'Off Air' at 3 a.m. affecting HD channels?

[carpexnoctem]

I'm not certain if this is a Hopper specific issue but I have two HWS and since last week it has been affecting both. I'm also not sure if this is a Dish issue or the program guide supplier, Tribune Media Services, is to blame, but the behavior it causes seems to tie-in to the receiver signal as well. I can't get any verification if others are having these issues. Okay, so since last week I've witnessed that when 3 a.m. happens, the programming listed in the Guide for certain HD channels becomes changed to 'Off Air' for a half-hour and is assigned a related "Off The Air" image. The problem is this is happening to channels which do not go off the air, specifically Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block from 3-3:30 which meant Space Ghost Coast to Coast at 3 and Sealab 2021 were renamed to 'Off Air' and assigned corresponding images replacing the actual show image. The show was still airing and there to be viewed, yet the recordings saved named 'Off Air' with the "Off The Air" image. I had these shows as timer events along with Full Throttle Saloon at 3 a.m. on TruTV and it also changed to 'Off Air' and recorded the hour as such. Furthermore some movies on Sony Movie Channel and Indie and Encore also changed to 'Off Air' once they hit the 3 a.m. mark. As if this isn't enough of an annoyance, on Monday morning this week I observed the channels which become designated as 'Off Air' actually being black screened when I try to tune to them. Whenever I try to call in to Dish about the issue as it was happening, the 1-800-333-DISH line was busy. When I've called in later to report the issue, often I'm told this is related to the update process because the Hopper is set to power down at 3 a.m. (which I know is incorrect because the process can begin around 1:30 a.m. among other reasons and it doesn't rename the Guide!). If it isn't that, I'm questioned whether I'm allowing the program guide to update properly (I am). Therefore, I never get a satisfactory response to be able to discuss the issue at length despite my detailed explanation. On Monday morning, the second showing of China, IL was renamed as 'Off Air' for it's half-hour duration and when I tuned to it, I had a black screen. The SD version of Cartoon Network was unaffected and still displayed the correct show in the Guide. For this week the lineup on Adult Swim has changed (the 3 a.m. show is ironically a new episode from their Off the Air series), followed by Xavier: Renegade Angel repeats at 3:15 a.m. It hasn't happened so far this week but it's only been Tuesday morning. The problem is the 3 a.m. 'Off Air' issue cannot be predicted since it doesn't change the Guide until it actually is 3 a.m., which means any timers which were created for 3 a.m. or which will still be in progress at 3 a.m. will still activate. I've been doing the nightly updates so it doesn't have anything to do with my Guide being outdated either. It doesn't happen across the board and change every single channel and show at 3 a.m. to 'Off Air' and it's not random since the same channels are always affected. I've been in disbelief since the week this started happening and even more disbelief when I learned the channels labeled as 'Off Air' could actually become blacked out and behave as if they were indeed off the air. Also I'm never going to settle that the channels really are going off the air as they are reporting (Cartoon Network never goes off the air, it just becomes Adult Swim at 7 p.m.) and as if that isn't enough of a valid argument, a premium movie channel wouldn't go off the air midway through a movie, not to mention the SD versions are displaying and showing properly.

 

[KKlare]

I've had a similar problem with HD Net Movie channel (130).
I had set up a timer for an hour program (Frida, the last showing, no less) and a
half hour one (American Horror Stories Asylum). I blame Dish or Tribune. Shows completed.
The title pages were there. Comes time and I get the recordings with "Off Air".
The programs were there in their entirety but it is now hard to know what I have.
Sure miss the ability to edit the title. Even nicer would have be to have the original title page.

