Does the new PSIP requirements from FCC affect the 6000?

[Stacy A]

I have a Dish 6000. Recently, one of our local digital stations went black. My father-in-law next door has an 811, as well as a Zenith STB and the digital station in question did not go black for him.

I have since found out that the particular digital station in question updated its PSIP information to adhere to some new FCC requirements or requests, and, at the same time they began inserting program guide information beyond the channel number and "local programming".

Others in our area on our local list serve with DirectTV tuners have simply had to do a re-scan, but had to change an option in their tuner that had to do with off air guide info. They have been able to receive the channel after doing that. I have yet to try deleting the channel from my digital channel list and re-scanning so I don't know if it will work or not.

My question is...Does anyone know of this type of situation and if so, has it been a problem for the 6000?

Thanks,

 

[gpflepsen]

The 6000 should handle the change in PSIP stream. Actually, it probably doesn't even use much of it other than the station identifier.

Delete, rescan then reboot if that doesn't work. The change in PSIP has it confused.

 

[noremac]

The 6000 *is* more susceptible to incorrect PSIP data than other STBs. For example, here in WashDC, FOX 5 (RF 36) is transmitting PSIP with a minor error. Most STBs ignore it, but the 6000 is befuddled. It will eventually tune the station, but "forgets" what channel it is on, etc.

 

[boy921]

My question is...Does anyone know of this type of situation and if so, has it been a problem for the 6000?

Thanks,

My 6000 works better than my 921's when there are problems with PSIP or a lack of PSIP. I don't know if I'm right about this, but I think the OTA tuner (depending on when it was manufactured) my be better when it comes to encryption issues as compared to more recent OTA tuners that are more sensitive to encriptinon stuff. I wonder if E* is going to make any updates for the 6000 when it comes to OTA reception? It would be nice to see OTA data in the EPG.

 

[Stacy A]

Update: Yesterday evening I deleted the digital channel from the "local channel list" (menu >6>1>5, I think) and then chose "Add Digital Channel". After punching in "17" (for the digital station) it showed ~87% signal strength being received from that particular channel. However, it did not "identify" the channel as either 17 or 12 (it's analog re-mapped channel). The channel: slot just stayed blank. I saved it and exited. Guess what? The entire channel is now completely gone from my guide and I can't get it back. So, the PSIP changes effectively prevent my receiver from getting their signal. I wonder if that's what they really want?

 

[Barry Erick]

Make sure to let the station know. They may think the PSIP changes are working. As
broadcasters, we receive very little information from the Encoder manufactures (such as Tangberg) to program these things. Right now I had to turn off our two digital transmitters to send the encoders to Tangberg to add the new PSIP hardware and in a day or two, the fun begins to program that.

 

[Stacy A]

I e-mailed the station's engineer with the information. Here is what he wrote back within a few minutes:

Our signal is now being broadcast on program 3 per FCC compliance. Try to reacquire the signal and if that does not work try unplugging your receiver for 10 minutes and then require and it should work.

I have not tried unplugging the 6000 and giving it a few minutes before rebooting. Maybe that will help. I'll let you guys know, if you want.

 

[OKCrew]

Before unplugging, try this...

Delete the stations analog entry as well as the digital. Save and then add the digital back and save. If that takes, you can then add the analog back and save. This was a psip bug workaround I used to have to do for one of my locals when they messed with psip.

 

[Stacy A]

Before unplugging, try this...

Delete the stations analog entry as well as the digital. Save and then add the digital back and save. If that takes, you can then add the analog back and save. This was a psip bug workaround I used to have to do for one of my locals when they messed with psip.

Too late! I did the unplug and wait thing last night. No luck. I will try deleting the analog station and adding the digital. I don't see how the analog one would have anything to do with the digital, but at this point I'm game for anything.

I'm so p.o.'d at Dish I would like to drop them, but can't for another year. I really don't won't to have to get an 811 or 921. I may just go buy a new STB and rely on it for the OTA stuff, because apparently the Dish 6000 is the only receiver unable to adequately handle this PSIP issue.

 

[Cyclone]

Keep in mind that its your station which has the PSIP set incorrectly. Your Dish 6000 is working just fine for other stations which are configured properly. Dish Network can't try to code "work arounds" for all improperly set PSIP configs.

 

[Stacy A]

Keep in mind that its your station which has the PSIP set incorrectly. Your Dish 6000 is working just fine for other stations which are configured properly. Dish Network can't try to code "work arounds" for all improperly set PSIP configs.

That, I am very much aware of. I'm just afraid that the engineer at the station is just going to write it off as an older receiver that can't support the latest, rather than admit that they need to adjust their PSIP. Also, since there are at least three other people in my area that experiened an issue but were able to resolve it on an 811, a 921, and a Zenith OTA STB, it just looks like I'm th only one with a problem.

I did contact the engineer today and let him know his fix didn't work. He wrote back and said to give him a day or two, that he was working on another possible solution.

 

[noremac]

Stacy-

There are lots of potential PSIP problems that the 6000 can trip over. You may want to check with your local HDTV area forum on AVS. If any members there happen to have a MyHD card/HDTV2MPEG2, they can further investigate the PSIP stream and possibly give you some ammo to take back to your local station engineer.

Here is an example of such information from AVS member nabsltd regarding a local station in my area that the 6000 hates!!!:

WTTG PSIP info details
I examined my Super Bowl recording tonight, and I think I see some reasons why people are having PSIP and mapping problems. There are four sub-channels in the main table (PAT or PMT...I can never remember which), but only the "main" one has enough in the other tables to allow it to be recognized by the MyHD card (which is notoriously good at these things). HDTV2MPEG2 says that there are the following sub-channels:



code:
------------------------------------
Name video PID audio PID
WTTG-DT 5.1 0x21 0x24
WTTG-DT 5.1 0x21 0x100
WTTG-DT 5.1 0x21 0x101
WTTG-DT 5.1 0x21 0x104
------------------------------------
There are no audio tracks to go with the last 3 sub-channels.

They are also messing up the header that tells the bit rate. The actual rate for the channel is 14.09Mbps, but the header says 19.00 Mbps.

 

[noremac]

I really don't won't to have to get an 811 or 921. I may just go buy a new STB and rely on it for the OTA stuff, because apparently the Dish 6000 is the only receiver unable to adequately handle this PSIP issue.

Another option for you is to buy an 811 on EBay, and sell your 6000 there also. The buy/sell prices are about the same these days ($200 give or take), so there is almost no net cost to do this.

 

[JohnC]

6000 PSIP problem

I had a similar problem with the Fox Atlanta HD station when they changed their PSIP in late January. The station made a minor error when they changed the PSIP. Several of us 6000 users and one person with a computer HD tuner posted the problem on the Atlanta Yahoo ahdtv users group and the Fox engineer quickly found the error and corrected it. For the other stations that changed the PSIP, I simply had to delete the old entry, go to setup, add the DTV station, and save it. I would keep the station informed of their problem until they fixed it.

 

[Stacy A]

The engineer got it fixed. I was able to add the station back in this weekend. I wish I knew exactly what had happened, but it doesn't matter now. I guess the 6000, as an older piece of technology, is just more sensitive to these things.