Guide information for OTA Channels on Hopper

[soccer_mom]

Tried to look up this and couldn't find anything elsewhere on the forums. Installed an external OTA tuner with my hopper recently and am excited to get HD versions of our locals since we live in the Lima, OH area and do not get HD versions of those channels yet. However I have a couple of issues if anyone has experience with them.

1) For some of the channels that are coming in, the hopper is brining in program guide information, but for the main networks, this is not the case (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX)--makes trying to set timers for shows on these a nightmare because they're all manual timers. Any way to get this information in the guide? I'm hooked to the internet, so I figure this information is available to anybody through the correct site.

2) It seems that if the Hopper can't recognize the program information, the Hopper is calling for me to put in our PIN every time we want to watch that channel, which is a giant pain in the butt...is there anywhere to change this option?

3) I thought I read on the uplink forum that the Lima channels have been uploaded recently and were available, I talked to DISH right after and they told me otherwise. I'm on the opposite arc as what is needed, but DISH told me that they weren't available for anyone. Is anyone on the forums now from the area that are actually watching these through DISH??

THANKS in advance!

 

[foghorn2]

I have yet to figure out how to watch the OTA channels without having to enter the PG pin unless you disable parental controls altogether. Every OTA channel without guide info comes up Adults Only, one can only wish...

 

[Rangers484]

You can check a few settings.

Do you have any parental controls set? Make sure you did not lock lock any channels. Can you see the OTA channels in the guide? If not you may have hidden them and when you select them you have to enter your pin.

 

[Hall]

1) Give it at least 24 hours for the guide to fully populate the data for these newly added OTA stations

2) You likely have parental controls enabled, yes ? Without the guide data, those shows are flagged as "NR" and your parental control setting is kicking in. Either a) disable parental controls or b) wait for the guide data to fill in.

3) What is shown here in the uplink reports means nothing to the phone reps at Dish. In fact, just as you've seen, it leads to "misinformation". I recall that it was suggested to you that those HD locals will be turned on at anytime or they'll be on soon. Officially, and this is what the reps at Dish go by, they are not on NOW and anything else is speculation. To clarify, channels can be uplinked and marked "unavailable" and that's (most likely) the case with Lima's locals. Dish may be testing them ? When a deal is reached, Dish will flip a switch making them "available".

 

[KAB]

Ditto the 24 hrs.

 

[soccer_mom]

Re: program info. I've had it hooked up for about a week now. So the 24 hours isn't the problem. I do see program info for some channels, just not the ones I want.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using SatelliteGuys mobile app

 

[Hall]

Since Dish only carries Lima's SD channels, it appears that the channel re-mapping is only carried over from the HD channel's guide info.

 

[Hall]

The HD channels for Lima were added (but not available) here:

9/11/2013 6:17pm - Uplink Activity Report - 27 changes
SatelliteGuys.US DishNetwork Uplink Activity Report - 9/11/2013 6:17pm - 27 changes

6312(18) - WOHL [MPEG4 HD] added to Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-ABC,) (NA)
6313(38) - WOHLD [MPEG4 HD] added to Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-CBS,) (NA)
6314(8) - WLIO [MPEG4 HD] added to Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-NBC,) (NA)
6315(25) - WLIOD [MPEG4 HD] added to Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-FOX,) (NA)
6316(44) - WTLW [MPEG4 HD] added to Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-IND,) (NA)
6317(27) - WBGU [MPEG4 HD] added to Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam (Mkt:Lima, OH-Bowling Green, OH-PBS,) (NA)

Later, they were changed to "Available":

10/9/2013 3:32pm - Uplink Activity Report - 53 changes
SatelliteGuys.US DishNetwork Uplink Activity Report - 10/9/2013 3:32pm - 53 changes

6312(18) - WOHL [MPEG4 HD] - Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam changed to Available (H) (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-ABC,)
6313(38) - WOHLD [MPEG4 HD] - Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam changed to Available (H) (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-CBS,)
6314(8) - WLIO [MPEG4 HD] - Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam changed to Available (H) (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-NBC,)
6315(25) - WLIOD [MPEG4 HD] - Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam changed to Available (H) (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-FOX,)
6316(44) - WTLW [MPEG4 HD] - Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam changed to Available (H) (Mkt:Lima, OH-Lima, OH-IND,)
6317(27) - WBGU [MPEG4 HD] - Quetzsat1 77W TP 09 ConUS beam changed to Available (H) (Mkt:Lima, OH-Bowling Green, OH-PBS,)

You already know this though as I see you were posting in that thread You need to Dish to swap your dish out for the Eastern Arc. DO NOT let them charge you for it. The fact that you did a Dish Mover on 10/14, AFTER these channels were turned on, is sad that they didn't do it then !

Dish's website does not indicate that Lima's HD locals are available though. I'm guessing the locals are NOT supposed to be on yet. They're marked available but officially no one in the Lima market will see them because they will all (officially) be pointing at western arc. Also, their "system" says the channels aren't available, therefore no CSR can turn them on for customers.

 

[soccer_mom]

@ Hall: So if I'm understanding you correctly, if I had the HD channels and was using the OTA tuner to bring in the SD channels, no problem. But because it's the other way around (arguably, the only real reason someone would do this, unless you're going to a different area) I still can't get the channel guide info.

So the "availability" flag is kind of a misnomer there becuase even though they're available, no one can turn them on??

Argh. This never would've been a problem if I was allowed to keep my Toledo channels. I'm trying to be a nice guy and do this right, but it may force me to "move" sometime here in the near future.

 

[Hall]

I am apparently mistaken about the turning them on part. It must be pretty much automatic. Your problem, and also for everyone else in the Lima market, is that your dish is pointed in the wrong direction to receive them. In theory, you could rotate your dish to aim the right way and see if they show up. You likely can't leave it that way though as the other (2) LNBs aren't configured properly. I think the LNB arrangement differs between EA and WA dishes.

The way it seems to work - no one outside of Dish knows this for a fact - is that Dish takes the satellite-delivered HD channel and copies (industry term is "re-mapping", I believe) the guide data to the corresponding "-1" channel (the OTA channel). Because you don't receive that satellite-delivered HD channel, there's nothing to copy. "Moving" back to Toledo won't help unless you can pick up Toledo's locals via your antenna.

Just for reference, I live in the Dayton market and have a Hopper with OTA module. I also get Dayton's channels in HD via Dish so that re-mapping option is available. Where I live, I can also pick up Cincinnati's OTA channels (at least the UHF ones). The Cincinnati OTA channels show up in my guide and also show guide data ! It does this because Dish does offer Cincy's locals in HD but doesn't cross-check that I don't pay for Cincy channels.