harshness]

Even though 4.1 says WNLODT3 (real TMSID 108044), the listings Gracenote is providing is of CBS WIVB.

I'm told that the guide data on the receiver is for CBS. The channel tuned when you go to channel 4.1 is not CBS.

If they're using the TMSID as the key to make the connection, it apparently isn't working.

 

[KyL416]

The reintroduction of scanning came after Buffalo had their repack, so they might have to reset their OTA settings, do a double reboot to clear out any pre-repack mappings that might still be stored, and then run OTA setup again to store the correct major-minor -> RF-SID mappings from the station's virtual channel table.

Like where I am, I can pickup the following stations OTA:
RF 2 2.x WDPNDT (primary still listed as KJWPDT)
RF 6 shared by 6.x WPVIDT and WPSGDT's 57.4 and 57.5
RF 9 shared by 60.x WBPHDT, 39.x WLVTDT, 69.x WFMZDT and 35.x WPPTDT (still listed as WYBEDT)
RF 11 28.x WBREDT
RF 12 22.x WYOUDT
RF 17 shared by 17.x WPHLDT and 65.x WUVPDT
RF 21 shared by 16.x WNEPDT and 44.x WVIADT
RF 22 56.x WOLFDT
RF 28 shared by 10.x WCAUDT and 62.x WWSIDT
RF 30 shared by 3.x KYWDT and 57.1 WPSGDT

With my primary set to my zip code and my secondary set to a Philly zip code, I have no problem matching all the OTA database entries to their correct stations, even though the stations with real TMSID's lower than 65535 still have their pre-repack RF numbers in the database

 

[KyL416]

A NFL Redzone Authorization Channel for business subscribers was added to channel 9547, it will be repurposing CINE 174 starting on 9/1

 

[Tom Speer]

As a result of this thread about SD locals on 119, I have discovered that D8@119 tpn 32 is not carrying any A/V streams, or any other PIDS, other than PID 0000. It is a perfectly modulated mux stream consisting of all null packets. That is a problem at the LABC.. The local SD channels are still in the APG.

 

[PioneerDJ]

The Sunday Ticket business channels 9552-9567 are officially up in the guide with the correct logo asset

 

[cpalmer2k]

Any indications from the streams as to whether we're going to see a Hurricane/Severe Weather Channel like the old days for the impending Hurricane?

 

[KyL416]

Sadly now that they killed off the old online guide API, we won't get an advanced indicator anymore until they appear in the guide on our receivers or DIRECTV makes an announcement via social media or their insider website. The new streaming centric guide has no ties to the APG data, so even if they go live later tonight, they likely won't appear in the online guide at all.

It's heading for the Gainesville DMA which is basically a local news desert besides the Gray owned ABC affiliate. Sinclair controls their NBC and CBS affiliates who dumped local Gainesville news last year in favor of The National Desk, while Ocala's FOX O&O just simulcasts Orlando's newscasts with no Gainesville specific content. Odds are the Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee and Jacksonville stations will be covering the impact for their viewing areas.

 

[Tom Speer]

Channel 361.1 is in test for the Severe weather mix, and 361.2 is in test for the severe weather channel.