New problem: while recording Rachel Maddow and another MSNBC program, it failed to
recognize it had made a complete recordings of those shows earlier this night.
-Ken

 

[carpexnoctem]

You explain you had an incident of this with HDMovieNet, channel 130 (which makes sense as this is one of the channels being affected by the 'Off Air' issue) but then you go on about American Horror Story: Asylum which is on FX, channel 136. I've watched all of the seasons of AHS and that has never been a half-hour. Of course the shows record in their entirety but they're saved named as 'Off Air' with the matching image. (I also miss the ability to rename saved recordings, especially during this year's April Fools' Day stunt from Adult Swim because a special unscheduled episode of Perfect Hair Forever along with episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast had to be saved named as the shows provided in the Guide, which means Robot Chicken and etc. are really not what they are). I'm just dreading this to happen while trying to collect Xavier: Renegade Angel because if it does this to a single episode, I don't want to keep the series anymore. It has already ruined TruTV's run of Full Throttle Saloon at 3 a.m. for me.

 

[KKlare]

You are right AHS is on FX and this recording was the same night 4/17 2:05 to 3:05 as Frida on HDNetMovie 12:45 to 3:01.
That I had the correct title boards for the shows that I wanted to record and then they were gone by recording time is annoying.
The worse part is you get no titles and no way to even name them.
So Dish, not nice to tease us.
-Ken

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The reason for the Off Air is because they are doing work at the uplink center on those channels, including maintaining and upgrading the encoder. They air on the side of caution making them "off air" because there is a good chance when they are working that they could do something which would take that channel offline for a bit.

If they didn't mark them off air there would be a lot of complaints that their recording of (insert show or movie name here) had no video for the last 5 minutes of the show or movie.

When a channel is marked off air, they make every attempt to keep the channel online as much as they can as they are working. Sometimes there is no issues but other times a channel might go down as the work is being done.

Think of it as your car... you can only drive it so far before it needs some work. These encoders (and all the other electronics in the line) are going 24 / 7 and sometimes they need a tuneup, upgrade or complete overhaul.

Thats the reason for the Off Air.

 

[carpexnoctem]

The reason for the Off Air is because they are doing work at the uplink center on those channels, including maintaining and upgrading the encoder. They air on the side of caution making them "off air" because there is a good chance when they are working that they could do something which would take that channel offline for a bit.If they didn't mark them off air there would be a lot of complaints that their recording of (insert show or movie name here) had no video for the last 5 minutes of the show or movie.When a channel is marked off air, they make every attempt to keep the channel online as much as they can as they are working. Sometimes there is no issues but other times a channel might go down as the work is being done.Think of it as your car... you can only drive it so far before it needs some work. These encoders (and all the other electronics in the line) are going 24 / 7 and sometimes they need a tuneup, upgrade or complete overhaul. Thats the reason for the Off Air.

That's a nice explanation, but I don't believe it applies to this. So far this week has been fine and none of the channels have changed to 'Off Air' -- the 'Off Air' started happening consistently every 3 a.m. since last Monday morning and it has now appeared to have stopped with this Monday morning. The channels had the programming displayed properly with the correct shows showing in the Guide right until 3 a.m. before they changed to 'Off Air' -- the shows were still on the channels despite it replacing them with this. Only the HD channels were affected. I've seen legitimate 'Off Air' scheduling for the full spectrum of Starz and Encore movie channels, and when I tuned to them I was able to watch the tests. Also they are scheduled well in advance and don't just unexpectedly appear in the Guide. I find it baffling that the same set of channels would need to go off the air at the exact same time for 8 days. Also how long they were 'Off Air' depended on what was airing on the channel. Cartoon Network was 'Off Air' for both the 3 a.m. and 3:15 a.m. shows and then back to normal at 3:30; affected channels such as TruTV had the entire hour of Full Throttle Saloon from 3-4 a.m.; if a movie channel had it, that entire movie was designated as 'Off Air' for whatever duration the movie lasted. Furthermore, why was I the only one that either noticed this or had this happen with their receivers? I've already stated that in all the years I have watched Adult Swim, it never goes off the air. (Ironically, all this week you will see "Off the Air" scheduled at 3 a.m. but it's the name of a show). As for the other channels, if they needed to go off the air, many of them show infomercials which would be better suited for this purpose rather than interfering with a scheduled show. I honestly think something else was going on other than routine encoder maintenance.